Event #53: $1,000 Ladies No-Limit Hold’em Championship

The action folded around to Gloria Balding who raised to 300 before the flop; her opponent in the hijack position called and the others got out of the way before the dealer spread the flop of    .

Both players checked, then Balding led out for 650 on the turn of the  . Her opponent wanted no part of it and Balding picked up the pot to move her stack up to more than 3,000.

We caught up with the action on a     flop, where a player in early position led out for 400. Melanie Weisner pushed all-in for her last 1,275 and action folded back around to the original raiser, who called.

Weisner:   
Opponent:   

Weisner would need to hit one of the two remaining aces in the deck, however, the   turn and   bricked and she was sent to the rail.

We just went through the black section, and found some updated chip counts for the notables.

Gretchen Brummer	8,300	300
Karina Jett	6,500	1,500
Kara Scott	5,900	100
Susie Isaacs	4,100	-200
Maria Mayrinck	3,600	600
Elissa Harwood	3,400	400
Maria Ho	3,300	-700
Jennifer Tilly	3,100	-600
Melanie Weisner	1,350	-1,650
Cyndy Violette	1,300	-1,700

The ladies are now on their first 20-minute break of the day.

Another rapturous ovation went up through the Pavillion Room and we rushed over in time to catch Christopher Digiromalo making his exit. Sharri Crawford was only too happy to recall the details to us.

All the money had ended up in the middle before the flop, with Digiromalo flipping for his tournament life with    against Crawford's   . The flop came down     (two diamonds), but Crawford soared further ahead when another   appeared on the turn to give her the set.

The river was a non-diamond   and with that, we say adios, muchacho.

Susie Isaacs is arguably the most decorated player in this event. She recorded two bracelet wins in the 1990's, and bubbled the final table of the main event in 1998. She is off to a good start, as we just saw her take down a nice pot on the river. We came to the table as Karina Jett and Isaacs were in a hand with another player on the button. The board read     , and action was checked around to the button, who bet out 650. Jett folded, but Isaacs stuck around to see the river, the  . Isaacs decided to bet out this time, putting out a 500 chip. Her opponent called, and Isaacs showed    for the nut straight. Her opponent mucked, and Isaacs jumped up to 4,300.

Our very own PokerNews Hostess Lynn Gilmartin recently stopped by the desk to inform us of the unfortunate news that she has been eliminated from the tournament.

"I didn't even make it past the first level," Gilmartin bemoaned. According to her, she held    against the    of her opponent. The flop came down     and the rest, as they say, was history.

It seems we'll know, or at least hear, about it when a man gets eliminated. The Pavilion just erupted into shouts and cheers as another man, who graciously took a bow upon exiting, was sent to the rail.

We noticed Vanessa Selbt just as she was getting up out of her chair and wishing everyone good luck. Apparently she got it all in preflop with    against an opponent's    and failed to improve.