Poker News

The weekend robbery of the European Poker Tour (EPT) Berlin event has garnered headlines around the world. On Monday morning, the tournament’s champion, Kevin “ImaLuckSac” MacPhee, appeared on CBS’ “Early Show” to break down the heist.

In one of the most bizarre events ever to take place during a poker tournament, masked gunmen stormed the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Berlin, nabbing a portion of the EPT’s prize pool. According to a Monday update issued by the Associated Press, the four thieves are still on the run and police have “no clear leads.” The perpetrators robbed the poker tournament’s registration area just after 2:00pm local time on Saturday in a midday assault and, according to the news outlet, escaped with a “low six-digit figure” of cash into a nearby mall. No one was harmed.

MacPhee told the millions of “Early Show” viewers live from Berlin, “It was one of the craziest days that I’ve ever experienced. There was a lot of panic in the room that day and then we were asked to come back and play for €1 million. It was very unusual.” Video of the robbery aired concurrently with MacPhee’s interview. A few hours later, participants returned to the tournament room and resumed their pursuit for the €1 million top prize.

MacPhee was seated at the feature table with the scuffle began and recalled, “We weren’t really sure what was going on. I just saw a wave of people headed for the back exit. There was a lot of panic and the actual TV stage started to collapse. When that started to happen, all of the players got up out of their seats to see what was happening.” The commotion began out in the hallway and players made their way to safety in the tournament room, some seeking cover under tables.

The tournament’s eventual winner knew that someone with a gun was likely to blame for the near riot: “My first instinct was just to get down on the ground. I figured that only someone with a gun in the room could cause that kind of panic. The gunmen didn’t even enter the poker room. They stayed near the tournament registration area, which was where the cash was. Thankfully, they didn’t come into the poker room and make it worse than it already was.” The tournament drew nearly 500 players.

News of the rare casino heist has made waves across the world’s largest media outlets. Media outlets including the Sydney Morning Herald, Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, and Toronto Star have all reported on the story, as have a variety of poker news outlets. According to The Local and reprinted in the New York Times, another assailant may be to blame: “Because the well-timed heist bore the signs of an amateur job, police told Berlin daily Berliner Zeitung that they now believe there was at least one other accomplice already inside the hotel who gave a signal to begin the raid.” Whether the accomplice worked for the Grand Hyatt Hotel remains to be seen.

Despite the financial loss, all players received their prize money and the tournament carried on to a conclusion. As for what MacPhee did to celebrate his rather eventful live win, the online poker player told “Early Show” viewers, “Sundays are our busiest day, so… I celebrated by playing more poker. I think I’ll get out in Berlin the next couple of nights and try to celebrate a little bit more.”

Check out the complete CBS News interview with Kevin “ImaLuckSac” MacPhee.

Over the weekend, UB.com pro and poker news Daily Guest Columnist Annie Duke became the first female winner ever of the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, which will air next month on NBC. Duke sat down to discuss her monumental win.

poker news Daily: Your breakthrough match came against 2007 National Heads-Up Poker Championship winner Paul Wasicka, which featured you drawing out with A-10 against pocket aces and 8-5 against pocket jacks. Talk about the roller coaster of a match.

Annie Duke: I had Paul Wasicka ground down and then he doubled through me. We were about even in chips and then I was slightly behind before I won with A-10 against aces. I sucked out and made a Broadway straight and he was crippled. I was horrified when I won that hand. It was an epically long battle. He said that whichever way this goes, we could both sleep well. He was so gracious and it was an amazing match.

PND: In a Guest Column on poker news Daily, you lamented that neither Erik Seidel nor you had much success in the invite-only tournament. How surreal was it to be playing against each other for the title?

Annie Duke: That was storybook. After I won my match against Wasicka and Erik won his match, we talked on the phone. I realized how close we were to playing each other in the finals. What an incredible feeling to know that you’re in the finals and whatever the result was, you’d be very happy. He said that this was the happiest he’s ever been coming in second and I’d have felt the same way. It was a very relaxing feeling and not the same as in the other matches. Erik Seidel might have the best poker mind out there.

PND: You drew 2009 <a href=”http://www.pokernewsdaily.com/articles/wsop/” title=”World Series of Poker”>World Series of Poker (<a href=”http://www.pokernewsdaily.com/articles/wsop/” title=”wsop“>wsop) Main Event runner-up Darvin Moon in the second round. How is Moon’s game?

