Event 7 (Ladies) Recap

$200 + $30 Ladies No Limit Hold'em

Oh, baby! Lana O'Brien's incredible weekend came to an end with a victory in the Ladies tournament. It comes just 48 hours after she finished second in Event 3 and 6 days before she's due to give birth.

"I'm playing well and obviously running well, definitely running hot," says the soon to be first time mom. "I'm excited and relishing the time I have now, because I won't have any when the baby comes."

O'Brien (Englishtown, NJ) beat Canadian Tracy Rouse (Toronto) heads up, when her pocket 3s held against AQ, to take the title and the $6,694 first prize.

"I was patient most of the day and never really in jeopardy until the end," says Rouse, who took home $3,861. "That's where you have to get lucky to win."

Rouse and O'Brien traded the big stack back and forth at the final table until O'Brien had a 6 to 1 chip lead after knocking out Beverly Engelbert (Erial, NJ) in third place ($2,119). That hand was another case of "run good," when her pocket 2s survived her first of back-to-back coin flips to win the title.

The field featured a lot of notables and Borgata regulars, and several of them made the final table including Dawn Wilno (Hamilton, NJ) 6th/$1,116, author Sheree Bykofsky (Atlantic City, NJ) 7th/$892, and Cecelia Garrander (Manalapan, NJ) 8th/$669.

Notables who cashed, but missed the final table included Jamie Kerstetter 18th/$335, Patti Haggerty 16th/$335, Nancy Martin 14th/$390, Jane Gold 13th/$390, and Amanda Musumeci 11th/$446, who won Event 2 ($30,925).

The day began with 115 ladies, who put up the $23,000 total buy-in. Stephanie Hubbard (Hazlet, NJ), who has three final tables in the last five ladies events, was the early chip leader, but faded down the stretch and missed the money.

The rest of the final table included: Jeanine Royce (New York, NY) 4th/$1,785, Xhevahire "Joanna" Telag (New York, NY) 5th/$1,339, Mona Montal (Rockland, NY) 9th/$502, and Christine Familetti (Broomall, PA) 10th/$446.

A couple of interesting family poker connections include Engelbert's husband, Glenn, who won two Borgata events this year. Gold (Paramus, NJ), the mother of 2006 WSOP Main Event Champion Jamie Gold, while Martin (Washington Crossing, PA) is the mother of professional player Michael Martin, who has $3.2 million in career earnings.

But the most important mother of the day is soon to be grandmother Frances Maier, O'Brien's mom. She was the designated driver and chauffeur for the 1 1/2 hour trip from south-central Jersey.

O'Brien spent the day in Atlantic City, despite not knowing a thing about poker, to support her daughter and the families first grandchild.

"Even though I'm a week away, I don't feel like kid is ready to come out," said O'Brien, who carried a boy to the Ladies final table, "But it was nice to have my mom here for the win."

O'Brien said the weekend was fueled by poker adrenaline and that the $27,000+ earned this weekend, including nearly $21,000 in Event 3, will be a big help for her and husband Kevin.