Melissa Burr the First Woman to Final Table the Poker Players’ Championship

Melissa_7

Do you prefer Prada rather than Burrberry?
Do you think the Poker Player Championship is tougher than the Main Event?
Do you consider final tabling the Main Event, as Barbara Enright did in 1995, a bigger accomplishment than final tabling the Poker Players’ Championship, which Melissa Burr did yesterday?

A lot of questions to be answered. But one thing is clear: Melissa Burr made history yesterday, when she finished in 7th place in the Poker Players’ Championship.  But already on day 4 the history books had to be re-written as Burr was the first woman to ever cash in the PPC. CardPlayer caught up with Melissa Burr, widely known as Burrrrrberry, before going into day 5:

With this amount of expectations on her shoulders, it was no wonder that Burr was both nervous and excited to be among the final eight still in contention to win one of the most prestigious events at the World Series of Poker. She knew she had made history already, but could she overcome her chip deficiency and go all the way?

Burr entered the unofficial final table as the second shortest stack with 661,000 in chips, only Allen “Chainsaw” Kessler was shorter with 439,000. The awesome Brandon Shack-Harris, who already won a bracelet this year, was chip leader with 4,1 million in chips. The rest of the table included the two-time bracelet winners John Hennigan and Frank Kassela, high stakes cash game pro Abe Mosseri, and the much talked about high stakes player Chun Lei Zhou, known as “samrostan” online, and finally bracelet winner Jesse Martin.

The first to be eliminated in one of the first hands of the day, was the Chainsaw, Allen Kessler. In a round of stud 8 Kessler said he missed a flush draw against Abe Mosseri, who had caught a straight. With Kessler out of the tournament the official final table was set.

Unfortunately Melissa Burr was the next one to go. They were still playing stud 8 when the following hand occurred:

What do you think? Did Burr fold two low pair or did she actually fold a 7 low? Burr’s facial expressions, when she saw Abe Mosseri’s hand, might indicate the latter. But unless Burr reveals the hand one day, we will never know.

Nevertheless, Burr was happy with her historic 7th place finish, and she thanked for all the support she had received along the way:

Congratulations to Melissa Burr for making history. As the true champion she has proven to be, she immediately proceeded to play in the $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship for another shot at the bracelet, she so much deserve to win

By the way, John Hennigan won the PCC, the bracelet and the awesome trophy, while Brandon Shack-Harris finished runner-up.

Photo: PokerNews/WSOP

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