Annie Duke: Darvin Moon was really nice. He’s just a good guy and he was talking about how happy he was to be there and how he’s living the dream. It was really pleasant to play with him. He knows that he doesn’t have the game of a player like Huck Seed. I was happy to draw him, of course, but he wasn’t a pushover.

PND: You’re a former wsop Tournament of Champions winner and have also captured a bracelet. Where does this rank among your various poker accomplishments?

Annie Duke: This is second to the Tournament of Champions. I’ve always ranked the Tournament of Champions above the bracelet and I would put this above the bracelet as well. It’s the timing. Given that I had just taken five months off, the timing was big. I feel like I’m standing with some pretty cool winners of this event, so I am pretty happy. I’m standing shoulder to shoulder with Huck Seed, Phil Hellmuth, Ted Forrest, Chris Ferguson, and Paul Wasicka. To have gotten to play Erik in the final was a really memorable experience.

In the Tournament of Champions, I was three-handed with my brother and Phil Hellmuth. Now, being able to play with one of my best friends and be among those winners is incredible. I think I needed the win and have been really focused since I got back into poker. I had a nice run at the L.A. Poker Classic leading up to this.

PND: In the L.A. Poker Classic High-Roller event, you were seated alongside Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka. Tell us about his poker skill set.

Annie Duke: Playing heads-up against him helped me in the event I won. He’s very good at leveraging the chip stacks of his opponents. He’s good at changing up his play and I watched what he was doing. I learned a lot from my match with him.

Two players on recent hot streaks are among the chip leaders after Day 1A of the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Bay 101 Shooting Star tournament. A total of 17 bounties took to the field on Day 1A, with 25 more expected today.

Greg “FBT” Mueller won two bracelets during the 2009 <a href=”http://www.pokernewsdaily.com/articles/wsop/” title=”World Series of Poker”>World Series of Poker (<a href=”http://www.pokernewsdaily.com/articles/wsop/” title=”wsop“>wsop), coming out on top in the $10,000 World Championship of Limit Hold’em for $460,000 and a $1,500 Limit Hold’em Shootout for another $195,000. Moreover, he made a third final table, taking seventh place in the World Championship of Seven Card Stud for $53,000. All told, Mueller logged one of the most successful wsop showings in history and is up to his winning ways once again in San Jose, California, the site of Bay 101.

Mueller sent Shooting Star and recent WPT Southern Poker Championship winner Hoyt Corkins out on Monday. The DoylesRoom pro was all-in before the flop with A-K, but Mueller, who is also a Shooting Star, picked up pocket aces. The board ran out Q-8-4-9-9 and Corkins signed over a commemorative shirt. Mueller also laid claim to the $5,000 cash bonus. The former hockey player has the second largest chip stack after Day 1A at 132,800, trailing only chip leader Vanna Tea’s 143,900.

Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko is the reigning WPT Championship winner and also took down the 2009 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) Main Event for $1.7 million. In 2008, Timoshenko found the winner’s circle of the Asian Poker Tour’s (APT) Macau Main Event for $500,000. Timoshenko, a Shooting Star, owned the fourth largest stack when play wrapped up for the night on Monday at 97,600. A total of 53 players remained of the 136 who entered.

Timoshenko dropped a portion of his stack late in the day. He led out for 6,900 into a pot of 10,000 on a board reading K-8-4-6-5. Team PokerStars Pro front man Daniel Negreanu made the call and turned over 5-4 of hearts for two pair. Timoshenko had K-J for top pair and was a victim of a less-than-stellar river card. The hand boosted Negreanu to 50,000 in chips, but he ended the day with just 19,600, the 48th largest stack.

The first Shooting Star to depart was T.J. Cloutier, who shoved on a flop of A-J-4 holding pocket queens. Wade Griffith held A-J in the hand for top two pair and Cloutier failed to improve on the turn or river. Griffith finished in 42nd place after Day 1A with a stack of 30,000 chips.

