~ Official Web Site of "Aussie" Sarah Bilney ~

kicking off his tournament with his usual aggressive game, but then had a clash with WSOP bracelet winner
Meng La that saw him eliminated. Meng raised from the button, Willie re-raised from the big blind, and Meng
called to see a flop of A-9-5. All the money went in and both players showed top pair, but Willie’s queen kicker
dominated Meng’s ten….until a ten hit the turn, and Willie was out.

The player who replaced Willie was the next to get lucky, cracking pocket kings with his pocket queens when
he hit a queen on the river. In poker’s version of karma, though, the two players’ fortunes were reversed not
long afterwards when Mr Lucky’s top pair was cracked by the other guy’s runner-runner straight ~ and he was
out. Meng had his own misfortunes, first when his flopped set lost to A-Q. He had bet his hand all the way to
the river and was called by a player with only two overcards to the board ~ until he made a gutshot straight on
the final card. Then Meng limped with aces and fell victim to my 5-3 of clubs when I flopped a flush and the
fourth club he needed to make a bigger flush didn’t come.

I then moved to a new table where 2006 WPT Championship runner-up David Matthew was next to inflict a
bad beat, check-raising a player all in with only an underpair ~ but again running cards would give him a
straight and the winning hand. It is indeed a cruel game.

And finally, I had my own bad beat (yes, you just knew it was coming): after raising with A-K and flopping top
pair, I was check-raised all in by a player with only a straight draw ~ and this on a board with two diamonds! I
think he’d decided my less-than-all-in bet looked weak (it was that kind of a table) and thought he could get
me to lay down the hand. He was wrong, but of course he hit the straight and I was out. Ironically I’d had my
best start to date in this tournament, tripling up in the first couple of levels ~ including taking a good number of
both Meng La and Johnny Chan’s chips. So despite getting nowhere in the tournament, at least I managed to
beat a couple of poker greats out of a few pots….

Today’s tournament was basically more of the same, although this time I got very lucky before I got unlucky. I
was all in a couple of hours into the tournament with pocket tens against both pocket aces and pocket jacks,
and managed to hit a ten on the flop to triple up. But then I lost a race with pocket jacks against A-Q for
another early exit. That’s how it goes.

Tomorrow I’ll play my first limit holdem event of the WSOP, which will be a change of pace after the wild action
of no limit. It’s been quite a while since I played limit, so I might head down to the poker room to practice a
little tonight, and see how Joe Hachem is going in making the 6-handed final table ~ down to just 9 players
now so it will be close!

manage to outlast more than 800 players to make the final table in Event 5, the $2,500 Short-Handed No Limit
Holdem. Joe spent much of the latter part of the event as a relatively short stack and made a heroic comeback
to beat the likes of Daniel Negreanu (who was chip leader for most of the tournament) to the final six. He
eventually finished as runner-up, and if not for some bad luck on the final hand ~ Joe went all in as a huge
favourite with A-Q against Dutch Boyd’s A-5, but a 5 came on the river ~ he could well have gone on to win the
event. As it was he took home more than a quarter of a million dollars for his second place finish, an
achievement which shows that Hachem’s win last year was no fluke.

The next day’s tournament featured an even more impressive finish, with young Australian pro Mark Vos
besting a field of nearly 2,000 to win Event 6, the $2,000 No Limit Holdem. Mark is fresh from some notable
wins in Paris, London and Australia, and combined his top notch game with a bit of luck to overcome final
table players including 2001 WSOP champion Carlos Mortensen and 2006 WPT Bay 101 winner Nam Le.
Mark will take home his first WSOP bracelet, along with more than $800,000, the biggest prize so far in this
year’s World Series.

left, and I managed to beat him out of a small pot in early play. It wasn’t long before he won his chips back
though, along with what seemed like most of everyone else at the table’s chips too ~ in fact Ivey quickly
accumulated a stack of more than 15,000, raising every other pot and barely showing a hand.

I hovered around the original starting stack of 3,000 until into the 5th level, when our table broke and I
escaped to a somewhat easier lineup. While I won a few pots here and there though, I stayed short-stacked
until well after the dinner break, surviving two all-ins to inch up to 4,700. With blinds at 300-600, I was facing
elimination unless I could take down a pot or two ~ and that’s when the deck just hit me in the face. I picked
up aces three times and kings twice in the space of less than two rounds, and got paid off each time ~ once
eliminating a short-stacked Daniel Negreanu. I then flopped a set which filled up on the river, and again won
a huge pot which put me at nearly 25,000 (comfortably above average) heading into the final level of the day.

With 60 players left and 45 being paid I could have just cruised through to the next day and still stayed ahead
of the field…but instead I ran into one of the more horrible hands of my poker playing career, and lost most of
my chips in a huge pot. The action had been folded around to me on the button and I looked down to find A-Q,
so I raised. Jim Bechtel folded in the small blind, but Jordan Rich in the big blind re-raised me, and then
quickly called my re-raise. He then check raised me on a flop of A-J-rag and called my re-raise, and bet the
turn after a blank came and called my raise ~ by which time I was beginning to worry that he may have had
me beat. When the river came a jack though, I knew I was done for. He bet out, I called, and he turned over….
J-7 offsuit. I felt sick.

