2023 WSOP Featured Females: Meet the Women in the Record-Breaking Main Event

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Jul 07, 2023 4 min read

The $10,000 WSOP Main Event World Championship has already broken records at the 2023 World Series of Poker (WSOP) as nearly 10,000 players look to become the next world poker champion.

There has been no shortage of notable female players in the record-breaking field, and many of them bagged sizable stacks across four massive starting flights at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.

Here is a look at some of the women looking to further make history at the 2023 WSOP by becoming the first female Main Event champion.

Do, Stout Crush Day 1 of the Main Event

The Main Event kicked off on July 3 with Day 1a and quickly saw plenty of female players in contention. In the Horseshoe Gold section, recent Event #54: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship final tablist Esther Taylor battled at a table that included two state all-time money leaders in Tony Gregg (Maryland) and Jared Griener (Utah) before bagging just above starting stack.

Across the room, Canada's Christine Do built up a top-ten stack of 237,300 as she looks for a live cash to match her fourth-place finish in the 2021 GGPoker WSOP Online $5,000 Main Event that brought her $1.1 million.

The next starting flight featured the likes of Jacqueline Burkhart, who made a nice play on the feature table by just calling with two pair against the top set of Todd Hovenden to avoid disaster in poker's most prestigious event. The Jaka Coaching student was eliminated later in the evening, while Kasey Mills (151,800), Estelle Cohuet (149,200) and A Girl's Guide to Poker Amanda Botfeld (138,000) all found bags.

Day 1c, meanwhile, drew Shelby Wells, who notably finished 97th in last year's Main Event after winning a seat from 2021 GPI Female Player of the Year Nadya Magnus. Wells couldn't find another deep run this year after battling on a feature table headlined by Daniel Negreanu.

The final starting flight saw Brittney Stout bagging the second biggest stack of the night with 375,500, behind only the notorious Nicholas Rigby, looking to continue making headlines with his "Dirty Diaper." Stout, a poker tournament supervisor, had an entertaining day on the felt that started out with making a straight flush to bust an opponent in just the first level of play.

Stout used her big stack to put pressure on her opponents and reminded them who they were dealing with during the final level of the day.

Elsewhere in the tournament, chess streamer Alexandra Botez, a familiar face on the tournament felt as of late, built up a stack of 117,000 before bagging for the evening.

A Look at the Day 2 Field

That's just a short preview of the dozens of women who advanced to Day 2 of the record-breaking WSOP Main Event, which has drawn the biggest field since Jamie Gold's victory in 2006.

Some of the women in contention in today's Day 2abc field include 2021 Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) Player of the Year Kyna England, Los Angeles player Lynne Ji, poker socialite Hayley Hanna, content creator Abby Merk and Houston pro Melanie Weisner.

Meanwhile, tomorrow's Day 2d field will feature Mackenzie Ramsay, Stephanie Wang and Tracey Nguyen.

Read about other 2023 WSOP Featured Females, including those who played last week's Event #67: $1,000 Ladies Event Championship, the largest ladies event in poker history.

Connor Richards is an Editor & Live Reporter for PokerNews and host of the Life Outside Poker podcast. Connor has been nominated for two Global Poker Awards for his writing.

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• Tags Abby Merk Alexandra Botez Amanda Botfeld Brittney Stout Christine Do Daniel Negreanu Esther Taylor Hayley Hanna Jacqueline Burkhart Jared Griener Kasey Mills Kyna England Lynne Ji Stephanie Wang World Series of Poker WSOP23
• Related Tournaments World Series of Poker
• Related Players Daniel NegreanuJared GrienerEsther TaylorJacqueline BurkhartKyna EnglandChristine Do