WOMEN’S WSOP POKER ACADEMY AND TOURNAMENT

After doing so well at Binion’s Women’s Ultimate Poker Challenge I decided to attend the Women’s WSOP Poker Academy, June 8-9 in Las Vegas. The Academy was going to have a tournament that would send ten women to the WSOP women’s tournament. I took enough money to play in the WSOP women’s tournament even if I didn’t win my seat. I really wanted to play. In the time between trips I read many poker articles, watched poker on TV and played in my poker league to help keep me focused for the tournament.

Our plane was scheduled to leave early Thursday morning, June 7th. On Wednesday my husband and I dropped our son, Justin, off at the respite home he would be staying at. Our son was injured in an auto accident many years ago and we have to have specialized care for him when we go on vacation. Usually we only go on vacation once every 12 to 18 months. Because of medical problems we did not go last year. I was leery of leaving him again for a week but I really wanted to attend the academy and play in the WSOP. Everything turned out just fine for my son. He was well taken care of and very happy.

After getting the boys settled in, my youngest Aaron was staying with friends; we finished packing up our stuff and headed for the hotel. We decided to stay closer to the airport since our flight was leaving before 7:00 am the next day. It is so awesome to realize that we can do what ever we want from now until next Wednesday. No kids to worry about, no house to worry about, no bills, no pets, no nothing for six whole days.

We had reservations to eat with friends at Zingermens’ Road House Restaurant in Ann Arbor. The food was great and the company even better. We headed back to our hotel around 9:30 pm and relaxed until bedtime. It was a great start to our vacation. At 5:00 am we got up, got ready and headed out the door for the airport. Check-in went fast, we reserved Spirit Plus seats for the long flight out and regular seats for the ride back since it is usually not as crowded coming home. It was a good move since the regular line was loooooong when we got to the airport. Zipped through security pretty quickly, it would have been faster if two women hadn’t tried to bring make up cases on board full of large containers of shampoo etc. When will people learn to check everything except the bare necessities? Flight was uneventful except for some turbulence over Denver. Arrived in Las Vegas after four-hour flight at 8:00 am Vegas time. Woo hoo we gained three hours back.

We rode the white buses to the new rental terminal. Zipped out of there in ten minutes, register on line it will save you lots of time. Loaded up the luggage in the trunk of the car and headed to the South Point Casino, our home for the next six nights. It was too early for a room so we left our luggage with the bellhop and headed out for breakfast. It was already hot by my standards. I am half Canadian and do not like the heat. I knew it was going to be very hot but we must make sacrifices if we want to play in the big girl tournaments. I know it is a “dry” heat but it was still f****** hot!

We have developed a tradition of having an authentic Mexican meal for our first day. We used to eat at a dive near the Stratosphere, this time we ate at a place near the Orleans that my husband found. We did eat there in February and it was very good. We will eat there four times by the end of our trip and one time at the old place by the Stratosphere. We had steak tacos every time; they are very tasty and not too filling. The restaurant is open 24 hours a day so we ate there late at night a couple of times.

After breakfast, we headed back to the South Point Casino to play some slots. We had agreed before hand that we would not play any poker other than Video Poker so that we could enjoy our first day together. We had dinner plans at Pearl and tickets to see Wayne Brady in the evening. We put in a few dollars here and there with no big hits. I was playing slots here and there when I saw this one: It’s called “Hot Flashes”. I laughed so hard that people started staring. I had to play it. I played for a while when I hit the bonus which asks you to chose jobs for your man. I chose the ones I don’t like to do, laundry and cleaning toilets and won the most points or pennies for the bonus. I would play this slot on and off through out our trip. I didn’t make huge amounts of money on it but I did make twenty here and there. It was lots of fun. The men would whine and the girl friends would bitch!

WPT Boot Camp

First of all, I'd like to thank Maryann (Goddess) for the opportunity to attend poker school. For those that don't know, I won this opportunity through WPC league play. This was a multi-week tourney with WPC members and through a lot of tough competition, I won first place.

I went to Las Vegas over Memorial Day weekend to attend the WPT Boot Camp. This was a $1700 Boot Camp---and well worth it, I might add.

