Dana Castaneda Wins One For The Ladies At WSOP 2013

The 2013 WSOP has got its first lady winner in an open tournament after Dana Castaneda took down Event #54: $1,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em for  $454,207. Dana also became the 8th woman at the 44th Annual WSOP to make a final table, and after her impressive result, commented:
“I was just surprised to make it Day 2 and then to Day 3. It’s amazing, I don’t even know how to describe it.”
The $1,000 NL tournament attracted a good sized field of 2,883 players, and amongst the notable names cashing in at the event was Mitch Schock (212th), Michael Gathy (201st), Kathy Liebert (88th), Erik Seidel (174th), Jim Collopy (89th), and Matt Salsberg (31st).
Dana Castaneda would then eventually make it through to the nine seated final table as a short-stack, but said in the back of her mind she always believed she would go all the way because of the words her grandmother told her on her deathbed only two weeks earlier. As Dana explains:
“It has been my inspiration through it – I’m going to win because my grandma said I was going to win it. We were super, super close.”
Dana Castaneda subsequently progressed to heads-up play with a 7.2m to 1.45m chip advantage over Jason Bigelow, with all the chips going in on a 7s-7d-5d flop. At this stage, Castaneda’s 9-5 was ahead of her opponent’s flush draw and after the turn and river bricked, Dana Castaneda was awarded the gold bracelet.
Over the past few years, other notable victories for the ladies include Vanessa Selbst winning the 2012 WSOP $2,500 10 Game (Six Handed) event for $244,259, and the same year Allyn Jaffrey Shulman winning the $1,000 No Limit Hold’em – Seniors Championship for $603,713.
The final table payouts were as follows:
1 Dana Castaneda – $454,207
2 Jason Bigelow – $281,991
3 Matthias Bednarek – $198,883
4 Michael Zucchet – $143,642
5 Philippe Clerc – $105,007
6 Barry Hutter – $77,685
7 Jacob Bazeley – $58,147
8 Joseph Wertz – $44.032
9 Kenneth Gregersen – $33,731