2018 WSOP Event 57: Jessica Dawley Wins the WSOP Ladies Championship for $130,230!

Shirley Ang Global Live Events Manager

Jul 01, 2018 6 min read Last updated Jul 16, 2018

After three days of play, Jessica Dawley has been crowned as the new Champion of Event #57: $1,000/$10,000 Ladies No-Limit Hold'em Championship!

The tournament attracted 696 players from all over the world, but the all-American final table was a reflection of where the majority of the field was coming from. Dawley beat Jill Pike heads-up to win her first gold WSOP bracelet and the first-place prize of $130,230.

''I can't even put into words," said Dawley after her maiden bracelet win.

"It's been a grind for the past ten years, so I'm happy to have something to kind of commemorate that."

"It has not hit me yet. I kept picturing myself as I was sitting here, I kept looking at these boxes of everyone in their bracelet photos, and I honestly kept trying to get my head straight with that. Looking at those pictures, I was like: 'I just really hope that that's me at the end of the day.' I'm just really happy. It's been a grind for the past ten years, so I'm happy to have something to kind of commemorate that.”

This is Dawley’s most significant recorded live tournament cash, surpassing her previous two biggest results she achieved in 2015. This is Dawley’s fourth time cashing in the Ladies Championship with her first taking place in 2011. For Pike, her second place finish was also her first ever WSOP cash, making it a memorable one. Dawley and Pike were joined on the final table by Lisa Fong, Mesha James, Jacqueline Burkhart, Tara Cain, Weiyi Mo, Molly Mossey, and Tara Snow.

Final Table Results

Position	Player	Country	Prize
1	Jessica Dawley	United States	$130,230
2	Jill Pike	United States	$80,444
3	Lisa Fong	United States	$55,812
4	Mesha James	United States	$39,334
5	Jacqueline Burkhart	United States	$28,167
6	Tara Cain	United States	$20,499
7	Weiyi Mo	United States	$15,167
8	Molly Mossey	United States	$11,411
9	Tara Snow	United States	$8,732

Final Table Action

Ten players returned to the Brasilia room to play down to the official final table. Within the first 15-minutes after play had started, Danielle Andersen was sent to the payout desk as the final table bubble after check-raising all in on the turn with ten-eight. Andersen had turned a straight, but Dawley had turned the higher straight, and the board bricked out on the river to send Andersen out in tenth place.

Final Table & Rail — The final day started in the Brasilia Red section

The first casualty of the official final table was Tara Snow, who moved all in for five big blinds and was called by Weiyi Mo. Snow held ace-ten against the four-three suited of Mo, who hit the river to eliminate Snow.

Six hands later, Molly Mossey ran her pocket sevens into the pocket aces of Pike. No help came on the board, and Mossey busted in eighth place before the first break of the day.

When the seven remaining players returned, they were moved to the feature table on the Twitch stage, which meant that the final table would be live streamed from then on. The laptops and phones all came out as the rail prepared to help their selected players.

Dawley doubled up in the first level on the feature table after flopping two pair and check-raising Pike. Pike then three-bet and Dawley four-bet shoved. Pike called but her top pair was behind, and Dawley’s two pair held on for the double up.

I kept looking at these boxes of everyone in their bracelet photos, [...] I was like: 'I just really hope that that's me at the end of the day."

It would take two hours on the Twitch stage before Mo busted in seventh place, running queen-nine into the pocket sevens of Pike. Tara Cain departed shortly after the next break, running pocket fives into the ace-six of Dawley, who managed to find a six on the river.

Eighteen hands later, Jacqueline Burkhart was eliminated when she found ace-jack in the cutoff and shoved on Pike’s under the gun raise. Unfortunately for Burkhart, Pike held pocket aces. Burkhart flopped a wheel-draw to potentially split the pot, but the deuce never came in, and she was out.

Dawley kept badgering the rest of the players and started rebuilding her lead after having doubled up Lisa Fong. Dawley then lost a big hand to Pike's pocket kings which saw the latter take over the chip lead going into the dinner break, having almost as much as her three opponents combined.

''When it got four-handed, I had to take into consideration that I lost a lot of chips going to dinner break which made me second in chips and third and fourth were right close behind," said Dawley in her post-win interview. "I felt like I was a better player than they were so I didn't want to make any errors, you know marginal errors in that direction, so I kind of tightened up and let them play back at each other and then tried to only enter the pot when I had a significant hand. Then I was trying to play small ball with them a little more versus what I was doing earlier, so I was trying to make my raise sizing a little bit smaller in case they did shove, because I know they're not shoving light. So that's really the adjustment that I made,'' Dawley said about playing four-handed.

In the eighth hands after the dinner break, Dawley managed to double back up through Pike with aces against Pike's sevens. The double-ups kept coming. First Fong doubled through Dawley with pocket jacks against ace-king, then Dawley doubled through Mesha James with ace-queen against pocket tens after flopping an ace.

Four hands later, it was time for James to leave the stage as she ran her king-ten into the ace-queen of Fong.

The three remaining players took an unscheduled break, and when they returned, Dawley bullied the table to acquire more than fifty percent of the chips in play. Shortly into three-handed play, Fong ran ace-six into the pocket kings of Dawley, and despite flopping a six, no further help came from the rest of the board.

Heads-up play lasted all but four hands when Pike shoved for fewer than five big blinds with king-four with Dawley looking her up with eight-five suited. Dawley flopped a five and didn’t encounter any danger on the turn or river to secure her first bracelet win.

"I'm super grateful that I had the cards when I needed them and I was able to close it out."

''Yeah, I mean, honestly, I can't lie. On dinner break I just said to my friends, we were driving in the car and I said: I played more hands than anyone else at this final table like probably times three I felt like... it was difficult and stressful, and I said it would be nice when I get back from dinner to have easy hands, aces, and kings, and just like super easy stuff. Sure enough, I got back from dinner and had aces, kings, and queens. And obviously, I lost a flip with ace-king but that's a part of the game, and I'm super grateful that I had the cards when I needed them and I was able to close it out.''

Dawley’s bracelet ceremony will take place on Tuesday, July 3, at the end of the first break of Day 1B of the Main Event.