During the recent hand, Dwan tackles the man behind last year’s biggest poker story, (two World Series of Poker bracelets and making the WSOP Main Event final table) Phil Ivey. The new record sits at $1,108,500 after both players got their money in while holding straights.

The action saw Dwan, on the button and holding {7-Hearts}{6-Hearts}, create a sizable preflop pot of $33,500 against Ivey who defended his small blind while holding {a-Clubs}{2-Diamonds}. The flop came {j-Clubs}{3-Diamonds}{5-Clubs}, giving Dwan and Ivey gutshot straight draws. Ivey then led out for $35,00 with the wheel and backdoor nut flush draw. Dwan didn’t hesitate to make the call with his straight draw.

This is where things got interesting, as the {4-Hearts} fell on the river. Ivey quickly bumped the pot by $90,000 and Dwan insta-raised to $232,500. The emotionless Ivey then moved all-in, pushing the pot well past seven figures only to see Dwan insta-call with the nut straight. The river failed to improve Ivey’s hand, leaving him nothing to do but sit and stew about the way the hand played out. Ironically, it was fellow player Patrik Antonius who kept wincing at the hand results, not Ivey, who remained stone-faced despite losing the monster hand.

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A perfect mixture of nerd/babe, Jennifer Leigh knows everything about poker, computer programming (that’s C# programming and Linux) and looking good on sexy magazines as she has posed for FHM Online and the May 2008 issue of Playboy. Her geekiness is 95% confirmed as she was introduced to poker via the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) by Robert Boyd –that’s professional poker player Dutch Boyd’s brother. Add 5 more percent to that as she had “Jennicide” as a nickname when she was young for she used to hack bulletin boards –which continued to be her nickname as she thrive on the online poker site PokerStars.

Jennifer’s Top Placings: 2006 Legends of Poker (WPT), $9,700 No-Limit Hold’em Championship (45th), 2006 37th Annual World Series of Poker, $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em (18th), 2006 PokerStars Caribbean Poker Adventure (WPT), $7,800 No-Limit Hold’em Championship (42nd)

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Swedish hottie Cecilia Nordenstam mostly plays in Europe, and she’s made her huge break by joining a Swedish poker team which helped her gain visibility as an up and coming poker player at the 2005 Five-Star World Poker Classic. In this tournament, she placed in three events out of four: 34th, 13th and 5th. Cecilia first got acquainted with poker when she worked as a dealer for for Casino Cosmopol. She is currently dating Alexander Stevic, who got her into higher stakes poker games.

Cecilia’s Top Placings: 4th at Partypoker.com Women’s World Open III, 24th Fourth Annual Five-Star World Poker Classic, 15th Fourth Annual Five Diamond World Poker Classic

Name

Evelyn Ng grew an interest in gambling by playing pool for money when she was 14 years old. By the time she was 17, she worked as a blackJack and poker games dealer in Toronto. As a teenager, Evelyn dated fellow Canadian poker player, Daniel Negreanu who later featured her as one of the characters in the video game Stacked with Daniel Negreanu.

Evelyn’s Top Placings: 2008 39th Annual World Series of Poker, Event 15 – $910 Ladies No-Limit Hold’em World Championship (48th), 2007 38th Annual World Series of Poker, Event 28 – $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em (25th), 2006 Five-Star World Poker Classic (WPT), $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em Championship (39th)

Name

Probably the most controversial lady in the poker world, Chantel McNulty started her career very early. As a teenager she participated in underground card games in Dallas and even got a fake ID to play in Las Vegas poker tournaments by the name Ashley. The most talked-about topic about Chantel seems to be her breast implants but the Texan doesn’t seem to mind so much. She even came clean about her poker personality: “When I’m playing poker, I’m very mouthy. I’m like Gavin Smith, Matusow and Tony G combined. I get along with other players really good, or they don’t like me at all.” Oh and she’s single. Wow, is it getting hot in here or what?