Besides Mueller, Timoshenko and Negreanu, the Shooting Stars who survived the day were Mike Matusow (39th place with 35,100), Freddy Deeb (41st place with 30,800), and Steve Brecher (51st place with 10,800). Here are the top 10 chip stacks after the first of two starting days at Bay 101:

1. Vanna Tea - 143,900
2. Greg Mueller - 132,800
3. Oddie Dardon - 105,500
4. Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko - 97,600
5. Joseph Elpayaa - 87,300
6. Scott Montgomery - 84,800
7. Chris “Fox” Wallace - 84,100
8. Bruce Kramer - 81,200
9. Daniel LaFrance - 79,400
10. Tyson Marks - 74,000

When play wrapped up for the day, the action was in Level 9, where the blinds were 300-600 with an ante of 75. No Shooting Star has ever won Bay 101 since it became part of the WPT in 2004.

As an added bonus, Tea pocketed a $10,000 cash prize for leading the pack after Day 1A; the leader after Day 1B will also collect $10,000. The cards hit the air at 10:45am PT this morning.

Stay tuned to poker news Daily for the latest WPT results.

On Monday, poker news Daily learned that the Eighth District Court in Nevada dismissed a lawsuit filed by Brandon McSmith, who claimed ownership of the idea for the NBC poker game show “Face the Ace.”

McSmith can now file an appeal or seek the intervention of a federal court. McSmith told poker news Daily that while he was disappointed in the decision, he’s optimistic an appeal will be successful: “Judge Michelle Leavitt dismissed the case on the basis that I didn’t state a claim. Leavitt has her fair share of appeals that have gone against her.”

McSmith purportedly created a show dubbed the “All Star Poker Challenge” in which five pros would take on contestants in a series of heads-up matches similar to the structure of “Face the Ace.” Each match was worth $2,000 in prize money and players who fought through all five pros would take home a trip to the <a href=”http://www.pokernewsdaily.com/articles/wsop/” title=”World Series of Poker”>World Series of Poker (<a href=”http://www.pokernewsdaily.com/articles/wsop/” title=”wsop“>wsop) Main Event. On “Face the Ace,” the top prize was $1 million and only three matches were held.

On why Leavitt may have dismissed his case, McSmith told poker news Daily, “She didn’t want to listen to any of the evidence before her. Under Nevada procedures, you state a claim that’s plausible. I’m trying not to be negative, but it looked like it was stacked against me. I will either appeal it or file in federal court. It gives the FBI a little more time to investigate.”

The FBI became involved in the copyright infringement case late last week, when McSmith successfully contacted Arlo Devlin-Brown of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Devlin-Brown was one of the primary forces behind a $30 million online poker funds seizure last July that affected more than 24,000 players. It’s speculated that Devlin-Brown’s interest in the case may stem from the involvement of Full Tilt Poker, which sponsored “Face the Ace” and lent its pros to the program. 2009 wsop Main Event November Niner Phil Ivey was the series’ very first pro challenger.

Poker PROductions brought “Face the Ace” to life. The production company also creates new episodes of GSN’s “High Stakes Poker” and NBC’s “Poker After Dark” and is headed by Mori Eskandani. On a timeline for his next move, McSmith forecasted, “I have my people working on it right now. It’ll be less than three weeks. We’re pulling everything together. I won’t sit back and wait, but I want to make sure to cross my T’s and dot my I’s first. I’m not too worried about going to federal court. The big decision is if I want to get [Judge Leavitt's] decision overturned.”

McSmith sent a package to an FBI Special Agent containing hard copies of e-mails and other correspondence related to his claims to “Face the Ace.” The agent actually asked him why he didn’t file his copyright infringement case in federal court in the first place, an avenue that McSmith may now take. The plaintiff is a security worker at a casino in Las Vegas by trade.

“Face the Ace” debuted with a paltry 0.4 rating and a 2 share, equating to nearly 1.6 million viewers. It squared off against “America’s Most Wanted” on FOX, the Rachel McAdams movie “Red Eye” on ABC, and a re-run of “Numb3rs” on CBS, falling short in the ratings against all three programs. The series, which featured host Steve Schirripa of “The Sopranos” fame, has not yet been renewed for a second season. McSmith noted that despite the relative failure of the show, its worldwide syndication and being its creator make a lawsuit worthwhile.

Stay tuned to poker news Daily for the latest developments in the “Face the Ace” lawsuit.

Large pots were few and far between on Sunday night’s episode of the GSN series “High Stakes Poker.” Instead, a vegetarian prop bet between Full Tilt Poker pros Phil Ivey and Tom “durrrr” Dwan took center stage.

