2010 World Series of Poker Day 17: Hellebuyck Becomes First French Woman to Win WSOP Gold, Boyd Snags Second Bracelet and More
French pianist Vanessa Hellebuyck became the first woman from her country to win WSOP gold when she won the ladies event in a quick heads-up match with Denmark's Sidsel Boesen. Dutch Boyd took down Event #23 for his second WSOP bracelet and added nearly a quarter of a million dollars to his bank account after three grueling days of play and a marathon heads-up match and more.
Event #22: $1,000 Ladies No-Limit Hold'em World Championship
It only took seven hands of heads-up play for France's Vanessa Hellebuyck to take the 2010 WSOP Ladies champion title, where she became the first-ever female bracelet winner and fifth overall bracelet winner for France in WSOP history. With her win she joins countrymen Gilbert Gross, Patrick Bruel, Claude Cohen and David Benyamine in the WSOP history books.
Hellebuyck immediately put the pressure on Denmark's Sidsel Boesen during heads-up play, forcing the Dane to play wisely with her short stack. The night ended when Boesen ran her 9♦10♦ into Hellebuyck's pocket fives and failed to improve on the board. With the Ladies Event title Hellebuyck, a married mother of two and an accomplished pianist, picked up more than her first bracelet: the tournament was her first ever Las Vegas cash. She is also only the second ladies-event winner to hail from outside the U.S. Svetlana Gromenkova, of Russia was the first, in 2008.
See how it all went down by checking out our WSOP Live Reporting pages.
Event #23: $2,500 Limit Hold'em Six Handed
Dutch Boyd, the man so many love to hate, won his second gold bracelet after three days of play in Event #23. The heads-up match began with the would-be champion sitting with a 2:1 chip disadvantage, but after an arduous duel, Boyd was crowned champion. He chose his hands carefully, played smart, and was able to slowly accumulate the chips that once belonged to runner-up finisher Brian Meinders.
Eventually, with just one big bet left, Meinders was forced to shove his final 100,000 into the middle holding A♣8♠. Boyd made the call with J♥10♦, and a flop of J♣2♠9♦ left Meinders praying for an ace. The turn was even nicer to Boyd when it opened the 7♣, giving him the straight draw and leaving Meinders with only three outs. The 8♦ on the river sealed the deal and Boyd picked up the win with a jack-high straight.
Our WSOP Live Reporting pages have all the action.
Event #24: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em
Day 1B of Event #24 was rife with action, controversy, walks of shame and good old poker.
It's nothing new to see some bickering between players seated together during poker tournaments, and usually the systematic breaking of tables ends the fighting before it can go on for too long. Sometimes, however, it goes on all day. A few players seated at Table 5 had an unknown problem with one another, causing the floor to be called multiple times during the night and, unfortunately for the two fighters' tablemates, their table would never break and they were forced to deal with it until play wrapped up for the night.
But it's not always the players who cause the problems; sometimes the dealers make mistakes, as well. A short-stacked player was all-in with Qx 4x on a queen-high board against an opponent who held aces when an observant tablemate realized the dealer had forgotten a burn card. The floor ruled the entire board had to go back into the deck and be redealt, giving the short-stacked player another chance to stay in the tournament. Luckily for the shorty, the new board read QxQx2x 4x8x, giving a full house to beat the pocket aces.
On Monday, 222 hopefuls will return to try to make the final nine in yet another hold'em tournament. See what happens as our WSOP Live Reporting Team brings you all the updates.
Event #25: $10,000 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better World Championship
Once again, a small field of elite players shrunk slowly in a world championship tournament. Only 23 players were left at the end of play Sunday night, and the action will get back underway on Monday afternoon when they'll play to a winner.
Michael Chow, Abe Mosseri and Eugene Katchalov will lead the small field when Day 3 begins. Eric Baldwin, John D'Agostino and Jose De Paz will have some catching up to do if they hope to stick around long, but with an entire day left to play, anything can happen. Jean-Robert Bellande, James Dempsey, David Baker, Steve Zolotow and John Cernuto are a few of the contenders left in the field who will no doubt mix up chips and challenge the leaderboard standings as play progresses.
No matter what, only one player can be left standing. Follow all the action as it happens through our WSOP live updates.
On Tap
Event #26: $2,500 No Limit Hold'em Six Handed will begin at 12 p.m. followed by Event #27: $1,500 Seven-Card Stud Hi-Low-8 or Better at 5 p.m.
Check out our live reporting of the World Series of Poker here.
Video of the Day
Kristy Arnett caught up with PokerStars Pro Andre Akkari on break of Day 1b of the $1,000 no-limit hold'em event. They talk a little poker, but most importantly, the two show off their soccer ― err, football skills and Kristy challenges Andre to a match later on this summer.
