Texas
Cycalona Hits Town
It was Ladies Night at the Bicycle
Casino on Thursday when six hand-picked
women poker players competed for a $25,000
seat in a Bellagio championship/World
Poker Tour event next April. The event
started dull and seemingly endless, then
gradually built momentum. By the time
it got heads-up between Cycalona Gowen
and Evelyn Ng, a pro from Toronto, Canada,
it had gotten as exciting as poker can
be. Cycalona - known to all her friends
as “Clonie,” started the heads-up
match as a big favorite, became an ever
bigger underdog, then fought back tenaciously
to eventual victory.
Clonie
Gowen is stylish and attractive enough
to have stepped out of a fashion magazine,
yet with the friendly and open nature
that reflects her hometown Garland, Texas
roots. She might be the next poster girl
for women’s poker. At the post-game
ceremonies, she pledged 2 percent of any
Bellagio winnings to Ng and 1 percent
to the other four women. This event, to
be broadcast some time next year on the
travel channel, was the first such ladies
special. All the women, including Jennifer
Harman, Maureen Feduniak, Kathy Liebert
and Jennifer Harman, were selected because
they played in prior WPT events.
The
ladies all started with $250,000 in chips,
playing with $500 antes and blinds of
$2,500-$5,000. Caution was the byword
for the first two rounds. There were only
two flops in the first 32 hands, and only
one hand even went to fourth street. On
almost every hand, a 10k raise was sufficient
to drive everyone out. This, however,
did not dampen the enthusiasm of the audience,
half of them women, who applauded madly
every time a player so much as picked
up the blinds.
Blinds
went to 4-8k with 1k antes on hand 45,
with rounds cut from an hour to 30 minutes.
To this point, only one hand even went
to the river. Chip leader now was Duke,
who came in 10th in this year’s World
Series championship, the best finish for
a woman since Barbara Enright came in
fifth in 1995. Duke had 370k, while Harman
trailed with 158k. Not until hand 68,
when blinds were 6-12k, with 1.5k antes,
was there an all-in confrontation. Liebert
raised to 24k pre-flop and was called
by Harman and Ng. On a flop of 4-3-2,
Harman, who had recovered from her tail
end status, bet 60k and Liebert moved
all in. “Smells like aces to me,”
Harman said suspiciously. She eventually
called with pocket nines, discovered that
her hunch was right and dipped back down
to about 135k. On the next hand, Gowen
got the first of several lucky breaks.
All in for 71k, she had A-9 against Ng’s
A-K and hit a nine on the river.
Trying
to fight back, Harman, who has a WSOP
bracelet in $5,000 limit hold’em,
became super-aggressive and moved all
in four times in 11 hands without being
called. The fifth time she tried it, with
2k antes and 10-20k blinds, she had A-5
and ran into Ng’s A-K. A king flopped
and after 97 hands, the first lady had
departed. In the next seven hands, two
more would leave. With antes raised to
$3,000 and blinds to 15-30k, the chip
counts were: Duke, 657k; Gowen, 402k;
Ng,336k; Feduniak, 60k and Liebert, 45k.
Two hands later, Liebert moved in for
39k. Gowen, in the big blind, shrugged
and added 9k more with just 4-3 …
and made a full house. One hand later,
Gowen moved in with Kc-8c. Feduniak, who
earlier this year won a championship event
at the Bellagio, was in the big blind
and called with 6d-5d. Garland flopped
two pair, Feduniak missed her diamond
draw and suddenly only three were left.
Duke
still had a slight chip lead, and kept
adding to it. Even after losing a big
pot to Ng, she still led with 697k when
blinds went to 25-50k with antes of 5k.
Ng was second with 492k while Gowen had
311k. Now things dramatically changed.
First Gowen doubled up against Ng. She
had pocket sixes against A-Q and flopped
a set. A few hands later, Gowen called
Duke’s raise to 150k. On a flop of
J-10-3, Duke bet 200k, Gowen moved in
and Duke abandoned the 500k pot. Gowen
suddenly was the new chip leader with
about $1 million.
After
taking a couple more hits, Duke was down
to 51k by hand 143. She called with pocket
10s after Gowen moved in with A-Q. The
board came A-Q-3-2-4, and we were down
to the final two. After a money ceremony
where host Shana Hiatt pulled a red card
and imitation currency cascaded down,
play resumed with Gowen leading, $1,198,000
to $302,000. Within 14 hands, everything
changed again. Three times Ng won with
the best hand going in: Q-10 versus 10-9,
jacks versus A-10 and pocket aces against
pocket fours, and suddenly Ng had had
about 1.3 mill to Gowen’s 200k. But
now Gowen went on the offensive, time
and again moving in without being called.
Her big break came after blinds had jumped
to 40-80k, with 10k antes. She had K-5
to Ng’s K-10 and improbably made
a wheel on the river.
The
next time Ng called, stakes were 60-120k
with blinds of 15k. On that hand Ng had
Q-8 and Gowen, with A-J, made a full house.
Three hands later, Ng was down to 101k.
She moved in with Ks-3s, Gowen called
with A-7, and raked in the last chips
when the board came 8-7-5-5-10.
BIOGRAPHY
Cycalona
“Clonie” Gowen is married with
two young children. She recently sold
her travel agency business and now has
the freedom to play selected tournaments
worldwide.
She
has been playing poker seriously for about
10 years. She came in second to Humberto
Brenes in a $500 no-limit event in Costa
Rica, has a 10th place in a World Poker
Tour championship, was 16th in a Tunica
championship tournament and finished 11th
in the $1,000 pot-limit hold’em event
during the current Legends.
Talking about her strategy of repeatedly
moving all in after she was out-chipped
6.5-1 against Ng, she said it was the
only thing she could do. Did she pick
up big hands each time? “Sometimes
I did, and sometimes I didn’t,”
she answered.
Max
Shapiro
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