Ladies Event at WPT World Championship 2023 Fails to Meet Expectations
The organizers of the WPT World Championship 2023 had high hopes for the women's tournament of the series. The World Poker Tour expected this year's event to be the biggest women's poker tournament in history, they declared it their top priority and thought through a whole range of activities to attract attention to it. But unfortunately it failed to meet all expectations in the end.
Moreover, the WPT Ladies Championship 2023 lost to the 2022 tournament in all important indicators:
| Statistics | WPT Ladies Championship 2022 | WPT Ladies Championship 2023 |
|---|---|---|
| Total entries | 578 | 457 |
| Total prize pool | $560,660 | $443,290 |
| First place payout | $105,136 | $85,297 |
There are several reasons for this situation, but the main one seems to be the high competition from other December poker events (WSOP Paradise and EPT Prague). So for example, the runner-up of the WPT Ladies Championship 2022, Ukrainian Olga Iermolcheva, this year decided to participate in the World Series of Poker festival in the Bahamas, where, by the way, she successfully played the starting flight in the Main Event.
As for last year's champion Lina Niu, she tried to defend her title, but ended up finishing in 47th place. American Lisa Costello won this year, who before that had only $300,000 in prize money in poker.
Congratulations to Lisa Costello for winning the 2023 @WPT Ladies Championship Event for $85,297! pic.twitter.com/WsHioX3sh0
— hayley hochstetler (@hayleyocho) December 9, 2023
At one point in the game, she lost a huge hand and was left with only five blinds on her stack. However, after that, Lisa won all the important hands and built a big stack. She managed to win a key pot against experienced poker player Kathy Liebert – there Lisa made the winning straight on the river. And after that, she confidently walked the rest of the way to the champion title.
Julianna Svyrydenko
