BONNIE DAMIANO SHOWS NO SHAME IN WINNING LADIES
Showing absolutely no remorse in winning the ladies event of her own tournament, Bonnie Daminao, tournament producer of the 4 Queens Poker Classic, bested a field of 51 to take down top prize of $1,970.
"My boyfriend John (professional tournament player John Robertson) told me I had to win because he had lost $2,060 in the pot-limit Omaha rebuy tournament earlier that day," she explained. "So in reality we just broke even."
The ladies tournament, event number 13, consisted of alternating rounds of hold'em and 7-card stud. While the event was highly sociable and everyone had a good time, the players did not exactly make up a pushover field. The final table included Catherine Brown, the reigning World Series of Poker ladies champion, and Susie Isaacs, holder of two WSOP bracelets in the ladies event. Other players did not lack in experience or expert coaching either. Karina Jett, who finished second, is married to the noted tournament player, Chip Jett, and Angie McCullough, who finished eighth, is the girlfriend of bracelet holder Robert Williamson III.
Karina insisted that she could have won the tournament but she deliberately blew it because she didn't like the purse (the handbag, not the prize purse) that was also given to the winner. Bonnie ended up donating it to Martina Oules, who took a great liking to it.
Damiano earned the sobriquet of "the terminator" because she ended up knocking out everybody at the final table except Flo Miller, a taxi driver by occupation.
Damiano arrived at the final table short-chipped with $2,300. Brown was the leader with about $8,000 and Angie trailed with $800. The remainder of the $30,600 in chips was about evenly distributed among the others at the final table.
When the tournament finally got heads-up, Bonnie had a big lead of about $20,000 to $10,600. But finishing off Karina proved no easy task as she kept going all in, surviving and coming back.
The final hand was played during a stud round. At the end, all Bonnie had was a pair of 6s, but that was all she needed to emerge victorious. -Max Shapiro
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