Austria's Jessica Teusl Wins 2022 WSOP Ladies Championship ($166,975)

Austria's Jessica Teusl locked up her first bracelet in the 2022 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Event #61: Ladies No-Limit Hold'em Championship for her biggest career cash worth $166,975.

Teusl defeated a worthy competitor in Julie Le, who already had around $200,000 in total live earnings before her second-place finish according to The Hendon Mob. Both players had vocal and supportive rails and in the final hand, Le called all in for less than ten big blinds, holding queen-tree off-suit while Teusl tabled ace-three for the dominating hand. A dry board fell and Le was officially finished as runner-up for $103,196.

Teusl is having a particularly successful series as the finished two weeks before in eighth place in #Event 21: No-Limit Hold'em Monster Stack for $120,455 and has now more than quadrupled her career earnings after those two results, amassing close to $500,000 in cashes and logging her best result today.

2022 WSOP Ladies Championship Final Table Results

Teusl is certainly a decorated player in her own right, accumulating many victories in ladies events throughout the globe, and a well-loved member of the Austrian poker community. She had a massive and vocal rail also, with the two players' friends building a friendly rivalry in the crowd.

"I'm feeling so happy," said a smiling and emotional Teusl. “I have such a crazy time at the WSOP this year! I got my biggest live cash at the Monster Stack and now I win a bracelet. And on top of that, my boyfriend, Stefan Lehner, also won a bracelet (Event #16: $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em) right when I was on the final table myself two weeks ago!"

"I'm not the kind of woman who will go crazy and play $10,000 buy-ins because you can't forget that luck exists in poker and how fast you can lose everything."

Teusl, who started the final table with a short stack, was responsible for the last five eliminations. "I started the day with only nine big blinds and it was a crazy story for me. I kept winning pots and falling short again and then we were seven left, six, five, and it became so real. I start to think the chance of winning is now alive. I know everything could change really fast and I'm very grateful that luck was also on my side".

Teusl keeps a cool head, however, "Bankroll management is one of the most important things in poker because we all know how the variance can be. I'm not the kind of woman who will go crazy and play $10,000 buy-ins because you can't forget that luck exists in poker and how fast you can lose everything. I'm going to play the Main Event for sure, but this was already on my schedule."

About the particular atmosphere at the ladies event Teusl added, "I play a little bit different than I play with guys. I would make folds that I don't do usually and play tighter. You must really see which player can go crazy and which one it really nit."

"We are going to celebrate now!" said an enthusiastic Teusl surrounded by her friends. "We have two bracelets to celebrate. But first, I really have to call my mother now!"

Many notable ladies had a deep run in this event including Lexy Gavin, (13th - $8,160), Maria Konnikova (20th - $5,457), Tiffany Michelle (22nd - $5,457), Charlotte Van Brabander (21th - $5,457), Melanie Weisner (28th - $4,569), GG Poker squad Pamela Balzano (36th - $3,886), Katie Swift (60th - $2,952), two-time bracelet winner Lon Hui (74th - $2,398) and last year's champion Lara Eisenberg (102nd - $2,000).

Final Table Action

The unofficial final table was reached shortly after the final break of the night on Day 3 and the first casualty was Jennifer Loman who busted in tenth place ($7,066) after she shoved her last blinds with ace-ten offsuit only to find pocket kings in Natalie Hof’s hand.

Cherish Andrews, who had a massive chip lead during Day 3 but lost a couple of big pots in a short time, was the next one out when she got all her chips in preflop with pocket kings against Lynh Nguyen's pocket jacks. Nguyen managed to get a flush on the board to eliminate the unfortunate Andrews in 10th place for $12,965.

When Day 4 started, it was Hof who left the tournament first for a ninth-place finish worth $16,710 when she couldn’t win her flip with ace-king against Le’s pair of sixes. Almost two levels later, Sandy Tran busted in seventh place ($21,852). Down to three big blinds, she shoved with ace-jack suited after a raise from Le, who held eight-seven suited to hit trips on the board and send Tran to the payout desk.

The next one out was Nguyen, who jammed for less than 15 big blinds with ace-ten after an open from Teusl with pocket fours and couldn’t win the flip. Nguyen earned $28,989 for her sixth-place finish. Teusl was also responsible for the next elimination when Meikat Siu got her stack in with queen-ten in the hijack and ran against Teusl in the cutoff who had aces. Siu didn’t find any miracle and hit the rail, taking home $39,004 for her deep run.

Felisa Westermann followed her only 15 minutes later, shoving with ace-five on the button to fall against, once again, Teusl who had ace-jack in the blinds to send Westermann out in fourth place for $53,213.

In the next level, Christina Gollins, who found a couple of double-ups during the final table, was again down to 11 big blinds when she shoved on the button only to be called by Le and Teusl in the blinds. They both checked all the way through an ace-high board and Teusl revealed a pocket pair of nines to claim the pot as both Gollins and Le had king-high hands. Gollins ended up as the third-place finisher for $73,604.

Teusl had a four-to-one chip lead to start heads-up play, but Le won a few small pots and succeeded in climbing back slowly to claim a small lead herself. Not long after, Teusl found a big double-up to leave Le with seven big blinds. On a ten-high, Teusl check-raised all in Le with jack-ten, and the latter called with nine-six for middle pair and didn’t hit anything on the rest of the board.

Le ended up calling all in the hand right after but was dominated. She failed to get lucky and had to finish as runner-up after a hard-fought battle.

Congratulations to Jessica Teusl for her victory! Please continue to follow Pokernews for all the action of the 2022 World Series of Poker. Click here to see what other tournaments are happening now.