Council Bluffs, IA—After a back-and-forth contest with her final opponent, Chris Kasper claimed victory in the Ladies Championship event of the WSOP Circuit tour at Horseshoe Council Bluffs.
The win was worth $3,702. Kasper, from Gaylord, Michigan, along with her husband owns a wheel bearing auto parts manufacturing plant. She’s been playing poker only three years, mostly small tournaments back home, and this is only her second major event. She prefers tournaments because she finds cash games boring and that tends to make her chase and play small cards.
“Tournaments take patience, and I have patience there,” she said.
Tonight she was in good shape until the final table, being among the chip leaders most of the time.
It took more than 90 minutes to lose a tenth player and start the final table. There were still four players left at an adjacent $300 No Limit final table when the ladies got down to 10, and the $300 event was over, with the winner interviewed and photographed before the ladies finally got to nine.
There were 53 entrants and a $10,282 prize pool in this event. Play began with blinds of 1,000-2,000 and 200 antes with 22 minutes on the clock. Tashina Blackbull had the most chips, 50,300.
Here were the starting chip counts:
|
Seat |
Name |
Chip Count |
|
1 |
Phyllis Schweitzer |
12,000 |
|
2 |
Shannon VanLaningham |
44,000 |
|
3 |
Chris Kasper |
35,200 |
|
4 |
Tashina Blackbull |
50,300 |
|
5 |
Cinda Trost |
20,100 |
|
6 |
Stephani Travnicek |
35,600 |
|
7 |
Amy Muller |
16,500 |
|
8 |
Gwen Oulton |
14,800 |
|
9 |
Kim Strong |
6,100 |
9th place: A half-hour into play, after several all-in survivals, Kim Strong moved in and had two callers. The board of 3-4-7-9-7 was checked down. “Anyone have anything?” she asked, turning up A-Q. “I have ace-high.” Blackbull also had an ace…and a trey, and her small pair left Strong in ninth place, paying $308. Strong, from Glencoe, Minnesota, is in sales. She finished second in this event in both 2009 and 2008.
8th place: Next to go was Phyllis Schweitzer. Amy Muller pushed in with , and Schweitzer called with A-Q. A nine-high straight hit the board, but there was no chop because three of the cards were clubs. Muller’s flush took the pot and Schweitzer took home $411 for eighth. Schweitzer, 36, is a general manager from Lincoln, Nebraska.
7th place: Blinds went to 1,500-3,000 and then to 2,000-4,000 before another player left. This time it was Gwen Oulton. She was all in with A-10 and flopped two pair to pull ahead of Kasper, who had A-Q. But then a queen turned to give Kasper the higher two pair, and Oulton went out with $514 for seventh. Oulton, 46, is from Colorado Springs, Colorado. Tonight she managed to make the final table after being low-stacked the entire time.
6th place: A short-chipped Cinda Trost found herself all in with against Shannon VanLaningham’s K-10. It was no contest as VanLaningham flopped a king and caught another on the river. Sixth paid $617. Trost, 59, is a housewife from Lenox, Iowa
5th place: Stephani Travnicek was next out when her pocket jacks couldn’t catch Kasper’s pocket queens. Fifth place was worth $720. Travnicek is 46 and works in corrections in El Dorado, Kansas.
4th place: Amy Muller then finished fourth for $823 when her A-4 was up against Blackbull’s pocket 7s. Blackbull flopped a set and that did it. Muller is an opthamology assistant from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She has a sixth in a prior Circuit and a second in the HPT.
3rd place: Blinds became 2,500-3,000 with 400 antes. Blackbull, by now short on chips, moved in with . Kasper called with K-Q and won after the board showed 4-7-A-3-K. Third paid $1,131. Blackbull, 32, is a student from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Her poker highlight is “just being here.”
Kasper and VanLaningham, now heads-up, were a study in contrasts, VanLaningham chattering away and Kasper mostly all business. Kasper started with the lead, but chips would go back and forth during their lengthy match.
In the first major exchange, VanLaningham raised with A-2 and Kasper moved in with . Two aces and two clubs flopped, Kasper missed her flush draw, and now VanLaningham was way in front. Later, Kasper regained a huge lead when VanLaningham moved in with pocket queens and Kasper, calling with A-J, hit two pair.
2nd place: VanLaningham hung on for a while, but only had a little over 20,000 when the players came back from break to blinds of 3,000-6,000. On the last hand, VanLaningham moved in with and Kasper called with . With a board of 10-10-6-Q, VanLaningham looked ready to double up, until a river trey paired Kasper and ended the tournament.
For second, VanLaningham got $2,056. She is a social worker from Omaha. –Max Shapiro