After being discussed non-stop for a half-hour of the 60-minute program, the vegetarian prop bet was finally agreed upon. Ultimately, Ivey would become a vegetarian for one year for $1 million. In a sit-down interview with “High Stakes Poker” hostess Kara Scott, Ivey told viewers, “I was thinking about doing it for a while, so this is an added incentive.” Dwan was confident that he’d win the bet, but nonetheless expressed a degree of doubt: “He’s got a lot of will power and he might go out and prove me wrong.” Any creature that moves is off limits for Ivey.

Back on the felts, Ivey proved why he’s one of the top names in the game by raising to $3,000 pre-flop with 7-2 and receiving four callers. The flop came 4-9-A with two hearts and Ivey put in a $12,000 continuation bet. Italian poker stud Dario Minieri, who held 10-8 of hearts, came along to see another ace hit the turn. Ivey bet out $30,000 and Minieri folded. “High Stakes Poker” host Gabe Kaplan commented, “Most players would turn over the 7-2 there, but not Phil Ivey.”

Then, Team PokerStars Pro front man Daniel Negreanu raised to $3,000 with 9-6 of hearts and Eli Elezra came along with 9-8 of diamonds. The flop came 10-5-7, giving both players straight draws, and Negreanu bet $5,500. Elezra pushed the action to $13,000 and Negreanu came along to see a king on the turn. Elezra checked and Negreanu accidentally exposed his nine while reaching for a stack of $100 bills. He promptly checked and an eight hit on the river, filling his straight. Negreanu bet $20,000 and Elezra tanked before folding. Negreanu told the table, “That was the weirdest hand I’ve ever played.”

Minieri was overly active throughout the episode and set the tone after Gus Hansen made it $3,500 pre-flop with A-8. Minieri, sensing weakness, made it $11,500 with A-9. Then, fireworks went of, as Hansen re-raised to $35,500 and Minieri shoved all-in for $213,000. Hansen quickly mucked, leaving Kaplan to remark, “That’s either a good read or a moment of insanity.” Negreanu would later try to force an all-in from Minieri when “Kid Poker” held pocket aces, but the Italian instead folded.

In one of the larger pots of the episode, which aired at 8:00pm ET on Sunday on GSN, Ivey raised to $3,000 with pocket eights, Negreanu called with A-7 of spades, and Dwan called with Q-J. The flop came A-J-4, and Ivey checked his pocket pair. Negreanu led out for $8,000 with top pair, while Dwan made the call with middle pair. Ivey got out of the way and a queen hit the turn to improve Dwan to two pair. Negreanu fired out a bet of $18,000 and Dwan called. The duo both checked a river five, shipping the $63,800 pot to Dwan.

In the final hand of the hour, Elezra raised to $3,000 with 9-7, Negreanu called with Q-9, and Dwan called with K-Q. The flop fell K-8-10 and Elezra put in a $7,200 continuation bet with an open-ended straight draw. Dwan came along with top pair to bring a jack on the turn, filling Eleza’s straight. However, with three spades now on the board, the action went check-check. The river was a six and Dwan bet $8,400. Elezra raised to $28,400 and Dwan released his hand.

Next time, four “High Stakes Poker” players get felted and an epic hand brews between Dwan and Ivey. New episodes of “High Stakes Poker” air on Sunday nights at 8:00pm ET on GSN.

Created by Bay 101 owner Marco Trapani 14 years ago, tournament director Matt Savage says the concept was based on the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am celebrity challenge, which draws some of the best golfers in the world, a host of celebrities and thousands spectators to the Northern California Coast about an hour from San Jose every year.

Trapani’s original plan, 14 years ago, was to try and draw the world’s best rounders to a fan and player friendly $1k buy-in event in the Bay Area.

When it first started, the bounties were a bunch of Trapani’s friends, but it slowly grew and when the World Poker Tour came along seven years later, Savage says they bumped up the buy-in and had a perfect fit.  

“It’s great for TV and the fans because it’s a really unique tournament,” he said. “With the $5k bounties, $10k for the chip leader at the end of the first day and six-handed play with 36 left, it’s unlike any other tournament in poker.”

Unique tournament structures also make for unique tournament strategies.

“Some people chase the bounties,” Savage said. “The local players sometimes are just out here to get the bounties. They think, ‘Hey, I won my way in through a $200 satellite, now I have the chance to pick up five thousand,’ so they might make a loose call.

“That’s why one or two of the shooting stars make the final table every year, because people are going after them and if they pick up chips, they’re tough to get.”

