Hille, Baumann Make 2012 WSOP Main Event Memorable

After another summer in the desert, I am back home safe and sound after having once again spent several weeks covering the World Series of Poker. As Matthew Pitt reported earlier in the week, the WSOP Main Event has played down to a final nine with 26-year-old Jesse Sylvia the chip leader. After a more than three-month hiatus, the tournament will conclude at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino on October 28-30.

Unlike last year when seven different countries were represented among the final nine players, this year's final table is dominated by Americans, with only Andras Koroknai of Hungary (currently in second position) representing a country other than the U.S.

With 18 left there were still seven countries represented, with David Balkin (18th, Australia), Wilfried Harig (15th, Germany), Marc-Andre Ladouceur (13th, Canada), Elisabeth Hille (11th, Norway), and Gaëlle Baumann (10th, France) among the summer's final eliminations.

Of course, the dramatic knockouts of Hille and Baumann at night's end -- the last two women standing out of the 211 who entered -- dominated everyone's thoughts as we left the Rio on Monday night. Never before had two women made it so far in a WSOP Main Event, the best previous showing having been in 2000 when Annie Duke finished 10th and Kathy Liebert 17th. And only once before had a woman made a WSOP Main Event final table, when Barbara Enright finished fifth in 1995.

Since we'll have plenty of time to get to know Sylvia, Koroknai, and the rest of the "Octo-Nine," I thought I'd share a few thoughts about Hille and Baumann this week.

Elisabeth Hille

I finally had a chance to watch Hille play in the Main Event on Day 6. By then Hille had already amassed an above average stack, entering the day in the top 20 and by night's end moving into fifth position out of the final 27.

By coincidence I'd known about Hille even before the Main Event began, thanks in part to having run into Betfair's own Dave Underwood while covering Event #59, the last of the $1,000 no-limit hold'em events.

In that event, Betfair player Harald Olsen had outlasted over 4,000 players to make it to the final three tables, and Dave was there to cover him. At one point Dave told me an anecdote about how Olsen's girlfriend was also a poker player, and while he was making his deep run in Event #59, she was busy building an incredible stack in a $1/$3 NLHE cash game -- over $1,800 in fact!

It wouldn't be until later that I'd put it together that the "Lizzie" to whom Dave was referring was in fact Hille. Click here and read through Dave's reports from the WSOP, which include some references to (and pictures of) both Olsen and Hille that provide further details of both Olsen's great Event #59 run in which he finished 22nd and Hille's cash game session.

Olsen earned $20,499 for his finish in Event #59, and if I'm following the story correctly half of his winnings went to Hille, which in turn became her buy-in for the Main Event. And I believe half of what she won there for finishing 11th -- $590,442 -- will go to Olsen. Quite an exciting couple of weeks for a poker couple, wouldn't you say?

Gaëlle Baumann

As it happened, I also was somewhat familiar with Baumann prior to her emergence at this year's Main Event.

As those who followed the ME closely know, Baumann ended Day 2 as the chip leader, the only player to build a stack of more than 500,000 during the first two days of play. Thus did the French player receive a lot of coverage from that point forward, especially since she managed to maintain a favorable position in the counts for the next three days, ending Day 3 in 46th (of 720), Day 4 in 24th (of 282), and Day 5 in eighth (of 97).

Baumann would then end Day 6 of the Main Event in 20th position (of 27), but managed to battle with a short stack all of the way to her 10th-place finish.

A couple of weeks before, I had covered Event #51, the $1,000 Ladies No-Limit Hold'em Championship, from start to finish. Baumann had fairly dominated the first two days of that event, ending both Days 1 and 2 as the chip leader. She'd ultimately finish 15th in that one, but after seeing her accumulate chips early then increase her stack through the middle stages of that tourney, it wasn't too surprising to see her do the same a week later in the Main Event.

For Day 7 of the Main Event I primarily covered the secondary feature table, only moving over to the main stage once they'd gone to a single ten-handed table (where Baumann was the short stack). Baumann had begun Day 7 on that secondary table, but only played a few hands there before getting moved early in the day.

Thus I didn't get to see a lot of either Hille or Baumann on that last day, and only really became aware that both were short-stacked when 11 players remained. That was when many of us began to talk about the possibility both might miss the final nine.

Those last 15 hands at the ten-handed final table were among the most dramatic I've ever watched and/or reported on, with Baumann's double-up with pocket kings and subsequent elimination with Ad-9h against Koroknai's Ah-Js driving the large crowd into a near frenzy as each post-flop street was dealt.

Prior to this year's WSOP, I appeared as a guest on the podcast Keep Flopping Aces with Lou Krieger and Shari Geller. One of the subjects we discussed was women's participation at the WSOP and how it could be increased, and I suggested that a woman making the ME final table could be a major catalyst for getting more women involved in poker.

The near-misses of Baumann and Hille may well achieve a similar effect, given how their stories will surely be highlighted during ESPN's WSOP shows over the next three-plus months, most likely drawing in more women to watch the coverage and perhaps become interested in the game.

In any event, while many were disappointed that Hille and Baumann "double-bubbled" the final table, their performances nonetheless made the summer portion of the 2012 WSOP Main Event especially memorable.

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