[DD] “I’ve got a bet for you guys”, Deb the Duchess offered.

[RR] “Sure…”, Roderick the Rock encouraged.

[DD] “I’ll give you even money on whether or not a woman wins a World Series of Poker bracelet in an open event this summer. I’ll back the women, of course.”

[RR] “Sounds reasonable. What do you think, Stan?”

[SS] “I’d be remiss if I didn’t inform you that at least one female has won a bracelet every year since 2012,” Stan the Stat explained. “Before that, if I’m not misremembering, the Misses, Mrses.,¹ and Mses. missed three straight years. The 2000s have had exactly 17 female winners in 17 years. That’s a bit misleading as five years had multiple female winners, but that still makes them 12 for 17. Deb’s offering us miserable odds, especially given the continual increase in events.”

[DD] “I doubt you’ve misspoken. I’ll give you 2-to-1.”

[SS] “I must dismiss that offer, too. Make it 3-to-1.”

[DD] “I have misgivings about going that high, but if you multiply my payout by the number of bracelets women win, I’ll give you 3-to-1.

[SS] “… Okay, unless I’ve miscalculated, I don’t think it’s a mistake to take that bet. How about you, Rod?”

[RR] “I can’t miss out on those kinds of odds… I’m not optimistic, but I’m in.”

[SS] “Now we just need Vanessa Selbst to mysteriously disappear, since she’s the one who took care of business three of the last six times a woman won! If we could convince her to join Phil Ivey in the cash games for the next couple of months, it might be mission accomplished.”

Women Who Have Won WSOP Open Events

Notes:

• Vanessa Selbst, who won the highest buyin event ($25,000), and Jennifer Harman (two bracelets) are the only multiple winners.
• Annette Obrestad won the largest prize by far, a cool £1,000,000 (worth over two million U.S. dollars at the time) in the only win outside the U.S.
• Dana Casteneda (2,883 players), Loni Harwood (2,541), and Kristen Bicknell (2,158) defeated the largest fields.
• In Barbara Enright’s victory, Lucy Rokach finished third.
• In Jennifer Harman’s second victory, Mimi Tran finished third.
• Not counting Ladies and Mixed Doubles events where a woman was guaranteed to win, three women have captured other non-open bracelets:
  • Sandy Stupak – 1984 Employee Event² ($14,000)
  • Clare Miller – 2006 $1,000 Seniors Championship ($247,814)
  • Allyn Jaffrey Shulman – 2012 $1,000 Seniors Championship ($603,713)
• Women have finished second seventeen times and third eight times in open WSOP events.³ Six other women have exactly three “medal” finishes, matching Selbst.
  

  Women With Multiple WSOP Open Event Top Three Finishes

  Player	1st	2nd	3rd	Top 3
  Vanessa Selbst	3	0	0	3
  Jennifer Harman	2	1	0	3
  Annie Duke	1	2	0	3
  Cyndy Violette	1	1	1	3
  Kathy Liebert	1	1	1	3
  Mimi Tran	0	2	1	3
  Marsha Waggoner	0	1	2	3

{ June 2, 2017 Update: Liv Boeree won the $10,000 Tag Team No-Limit Hold ‘Em Championship with Igor Kurganov to split $273,964 and win the bet for Deb. }

{ July 20, 2017 Update: added WSOP Europe and WSOP Asia Pacific finishes. }

Footnotes:

1. The actual plural of “Mrs.” is “Mmes.”, short for “mesdames”.
2. The Hendon Mob Database doesn’t recognize the 1984 Employee event as an official WSOP tournament.
3. The numbers are too small to be very meaningful, but it’s noteworthy that women have finished first 22 times, second 17 times, and third only 8 times. Winning 22 out of 47 times (46.8%) they’ve reached the final three and 22 out of 39 times (56.4%) they’ve reached heads-up are both extremely good rates. { May 22, 2017 Update: was missing one 2nd and one 3rd place finish. }

Related Links:

• Last Woman Standing at the World Series of Poker Main Event

{ The Hold ‘Em at Home blog is brought to you by THETA Poker Pro, the strongest, fastest, and most configurable Texas Hold ‘Em game for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Apple TV. }