I was crippled after this and struggled to make it through the few remaining players left before the prizemoney
kicked in. As it happened I busted out right on the bubble with pocket queens all in against four other players,
one of whom paired their king. However with the WSOP’s new ‘round-for-round’ rule replacing the standard
hand-for-hand play that takes place at every event bubble, I still managed to scrape into the money, sharing
45th place with Michele Lewis who was also eliminated during the round. Annoyingly the shared prize
amounted to less than the event buy in ~ so I still managed to come out in the red. I guess it’s better than
nothing, but after 13 hours of play it somehow didn’t feel that way.

The fantastic results of my fellow countrymen this week are enough to keep me inspired though. Here’s
hoping for a few more Aussie final tables and bracelets this WSOP. So far, so good.

lucky a couple of times, so although I was a bit disappointed to miss out on the fame, glory and extra money
that goes with a final table appearance, I was more than happy to settle for the $50,000 that went with my 12th
place finish. It was also a great confidence boost for me, proving that I can not only play my way through these
huge fields, but also push all the way into the serious money once again.

I had a good start to the tournament, for once not facing any recognisable pro players on my starting table, and
hitting a few hands early. In fact I doubled up in the first level, calling a small raise with pocket eights, hitting a
set on the flop, getting all my chips in against pocket aces, and making quads on the river for good measure.
Over the next few hours I steadily added to my stack to stay comfortably above average in chips. However a
couple of mistakes and a bad run of cards during level 5 saw my comfort level decline considerably,
relegating me to a short stack and nearly putting me out of the tournament.

Fortunately for me, two-time WSOP bracelet winner Mark Seif came to the table, and came to my rescue, giving
me all his chips while on tilt after losing most of his stack in a previous hand. Having limped under the gun,
Mark quickly pushed all in when I re-raised him from the small blind for half my stack, in a misguided attempt
to get me to fold when I was clearly pot-committed. He winced when I called, and sheepishly turned over A-7
offsuit which failed to improve against my pocket tens. Not long afterwards I busted another player eager to put
all his chips in with not much of a hand, when I slow-played a flopped top set, inducing an all in push on the
turn from a guy with an underpair to the board. All of a sudden I was back in business, and went to the dinner
break with an above average stack of around 13,000.

Aside from a hand I played against Erik Seidel ~ re-raising him out of
position and facing a scary staredown before he folded ~ the remainder
of the evening was fairly uneventful. I didn’t hit many hands, and when I
did, they always seemed to run into bigger hands, eventually leaving me
again as a short stack when play finished for the day. Although I’d made
the money, with less than 16,000 chips I was sitting towards the bottom
of the 96-strong field, and knew I would have my work cut out for me if I
was to survive for long.

I returned the next day determined to make some quick gains, and the
opportunity came in the very first hand. I was in the big blind and three
players limped in. I looked down hoping for a big hand but instead found
7-5 offsuit, which I checked, hoping for a ragged flop that would hit my
hand, or that I could at least bluff at. When the flop came 10-6-4 and it
was checked to me, I figured I had a good chance of winning the pot
right there if I pushed all in, which I promptly did ~ but my heart sank
when I was called instantly by the big stack on my left who showed A-10
for top pair. The turn came a blank and I was getting up to leave when the

river brought the 8 I needed to make my straight! A few hands later Lady Luck smiled on me again when my
raise with pocket aces was raised and re-raised all in by two short stacks. They didn’t improve and I had
quickly tripled my stack to more than 90,000, to be back in the game again.

By this time players were dropping like flies ~ I think we lost a third of the field in less than an hour’s play ~ and
before I knew it we were redrawing for seats having made the final three tables. With some monster stacks on
my table and no real hands (aside from pocket jacks which I was forced to fold to an all in re-raise from what
turned out to be aces), I had played cautiously, picking up a pot or two but basically going backwards against
the rising blinds. So when we kicked off with the last 27 players I was one of the shorter stacks again, and
knew any re-raise I made would almost certainly be called by Terrence Chan, the big stack on my table who
was raising every pot. I sat tight, stole a few blinds, and waited for an opportunity to double up as other players
were eliminated.

Among the first to go was Erick Lindgren, who went out in one of the stranger hands I’ve seen. He had put in
5,000 for his big blind and everyone had folded around to the button before the dealer noticed that there were
actually two big blinds out there. Lindgren had made a mistake, but was forced to keep his money in the pot
and play the hand through ~ calling a raise from Chan (the real big blind) for a third of his stack, and pushing
all in on a flop on A-2-3 after Chan checked. Chan instantly called, and was well ahead of Lindgren’s A-4 with
3-2 for two pair. Chan’s full house on the river sealed Lindgren’s fate, and he left the table shaking his head.

