California's Tamara Abraham enjoyed a huge Day 4 in the 2023 World Series of Poker Ladies No-Limit Hold'em Championship on Sunday, surging from well back in the event's seven-player live-streamed finale to win her first WSOP gold bracelet in the record-setting event.
Abraham, of Cypress, a southside Los Angeles suburb, earned $192,167 in topping the 1,295-player event, which set a new attendance mark for the Ladies Championship. The previous record of 1,286 entries had been on the books since 2007.
Abraham began the day in fourth place among the remaining seven players,though Sunday's early story was whether Japan's Shiina Okamoto could continue her dominance in the event. Okamoto began the day with 11.67 million in chips, nearly half of all the chips in play, while Abraham held just 2.37 million and also trailed Tara Cain and Mary Dvorkin.
The cards went Abraham's way early. She soon doubled up in a set-over-set collision against chipleader Okamoto, then landed a three-outer on the river in a later hand against Cain. In that hand, Abraham ran A-Q into Cain's pocket kings, but spiked a rive ace to send Cain to the rail and challenge Okamoto for the lead.
Okamoto and Abraham took turns knocking out the other three remaining players, but in that time, Abraham also took down a huge pot against the early chipleader to take control of the final table. Abraham held roughly 80% of the chips when a short-stacked Nam Nguyen busted to Okamoto in third, and the end came a short while later.
The final hand found Okamoto limping from the button with 5d-4c, and Abraham checked with Ts-3s. A flop of 2c-Th-5s hit both players; Abraham checked her top pair, Okamoto bet 200,000, and Abraham check-raised to 800,000. Okamoto called.
The Qs turn missed both players, and after Abraham checked again, Okamoto moved all in. Abraham called at once and showed her top pair, leaving Okamoto drawing to just four outs -- the two remaining fives and the two available non-spade fours. Instead, the river 6s gave Abraham an unneeded flush and the win. Okamoto earned $118,768 as the runner-up.
Abraham's win marked the third time she's cashed in the WSOP Ladies Championship in the last five times the event has been held. However, her earlier cashes had been much smaller, and her four previous cashes amounted to less than $10,000 in total earnings. Sunday's win pushed Abraham's career WSOP winnings over the $200,000 mark.
The final-table finishers in the 2023 WSOP Ladies Championship were as follows:
- Tamar Abraham - $192,167
- Shiina Okamoto - $118,768
- Nam Nguyen - $85,756
- Suzanne Malavet - $62,658
- Mary Dvorkin - $46,333
- Tara Cain - $34,679
- Chrysi Phiniotis - $26,277
- Jennifer Wu - $20,160
- Kristie Ogilvie - $15,662
- Laura Westfall - $12,324
