Day 1 in the Books; Ruby Du Outshines the Field!
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There is no question that the numbers for the World Series of Poker side events has gone from strength to strength, but the proof was in the pudding today after the 2011 WSOP $1,000 No Limit Hold’em Ladies Championship brought in a solid 1,055 players, including names like Vanessa Selbst, Liv Boeree, Melanie Weisner, Leo Margetts, Jennifer Tilly, Lauren Kling and Maria Ho.
The French launched a massive assault on this title, with defending champion Vanessa Hellebuyck leading the charge along with Almira “ChessBaby” Skripchenko and Celine Bastian.
The poker media were also out in force today, featuring PokerNews’ own Lynn Gilmartin, Kristy Arnett and Elissa Harwood, as well as Gloria Balding, Rebecca McAdam, Kara Scott, Jess Welman, Melissa Castello and Kirsty Chick.
Many of the “old school” were also in attendance, including Linda Johnson, Barbara Enright, Cyndy Violette and Susie Issacs. And although none of these leading ladies will be back tomorrow for Day 2, it doesn’t matter – the spirit in which the game was played was outstanding and all should be commended for their sportsmanship and goodwill.
Still, we have ourselves 137 players coming back tomorrow and all eyes will be on Ruby Du, who tops our chip counts with 67,800 in chips. Following closely behind is Carol Tomlinson with 63,800, while Crystal Sloan (58,000), Pamela Roberts (57,200) and Xiu Deng (54,900).
Other names to be returning for Day 2 include Shola Akindele (52,200), Yu Kurita (51,000), Gretchen "The Dragon Lady" Bremmer (43,400), Melanie Banfield (42,000), Karina Jett (30,600), Esther Bonding (20,400), Michelle "Sassy" Richey (20,300) and Alexandra Petitjean (17,500).
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our broadcast day. We’ll resume our coverage of this event tomorrow at 2.30pm PST (GMT -7) so until then, this is PokerNews signing off – ciao for now!