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Japanese poker pro Shiina Okamoto was on a mission to win the 2024 WSOP Event #71: $1,000 No Limit Hold’em LADIES Championship. At this same event last year, Okamoto was so close to winning her first bracelet, but had to settle for a runner-up finish, losing to Tamar Abraham. This year, Okamoto sought redemption.

A total of 1,245 ladies entered to create a prize pool of $1,095,600. Only 312 players survived Day 1. Irene Carey bagged the big chip lead with a massive 207 blinds while notable Japanese pros Shiina Okamoto and Haruna Fujita  were among the top 10 with over 100 blinds each,

At Day 2, the money flowed at 187 players and continued until 36 players remained to move on to Day 3. Okamoto moved to the top of the leaderboard nearly 40 blinds ahead of the nearest challenger. By the close of day, only 6 players were left which included double WSOP circuit ring winner Jamie Kerstetter who jumped up to the top of the leaderboard with Okamoto on her tail. Both ladies had commanding chip stacks compared to the rest of the field. Among those that fell was Fujita in 8th place to earn $18,390 and her second WSOP career cash.

 The  final race to glory saw three women bite the dust during the first hour: Cecile Ticherfatine took 6th, Mor Kamber fell 5th, and Linda Durden ended at 4th. For Ceci Lao, she started the day with the shortest stack, made an impressive run to 3rd place, falling on a cooler holding pocket Queens to Okamoto’s pocket Kings. This brought about heads up between Okamoto and Kerstetter with the latter slightly ahead in chips.

One hour in, Okamato  gained a commanding 5:1 advantage after she caught Kertsetter bluffing against full house. Kertsetter fought back but was unable to recover. Okamoto secured the victory with two-pair against the flopped top pair Aces of Kertstetter. Okamoto bagged her first WSOP bracelet and a champion’s purse of $171,732. In a post-win interview with WSOP, Okamoto shared,

“After finishing second last year and with all my supporters here, winning this year feels even more special.”

The victory marks Okamoto’s 3rd cash this 2024 WSOP and 9th career WSOP overall. It was also her largest career takedown. As for Kerstetter, the $114,479 was also the biggest payday of her career.

Other Asian ladies to cash in the top 100 were Hiromi Mori (88th), Tamao Kabayashi (51st), Yurina Omuro (35th). All these ladies turned in their first ever career WSOP cash. Yan Li of China finished at 75th place to mark her 4th cash in the 2024 WSOP and 13th career WSOP cash.

With this win, Asia has now locked up three bracelets at the ongoing series and Japan has increased its tally to 9.

RESULTS – 2024 WSOP Ladies Championship

Article by JJ Duque