Clonie Gowen Teaches Us How to Slay Giants

  David was lucky. When he stared down Goliath, the super-sized Philistine was the only giant he had to fight that day. A well placed stone, the stroke of a sword, and David was off to the locker room to drink whatever the ancient Israeli version of Gatorade was and tell the story of the one that didn't get away. When Clonie Gowen participated in the first World Poker Tour's Ladies Night, she was competing against five of the biggest names in Women's poker. These are odds that might even worry David.  When Clonie sat down to play against Annie Duke, Maureen Feduniak, Jennifer Harman, Kathy Liebert, and Evelyn Ng, she opened class on how aggressive poker should be played. Instead of passively allowing herself to be stepped on by these looming figures in Ladies poker, she went on the attack. After personally eliminating Kathy Liebert, and Annie Duke, she was left heads up against Evelyn Ng. Evelyn had a better than 6 to 1 chip lead over Clonie, but made a fatal mistake against the newcomer. Instead of putting the pedal down and using her huge lead against Gowen, she sat back and played good, fundamentally sound poker. Were this a cash game, this probably would be the right thing to do, but it was a tournament. That means eliminating your opponents by any means necessary.  Clonie took advantage of this mistake. She assessed what Ng was doing and knew playing aggressively in the face of somebody playing tight would win her a few pots. Evelyn's commitment to the fundamentals also allowed Gowen to gauge when her opponent had a legitimate hand. So not only could Clonie slowly reduce the chip lead, but she also kept herself out of trouble. Eventually Ng got sick of being schooled by a player who was a relative unknown, and started playing more aggressively. At this point the chips were just about even, and Clonie tightened her play. Eventually Clonie Gowen beat the Toronto born player and was crowned the first Ladies Night Champion.  The story of this tournament is Ng not taking advantage of a massive chip lead, and Clonie having the presence of mind to recognize that her competition was allowing her to hang around. At that point she just changed up her game and kept picking at Evelyn until there was nothing left. She also showed the world the value of aggressive tournament play in the face of a conservative opponent.