BONNIE
DAMIANO SHOWS
NO SHAME IN WINNING LADIES
Showing absolutely no remorse in winning
the ladies event of her own tournament,
Bonnie Daminao, tournament producer of
the 4 Queens Poker Classic, bested a field
of 51 to take down top prize of $1,970.
"My
boyfriend John (professional tournament
player John Robertson) told me I had to
win because he had lost $2,060 in the
pot-limit Omaha rebuy tournament earlier
that day," she explained. "So in reality
we just broke even."
The ladies tournament, event number 13,
consisted of alternating rounds of hold'em
and 7-card stud. While the event was highly
sociable and everyone had a good time,
the players did not exactly make up a
pushover field. The final table included
Catherine Brown, the reigning World Series
of Poker ladies champion, and Susie Isaacs,
holder of two WSOP bracelets in the ladies
event. Other players did not lack in experience
or expert coaching either. Karina Jett,
who finished second, is married to the
noted tournament player, Chip Jett, and
Angie McCullough, who finished eighth,
is the girlfriend of bracelet holder Robert
Williamson III.
Karina insisted that she could have won
the tournament but she deliberately blew
it because she didn't like the purse (the
handbag, not the prize purse) that was
also given to the winner. Bonnie ended
up donating it to Martina Oules, who took
a great liking to it.
Damiano earned the sobriquet of "the terminator"
because she ended up knocking out everybody
at the final table except Flo Miller,
a taxi driver by occupation.
Damiano arrived at the final table short-chipped
with $2,300. Brown was the leader with
about $8,000 and Angie trailed with $800.
The remainder of the $30,600 in chips
was about evenly distributed among the
others at the final table.
When the tournament finally got heads-up,
Bonnie had a big lead of about $20,000
to $10,600. But finishing off Karina proved
no easy task as she kept going all in,
surviving and coming back.
The final hand was played during a
stud round. At the end, all Bonnie had
was a pair of 6s, but that was all she
needed to emerge victorious.
Max Shapiro
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