My friend Mike Paulle has given me permission to post his daily reports for each event of the World Series of Poker this year to the ChipBoard! Below is his report on Event #26. Andy - Las Vegas

WORLD SERIES OF POKER 2002

EVENT #26 WOMEN'S CHAMPIONSHIP
Sunday, May 12, 2002
$1,000 BUY-IN
$1,000 in chips

THE PROP vs. THE TOURNY QUEENS

It sounds like a Grade B poker movie produced by Max Shapiro's fictional
character--Dirty Wally, but this production was 1st class and very
entertaining.

There were 107 entrants in the $1,000 Buy-In, Woman's Championship (Half
Hold'em/ Half Stud) for a total prize pool of $100,580. Two tables were paid, a
total of 16 players.

To show this was no powderpuff field on Mother's Day, the following were some
of the top players who played but didn't get paid: Patti Beadles, Kristy Bidar,
Ann Bloom, Joanne Bortner, Debbie Burkhead, Kim Bye, Nani Dollison, Barbara
Enright, Maureen Feduniak, Mallie Hoyer, Christina Hung, Suzie Isaacs, P.H.
Kim, Kathy Liebert, Janice Newton, Martina Oules, Nikki Papler, Odette
Tremblay, Gloria Tschetschot, Marsha Waggoner, Karen Wolfson.

The dreaded 'one out of the money' were two. Julia Sun called two all-ins with
pocket 4's. Maureen Feduniak and another lady had a total of four overcards to
Julia's hand. But the Sun came down on both all-ins as the 4's stood up.
16 women applauded themselves with justification.

To setup the Final Table Monday afternoon, Sharon Fann was drawing dead to a 9
when she went all-in against Catherine Brown's A K vs. K 9. Nothing came and
eight moved on.

THE FINAL TABLE: 46 mins left of 75. The game is Hold'em. $300/$600 blinds

Player Hometown Chip Count

Seat 1 Maria Stern San Jose, Costa Rica $20,750
Seat 2 Tina Sue Los Angeles CA $11,350
Seat 3 Catherine Brown Las Vegas NV $26,400
Seat 4 Vicky Carr New Haven CT $16,700
Seat 5 Susan Abraham Alameda CA $ 1,900
Seat 6 Marie Sohn Downey CA $ 7,350
Seat 7 LuLan Swanson Oceanside CA $16,025
Seat 8 Jerri Thomas Hamilton OH $ 7,375

Moving up from 9th last year in this event to her first Final Table, Susan
Abraham will probably by 7th next year 'cause she was 8th in this one. As we
see all the time in tournaments, terrible things happen to short stacks. You
always want to be able to defend your hand with a few more bets. Catherine
Brown said apologetically, "I was just trying to steal the blinds." Brown
raised from the button with the Q 2 of Diamonds. Susan Abraham in the big blind
picked up A K and raised all-in. Catherine called the few extra, knowing she
had the worst of it, as a good chip leader is supposed to do in that situation.
Susan Abraham gasped as the river came down. The board had come perfect perfect
to wrap a wheel around Brown's deuce and wheel Suddenly Susan out the door.

Vicky Carr could have sung "No…Respect." She played so well for so long. Got
here with chips and everything. Then this happens. Playing Hold'em now, Vicky
flopped a set of 3's only to find out that Catherine Brown flopped a higher set
of 8's. Of course, Carr got all her chips in the pot. Look for Vicky Carr's
next album, "She Sings The Blues In 7th."

Speaking of songs, maybe it should be 'Ol Woman River' because it was drowning
only women today. Playing Stud again, LuLan Swanson couldn't get her 'raise
all-in chips' into the pot any faster. She had an A 8 high Heart flush on 6th
St. Marie Sohn had barely enough chips to cover Swanson but didn't hesitate to
call with them and an A Q high Diamond flush draw. Proving that Diamonds are
only SOME girl's best friends, the Jack of Diamonds appeared for Marie and
LuLan was a meat pie in 6th.

For the squeamish or faint-hearted it's suggested not to read the rest of this
paragraph. It shows how little justice there is in poker. Tina Sue found the 2
3 and 4 of Diamonds as her starting Stud hand and committed to the pot knowing
she would have to go all-in. Catherine Brown had a pair of 8's with a 9. Tina's
4th St card was the 5 of Diamonds for an open-ended straight flush draw. You
were warned not to read any further. Tina has grounds to Sue the poker gods for
non-support in 5th place because she received nothing the rest of the way,
while Catherine Brown received nothing but more 8's and 9's for a full house.

