A planned 2020 celebration of women in poker original scheduled as part of PokerStars' International Women's Day (IWD) festivities is back on track more than two years after it was originally planned. Eight well-known female players will be traveling to the upcoming EPT Barcelona stop that began yesterday and runs through August 21. The eight players, each of whom was awarded an expenses-paid trip in 2020 that had to be put on hold, will tangle in a winner-take-all battle with a PokerStars Platinum Pass, valued at $30,000, at stake.
The eight women will play on August 15 for the Platinum Pass, which will be worth a Main Event entry package into the January 2023 PokerStars Players Championship (PSPC) in the Bahamas. The eight women include five players from the United States and three more from Europe. A ninth would-be player, American Jan Fisher, is unable to travel to the EPT Barcelona event and was instead awarded a "Road to PSPC" package instead.
The players were the finalists in an IWD-themed promotion PokerStars ran in early 2020, in which Stars asked the poker-playing public to nominate women "who have been inspirational in poker or have made an impact on the poker community." PokerStars received a large volume of nominations, and a judging committee narrowed that volume down to a shortlist before selecting nine finalists.
Then, the COVID-19 pandemic put everything on hold. The giveaway had to be shelved until PokerStars' live events returned to a fully operational status, including the ability of all the finalists to travel to the European Poker Tour without undue international pandemic restrictions.
The August 15 showdown for the Platinum Pass package will be streamed live. Play begins at 1pm CEST, with nearly-live streaming via PokerStars' channels on several social-media outlets. Maria Ho and Jennifer Shahade will handle the commentary.
Here are the eight women who will travel to Spain in the coming days to play for the trip to the Bahamas:
- Daiva Byrne (Lithuania) - founder of FLIP (Fantastic Ladies in Poker), currently living in London.
- Christina Read (United States) - founder of Poker Queens, regional WPA (Women's Poker Association) representative
- Katie Stone (United States) - former chess pro, founder of Grindettes, LearnWPT instructor
- Giada Fang (Italy) - Former PokerStars Team Online member, first European female Supernova Elite
- Meichelle Culhane (United States) - Well-known American semi-pro who uses poker as a learning activity for seniors groups in Oklahoma
- Terry Hatcher (United States) - Former regional WPA representative and current Texas-based poker tournament director
- Lexi Sterner (United States) - Prominent Florida player who was introduced to poker during her father's battle to defeat pancreatic cancer
- Aurelie Reard (France) - Well-known pro and poker attitude coach currently living in Cardiff, Wales.
More details are available on the PokerStars Blog.
Featured image source: PokerStars Blog
