While it’s undeniable that Shiina Okamoto’s back-to-back titles in the World Series of Poker Ladies Championship are one of the most impressive feats in WSOP history, another player at this year’s final table is pushing toward making some history of her own.
Juliet Hegedus was also at this year’s Ladies Championship final table, finishing 6th, just one year after finishing 12th in the very same event. And while those results are certainly impressive, her first three days in the $10,000 Main Event have been arguably even more so.
Hegedus: Consistently among the leaders
Hegedus has shown amazing consistency throughout the opening stages of the Main Event, as she’s been front and center among the end-of-night chip leaders on each of the first three days of the world’s greatest tournament.
- Day 1B – 267,000 (4th overall)
- Day 2ABC – 627,000 (8th overall)
- Day 3 – 1,745,000 (4th overall)
Hegedus’ start to the tournament has gotten her noticed again, starting Day 4 on the PokerGO feature table, and she’s noticed us in the media noticing her.
Hegedus politely declined an interview request at the start of the day, saying that she just wanted to focus on having another good day on the felt. She said that she didn’t want the attention of being on the feature table today either, but she understood why she was there.
Hegedus: All business
If she keeps going the way she is, she won’t be able to avoid that attention for much longer.
Hailing from Hollywood, Florida, home of Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood, where the majority of the tournament cashes on her over $200,000 Hendon Mob profile come from, Hegedus could be building toward something special this week.
While the money has only just been reached in the Main Event, and we’re still several hundred eliminations away from the endgame, a start this successful and consistent has our eyes sneaking an early peek at that historic benchmark that gets mentioned every year.
Could Hegedus become the first woman to make the final table of the Main Event since Barbara Enright’s 5th place finish in 1995?
First things first, though; survive another day, hopefully with another big stack, and then continue to build past her previous best result in the Main Event, a 264th place finish in 2022 for a career-best $46,800.
Then maybe a couple more days down the road, we can start talking about Hegedus the way we’ve talked about other recent deep runs by women in the Main.
Foxen shows the way
Just last year, Kristen Foxen’s chase for the final table captivated the poker world before her unfortunate elimination in 13th place. Foxen was just the fourth woman in the post-Moneymaker era to flirt with the bright lights of the final table, with Gaelle Baumann and Elisabeth Hille coming the closest in 2012 when they finished 10th and 11th, respectively.
Tiffany Williamson made it as close as 15th in 2005, while our own Tiffany Michelle’s 2008 run to 17th place is also one of the most memorable in WSOP lore.
For now we watch Hegedus and the other ladies in the field to see if this could be the year that Enright is joined in the annals of WSOP Main Event history.
