Tirza Sanders Crowned WPT Ladies Champion at World Championships

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Dec 16, 2024 3 min read

Alongside the ClubWPT Gold $5M Freeroll Finale and the 2025 McLaren GTS Prize Draw, poker action at the World Poker Tour World Championships was in full swing with Day 1B of the WPT World Championship and the final day of the WPT Ladies Championship.

The Ladies Championship shattered its $250,000 guarantee, amassing an impressive $470,450 prize pool from 485 entries. After a fiercely contested final table, Tirza Sanders reigned supreme, defeating Jana De La Cerra heads-up to claim the title and a $90,432 payday.

Sanders Pips De La Cerra to WPT Ladies Championship Title

When the final river card hit the felt, Tirza Sanders got to call herself the WPT Ladies Champion. Sanders rose from the middle of the pack on the final table all the way to first place.

The top 60 players made the money after the bubble burst on Day 1. Notables who took a shot but failed to reach the paid places included Princess Love, PokerStars ambassador Caitlin Comeskey, Poker Hall of Famer J.J. Liu, Lara Eisenberg and the WPT's Lynn Gilmartin.

Sanders entered Day 2 in 41st out of the 55 players that made it through the opening session and continued to hang in as more competitors fell by the wayside.

The United Kingdom's Sinead Davenport scored a double elimination that saw Allyn Shulman and PokerNews Podcast Co-Host Kyna England bow out in 12th and 11th place, respectively. Sara Ralston then despatched Yordanos Mebrahtu on the final table bubble.

By this point, Sanders' lowly stack of 95,000 had swelled to 1,450,000 (29 big blinds) while Davenport was in pole position with 3,300,000 (66 big blinds).

Ralston ousted Shannon Fahey in ninth and rallied to the top of the counts as more pots were pushed in her direction. Sanders survived two all-ins, including a flip against Davenport to stay in contention ahead of Camille Brown exiting in eight.

Sanders booked another double in a three-way all-in that resulted in Mikiyo Aoki heading to the payout desk in seventh. Krisha Augerot was gone in sixth and Sanders made it four-handed after seeing off Jenny Ding. Sanders climbed to the top of the chip leaderboard and further entrenched her position when she sent Ralston to the wrong side of the rail.

Sanders secured her spot in her heads-up showdown when she won a race against Davenport. Sanders began with a near 2:1 chip lead over Jana De La Cerra, but the latter showed heart as she tried to battle back. De La Cerra reduced the gap on numerous occasions, but Sanders' foot never left the gas pedal.

De La Cerra was whittled down to ten big blinds, and her final chips went into the middle with ace-nine. Sanders had king-queen and paired up on the runout to seal the victory. Sanders, a Tucson, Arizona native, boosted her career live tournament earnings by more than tenfold and she told reporters after the win:

"It feels amazing. It's unreal. I'm happy to have my crew here supporting me. I've been actually having a rough year, and so right here in December, to close it out and have a winning year feels amazing."

"I don't play very many Women's Events but they all convinced me to come down here, and so I think I'm going to be a regular in the Ladies Events from now on."

WPT Ladies Championship Final Table Results

Images courtesy of the World Poker Tour

Calum has been a part of the PokerNews team since September 2021 after working in the UK energy sector. He played his first hand of poker in 2017 and immediately fell in love with the game. Calum has written for various poker outlets but found his home at PokerNews, where he has contributed to various articles and live updates, providing insights and reporting on major poker events, including the World Series of Poker (WSOP).

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