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Christie Parham, a Little Rock, Arkansas nursing student in her junior year, and Sharla Lehrmann, a poker tournament writer for PokerPages.com, engaged in a lengthy heads-up battle with several chip lead changes. Eventually, Parham got all the chips, a $15,330 payday and a striking gold pendant verifying her ladies championship status for winning the $200 no-limit ladies event.

This was the second time a nurse, or an aspiring nurse, had won an event in this WSOP Circuit tournament at Grand Casino Tunica. In event number two, $500 no-limit, surgery nurse Angel Word placed first and won $75,944.

Parham's nickname is "Nochie," which is short for "dominocious," which in turn refers to dominoes, a reference to her status as a domino queen. (That's the game of dominoes, not dominatrix, by the way.)

Lehrmann came to Tunica to provide coverage for the three-day, $5,000 championship event that is up next, but also decided to play in the ladies event because she needed a break. 

This was a one-day event. When the ladies got to the final table, Parham had the lead with 78,000 chips, just 100 more than Stephanie Zimmerman.

Here were the seat positions and chip counts:

SEAT 1 Stephanie Zimmerman 182,000 
SEAT 2 Sharla Lehrmann     57,600
SEAT 3 Paula Holder    42,000 
SEAT 4 Sarah Pritchard    19,400
SEAT 5 Esther Fedorkevich   89,500
SEAT 6 Carolyn Starnes    90,000
SEAT 7 Connie Rice                        10,700
SEAT 8 Pamela Coke     24,200
SEAT 9 Nguyet Lee         7,700
SEAT 10     Christy Parham                    48,000

 

We lost our first player on the 10th deal. Connie Rice moved all in for 2,500 with pocket kings. Then Pamela Coke came over the top for 10,000 with pocket 8s, and Parham called with pocket 9s. Nobody hit anything, Rice took the main pot with her kings, Parham took the side pot with the 9s, and Coke took her leave, taking home $575 for placing 10th. Coke, who lives in St. Louis, is a hardware store owner who "loves poker" and has been playing for 20 years.

Next out in three-way action was Sarah Pritchard, whose home is Atlanta. When the flop came 10-10-7, she moved in for 3,500 holding 7-5. Her paired 7 wasn't nearly good enough, because Paula Holder had close to the nuts with A-10. She raised, and  Parham folded. When a 7 turned, it gave Pritchard a fairly useless three of a kind, because it also filled Holder. Parham was dead to a quad 7, but there were no miracles tonight, and she finished ninth, winning $958. Pritchard, whose nickname is "Queen of Hearts," is a law student at Georgia Tech. Her "daddy" taught her poker four years ago.

Not long after blinds went to 3,000/6,000 with 200 antes, the field was narrowed to seven. Nguyet Lee was all in from the small blind with Q-6 and lost to Parham, who had A-9 and caught another ace on the river, Lee, originally from Vietnam and now living in Germantown, TN, is a jeweler who has been playing for 10 years.

Soon after, Rice, who had survived once before with her kings, was all in again for 3,000 and tripled up with pocket 10s. She would eventually go all in three more times and climb all the way to 40,000 before finishing fourth.

Esther Fedorkevich is a literary agent from Nashville who learned poker from her husband and brothers. She raised all in pre-flop for 16,000 with 9s-8s and got two callers. When the board came 10-6-5-3-9, she lost to a higher kicker aganst Parham's Q-9. Seventh  paid $1,917.

Holder, who was increasing her stacks, had close to half the chips in play after she knocked out  Zimmerman. Holder raised pre-flop and Zimmerman came over the top all in for 16,000 more. She had Ac-3c and Holder held K-10. A king hit the river, and Zimmerman was through for the night, cashing sixth for $2,396. Zimmerman, whose nickname is "Sexy Black," is a supervisor from Winder, Georgia who was making her first major final table. "I love this game more than anything," she wrote passionately on her bio sheet.

With limits now at 5,000/10,000 and 1,000 antes, Holder had 180,000 chips, close to half of those in play. Carolyn Starnes, who said she learned the game from her husband and being a poker dealer, was next out. After Holder raised with Js-Qs, Starnes called all in for 7,000 and announced, "I have a Doyle Brunson hand." Her 10-2 didn't improve when the board came J-8-3-5-K and she cashed out fifth for $2,875. Perhaps only Brunson knows how to play the famous hand that won him back-to-back championships. Starnes, a housewife from Hanceville, Alabama, had a prior fourth-place finish in a LIPS tour event.  

Next to depart was  Rice. She pushed in for 23,000 with Ad-7d. Parham called and had her dominated with Ac-10c. A board of A-J-9-5-3 ended Rice's evening. She is a real estate owner from Forrest City, Arizona whose hobby is show horses. She's been playing poker for a year,  and her fourth-place cash tonight was worth $3,354.

Soon after, perhaps the key hand of the night came down. After Holder raised, Parham re-raised all in for 87,000. After long thought, Holder made a somewhat debatable call with A-Q and was in big trouble when Parham turned up A-K. The board came A-8-8-J-6, and suddenly Parham was the chip leader.

Holder, short-chipped, later was all in with pocket 4s and doubled through against Parham, But Lehrmann finished her off soon after.  Holder raised all in for 50,000 with a big hand, pocket queens, but Lehrmann had a bigger hand, pocket aces. An ace flopped, and Holder, making her first WSOP final table, got $4,313 for third. A resident of Lighthouse Point, Florida, and the mother of twins, Holder's hobbies are traveling and gambling.

Heads-up, Lehrmann now had the lead, with about 210,000 to 160,000 for Parham. As play continued, Parham took over again. With the board showing K-K-10-4, Lehrmann bet 40,000, Parham raised 40,000. Lehrmann folded and Parham showed  four kings.

On the next hand, Lehrmann took the lead back when her Q-9 beat Parham's 9-4. A few hands later, Parham grabbed the lead for the final time when Lehrmann raised with Qh-5h and Parham moved in, doubling up with K-3 when the board came A-7-3-10-8.

The last hand came three deals after blinds went to 5,000/15,000 with 2,000 antes. Parham moved in with Ad-4c. Lehrmann called with Ah-5h, a slight favorite (usually these hands would lead to split pots). But a board of Q-7-3-4-7 turned the tables on the writer, and Parham had the last word.

Lehrmann, a resident of Fort Worth,  who said she began playing poker before Doyle Brunson was born (a slight exaggeration), is single, has a bachelor of science degree, and has made a few final tables in her poker-playing career. She took home $8,434 for second place.

This was the first WSOP win for Parham, who also won a no-limit event at the Isle of Capri the first time she played a tournament. She plays two tournaments a month, either at Tunica or the Isle of Capri, and enjoys watching poker on TV for entertainment. Her style of play? "Just like Daniel Negreanu. I love to see flops. Basically, I'll call with almost any two cards."
—Max Shapiro