Two-time U.S. Women’s Chess Champion Jennifer Shahade cashed in the World Series of Poker Ladies Event #15 for the second year in a row. She won $4,765 for her 33rd place finish in the tournament held on June 8 & 9 at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas. In 2007 Jennifer finished 17th and was awarded $8,426.
The 2008 Ladies event brought celebrities and poker pros together to determine the best female poker player in the world. With a tough blind structure moving the action at a brisk pace, the field of 1,190 was narrowed to 62 by the end of the first day. Jennifer Shahade had 22,000 chips going into day two, well behind the chip leader Shavonne Mitchell (94,000). She played well and lasted far into the second day, but ran out of luck with just 4 tables remaining.
The chip leader going into the final table was Svetlana Gromenkova, who finished second to well known actress Jennifer Tilley in the Ladies event at the 2005 WSOP. Gromenkova defeated Anh Le with pocket kings against Le’s ace-six in the final pot of the tournament. Svetlana took home the gold bracelet, $224,702 in cash, and earned the title of Ladies World Champion of Poker.
Jennifer Shahade showed, once again, that the skills required to become a successful chess master are transferrable to tournament poker. USCF masters Howard Lederer, Dan Harrington, Tom Brownscombe, Boris Kreiman, Steve Stoyko, Ben Johnson, John Murphy, Walter Browne, Ylon Schwartz and Ken “Top Hat” Smith, among others, have succeeded in big money poker tournaments.
Jennifer's brother, International Chess Master Greg Shahade, has been an accomplished poker tournament player since 2003, when he finished 8th in the United States Poker Championship. In the 2004 World Series of Poker Main Event, Greg placed in the money in a field of 2,596 players ($9,350).
Her dad, Michael, has also had success at the poker table. His best result was in the 2008 World Poker Tour event at the Borgata in Atlantic City (held in January) when he placed 23rd in the $300 buy-in No Limit Hold'em event and won $2,226.
Jennifer Shahade recently published her memoir, Chess Bitch (Siles Press 2005), in which she shares fascinating stories of women in the ultimate intellectual sport.
Related links from 2008 WSOP coverage at pokerpages.com:
Here's a link to the PokerPages blog for the 2008 WSOP Ladies Event, Day One.
Day Two
Final Table