The main instructor was T.J. Cloutier. He is a delightful man with many, many years of experience. He does not mince words---always says what is on his mind. Vnessa Rousso was in the hospital so was not able to instruct. Crispin Leyser was an instructor. Jules Leyser was an instructor---she was very good. Tom McEvoy also delivered some of the sections.

The boot camp is a full two days. Saturday begins at 8:00 a.m. with breakfast and concludes at 11pm after a student tournament. This tournament paid the first place winner a $1K satellite for the WSOP. There were 60 people in class that participated. I finished 12th and was the last woman standing.

Day two started at 8:00 and ended at 5pm.

There were a couple of neat things about this particular boot camp. Every major lecture was followed by a lab. Every student sat at a poker table and we played hands practicing and reinforcing what we learned in the lecture. The dealers were the instructors. This was very valuable.

Another thing we did on Sunday was to watch and listen to player critiques while Tom McEvoy played the PokerStars Million Dollar tournament. This was also invaluable---especially to see if he actually applied what we were learning in class. He did!! Not sure how he did in that tournament though---it goes on for many, many hours.

The WPT has two other boot camps which I think would be equally good---one for women only taught by Annie Duke and another one for cash games.

I know some of you would like me to translate my notes here---but I don't think that would be fair to the WPT----so let me give you just a few tidbits:

1. The goal of poker is to make good decisions! You can't control the cards---be they luck or unlucky. But, you can try to always make good decisions.

2. Don't be satisfied with just placing in the money. Play for the win!! (Most of the good money is at the top---first 9 or 10 players.)

3. TJ says that you should only read the poker books that are written by known people. He says there are a lot of books out today written by people he never heard of.

I'm going to leave it with those words of wisdom. I hope that each of you gets an opportunity to attend a boot camp to improve your poker skills.

Thanks again to Goddess and the ladies I competed with during our league. We have some great ladies and some wonderful poker talent.

Good luck at the tables!!

DontMessWthTX (Jane)

Upping the Stakes

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about whether or not I should raise the stakes in my online play. For the past two years I have stayed strictly to mini-stakes ($1-$5, but mostly around $2 & $3). I am quite proud of the fact that I have played hundreds of games and for over two years on only $55US. Yet, as my game improves I’ve been wondering if I might be ready for a greater challenge. Here is a run down of what I have been doing lately to try and expand my horizons and maximize my poker profits!

First: some background on me. I was introduced to NL Hold’em at a friend’s 30th birthday in 2005. My poker experience at that point was so thin that I had to have a little cheat sheet that night, showing me the relative strengths of each poker hand! Still, I am a lifelong card player so I picked the game up quickly and made it to 4th place. Most importantly, I LOVED the game and was immediately hooked.

Shortly after this experience I made my first deposit to an online poker site and stretched that $25 out for a couple of months. Disappointed, I retreated to play money tables while hitting the library and reading a big pile of books on the subject. I’m a very competitive person by nature, so if I was going to take on this new, exciting hobby, then I wanted to improve my game and learn everything I could.

Fast forward to 2006, when I made my second deposit on a different site. Here I eked out all the pennies I could, and slowly improved my game, eventually turning my $35 into $150 or so. (Did I mention I am super-cheap?) It took me months to move from the $1 tables to $3 ones; even longer to take the odd stab at $5 tables. To be honest, these $5 games were very scary to me – here were players who really paid attention to what was going on! They stole blinds, even! LOL. These “high stakes” were too much for me though, and I soon went back down a level.

In March of this year I moved some money onto yet another site. I had some initial success here - say the first 5 to 10 games - but soon was below my initial deposit of $75, and actually getting down to my last $15-$20 by the end of April. And this really was even worse than it appears as I had earned $30 in bonus too, so I was about $80 in the hole. Not good. I was playing 9 player sng's almost exclusively, at both $2 and $5 buy-ins; I would have the odd win here and there, but I didn't seem to be making any progress. (I have stayed at single tables for the most part ever since I read Mike Sexton's book, Shuffle Up and Deal, as he suggested that players should learn to play with only the one table's worth of opponents to study, until they feel they can safely move up to a multi-table format.) I couldn't seem to find a table that had a) enough fish, throwing their money away, and b) few enough sharks, eating my money! Different times of day, as well as the days of the week, affected my results. (Weekends are often gonzo bingo matches, which are unpredictable and hurt my bottom line. Late evenings at the $5 buy-in are FILLED with really strong players who pay VERY close attention to everything, so they almost always trounced me.