Now it got really interesting. With four players remaining Catherine Brown was
the clear chip leader. Maria Stern was still healthy. And Jerri Thomas, along
with Marie Sohn, were looking for help. It was the poker Prop (Sohn) vs. the
three Tourney Queens. Stern and Thomas are the rarest of players in WSOP
history. The two women are the ONLY two women to have won bracelets in open
events and to be married to men who have both won bracelets. So here the women
were at the table…and it was so cute…the two hubbies were sitting side by
side in the stands. To complete the trio of 'Tourny Queens,' Catherine Brown is
a feared tournament 7-Card Stud specialist and self-professed "Tournament
Junkie."

Oddly, Marie Sohn is now an assistant Tournament Director at the Bicycle Club
in LA. But for years Marie was a house proposition player for low-level stakes
games in the SoCal area. If you've never played games like $3/$6 Hold'em at a
casino in LA, you don't know action. This was Marie's daily work life. And she
had to be good just to survive in this snake pit. As you might expect Marie
Sohn plays FAST. Her decisions are like lightening. If she doesn't have them
already, she believes her cards are coming. Everything about the way Marie
plays was opposite to the three tournament veteran's deliberate, methodical
pace. Sohn wasn't a danger to them as long as she didn't have chips, but if she
got them WATCH OUT!

Jerri Thomas must have survived at least six all-ins at this table. She never
had any chips and said as a note in her bio, "I'm happy to be here." Many top
players, who happen to be women, express the same sentiments about how tough it
is to play against women only. Barbara Enright has the classic quote in this
regard, "I can't tell what they've got, and they don't care what I've got." One
of Thomas' all-ins was won with an Ace high against Marie Sohn. Jerri went to
that well once too often for her last $1,500. Marie made a pair of 6's this
time with her 6 2 starting hand to eat up Thomas' Ace high in 4th.

Marie Sohn was in full stroke now. This was a world she understood.
Short-handed play is a staple for a prop as they are required to keep games
going until they fill up. Clearly the aggressor, Marie pounded almost every pot
forcing Marie Stern and Catherine Brown to make 'no or no go' decision before
they wanted to. It wasn't long before Marie took over the chip lead and looked
like the sure winner.

Meanwhile Maria Stern couldn't make a hand. Holding her palms up in resignation
toward her husband Max in the stands, Maria had to keep folding. Stern is made
of Stern stuff, however, and will be back at a Final Table soon enough. All-in
for her last $2,200 and holding an A 5, Maria went out 3rd when Marie Sohn
turned two pair.

"God, you are lucky," Marie Sohn said incredulously to Catherine Brown. It
might be better to say that today was Catherine's day. She's played in hundreds
of tournaments when she wasn't lucky. It was her turn. Marie Sohn had Catherine
Brown all-in a couple of times only to see Brown escape, usually on the river.
Once, Sohn had 10's 9's and 8's on 6th St. Brown had a pair of 5's with an Ace.
Catherine spiked the Ace to hold on. Another time, Sohn had Aces up on 6th to
Brown's Queens up. BOOM! Comes another Queen for a full house. All the momentum
and giant chip lead that Marie Sohn had built up with her fast prop play was
dissipated by these four and five out river cards. After it was gone, Marie
couldn't get it back.

She'd beaten two of the three Tourny Queens but couldn't get the last one out.
Marie mucked her all-in hand when a 9 came on the river to give the retired
business owner, Catherine Brown, a straight and her first, well-deserved
bracelet.

Official Money Winners
1. Catherine Brown $39,880
2. Marie Sohn 20,120
3. Maria Stern 10,060
4. Jerri Thomas 6,040
5. Tina Sue 5,020
6. LuLan Swanson 4,020
7. Vicky Carr 3,020
8. Susan Abraham 2,020

9th-12th received $1,500
Sharon Fann, Carolyn Gardner, Lorna Vilayvanh, Michele Staudenmayer

13th-16th received $1,100
Julia Sun, Cecilia Reyes, Bonnie McHugh, Sue Byrd

There have been 131 entrants generated by the Super Satellites as of this
writing. The big fields will start coming in this next week. It's going to get
wild.

Some additional Super Satellite winners were: Joel Fischbein, Barry Shulman,
Randy Hudson, P.H. Kim (3rd), Paul McKinney (2nd), Jac Arama, Joseph Belofsky,
Charles Tsolakides, Rong Lam, Vernon Stordahl, Daniel Negreanu, Gary Bush, Ross
Boatman, Ben-Ami Akiva, Henry Nguyen, Jeff Yoak (5th), Randall Skaggs (3rd),
Hasan Habib, Charles Cuschieri, Chip Jett, Chris Tsiprailidis.