The first No Limit Hold’em tournament at this year’s WSOP that Joe Everyman could enter, costing just $5,000 to enter, brought 865 players to the Rio for their chance at winning a WSOP event. Creating a $4 million prize pool to be distributed among 81 players, these $5k NLHE events are well-known to be among the hardest to beat in Vegas. Not as cheap as the $1,000 “Stimulus Surplus” events, nor as prestigious as the $10k championships, the number of players willing to play these events range within those who look at poker as more of a profession than a hobby.
As could be expected, the field was loaded with well-known pros. Scott Montgomery, Kevin Saul, John Dolan, and Carlos Mortensen, along with many others, all finished in the money, making at least $10k for their efforts. However, the story of this event is not about these men in the field. No, when we talk about Event 4 of this year’s WSOP, we will be talking about one person: Maria Ho.
On day 2, Maria was the last woman remaining in the tournament (something she has done before at the World Series, with her 38th place finish at 2007’s Main Event). She carried this all the way to heads-up play against Allen Bari, who has an impressive poker resume of his own. If she wanted to win, she had a steep mountain to climb, for Bari held almost 80% of the chips in play when play between the two began.
She came out firing, with an early double up to close the distance, leaving Bari with just a 2-1 chip advantage. Alas, it just wasn’t enough, and Bari dispatched of Ho shortly thereafter, winning the bracelet, $874,116, and the pride of knowing he topped one of the best fields of the World Series.