Team UB Pro Brandon Cantu loves the format and actually won the event in 2009, collecting a record six bounties on his way to the title.

“This is one of my favorite poker tournaments,” he said. “And I actually do hunt the bounties. It’s nice to try and get the buy-in back, so I’m really a fan of going after the bounties.”

Cantu went wire-to-wire in 2008, taking the chip lead on his Day 1 and the $10k prize it came with.

He says that’s the kind of thing that really makes the event fun to play and keeps the fans on the rail entertained throughout.

“I was actually going for it,” he said. “When I was 8,000 behind late in the day, I really went for it. I wanted it.”

What Cantu didn’t enjoy was being a bounty for the first time last year.

“People played really differently against me,” he said. “It seemed like they were up to no good all the time and it just changed my whole mindset.

“I didn’t know where I was in a hand as much as I usually do. I didn’t like it.”

Phil Laak has a bounty on his head and says it changes just about everything.

“I love it, but it really sucks as a bounty when your chip stack starts diminishing,” he said. “You are forced to get real hands, because people are going to call you down, often correctly.

“But it is nice when you have some chips, because people are going to take some incorrect lines to try and chase you.”

Like it or not, with a rail full of fans watching the biggest names in the game here in San Jose this week, Trapani’s plan has worked.

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Other than four hands on Saturday (where Dwan lost $1,000) the durrrr Challenge picked up where it left off on February 15th with an hour-long 364 hand session Monday.

The session started with Antonius in the midst of an epic down-swing which has cost him over $3.2 million so far this year.

Three pots worth over $100k played out, the largest of which saw Dwan win $213k after hitting one of his many outs on the turn to beat Antonius’ kings.

The pot, which felted Antonius at one of their four challenge tables, appeared to be the last straw for the Finnish pro, who ended the session down $306,558.

With Dwan’s lead now over $1.7 million, Antonius has just 16,758 hands to get out of the hole, or he will lose the challenge, along with an extra $500k.

If we assume that all remaining Challenge sessions will be exactly 364 hands - the length of this most recent session - Antonius would have to profit an average of $38,135 over 48 sessions to get back to even.

For Antonius to pull this off, he would have to average $104.77 profit per hand for the remainder of the challenge.

durrrr Challenge by the numbers:

• 273,423,095: Total amount wagered
• 118,000,000: Number of Google search results for the term Poker
• 1,755,708: Amount durrrr is ahead
• 33,242: Hands played overall
• 342,157: Amount made by Dwan in the last session
• 258,000: Number of Google search results for the term “durrrr Challenge”
• 7,501: Amount of rake made by Full Tilt from the Challenge
• 105: Hours played in the challenge
• 66: Percentage of challenge completed
• 8: Number of Google search results for the phrase “cork it durrrrballs”

Below are the two largest hands from the Challenge session. To see more hand replays head to MarketPulse.

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Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies would be the first player to take on the unknown Swedish pro.

After 451 hands of $300/$600 Pot-Limit Omaha, with Sahamies losing over $487k, the two moved their game to $500/$1,000 PLO, where they remained for 40 minutes.

By the end of the 259-hand nosebleed session, Sahamies logged off, down another $290,965.

With Sahamies gone, Isildur1 went on the hunt for his next opponent, finding him in Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo. The two played $200/$400 NLHE for 791 hands with Bonomo finishing up $187k.

Looking to bounce back after that NLHE loss, Isildur1 took on the CardRunners team, playing both Cole South and Brian Hastings heads-up at the same time.

Despite starting the year off with a white-hot streak of wins, South lost $334k over his 825 hands, while Hastings made $330k over a shorter 224-hand match, all at $300/$600 PLO.

Hastings, who holds the online record for most money made in a single session after crushing Isildur1 for $4.2 million on Full Tilt late in 2009, tried to repeat his feat, convincing Isildur1 to move their game back up to $500/$1,000, where they played for another 468 hands.

Although Hastings was unable to make anything close to $4.2 million, he came away from the nosebleed session with another $219k, up over half a million total on the day.

After some small sessions at smaller stakes games, Isildur1 sat for his final heads-up sessions, giving South a chance to get even on the day.

After 565 hands of $100/$200 PLO, and South getting himself suck another $222k, the two doubled the stakes, finishing their session with 344 hands at $200/$400.

