Update: Ladies’ Poker Event Rages about Male Participant

The only man to enter this year's women's competition appears confused A lot of fierce female animosity was showed towards the only male contestant at this year's WSOP Event 53 $1,000 Ladies No-Limit Hold'em Championship, Jonathan Epstein, who made it to the final table but ended up eliminated in the ninth position, earning $13,701. For all those wondering why did the young LA amateur crash the ladies' competition, it wasn't in order to make a statement, it's just that he was in Las Vegas for the weekend and with a scheduled departure Monday it was the only event that could fit his timetable. “I figured it wasn't going to be a big deal but I was clearly wrong,” he said. “Obviously there are a lot of people who are upset.” One of the contestants, Carol Tomlinson, also stated: “I really didn't have a problem with it because I think that poker is an individual sport but a lot of ladies feel it's disrespectful to the event. I kinda feel sorry for the guy, he's really been reamed for the last two days.” As for the competition itself, the Event 53 $1,000 Ladies No-Limit Hold'em Championship on its third and final day welcomed back 14 players led by Valerie McColligan. In less than six hours the event was finished, in favor of Arizona real estate investor Marsha Wolak, who defeated Karina Jett in the single-hand heads-up, and took home her first WSOP gold bracelet and $192,344. Jett's third final table defeat in this event left her with the second placing check for $119,010. On the second starting day of event 54: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em, 2,644 players entered for Day 1b – another excellent registration turnout, which together with Day 1a resulted in a prize pool of $4.11 million. At the end of the day, at level 9, 380 players were left, led by Eric Afriat. The 380 will be joined by the 306 survivors of Day 1a, led by Paul Volpe. A lot of big names signed up for Day 1b, such as Jonathan Duhamel, Galen Hall, Liv Boeree, David Williams and Michael Mizrachi – but they didn't make it through the day, unlike Max Lykov, Rick Trigg, Humberto Brenes, Greg Raymer, Erica Schoenberg, Vitaly Lunkin, Jeff Madsen, Andre Akkari, Vanessa Peng and Shane Schleger, who will return on Day 2. As for one of the biggest events this year, number 55: the $50,000 buy-in Poker Player's Championship, which started with a field of 128, it saw only five players eliminated on Day 1 of the competition - Phil Laak, Arturo Diaz, Andrew Pantling, Jani Sointula and Eli Elezra. The remaining survivors were led by Doug Booth at the beginning of the second day, which turned out to be more exciting than the first one, with the field reducing to 80 players at level 10, led by Ben Lamb (830,000) and Gus Hansen (570,000). Some of the big players still in contention, fighting for the lion's share in the massive prize pool of $6.14 million include David Baker, Sebastian Ruthenberg, Scott Seiver, Robert Mizrachi, Barry Greenstein, Carlos Mortensen, David Benyamine, Ashton Griffin, Bill Chen, Phil Hellmuth, Scott Clements, Vladimir Shchemelev, Steve Billirakis, Sorel Mizzi, Matt Hawrilenko, Jon Turner and Pat Pezzin.