Jennifer Tilly Cruises to WSOP Bracelet

Yes, that Jennifer Tilly. The actress. Yes, she plays poker.

And she’s good.

So good, in fact, that she won the $1,000 Ladies’ No-Limit Hold’em championship at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Monday. Not that she needs it, but she received $158,625 for topping the field of 601 players. Interestingly enough, in true poker pro fashion, she seemed much more thrilled with winning the bracelet than anything else.

Tilly, who has been mentored by her boyfriend, professional poker player, Phil “The Unabomber” Laak, ran roughshod over her competitors, amassing a $300,000 chip stack by the time there were six women left, almost three times the number of chips of her nearest opponent. Over Sunday night (Monday morning, really) and Monday afternoon, she proceeded to personally eliminate all but one of the final five players. Next to Anthony Reategui’s romp last weekend, it was the most dominant final table performance of this year’s WSOP.


It was actually a shame that this event did not get more attention. There were three final tables on Sunday, so the ladies got pushed to the side a bit. They did not get an announcer for the final table until after the first finalist was knocked out, and only after many in the audience started chanting, “Announcer! Announcer!” The tournament also got little to no ESPN coverage until the network realized that Tilly was the chip leader.

Tilly happily posed for the cameras after her victory and took the microphone to thank everybody for coming. Referring to Laak’s brush with a bracelet Sunday (he was runner-up to Johnny Chan in the $2,500 Pot-Limit Hold’em event), Tilly said, “I’m happy I won my own [bracelet] because Phil was going to give his to his mother!”

And to the delight of the poker fans in attendance, Tilly proclaimed, “This is better than winning an Oscar!”

Well, we’ll see how she feels when it’s her turn to thank the Academy.

Originally published June 27, 2005