Hollywood's Carol Fuchs Captures Dealer's Choice Bracelet: Denies Mizrachi Repeat
Hollywood screenwriter Carol Fuchs took down the 2015 World Series of Poker Event #52: $1,500 Dealers Choice Saturday, becoming this first woman to win this year and denying the event's inaugural champion his bid to repeat.
Robert Mizrachi, who won the event the first time it was spread in 2014, could do no better than third this time, as Fuchs, an amateur player who wrote the screenplay for the 2007 film No Reservations starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart, went on to defeat Ilya Krupin heads up to collect a $127,735 first-place prize and her first WSOP gold bracelet.
"I'm so overwhelmed," she said afterwards. "I'm not an idiot, I know what I'm doing and I know the games, but I don't have anywhere near the experience of a lot of these guys. I'm as blown away by this as everybody else is."
The one-time entertainment lawyer turned film producer then screenwriter plays cash games in Los Angeles on a regular basis and says she is a student of the game.
"I read [the Jim McManus book] Positively Fifth Street and started playing because I thought that was great," she said. "I've always been a card player, a gin player, a hearts player, but I finally had to start playing poker because no one would play with me."
Fuchs, who also became the first woman to win an open event at the 2015 WSOP, said she's played in a handful of WSOP events previously and credited a relaxed approach to the game for helping her book a win this time around.
"I don't make my living this way, so it's just fun for me, " she said. "If I bust out, it's not my payday, anything is a bonus. These guys, they have a lot more pressure on them. They have different pressures which I just don't have."
As a woman, and an amateur, taking on some of the best players on the planet in a dealer's choice tournament where players can pick from any one of 18 different poker variants, Fuchs said her win proves anything can happen at the World Series of Poker.
"I think its encouraging for people to see that anyone can come out here," she said. "I was probably like 500 to 1 to do this."
Fuchs, who has a screenplay for supernatural thriller she just finished writing, said she was headed back to Los Angeles Sunday, but is also considering returning to the WSOP for the $10,000 Dealers Choice Championship set for July 3.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Hometown | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Carol Fuchs | Los Angeles, CA | $127,735 |
| 2 | Ilya Krupin | Novosibirsk, Russia | $78,933 |
| 3 | Robert Mizrachi | Miami, FL | $51,236 |
| 4 | Christopher Klodnicki | Philadelphia, PA | $34,252 |
| 5 | Yuval Bronshtein | Tel Aviv, Israel | $23,528 |
| 6 | Viktor Celikovsky | Prague, Czech Republic | $16,588 |
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