Hand #133: Mesha James, on the cutoff, raised to 80,000. Jill Pike, on the button, called. A flop reading was dealt. James checked. Pike bet 130,000. James folded.
Hand #134: Jessica Dawley opened to 65,000 from the button. James called from the big blind. The flop was . James checked. Dawley bet 35,000. James check-called. The dealer burned and turned the . James checked. Dawley continued for 80,000. James gave up her hand.
Hand #135: Lisa Fong opened to 76,000 on the button. Jill Pike, in the big blind, called. The flop came . Fong bet 76,000. Pike folded.
Hand #136: Pike limped from the small blind. Dawley checked. The flop came . Pike checked. Dawley bet 30,000. Pike check-raised to 80,000. Dawley folded.
Hand #137: Mesha James moved all in on the cutoff for 248,000. She got no action.
Hand #138: Dawley opened to 65,000 on the button. Mesha James three-bet for 308,000 from the big blind. Dawley folded.
Hand #139: Mesha limped from the small blind. Pike checked. Players saw a flop of . James bet 60,000. Pike gave up her hand.
Hand #140: Pike raised to 60,000 from the small blind. Dawley, in the big blind, called. A flop of was dealt. Pike bet 75,000. Dawley called. The turn brought the . Pike continued for 200,000. Dawley called. The river completed the board. Pike bet 200,000. Dawley called. Pike showed . Dawley tossed her hand in the muck.
Hand #184: Lisa Fong shoved for 480,000 on the button. Jill Pike considered it for a while but then folded. Jessica Dawley snap-called.
Lisa Fong:
Jessica Dawley:
The flop came for Fong to flop a pair of sixes. The turn brought them the which didn't change the situation. Fong needed another ace or six to stay alive. The river completed the board with the which was a brick and Fong was sent to the payout desk to collect her cash for $55,812.
Heads-up play will commence shortly once the table has been prepared.
Hand #188: Jill Pike moved all in from the small blind for 225,000. Dawley called.
Jill Pike:
Jessica Dawley:
Dawley hit a pretty favorable flop of to give her a pair. The turn and river completed the board and Dawley won the tournament, eliminating Pike in second place for $80,444.
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 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 biggest recorded live tournament cash ever, 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
Place
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 for a chop on the river to send Andersen out in tenth place.
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 phone all started coming 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.
It would take two whole 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 up the chip 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 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 when 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 hand 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 50% 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 less 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 secured her first bracelet win.
''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 and the PokerNews team will be there to provide you with all the updates from start to finish!