It’s funny how things work out sometimes. David Olson, the winner of the 2014 World Series of Poker (WSOP) $10,000 Fixed-Limit Hold’em event, originally just planned on playing in the Monster Stack event, but was convinced by his friends to play in the Fixed-Limit Hold’em Championship and he ended up winning the whole thing. Haixia Zhang also came to Las Vegas from California to play in the Monster Stack event, but bombed out of it early. She had some time to kill before heading back home, so she decided to give Event #53, the $10,000 Ladies No-Limit Hold’em Championship, a try. Good thing she did, as she won the tournament, earning her first WSOP bracelet and $153,470.
This was also Zhang’s first-ever WSOP cash. She actually came really close to elimination, falling down to four big blinds at one point, but she kept steady and never gave up.
The final table of the tournament was quite short, lasting just 87 hands and less than four hours. Mikiyo Aoki entered the last day with a sizable chip lead, holding 742,000 chips, while the next largest stack was just 460,000, belonging to Meikat Su. Zhang was next with 311,000 chips.
Zhang quickly eliminated two of the first three players to ascend into the chip lead with 755,000, a total which would have been ever higher had Pat Landis not doubled-up through her on an amazing hand. Landis was all-in pre-flop with 8-8, while Zhang had A-Q, both spades. The flop was all spades, giving Zhang the nut flush. The turn put a second 3 on the board and the river was an 8, giving Landis the surprise runner-runner boat and keeping her in the game.
When it got to heads-up, It was Zhang against Aoki, with Zhang with just a slight chip edge, 1,250,000 to 1,130,000. The one-on-one match, all eleven hands of it, was pretty much all Zhang. On the final hand, Aoki moved all-in pre-flop with J-7 of diamonds and Zhang made the call with A-6 of spades. Nobody hit anything of any use, meaning Zhang’s Ace-high held up, allowing her to take down the pot and win the coveted gold WSOP bracelet.
2014 World Series of Poker – Event #53: $10,000 Ladies No-Limit Hold’em – Final Table Results
- Haixia Zhang- $153,470
- Mikiyo Aoki – $94,800
- Meikat Siu – $61,114
- Elizabeth Montizanti – $44,770
- Pat Landis – $33,279
- Persia Bonella – $25,072
- Kendra Wray – $19,120
- Stacey Sullivan – $14,752
- Patricia Cahill – $11,504