Although he wasn’t able to get completely out of the hole, South managed to make back $77,958 before the end of the match.

In total, Isildur1 added $572,746 to his roll, putting him up well over $1 million in 2010 so far.

Below you can find Isildur1’s three largest hands of the day. To see more hands from Isildur1, including the $1.3 million dollar largest-ever online pot, head to MarketPulse.

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The PartyPoker.com Women’s World Open IV will take place in London, England March 23 and 24 featuring 24 of the best female poker players on the planet. 

Amongst those already confirmed to take part are Team PartyPoker’s Kara Scott, Betfair pro Annette Obrestad, Women’s World Open III winner Aisling Collins and runner-up Wooka Kim.

Also scheduled to play are Laurence Grondin, Shelley Rubenstein, Stefanie Bergener, Maria Demetriou, Christine Klecz, Pippa Flanders and season two winner Soraya Homam.

The $3,000 buy-in will create a $72,000 prize pool for the tournament. The event’s format dictates that the top two players from each of the three deep-stacked eight handed heats carry their chips through to a six-handed final table. 

“Last year Aisling proved that Britain’s got talent, but the same can be said about Japan in the form of Wooka Kim,” said a PartyPoker spokesperson. “Both will be strong contenders for the title this year. We’ve made the stacks deeper and the competition is just as fierce.”

Matchroom Sport director Eddie Hearn said he’s looking forward to the action.

“The PartyPoker.com Women’s World Open has proved extremely popular with players, viewers and broadcasters over the last three seasons,” he said. “As the game continues to grow, we have made a number of changes to our formats that enables the viewers to watch a deeper-stacked game with more skill, where players can really showcase their ability and flair.” 

Commentary for the TV broadcast will be provided by Jesse May, with presenting duties shared between Kara Scott and Tatjana Pasilic. Coverage of the event will first be broadcast on Five in the UK later this year and then distributed internationally.

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After all, Bay 101 has seen deeper runs by women than any other venue on the World Poker Tour.

At the 2007 edition of the popular bounty event, Joanne Liu made runner-up to Ted Forrest in an attempt to become the WPT’s first female champion.

Then last year, veteran pro Kathy Liebert matched the feat, finishing second to 2009 champion Steve Brecher.

Liebert’s runner-up finish helped push her up and over $5.6 million in career tournament earnings, making her far and away the number one earning female poker player of all time.

Being the number one female player in the game is not exactly the reason Liebert plays, but it’s certainly an honor she cherishes.

“Being a top poker player is more important to me than being a top female poker player,” she said. “But being the top woman in poker is something I’m proud of. There are a lot of women trying to catch up to me.”

One of the women chasing Liebert is two-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner and respected high-stakes cash game pro Jennifer Harman.

Though Harman, who currently sits fifth on the all-time female money list and made the final table at Bay 101 in 2008 finishing third, really sees herself as just one of the boys.

“I look at myself as a poker player,” she explained. “I don’t believe in the whole gender thing because this is a co-ed sport.

“You shouldn’t get kudos for being a woman or a man, you should get kudos for being a great poker player and that’s all.”

International Women’s Day is about celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past.

But even as women like Liu, Liebert and Harman continue to achieve in poker, it appears many men on the felt refuse to treat them as equals.

“I think some men treat women with no respect at the table and some men treat women with too much respect,” said Harman. “For me, since I’m like old furniture in this business, they just treat me the same as anybody else. They don’t play any differently against me because I’m a woman, but I know with some women they do.”

Regardless, Harman, who booked her first major cash in a poker tournament 16 years ago, says the game is changing all the time and more women are flocking to it every day.

“When I first started, I would walk into a poker room and there would be me,” she said. “Now you walk into a poker room and there are one or two women at every table.

“I think it’s grown and it will continue to grow. A lot of women are still intimidated, but I know they enjoy the game and they want to do it, they just need to take that next step, because poker can be a lot of fun.”

Liebert says she feels a lot of love and support from female fans of the game, many of whom she sees following her lead.

“I always have women coming up to me and telling me they are rooting for me,” she said. “And they feel like if I’m a woman and I can do it they can do it to.”

Action at the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star continues through March 12. For comprehensive coverage, tune in to PokerListings’ <a target=”_self” href=”http://www.pokerlistings.com/live-poker tournaments/wpt/season8/bay-101-shooting-star/live-updates”>Live Updates and News.

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