With 16 players left I was running last in the field, but managed to double up twice in quick succession to give
me yet another fighting chance. First I pushed all in with A-5 of spades and was called by pocket fives, hitting a
flush on the river. A few hands later I pushed in with A-10 and doubled up against chip leader Anthony
Reategui’s K-J, which put me back to 120,000 ~ still short but no longer on life support. If I’d just spent the next
10 minutes finding the 9-2 / J-4 / 8-3 hands I’d been picking up for most of the final few levels, I would have
kept my head down and survived the last couple of eliminations to make the final table. As it was I managed to
find a real hand, pocket queens, which I didn’t hesitate to go in with after being re-raised by Reategui, who with
more than a million chips could have had just about anything. But in a re-run of my exit from last year’s WSOP
main event, he turned out to have pocket kings, and I was out.

it’s true that there is no reason why women can’t compete on an equal footing with men in open events, and
of course many women do, and achieve considerable success. But the fact that women are such a small
minority in the (live) poker world can make poker-playing an intimidating prospect for women. All-women
events are one way of overcoming this, and encouraging more women to take their game to the big
tournaments which are the bread and butter of many serious players.

This year more women than ever before chose to do just that, with a record field of 1,128 players turning up to
participate in the WSOP Ladies Event. The sight of so many women sitting down to play poker was enough to
make the always-busy Rio poker room even more crowded than usual, and throngs of curious spectators and
proud husbands jammed the aisles. I was running late for the tournament having overslept after a late night,
and I struggled through the crowd to my seat to find I’d already missed a few hands, including my blinds. Not
that it made any difference, as I proceeded to quickly throw away the rest of my chips in a couple of early
hands ~ first after missing everything on a huge draw, and then when I was called all the way to the river by a
woman with ace high, who finally managed to hit her ace. A disappointingly brief effort, but given that the event
ended up going for nearly 17 hours that day it was probably a blessing ~ I’d never have made the distance.

The next day was the $1,000 No Limit Holdem event, which along with the Ladies and Seniors Events was the
smallest buy in event of the WSOP. As such it was even more massively oversubscribed than the first open
event of the Series (traditionally the largest tournament other than the main event) at nearly 2,900 entries,
including 845 alternates. This too was pretty much a non-event for me, although this time I lasted four levels
and managed to get my chips in with very much the best of it. With one limper pre-flop, I made a healthy raise
with pocket jacks and was called by the limper, a cowboy-hatted tourist who was enjoying his third beer of the
day. The guy checked the ragged flop to me, but then to my surprise happily called my all-in bet for almost all
his chips with his A-Q…and hit an ace on the river. I did get the chance to see a bit of Isabelle Mercier’s play
while I lasted though, including her own untimely exit. She’d been raised by the big stack at the table, a young
guy who (along with the rest of the table) was clearly somewhat in awe of her, so when he called her all-in re-
raise from the small blind for around half his stack I expected to see him turn over a big hand. Instead he
showed pocket sixes, but as it turned out he’d caught Isabelle on a complete bluff with only Q-J offsuit! After
collecting her chips he added insult to injury by asking her to pose for a photo with him ~ being famous in the
poker world clearly has its price.

I didn’t fare any better in the five events which followed, some of which I played quite well in but got unlucky,
and others where I made mistakes that cost me dearly. The closest I came to cashing was in yesterday’s
shootout event, where I made it to heads-up, gained the chip lead, and then lost after making a bad call with a
big pair against what turned out to be top two. In fact the shootout event turned out to be the quickest and
easiest route to a WSOP cash so far, generating considerable controversy due to its unexpected short-
handed format. With far fewer entrants than had been anticipated, a decision was made to simply run the
tournament with six to a table rather than amalgamate tables. As well as significantly changing the game, this
meant that 1 in 6 players in the event would end up cashing, as the tournament was structured to advance the
winner of each table into the money stage ~ effectively spreading the prize pool much more thinly than usual.

UK pro player Harry Demetriou was the most vocal of those unhappy with this state of affairs, storming out in
protest at the change, and Daniel Negreanu was also heard complaining loudly about the unexpected format
for the tournament. Both players were apparently refunded their entry fees by staff anxious to limit the fallout
from the latest in a series of problems that have plagued this year’s World Series. Unfortunately Harrah’s only
managed to add to the chorus of player disapproval later that day when they announced a late change to
today's Pot Limit Ohama event ~ apparently at the request of some players ~ to make it a rebuy tournament
instead of a freezeout. Following widespread complaints from those players unwilling to outlay the higher
amounts required for a rebuy event, Harrah’s then changed it back at the last minute, adding an entirely new
(rebuy) tournament to the day’s schedule. Let’s hope they’ve learned some lessons from these events ~ the
rumblings of discontent grow louder every day.

In happier news, it’s been great to see yet another Australian make not one but two final tables this WSOP.
Mike Guttman overcame one of the toughest fields of the Series to take 2nd place in the $10,000 Pot Limit
Omaha, and got a bit unlucky to only make 3rd in the $2,500 Short-Handed No Limit Holdem event having
gone to the final table as chip leader. No bracelet, but the combined prize of more than half a million dollars
would put a smile on anyone’s face.