Host of Players Vie for Final WSOP Table

LAS VEGAS - Tiffany Williamson drags deeply on the last inch of her cigarette on the way into the poker room, crushes the butt into an ashtray and sits down to business as if she were showing up for work in her law office _ only now she is calmly arranging multicolored stacks of $1.99 million in chips.

There are bloodshot, unshaven players who look as if they're already beaten, and there are champions who look vacation fresh, flush with their own stacks piled on the seven tables left Wednesday at the start of another marathon session as the World Series of Poker winds down toward Friday's final table.

Williamson, her long braids pushed back by a wide white and gold bandanna, is the only woman player in the room, one of the few black players left in the tournament, and the consummate amateur. She, like champion Chris Moneymaker two years ago and Greg "Fossilman" Raymer last year, is the reason why millions of people are playing poker at home, online and in casinos and why they'll watch ESPN's broadcast of this tournament _ their imaginations soaring that someday they, too, may sit in this room with their own stacks of chips. No woman in the 35-year history of this event has ever won the championship bracelet.

The no-limit Texas Hold 'em main event at the World Series of Poker is a kaleidoscope of players as diverse as Full Tilt Poker pros like the bulldozing, unreadable Phil Ivey to the ebullient Mike "The Mouth" Matusow to the serene Indonesian John Juanda, a Buddhist who once worked as a Bible salesman, then learned poker while going for his masters degree in business at Seattle University.

"One of the main teachings of Buddhism is not to have too high an expectation," said Juanda, who started Wednesday's round with $841,000 in chips. "Because every time you have a high expectation, if you're unable to get it then you'll be disappointed. Of course it's tough to do in poker. When you play poker you want to win all the time. Outside of poker, I try to be more humble, not have too high an expectation and live in harmony with other people."

Williamson is a 33-year-old corporate attorney who parlayed less than $20 in a small game for fun at the London club Gutshot into a trip to Las Vegas, where she won one satellite tournament and then another event. Now she's starting Day 5 of the World Series main event with a serious shot at making the final table, winning at least $1 million if she gets there and going for the $7.5 million top prize.

Her stack of chips was the seventh highest at the start Wednesday, and most of those ahead were well-known among the poker cognoscenti, including Tim Phan, leading with $3.22 million, Matusow with $2.56 million, Farzad Bonyadi with $2.40 million and Ivey with $2.03 million.

Raymer, an attorney like Williamson but one with far more experience playing poker, started the day farther down the list of 58 players with $766,000 in chips.

Ten hours later at the end of the round, when the field was narrowed to 27 players, Matusow led with about $5.1 million in chips, followed by Ivey ($4.6 million), Steve Dannenmann ($4.2 million), Tex Barch ($3.9 million) and Raymer ($3.5 million). Phan had dropped to about $2.2 million, Juanda and Bonyadi were eliminated, yet the amateur Williamson was still in with about $1 million _ good enough to put her at one of the three tables Thursday when play moves for the final two rounds from Harrah's Rio to Binion's Gambling Hall & Hotel.

"It's been like walking in a dream. This is an amazing feeling," said Williamson, a native of South Carolina and a graduate of Columbia Law School in New York who left the U.S. to work for a firm in London four years ago. "I think working as a lawyer has been really helpful. We do long days every day so it's been very helpful in sitting at a table for 15-16 hours a day. I'm not intimidated by the pros. I look at it like a challenge. And it's been a great run so far."

A gut shot in poker is also known as a belly buster, or drawing an inside straight, such as a 7 when a player is holding a 5-6-8-9. It takes luck, and Williamson has had more than her fair share in this tournament, though she's clearly played a lot of smart poker. Barry Martin, the owner of Gutshot in central London, has been here coaching her to play "tight but aggressive," not chase big money with bad hands.

"I've been telling her if you're going to play against these great players, try to make them play their hands pre-flop," Martin said. "Don't let these boys go up against you because they're better than you."

Williamson had mostly done that _ until she scored her best pot shortly before midnight Tuesday. With another player, Terry Burt, pushing in about $40,000, Williamson boldly went all-in with $1.1 million. Her emotions, after taking a beat against Burt on an earlier hand, had perhaps gotten the better of her judgment, since she turned over ace-queen to Burt's pair of kings. But luck ruled this time and Williamson won with aces when the board came up ace, jack, 6, 10, 8. Williamson doubled up to $2.2 million and left Burt with $400,000.

Williamson danced around the table, whooping and hollering as fans cheered her uncanny luck.

"I don't think many players would be pushing in for $1.1 million with ace-queen because you're only going to get a call from someone who's got you absolutely dominated," Martin said. "As it turned out she wasn't that dominated but she was still an underdog to win that hand."

That's the kind of hand that drives some pros crazy.

"She overplayed ace-queen," said Phil Hellmuth, a pro who got knocked out in the first round. "She shouldn't have been involved in the hand. That stuff happens. An amateur can get lucky.

"She'll probably show up at more poker tournaments in the future with mixed results. Greg Raymer has been on tour now for a whole year and he's only made one or two final tables the whole year. Then he comes back with a lot of chips in this thing. That's impressive, but kind of weird. Luck is a big factor."

By STEVE WILSTEIN

News Added: 14 July, 2005

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