All eyes were on Kristen Bicknell at the feature table Friday night. She and Shundan Xiao are two women left standing as the 2024 WSOP Main Event heads into its final days. (Image: Dan Michalski / akfxoqsd.shop)

Friday in Las Vegas is normally a “hot night” for action, and the 2024 World Series of Poker $10,000 Championship Event fulfilled its “Main Event” billing. After Day Six ran through its five levels of play, only 59 players remained with the dream of a potential World Championship in their minds. Two of those 59 players also have something else to vie for – being the final woman left in the field and the honor of being the “Last Woman Standing.” 

Ladies Drawing the Attention

With most any poker tournament, the number of women playing is unfortunately ridiculously small. It is estimated that anywhere from 3-5% of a major tournament field is made up of women and, in some events, you can usually count the female combatants on both hands. Thus, in a major event like the WSOP Main Event, it is noteworthy when the final few females are left on the felt. 

Four women would start the action on Friday but, by the end of the night, only two of them would be left to carry the banner for the fairer sex. Danielle Anderson, a longtime member of the poker community, got her final chips to the center on a flush and gutter ball straight draw that failed to come home in either direction. Ma Li found pocket tens to her liking for an all-in, but it ran directly into the cooler that pocket Queens would deliver. Both would have the wounds of defeat salved by a six-figure payday – $100,000 – for their efforts.

That left Kristen Foxen and Shundan Xiao to their own devices on the WSOP Main Event felt, and they would devastate their opposition. Foxen, a multiple-time Ladies’ Player of the Year, has been making some serious noise on both the Ladies’ and Overall POY standings in 2024. Her play on Day Six would demonstrate why she has been a major player in the game, with a newfound aggression in her game that has been effective. 

Foxen would find herself under the glare of the PokerGO lights for the entirety of the Day Six action, and she did not wilt under the pressure. Her stack did trampoline throughout the day, but it would end on a huge note when she eliminated Tyler Montoya after her pocket treys led all the way against Montoya’s Big Slick, eventually making a full house after Foxen flopped a set and the board paired on the turn. That hand would put the cherry on top of Foxen’s day as she ended with 14.7 million in chips. 

Arguably more impressive at the Horseshoe casino on the Strip was the performance of Xiao on Day Six. A player with a limited poker resume – the Hendon Mob reports her lifetime earnings at slightly more than $41,000 – Xiao has been continually climbing the leaderboard throughout the 2024 WSOP Main Event. At this mark, Xiao has bagged up 23.925 million in chips and only has one player she is behind. 

A woman has not made the official final table of the WSOP Main Event since Barbara Enright became the ONLY woman to pull off the feat in 1995 -- at Binion's Horseshoe in downtown Las Vegas. That year, Enright went to fifth place in the tournament and arguably should have gone deeper save for the bad beat that eliminated her (Enright’s opponent called her with a 6-3 that caught against Enright’s pocket eights). In 2012, France’s Gaelle Baumann would be at the unofficial final table of ten of the WSOP Main Event, falling short by finishing in 10th place.

Kevin Davis Overall Leader

Of the 59 players still breathing in this tournament, a few notable names are still in the mix. Poker Hall of Famer Brian Rast (12.675 million), Joe Serock (13.175 million), and Brandon Cantu (4.8 million) still have the proverbial “chip and a chair.” The news wasn’t quite as good for Day Three/Four chip leader Stephen Song, though; a rough Day Five of action would see his stack plummet to only 2.175 million by the end of the day and he will have to get busy if he is to get back to the heights he once held. 

Outside of Xiao, Kevin Davis is the one who slept the easiest – or maybe the most fitfully – on Friday night as the Day Five chip leader. Davis put together a stack of 26.25 million chips to hold court over the remaining field. The Day Six draw does not do him any favors, putting him at the same table as Serock and two other big stacks in Israel’s Daniel Zadok (20.325 million) and the U.S.’s Adrian Lopez (17.025 million). 

With Day Six set to begin at noon on Saturday, here are how the Top Ten sit for the 2024 WSOP Main Event: 

1. Kevin Davis (USA), 26.25 million
2. Shundan Xiao (USA), 23.925 million
3. Malo Latinois (France), 22.375 million
4. Guillermo Sanchez Otero (Spain), 21.975 million
5. Yake Wu (China), 20.875 million
6. Yegor Moroz (USA), 20.575 million
7. Daniel Zadok (Israel), 20.325 million
8. Orson Young (USA), 18.35 million
9. Jason Sagle (Canada), 17.35 million
10. Adrian Lopez (USA), 17.025 million

The “golden ring” is just out of reach for these players currently. All are guaranteed to take a $160,000 prize for what they have done (16 times what they paid to join the tournament) but, by this point, the players are licking their chops as the $10 million first-place prize is achingly close to a reality. 

There are another five levels of action scheduled for Saturday but, if the pace of play gets them to two or three tables quickly, it could be shortened to save something for Sunday. By the close of business on Sunday night – or maybe Monday morning? – we will know the final nine players who will square off for the championship of the 2024 WSOP Main Event … will a woman be a part of the proceedings?