Chantel’s Top Placings: 17th WPT Season 6, Mandalay Bay Poker Championship, 23rd 2006 WSOP, Event 18, Pot-Limit Hold’em, 56th 2006 WSOP, Event 15, Ladies Event No-Limit Hold’em

Relationship Status:

Carmel Petresco grew up in Eastern Europe and New York and traveled a lot as a child, giving her critical adaptation skills well-suited for poker. Her first brush with the poker world was through free online casino games and by watching her male friends playing. Carmel Petresco did a lot of reading on high-stakes poker especially Super/System. Although she’s now known as an aggressive poker player, Carmel actually has a very girly background. Before entering the world of poker, Carmel worked as a personal shopper and wardrobe stylist. Carmel is rumored to be dating professional poker player, Daniel Alaei, and she showers him with praise: “Daniel Alaei has been the biggest influence and an opinion shared”.

Carmel’s Top Placings: 319th 2008 WSOP, Event 54, Main Event No-Limit Hold’em, 107th 2008 WSOP, Event 36, No-Limit Hold’em, 12th 2007 WSOP, Event 31, World Championship Heads-Up No-Limit, 26th 2006 WSOP, Event 37, No-Limit Hold’em, 71st 2006 WSOP, Event 5, No-Limit Hold’em Short-Handed, 6/table

Age

Isabelle Mercier originally wanted to be a lawyer but she ended up… a poker player (see any parallels here?). In fact, she was so serious about her law career that she obtained a law degree from the University of Montreal and a Master’s degree in international law at Sorbonne University. In Montreal, Isabelle worked as a blackjack dealer at the Casino de Montreal and while in Paris, she worked at the Aviation Club and got hooked on poker, which lead her to become a professional poker player and got her first win at the WPT Ladies Invitational.

Isabelle’s Top Placings: 2007 Five-Star World Poker Classic (WPT Championship) Event 15, $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em Championship (41st), 2007 Bellagio Friday/Saturday No-Limit Hold’em Tournament, $5,000 No Limit Hold’em (3rd), 2006 37th Annual World Series of Poker, $5,000 No Limit Hold’em (5th), 2006 EPT French Open, $4,810 EPT French Open Championship Event (7th), 2005 World Series of Poker Event 33, $3,000 No Limit Hold’em (95th)

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New Yorker Erin Ness can’t wait to get out of the Big Apple to set up her own bookstore and a vegetarian café at the place she belongs, Las Vegas, Nevada. The 30 year-old has been playing poker since she was a child, growing up at Ocean Beach on the Jersey Shore. She still works at Maxim magazine as a photo assistant although she’s trying to play as much poker as she can. That suits Erin well as the Georgetown grad was the third highest placing woman in the main event of the 2004 World Series of Poker (WSOP), sitting pretty in 207th place.

Erin’s Top Placings: 207th at the WSOP and ESPN

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The raising Poker Babe, Veronika Larsen, officially started her professional poker career when she was crowned a “Poker Queen” in 2006 by Swedish gaming operator Betsson and was sponsored on the European poker tournament circuit for a year. Today she is a full-time player and author who plays mostly cash games and the European Poker Tour. The 24 year-old Norwegian has only been playing for 5 years, but at such a young age she’s already made her mark by coming in 7th at the European Ladies Championship.

Veronika’s Top Placings: 7th European Ladies Championship 2, Sky Sports

Name

Erica Schoenberg is a classic example of what you call a lucky beauty. She’s drop dead gorgeous but gentlemen, really sorry to break your hearts as the Ohio-born Erica is currently in a relationship with high stakes poker player David Benyamine. Before going pro at poker, The 31 year-old has worked as a pro beach-volleyball tournament trainer, personal trainer and a kickboxing instructor.

Erica’s Top Placings: 16th in the 2006 World Poker Tour $25,000 championship, 3rd in the 2007 World Series of Poker, won the $2,500 No Limit Hold’em Mandalay Bay Poker Championship.