| Texas Cycalona Hits Town
It was Ladies Night at the Bicycle Casino on Thursday when six hand-picked women poker players competed for a $25,000 seat in a Bellagio championship/World Poker Tour event next April. The event started dull and seemingly endless, then gradually built momentum. By the time it got heads-up between Cycalona Gowen and Evelyn Ng, a pro from Toronto, Canada, it had gotten as exciting as poker can be. Cycalona - known to all her friends as "Clonie," started the heads-up match as a big favorite, became an ever bigger underdog, then fought back tenaciously to eventual victory.
Clonie Gowen is stylish and attractive enough to have stepped out of a fashion magazine, yet with the friendly and open nature that reflects her hometown Garland, Texas roots. She might be the next poster girl for women's poker. At the post-game ceremonies, she pledged 2 percent of any Bellagio winnings to Ng and 1 percent to the other four women. This event, to be broadcast some time next year on the travel channel, was the first such ladies special. All the women, including Jennifer Harman, Maureen Feduniak, Kathy Liebert and Annie Duke, were selected because they played in prior WPT events.
The ladies all started with $250,000 in chips, playing with $500 antes and blinds of $2,500-$5,000. Caution was the byword for the first two rounds. There were only two flops in the first 32 hands, and only one hand even went to fourth street. On almost every hand, a 10k raise was sufficient to drive everyone out. This, however, did not dampen the enthusiasm of the audience, half of them women, who applauded madly every time a player so much as picked up the blinds.
Blinds went to 4-8k with 1k antes on hand 45, with rounds cut from an hour to 30 minutes. To this point, only one hand even went to the river. Chip leader now was Duke, who came in 10th in this year's World Series championship, the best finish for a woman since Barbara Enright came in fifth in 1995. Duke had 370k, while Harman trailed with 158k. Not until hand 68, when blinds were 6-12k, with 1.5k antes, was there an all-in confrontation. Liebert raised to 24k pre-flop and was called by Harman and Ng. On a flop of 4-3-2, Harman, who had recovered from her tail end status, bet 60k and Liebert moved all in. "Smells like aces to me," Harman said suspiciously. She eventually called with pocket nines, discovered that her hunch was right and dipped back down to about 135k. On the next hand, Gowen got the first of several lucky breaks. All in for 71k, she had A-9 against Ng's A-K and hit a nine on the river.
Trying to fight back, Harman, who has a WSOP bracelet in $5,000 limit hold'em, became super-aggressive and moved all in four times in 11 hands without being called. The fifth time she tried it, with 2k antes and 10-20k blinds, she had A-5 and ran into Ng's A-K. A king flopped and after 97 hands, the first lady had departed. In the next seven hands, two more would leave. With antes raised to $3,000 and blinds to 15-30k, the chip counts were: Duke, 657k; Gowen, 402k; Ng,336k; Feduniak, 60k and Liebert, 45k. Two hands later, Liebert moved in for 39k. Gowen, in the big blind, shrugged and added 9k more with just 4-3 ? and made a full house. One hand later, Gowen moved in with Kc-8c. Feduniak, who earlier this year won a championship event at the Bellagio, was in the big blind and called with 6d-5d. Garland flopped two pair, Feduniak missed her diamond draw and suddenly only three were left.
Duke still had a slight chip lead, and kept adding to it. Even after losing a big pot to Ng, she still led with 697k when blinds went to 25-50k with antes of 5k. Ng was second with 492k while Gowen had 311k. Now things dramatically changed. First Gowen doubled up against Ng. She had pocket sixes against A-Q and flopped a set. A few hands later, Gowen called Duke's raise to 150k. On a flop of J-10-3, Duke bet 200k, Gowen moved in and Duke abandoned the 500k pot. Gowen suddenly was the new chip leader with about $1 million.
After taking a couple more hits, Duke was down to 51k by hand 143. She called with pocket 10s after Gowen moved in with A-Q. The board came A-Q-3-2-4, and we were down to the final two. After a money ceremony where host Shana Hiatt pulled a red card and imitation currency cascaded down, play resumed with Gowen leading, $1,198,000 to $302,000. Within 14 hands, everything changed again. Three times Ng won with the best hand going in: Q-10 versus 10-9, jacks versus A-10 and pocket aces against pocket fours, and suddenly Ng had had about 1.3 mill to Gowen's 200k. But now Gowen went on the offensive, time and again moving in without being called. Her big break came after blinds had jumped to 40-80k, with 10k antes. She had K-5 to Ng's K-10 and improbably made a wheel on the river.
The next time Ng called, stakes were 60-120k with blinds of 15k. On that hand Ng had Q-8 and Gowen, with A-J, made a full house. Three hands later, Ng was down to 101k. She moved in with Ks-3s, Gowen called with A-7, and raked in the last chips when the board came 8-7-5-5-10. Max Shapiro
BIOGRAPHY
Cycalona "Clonie" Gowen is married with two young children. She recently sold her travel agency business and now has the freedom to play selected tournaments worldwide.
She has been playing poker seriously for about 10 years. She came in second to Humberto Brenes in a $500 no-limit event in Costa Rica, has a 10th place in a World Poker Tour championship, was 16th in a Tunica championship tournament and finished 11th in the $1,000 pot-limit hold'em event during the current Legends.
Talking about her strategy of repeatedly moving all in after she was out-chipped 6.5-1 against Ng, she said it was the only thing she could do. Did she pick up big hands each time? "Sometimes I did, and sometimes I didn't," she answered.
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