Shannon Elizabeth Wins Second at WSOP Ante Up for Africa Event

Only days after joining CarbonPoker, Shannon Elizabeth has picked up a major win in the $5,000 Ante Up for Africa event at the World Series of Poker.

Shannon played her way through a final table that included Eric Seidel, Phil Gordon, and Jerome “the Bus” Bettis, and proceeded to take down second prize in the $5,000 charity event for a win of just shy of $80,000.

“People kept moving to my table so it never even really felt like final table.  Once I knew we were all in the money I was trying to let some of the bigger stacks knock out some of the smaller stacks,” Shannon reported after the win.

And knock out they did.  With three players remaining, Shannon was a distant third with 50,000 chips to leader Alex Filatov’s 270,000 and former World Poker Tour winner Phil Gordon’s 440,000.  Based on table talk Shannon had reason to believe that Gordon would be targeting Filatov based on his planned donation if he were to win.

“There was some conversation at the table that I knew made Phil want to knock [Filatov] out, and that’s what happened.”

After Gordon took out Filatov, it was down to our newest pro and Mr. Gordon.  Knowing the chances that she could surmount a 5-1 chip lead, Shannon nonetheless put herself in a position to compete by going all in with Kc-10h to Gordon’s Qh-3s.  After the Qs-6s-8d flop Shannon was officially in trouble and the rest didn’t help: Ah, 5d.

Ante Up for Africa—founded by actor Don Cheadle, Annie Duke, and Norman Epstein event raises “money and awareness for Africans in need.”  Shannon donated a substantial portion of her winnings to Ante Up for Africa in support of the event.

Talk about starting off with a bang!  This is obviously just the beginning for Shannon as she starts the World Series of Poker Main Event this coming week.  “I hope this is a good lead in to the Main Event – it’s a good way to into it, I’m really happy.”