The second and third of three opening-day flights in the largest women's poker tournament ever held outside Las Vegas, the PokerStars-sponsored Women's World Championship main event, wrapped up action on Friday at London's Hippodrome Casino. Norway's Christina Solli, playing in the Day 1B flight, amassed a 429,000 stack to take the overall lead into Saturday's Day 2.
Solli (shown above) finished well ahead of the rest of the Day 1B players, with Belgium's Ann-Roos Callens bagging 310,000 to top the other Day 1B survivors. The Day 1B flight drew 148 entrants, with 30 moving on to Saturday's Day 2 and the money bubble looming.
Among the well-known players who played the Day 1B flight but didn't move on were Marle Spragg, Katie Swift, Nikki Limo, Kyna England, Soraya Estrada, Alex Loveless, and Alex O'Brien.
Glasgow tops Day 1C flight
Also running on Friday was a turbo-paced 1C flight which attracted another 81 entries, swelling the overall attendance to 271 entries and setting the new other-than-Vegas mark. The Day 1C group was led by the UK's Laura Glasgow, who ended the night with a solid 361,000 in chips, just ahead of Sophie Stubbs' 350,000 total. Glasgow busted out of the Day 1B flight before entering 1C, and she and Stubbs led 16 survivors of the Day 1C field, with those remaining also including the runner-up in the high-roller Event #1, Jennifer Steele.
Along with Thursday's Day 1A leader Mary-Rose McCann and seven other Day 1A survivors, 54 players will return for Day 2 action. Nine more players will be elimated outside the money, with the final 45 then assured shares of the event's £100,000 prize pool. As of publication, the individual payouts had yet to be posted.
The overall top 10 in chips entering Saturday's Day 2 are as follows:
| Rank | Player | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Christina Solli (Norway) | 429,000 |
| 2 | Laura Glasgow (UK) | 361,000 |
| 3 | Sophie Stubbs (UK) | 350,000 |
| 4 | Mary-Rose McCann (Ireland) |
325,000 |
| 5 | Ann-Roos Callens (Belgium) | 310,000 |
| 6 | Lisa Roberts (US) | 280,000 |
| 7 | Camilla Grudy (UK) | 264,000 |
| 7 | Emma Wilkinson (UK) | 264,000 |
| 9 | Tina Abery (UK) | 259,000 |
| 10 | Berivan Dag (UK) | 247,000 |
| 10 | Wendy Watson (UK) | 247,000 |
Saturday's Day 2 action will be an abbreviated session beginning at 12:30 pm London time and running for about four hours, to allow all players to also compete in Saturday evening's NLH 50/50 Freezeout event.
Photos courtesy of Danny Maxwell/PokerStars
