| Nani Dollison, winner of this year’s $2,000 limit hold’em event, won her second consecutive ladies championship title, extended her lead as the all-time World Series women’s money leader and tied the women’s record of three bracelets held by Barbara Enright. Dollison, a 47-year-old native of Korea, has until now been dealing poker at Sam’s Town in Tunica, Mississippi.
She said in some ways this was a more difficult win for her than last year, because of the tougher line-up at the final table. Her competition included Carolyn Gardner, who won the ladies title in 1983; Maria Stern, who won an open-event bracelet for seven card stud in 1997; and Marsha Waggoner, winner of numerous other titles.
Dollison, starting with the second chip lead of $18,350, ended up in a grueling final struggle with Oceanside’s Patty Gallagher that did not end until 3 a.m. The women were playing half-hour alternating rounds of seven card stud and hold’em. There was a proposal to speed things up by switching to 20-minute sessions, but Jan Fisher, a partner in Card Player Cruises, cast a veto.
After two hold’em hands, the game switched to stud, with $150 antes, a $300 bring-in and $1,000 and $2,000 limits. Susan Abraham was the first player eliminated. She started with split queens versus Gallagher’s pocket fives. Susan couldn’t improve while Patty caught two jacks.
Stern finished eighth. Showing J-7-8-9, she had a ten down for a straight. On sixth street, Patty had been dealt 10-J-Q-Q-K-K, with plenty of outs to a higher straight or full house, and the river delivered a full house queen.
The game switched to hold’em, with the same $1,000-$2,000 limits. As midnight approached, Waggoner, an executive host at Hollywood Park, was in the big blind with 7-6 of hearts. Patty, a housewife, had A-J and raised Marsha all in for her last $875. The board came K-3-2-J-K and the Australian-born Waggoner said g’day to the table.
Carolyn, a poker dealer who is never at a loss for words, broached the idea of a six-way chop. “This is a one-time offer,” she warned. “You’ll make it again,” Fisher yawned. As the game switched to stud, with $1,500-$3,000 limits, Fisher and Gardner continued their repartee. After a long period of thought and musing in the midst of a hand, Carolyn informed the table that she just laid down a big pair. “You only start with a big pair,” Jan replied, adding that by that time she had forgotten what she had.
Jan then went against Patty, who claimed her fourth straight victim. Jan started with split tens. Patty had two sevens, and immediately caught a third seven to reduce the field to six.
With Fisher gone, the remaining players agreed to 20-minute rounds. A good thing, because if it hadn’t speeded up it might have delayed the start of the $10,000 championship event.
In three-way hold’em action, Nani flopped a straight, Carolyn missed her draw to both a straight and a flush and Peggy Ann Spengler, who has a couple of ladies titles at other casinos, went broke without showing her cards.
Patty, who hadn’t been doing much since breaking four players, finally went all in for $3,200 with pocket sevens and survived when Carolyn, with A-2, couldn’t catch her.
When the game went to stud again, with $300 antes, a $600 low-card bring-in and limits of $2,000-$4,000, Nani had surged to a big chip lead of $68,000, followed by Carolyn with $25,000, Patty with $8,000 and Susan Pritchett, a blackjack dealer, with $8,000. Carolyn, with J-9/7-K-A, got heads up with Patty, who had J-6/6-Q-5. When Carolyn bet on fifth street, Gallagher took a good three minutes to think, and finally called with just a pair of sixes. She then proceeded to pair her jack and fill up to the astonishment and dismay of Carolyn, who could not believe she could make the call.
Equally astonishing, some hands later, was the performance of Pritchett, who went all in with 4-7/2 and caught three running nines. Susan then raised all in a second time with no call; then went all in a third time in a hold’em round, holding 7-6 in the big blind and winning with a straight; then a fourth time in the small blind with 10-6, winning with a flopped ten; then a fifth time with A-8, winning again with a river eight. By that time she had built up her chips to $10,800, slightly more than Carolyn’s. But the sixth time she went all in was her last. She had K-7 of spades and Carolyn, with pocket tens, put her away when the board came Q-6-5-3-3.
Carolyn did not have much time to savor her victory. A short time later she was all in with K-Q of spades against Nani’s A-5 of hearts. The board was Q-J-4-2, two spades, two hearts. “Black! Black!” she urged the dealer. The last card was a king of hearts, giving Nani a flush. “A brother did this to me!” Carolyn moaned.
The tournament was now heads-up. Patty got off to a big start by flopping a nut flush in a pot that was four-bet before the flop and on the turn. But Nani struck back in a multi-bet stud hand by turning up a completely concealed full house, and then making another full boat on the next hand. After going all in and escaping several times, Patty finally put in her last chips showing 4-4-J-K to Nani’s 5-7-A-J. Patty ended up with tens and fours. Nani, with aces and fives, wins and one more entry goes into her remarkable ledger.
|
