Lost Episode 8: Event #17, Ladies NL Holdem

I spent this whole day in the ladies-only event, which set yet another attendance record, the largest field recorded for an event of its king. Dealing to the ladies is kinda fun. It is a very social tournament, some of them have been coming just for this event for several years and look forward to seeing each other. Often, they apologize profusely when knocking out an opponent. You don't see much soft play, but some of the lesser experienced players can get all rankled up when someone gets real aggressive and tries to run over their table. Maybe its maternal instinct, maybe they are protecting the herd or something, I dunno, but the tilt factor is certainly on a different sort of nurturing level. My first table had a Houston dealer that I recognized very well, Sun Yoon, playing and we were able to chat a little before the event started. She went very deep in the same event the year before and was in the right frame of mind to win the event this year. She played very, very well in some tournaments that I had seen her in back in Houston, and I had no doubt that she has the skill and determination to win. A funny thing happened during that first level. Sun had a $100 chip from last year's ladies event that she was using as a card cover. When out of a hand, she would often set it on top of her chips. During one of her bets, she accidentally included it, and I had to give her a hard time about it. She pretty much had control of the table when I was dealing, but I couldn't find her later in the day, so I presumed she got a little too aggressive and someone trapped her.

This was also my first day dealing in the Players Pavilion, the tent-like structure behind the convention center. It was very hot this day, well over 100 degrees outside and the air conditioning did not keep up with the influx of players and spectators at the start of the event. In this area, the floor staff break tables within the section. Players stay in the pavilion, they don't get seat assignments back in the amazon room, so as they moved around, I would often encounter recycled faces that I dealt to at a different table. One of the ladies that I bumped into several times was Michele Lewis, a Houston native that I think now lives in the Dallas area. She is a journalist, blogs for Pokerati and can be seen giving interviews to top players on some of the poker news websites. She final tabled at a limit holdem event in 2006 for a big payday. She seemed to be playing very well and had accumulated a significant amount of chips. I tracked her progress as the tournament continued, and I know that she went deep enough to cash. Smart, funny, successful, beautiful, age-appropriate ... but also married.

I dealt to several very attractive players that sometimes made it difficult to keep my mind on the game. I dealt to both Tiffany Graham and Jeanine Deeb, who are both quite young. I did have one very active young Asian player really flirt with me, in jest of course. I think she thought it would set some of the rest of the table on tilt, since she was getting a rush of cards and showing them down, suggesting even that we had some sort of relationship. I was not quite sure how to handle that, so I just dummied up and kept quiet. Unfortunately, any further attention that I received came from the eldest of the players. Some of the top lady poker professional skip this event because they want to prove themselves against the men in other events that are being held concurrently, but I did see both Clonie Gowan and actress Jennifer Tilly in the pavilion. Even though I never dealt to them on this particular day, I was impressed with the way in which they interacted with the other players, took photos, and gave of their time - both exited the tournament rather quickly.

Probably the most successful player that I dealt to in this event was Joanne "J.J." Liu. She has had a lot of television time with several WPT deep finishes and WSOP tourney cashes, and finished 2nd at a Bay 101 Shooting Stars tournament. She was very entertaining and was constantly engaging other players. At one point, she got one very inexperienced player a little worked up and with several players left in the hand, the excited lady tabled her aces face up after exclaiming "All-in" very loudly. I had to call the floor to ensure the rest of the table that her hand was still live (old rules used to kill hands in these situations unfortunately) and she got a warning that if it done again she would like incur a penalty. Everyone folded away, and she took down the pot, but J.J. Liu continued to chide her about it for the rest of my down.