Lady's Man Crashes Out Of Women's Poker Event

LADY'S MAN CRASHES OUT OF WOMEN'S POKER EVENT (Update)

04th July, 2025 at 03:57:45

Source: bluffed.net

"I didn't think it would be such a big deal," says the only man to enter this year's women's competition

Jonathan Epstein, the only man with the temerity to enter the World Series of Poker women's event this year, made the final table but was eliminated in ninth place, earning $13,and a lot of animosity from the railbirds.

In fact, Epstein was barracked more from the rail than from the actual contestants as he played through the three days of the event.

WSOP organisers can do little about men who choose to crash the women's event due to gender-discrimination laws.

Epstein was one such male - the only one this year - and he claims that it was not in any attempt to make a statement. The young Los Angeles amateur was in Las Vegas for the weekend and with a scheduled departure Monday it was the only event that could fit his timetable.

I figured it wasn't going to be a big deal but I was clearly wrong, he said. Obviously there are a lot of people who are upset.

Carol Tomlinson, who at one stage played at his table in the event, said: I really didn't have a problem with it because I think that poker is an individual sport but a lot of ladies feel it's disrespectful to the event. I kinda feel sorry for the guy, he's really been reamed for the last two days.

Event 53 $1,000 Ladies No-Limit Hold'em Championship was down to 141 from an original field of 1,055 entering the second day, and this was reduced to just 14 players led by Valerie McColligan by the third and last day of the competition.

In less than six hours of hectic action Sunday the event wrapped, with Arizona real estate investor Marsha Wolak taking her first WSOP gold bracelet and $192,344 in prize money, and eliminating the sole male entrant on the way into the final table.

It was an impressive achievement, given the star-studded entry field for the competition.

Carol Tomlinson's departure in third place started a heads up between Wolak and Karina Jett which lasted for just one hand and resulted in Jett's third final table defeat in this event. She picked up the second placing check for $119,010.

There was some irony in Wolak's victory; last year she was busted out of the ladies event by male intruder Shaun Deeb, whilst this year she was the one to eliminate the only male in the event.

Another impressive turnout was achieved on the second starting day of event 54: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em, with 2,644 players entering for Day 1b.

Added to the 1,932 players registered for Day 1a this makes the event, at 4,576, the second biggest of its kind in WSOP history, creating a prize pool of $4.11 million.

Play wrapped within the timetable for the second starting day Sunday with 380 players left at level 9, led by Eric Afriat on 100,200 chips.

The survivors will be joined Monday by the 306 players who survived Day 1a, led by Paul Volpe on 124,500 chips.

Sunday's Day 1b field again attracted plenty of star-power, with Jonathan Duhamel, Galen Hall, Liv Boeree, David Williams and Michael Mizrachi all seen among the tables at the start; unfortunately all were eliminated early in the competition.

Still active going into the second day of the event are Max Lykov, Rick Trigg, Humberto Brenes, Greg Raymer, Erica Schoenberg, Vitaly Lunkin, Jeff Madsen, Andre Akkari, Vanessa Peng and Shane Schleger.

Most eyes Sunday were on one of the biggest of this year's events - number 55: the $50,000 buy-in Poker Player's Championship which started Saturday with an unquestionably elite field of 128, and completed the first day with 123 players still in contention.

The five players eliminated were Phil Laak, Arturo Diaz, Andrew Pantling, Jani Sointula and Eli Elezra.

Sunday saw the remaining roster of quality players return to the tables with Doug Booth leading, chased by Greg Mueller. The action moved a little faster during this second day, and approaching midnight Sunday Vegas time the field was down to 80 players at level 10, led by Ben Lamb (830,000) and Gus Hansen (570,000).

At that point some of the notable names still in the competition included David Baker, Sebastian Ruthenberg, Scott Seiver, Robert Mizrachi, Barry Greenstein, Carlos Mortensen, David Benyamine, Ashton Griffin, Bill Chen, Phil Hellmuth, Scott Clements, Vladimir Shchemelev, Steve Billirakis, Sorel Mizzi, Matt Hawrilenko, Jon Turner and Pat Pezzin.

The prize pool for this event is a massive $6.14 million.