Lightning strikes twice for Anh Le as Svetlana Gromenkova denies her the same bracelet Jennifer Tilly pipped her to in 2005.
Wednesday 11th June 2008
A total of 1,190 women bought in for the $1,000 World Series of Poker ladies world championship of no-limit hold’em this week. That makes it the second largest female-only event, with a total prize pool of just under $1,100,000.
The nine who made it to the final table were therefore playing for one of the most expensive bracelets any woman could own, as well as a limited-edition Corum watch and $244,702 in cash for first. The spoils would eventually go to the table’s most experienced player, Svetlana Gromenkova, who gave second place finisher Anh Le a horrible sense of déjà vu. Back in 2005, Le was stopped by a certain Miss Tilly in the same event, meaning this was her second runners-up finish in four years.
Gromenkova came to the final table as the chip leader, and managed to guide her way to a 1.5 to 1 chip lead over Le when the final hand of the tournament was played. Le open raised from the button for 100,000 and was met by an all-in from her opponent. Le eventually mad the call, but was in bad shape as her A-6 was a big underdog to Gromenkova’s pocket Kings. The flop gave Le a gutshot as well as the over card, but when a king came on the turn followed by a harmless ace on the river, Le once again had to settle for second place and $144,567.
