By Pauly
Las Vegas, NV
When I was a kid growing up int he 1980s, I was infatuated with wrestling. I guess you can say that I was a wrestling freak and lived and breathed for the couple of hours a week that wrestling was on TV.
I eventually grew out of wrestling when I discovered that it was fake. Rigged. Set up.
I could never view wrestling the same again.
Of course professional wrestling was fixed. Wrestling was entertainment disguised as a sport. Guys like the Vince McMahon and his son made a ton of money and amassed an empire.
Tons of rival wrestling federations popped up. A couple became popular while others faded into the void. There was one popular off-shoot called GLOW... Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling. I watched that religiously.
GLOW was risque and subversive for Sunday morning viewing. It's as close to soft-core porn as you are going to get when you are 11 years old... women in skimpy outfits pulling hair and rolling around on the mats in semi-erotic positions.
I can't tell you how many times I had to rush to the bathroom during commercial breaks of GLOW to rub one out.
Day 11 of the WSOP focused on the Ladies. Day 2 of the NL Ladies event was in full swing. The 2008 field was smaller than the record setting 2007. I'm surprised that Harrah's did not allow men to play in order to juice up their numbers so they can boast about another record-setting field.
WSOP Ladies Event Entries:In 2004, the Ladies Only event was Limit Hold'em. In 2003, the Ladies event was 1/2 Stud and 1/2 Limit Hold'em. They had 112 players that year.
2008: 1190
2007: 1286
2006: 1128
2005: 601
2004: 201
By the way, it's totally asinine for men to try to buy into an event that is specifically designed for women. I cringe when I hear people bitching and moaning about that. It's like hearing about a flat chested chick trying to sue Hooters because she didn't get hired. The place is called "Hooters" for a reason. The Ladies Only event has the word "only" added for a reason.
As Michalski said, "Men buying into Ladies events? That's so 2002."
The Ladies Event made the money late on the first day. On Day 2, a few noteworthy names hit the rail including Van Nguyen (Men's wife in 14th place), Shavonne Mitchell (22nd) Linda Johnson (23rd), Maridu (35th), Olga Varkonyi (Robert's wife in 37th), Amanda Leatherman (45th), Kathy Liebert (47th), and Evelyn Ng (48th).
Shavonne Mitchell is the most interesting story since she's been killing the cash games at the Rio. According to one source, she's up $100K playing 200/400 mixed games and 25/50 NL. I couldn't dig up too much about her aside from that she plays in Atlantic City.
The best story so far is that Sweet Svetlana is the chipleader at the final table. She's a Brooklyn girl via Russia and trying to win her first bracelet. Here is Svetlana's bio that Change100 wrote and gave me permission to cut and paste...
Born in Russia, Svetlana Gromenkova now calls New York City home. Undoubtedly the most experienced player at the table, Gromenkova has nearly $140,000 in career tournament earnings. Most recently, she finished 7th in the U.S. Poker Championships main event at the Taj in Atlantic City and cashed in the $10K buy-in main event of the 2008 L.A. Poker Classic. Gromenkova has also made four final tables in limit hold’em events at the Bicycle Casino’s Legends of Poker and at the Borgata Winter Open. She also cashed in this event last year, finishing 27th. This is her fourth WSOP cash and her first final table.I first met Svetlana at the Borgata in Atlantic City in January of 2006. I was covering the Winter Poker Open for the Borgata and Svetlana made the final table of a Limit event. She eventually came in third place. Stephen Benton (who is good buddies with Action Bob) won the event and the bracelet. Svetlana won $13,977 for third place. However, she was so pissed off about the play at the final table that she stormed off without completing any paperwork. I dunno the exact amount of time that she left her money at the cage, but it was while before she picked it up. Talk about steaming...
Anyway, I started calling her "Sweet Svetlana" around the same time. She has a thick Russian accent and she's as tough as nails.
The Wicked Chops hombres call her "Glum Girl" because she always looks so sad at the tables.
Can Sweet Glum Girl Svetlana win a bracelet? Or will it be Anh Le's turn? She was runner-up at the 2005 Ladies Only event. Who beat her? Jen Tilly.
Congrats to both Kristy Gazes (28th) and Shirley Rosario (19th) for cashing in Event #16 $2K Omaha8. That is Shirley's second WSOP cash since she beat breast cancer last summer. The Poker Babe is back on track, looking great, and playing even better.
Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker at www.taopoker.com. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.
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