The 2023 World Poker Tour Ladies Championship at Wynn Las Vegas $1,100 buy-in no-limit maintain’em occasion drew a large discipline of 457 entries, simply surpassing the $250,000 assure to construct a remaining prize pool of $443,290. After three days of event motion, the most important share of that sum was awarded to Lisa Costello. She took dwelling $85,297 for the win, the most important event rating but for the Las Vegas resident.
This was Costello’s sixty fourth recorded in-the-money end, with outcomes courting again to 2011. This marquee victory elevated her lifetime earnings to almost $270,000.
“I actually used to play poker for years,” Costello instructed WPT reporter Tim Fiorvanti after popping out on prime. “I played full-time for two years, five or six years ago. But in the last few years, I just haven’t played much at all. I haven’t had it in me to grind it out like I used to. But it’s great because now I get to pick and choose all the tournaments that I want to play, just like this one. And it’s a lot of fun.”
Costello overcame World Series of Poker Circuit ring winner Ashley Sleeth heads-up for the title.
“I just said to Ashley, ‘I’m probably going to retire.’ Isn’t that what everybody says at this point? No, I still love poker, and I’ll always play here and there. This was just pretty incredible today,” mentioned Costello.
The remaining day of this occasion started with eight gamers remaining and Sleeth within the lead. Costello was third in chips when playing cards bought within the air. Michelle Gibson (eighth – $11,058) and Alida Veliu (seventh – $15,128) had been knocked out earlier than the official six-handed reside stream started. The first elimination beneath the brilliant lights and in entrance of the cameras noticed Ada Lang’s pocket nines lose a race to the A-Okay of Chris Read. Lang took dwelling $20,155 because the sixth-place finisher.
Costello scored her first knockout on the remaining desk when her A-J held towards the Okay-Q of Aylar Lie. Costello made aces as much as drag the pot, whereas Lie headed dwelling with $26,480.
Chris Read, who gained a $500 Ladies occasion at The Lodge Poker Club earlier this yr, misplaced a giant flip with A-Q suited towards the pocket nines of Sleeth. Read was left with only a handful of huge blinds and was quickly all-in with Okay-9 trailing the Okay-Q of Kathy Stahl. Read was unable to return from behind and was eradicated in fourth place ($34,220).
A traditional preflop race spelled the top of Stahl’s run on this occasion. She bought all-in with AOkay dealing with the JJ of Costello. The board ran out 105232. Stahl secured $43,686 because the third-place finisher, rising her profession earnings to almost $210,000.
Heads-up play started with Costello holding 9,675,000 to Sleeth’s 4,050,000. Costello pulled additional away within the early going, just for Sleeth to double as much as get issues kind of again to sq. one.
In the ultimate hand Sleeth limped-shoved from the button with A10. Costello had raise-called with AQ. The board got here down 976Okay5 and Costello’s superior ace excessive was sufficient to assert the pot and the title.
Sleeth was awarded a career-high payout of $57,069 because the runner-up. She now has greater than $409,000 in complete cashes to her title.
Here is a have a look at the payouts from the ultimate desk:
Place | Player | Earnings |
1 | Lisa Costello | $85,297 |
2 | Ashley Sleeth | $57,069 |
3 | Kathy Stahl | $43,686 |
4 | Chris Read | $34,220 |
5 | Aylar Lie | $26,480 |
6 | Ada Lang | $20,155 |
7 | Alida Veliu | $15,128 |
8 | Michelle Gibson | $11,058 |
Photo credit: WPT / Hayley Hochstetler.