A record crowd turned out for the Ladies Poker Championship at this year’s World Series of Poker Circuit stop, which was held at the Harvey’s Lake Tahoe Casino and Resort.

The 156 entries marked the largest turnout for a ladies poker tournament in the four years since the WSOP Circuit has been played at Lake Tahoe. In fact, the high number is believed to be a record for any ladies event ever held in Northern Nevada.

The 2007 Harvey’s Lake Tahoe Ladies Champion is Barbara Brown Harney. Aside from poker, she is quite multi-talented. Ms. Harney is an artist and glass fuser. She does project design and is involved in construction-related work. She is also the mother of two teenage boys. It took Ms. Harney about 11 hours to overcome the large field.

Play began promptly at 2pm. By half past midnight, Ms. Harney had every single chip in the tournament in her stack and received hearty congratulations from her opponents and a large crowd of spectators gathered around the final table on the second floor of the casino.

Winning was not easy. After 146 players were eliminated over the first eight hours of play, ten survivors returned to the feature table to battle for the championship. Sally Royce enjoyed her status as the chip leader, with Nancy Campos in second place. The eventual winner, Ms. Brown started off in sixth place.

While this was easily Ms. Harney’s most prestigious tournament victory, it was not her first. She has won three tournaments at various casinos and also won one playing online. For first place, she received $9,094 in prize money. Perhaps just as satisfying, over the next year Barbara Brown Harney will enjoy bragging rights at the “2007 Harvey’s Lake Tahoe Ladies Poker Champion.”

The tournament was held over a busy holiday weekend. Throughout this year’s tournament series the poker room and adjacent area has been standing-room only, and tables that were not used in tournament play were filled to capacity with cash games. The WSOP Circuit events continue until 18 November.

Final results:
1. Barbara Brown Harney, $9,094
2. Terri Solis, $5,326
3. Nancy Campos, $3,662
4. Sally Royce, $2,542
5. Karie Nelson , $1,922
6. Ronda Cook, $1,483
7. Julie Parker, $1,180
8. Lori Fields, $877
9. Yvette Mongkolvares, $635
10. Wendy Shoemaker, $454