Entrants: 74
Prize pool: $25,123
A tired but thrilled Alyson Parker gave her two friends on the rail a huge hug after coming back from a huge chip deficit to overcome runner-up Grace Sun to win her first major tournament ever. "I have the best rail ever," Alyson said, a huge smile on her face. "You gotta love my girls." For her great comeback, Parker is going home with an impressive $8,793 and not one, but two, trophies.
Alyson Parker (Plainsboro, NJ) - 1st place - $8,793
When the final table started, our final ten looked like this:
Seat One: Grace Sun, Merrick, NY 220K
Seat Two: Leanne Rosenblatt, Towns River, NJ 185K
Seat Three: Jeanelle Roberts, Haverstraw, NY 175K
Seat Four: Alyson Parker, Plainsboro, NJ 135K
Seat Five: Dawn Santoli, Staten Island, NY 270K
Seat Six: Mara Mercado, Queens, NY 190K
Seat Seven: Sheree Bykofsky, Atlantic City, NJ 185K
Seat Eight: Gina Saladino, Conshohocken, PA 180K
Seat Nine: Diana Shamshoum, Montreal, Canada 215K
Seat Ten: Holly Raba, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 100K
Seat Two: Leanne Rosenblatt, Towns River, NJ 185K
Seat Three: Jeanelle Roberts, Haverstraw, NY 175K
Seat Four: Alyson Parker, Plainsboro, NJ 135K
Seat Five: Dawn Santoli, Staten Island, NY 270K
Seat Six: Mara Mercado, Queens, NY 190K
Seat Seven: Sheree Bykofsky, Atlantic City, NJ 185K
Seat Eight: Gina Saladino, Conshohocken, PA 180K
Seat Nine: Diana Shamshoum, Montreal, Canada 215K
Seat Ten: Holly Raba, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 100K
Play was slow at first as each of the remaining ten did not want to be the bubble girl. Jeanelle Roberts would be that unfortunate person when she lost a race to Diana Shamshoum to finish in 10th place. It took some time before we would lose another player, Sheree Bykofsky, in 9th place but once Bykofsky was eliminated the rest of the ladies would follow, mostly at the hands of Grace Sun who would roll into heads up play with Parker with a huge chip lead. Sun would eliminate player after player but then ran into the hot hand of Parker once heads up play commenced to make it all for nothing. The key hand was one where Sun had Parker dominated with A-T against A-8 but Parker would hit an 8 to assume control of the match.
The order of finish and payouts were as follows:
1st - Alyson Parker $8,793
2nd - Grace Sun $4,773
3rd - Dawn Santoli $3,015
4th - Leanne Rosenblatt $2,261
5th - Diana Shamshoum $1,759
6th - Gina Saladino $1,507
7th - Mara Mercado $1,256
8th - Holly Raba $1,005
9th - Sheree Bykofsky $754
After the win, Parker said that she had been playing poker since she was young and joked "which was a long time ago." Young at heart though, Parker is looking forward to more opportunities now to play poker at Borgata. "Borgata is home for me. I play here a lot." Alyson is going to try and satellite her way into the WPT Main Event. If she plays like she did today, we might just be seeing her with Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten in a couple of weeks.
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