Shiina Okamoto Going for the Win for the Second Year in a Row
Six players remain and are returning today to the World Series of Poker at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas for the fourth and final day of Event #71: $1,000 Ladies No-Limit Hold'em Championship. They are set to battle it out for the $171,732 first-place prize and, for any of the six finalists, their first-ever WSOP bracelet.
One of the two dominant big stacks coming into today is Shiina Okamoto, who was one of the biggest stars of this event last year. Okamoto was the chip leader at the start of Day 4 in 2023 and was able to beat almost everyone, only losing the heads-up match against Tamar Abraham. Okamoto, who comes from Japan, is an architect by trade, but is also clearly a serious, tough player and a likely rising star in the poker world. She is going to try to catch the elusive bracelet once more and is in it with a good chance, as she is sitting on a competitive deep stack of over 100 big blinds.
Chip Counts Going Into Day 4
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jamie Kerstetter | United States | 9,330,000 | 117 |
| 2 | Shiina Okamoto | Japan | 8,640,000 | 108 |
| 3 | Linda Durden | United States | 3,110,000 | 39 |
| 4 | Mor Kamber | Israel | 1,755,000 | 22 |
| 5 | Cecile Ticherfatine | France | 1,100,000 | 14 |
| 6 | Ceci Liao | United States | 970,000 | 12 |
Okamoto's biggest competition will be the chip leader, American poker player and commentator Jamie Kerstetter. Kerstetter has $837,207 in total live tournament winnings and has made a number of cashes and deep runs at the WSOP over the years. However, she is still looking for her first WSOP win; the closest she has come so far was in the $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em Tag Team Event in 2022, where she got second place with her teammate Corey Paggeot.
Other players still in the hunt are American Linda Durden, who is third in chips; Israeli poker-industry insider and player Mor Kamber; French player Cecile Ticherfatine; and American Ceci Liao, who is relatively new to the game and is already guaranteed to have the best score of her poker career with this event.
Just missing out on the final six was Susan Bluer, who also made a deep run in this event in 2023, finishing in 17th place. Despite falling short of the very top, seventh place was enough for her biggest live tournament win to date - she took home $24,090 for her efforts.
Among other known players that got close but didn’t make it to the final table were known poker vlogger Marle Spragg, who got eliminated in 11th place; pros Cherish Andrews and Nadya Magnus, who were out in 16th and 19th place, respectively; and chess grandmaster Jen Shahade, who was eliminated in 29th place.
Play will commence at 3 p.m. local time at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas, with the delayed PokerGO stream and PokerNews coverage set to start at 5:00 p.m.