Thursday, 28th March 2024 21:17
Home / Uncategorized / PCA 2014: Kathy Saraf leads as Women’s Event hurtles towards final table

It’s a busy day in the Imperial Ballroom. With just hours to go before the curtain falls on this year’s PCA, the final tournaments on the schedule are racing towards their respective finishes. And in the hard-fought $1,100 Women’s Event, Kathy Saraf is looking the most likely to board the plane home clutching one of those coveted PCA trophies.

69 players made up yesterday’s Day 1 field — more on that here — but just 17 remained when the chips were bagged late last night. In less than two hours today that number’s been trimmed to 10. Only nine will get paid.

kathy saraf 1-thumb-300x450-180791.jpg

2012 PCA Women’s Event champ Kathy Saraf ready for the double

Team Online’s Adrienne “Talonchick” Rowsome sat in the number one spot at the end of Day 1, looking to add a first Women’s Event cash to her career stats.

“Yesterday did go fairly well,” said Rowsome before today got under way. “I was reviewing my hands when I woke up this morning – I was pretty tired when I went to bed at 2am – so I was thinking about them this morning. I was actually… not card dead – I hate that expression – but I didn’t get the premium starting hands, but I did well with the hands I got.”

Sadly for the mother in waiting, she couldn’t replicate that success today, and she’ll have to wait a little longer for a first Women’s Event cash after busting in 12th place.

Instead it’s Saraf who has broken free from the chasing pack. She won this event back in 2012, collecting $25,460, and there’s every chance we could have our first ever two-time Women’s Event champion come the end of the day.

Of those looking to stop Saraf, Loni Harwood arguably has the strongest pedigree. The $10,000 Main Event’s last woman standing has a middling stack at the moment, and she’ll be hoping to add the $20,150 to the $43,300 already banked at this year’s PCA.

neil6063__pca2014_loni_harwood.jpg

Loni Harwood, on fire at this year’s PCA

“We had a very fun table,” Harwood said of yesterday’s action. “We had a couple of people who were just playing for fun and I made a joke that you shouldn’t play jacks just queens plus, and some lady thought I was serious and folded jacks! But it was a good time.

“I had a couple of cooler hands. I ended the day, last hand, losing a pot to a French pro. I was up to eighty thousand but lost ace-queen to ace-king against Jen Shehade then built it back up and then lost opened king-four and it came king-nine-X and got it in verses nines. So standard spots but hopefully I can ship it today.”

We’ll bring you more from the Women’s Event later in the day, but here’s how the players finished on Day 1:

Adrienne Rowsome – 87,300
Kathy Saraf – 74,500
Elena Stover – 67,000
Laurence Grondin – 54,800
Amanda Musumeci – 48,500
Oksana Jancevic – 45,800
Loni Harwood – 38,600
Trishelle Cannatella – 38,400
Maguerite Spagnuolo – 37,000
Jennifer Shahade – 35,000
Danijela Matusinkskij – 28,700
Geralda Sarraf – 28,100
Lily Kiletto – 27,500
Jeanie Bernth-Andersen – 25,100
Sonja Kovac – 22,300
Fatima Moreira de Melo – 17,900
Astrid Silvana Pereira – 13,600

Stay tuned to see who takes down the biggest share of the $68,870 prize pool .

Don’t forget to click through to live updates, features and interviews from the $10,000,000 guaranteed PCA Main Event, the $25,000 High Roller and the $100,000 Super High Roller.


Keir Mackay is a copywriter for PokerStars.

Study Poker with Pokerstars Learn, practice with the PokerStars app