A peek on Sharkscope.com showed that my greatest return (most profitable game) was at the $2 level, gaining slowly at about 20%, and that at the $5 I was actually slowly losing, at a rate of about 10%.

At the start of May I noticed a few entries on rec.gambling.poker discussing when one should move up to the next level. There seemed to be agreement that once your rate of increase (ROI) is 20% you can be comfortable moving up, although others argued that your bankroll had to be considered too, and that you shouldn't move up until you had 20-50 or even 100 buy-ins at that level.

Another discussion thread that I thought was interesting was by a few guys who seem to know a lot about statistics (which I DO NOT have a brain for AT ALL). They said that if you look at your results for 100 games, you should have a good enough sample to gauge how well you are doing at that level.

Obviously my strategy needed some tweaking and I decided to amalgamate these ideas into my own plan. I would play 100 games of 9 player $2 TURBO sngs, keep track, and then see where to go from there. I also started playing fewer games, often quitting at just one a day, whereas before I often would play two.

The first 7 games went VERY badly, placing in the money only once. I re-evaluated my plan and ditched the TURBO format. Starting over, I went to the $2 - regular speed - 9 player sng and immediately saw much improvement.

I didn't get any money the first game, but beyond that one, I have always been in the black column. Over 29 games, I made it into the money 15 times, (7 - 1sts; 4 - 2nds; and 4 - 3rds) for a total profit of $33.75. Including rake, I spent $65.25 and had $99 to show for it, showing a return on investment of roughly 33%. A profit, yes, but still very little to show for all of that time playing. I kept track of the time, roughly: 23.5 hours of playing netted me $33.75 - - - or $1.44/hour, $1.17 profit/game!!! If I’m trying to make money, I might as well open a lemonade stand outside my house!

Added to my discouragement over these piddly profits, I was also getting pretty bored with this same game over and over again. Out of sheer boredom I played a couple of $5 - 9 player sngs, and then tried a $5 - 18 player game...and came in 2nd, for a profit of $20.50! I kept playing these 18 player games and have now played ten, for a total profit of $86.50 in 10.5 hours of play. I have paid $55.50 to amass $142, showing a rough ROI of 150%, if my math isn't off. At this rate I am profiting to the tune of about $8/hour. Perhaps most importantly, my balance is finally above where I started ($75 + $30 bonus), for a balance of $138 and change.

Why am I more successful here? Well, for starters, there are MANY donks in this game, willing to chase. I am playing tight-aggressive and almost always doubling or tripling up by 30 minutes in. Even when I don't have any cards, just by playing tight I can get to the final table, and wait for my luck to change. Although the blinds move quickly in this game (every 6 minutes), the raise is VERY gradual - only 10-20 chips for the first 45 minutes. This really lets me take my time, conserve my chips until I find good cards, and then really control the game when I catch something big. Also, I am finding that the game REALLY tightens up by the final table, as people just try to get into the four paying spots. I bluff my patootie off here, and steal many pots.

Of course, it is really early in my experience at this tournament level, and maybe I will tank as I continue. Still, I am finding this methodical approach really interesting, and it may help me fine-tune my game. Maybe some of you might benefit from trying something similar to analyze your game and maximize your profits.


Lori “OllieStar” Astle

Poker and Marriage

On the Women’s Poker Club forum they have a thread that asks about family and spousal support. There were a wide variety of answers from very positive to mixed feelings to not liking that their spouse or family member played poker at all. This got me thinking about how much poker has become a part of my life and how it has affected my marriage. In early posts I talked about the family support I have and how my husband and I support each other.

We have been married twenty years and have had a pretty good relationship. We have had our ups and downs like most families and some very trying times when our two sons were seriously injured in an auto accident in 1994. There was a time when we didn’t think we would make it through but we did.

As our children grew we found more free time to spend with each other. It was great at first and we had many stimulating conversations about the children over lazy lunches. Over time though we became a little bored and when we agreed not to talk about the children we found that more and more we had nothing to say to each other. We drifted a little and our conversations lagged. It didn’t take long for us to realize that we needed to find something to occupy our time away from each other so that when we were together we had something to share.

Over the years I had developed a close friendship with a woman whose son was also in an accident, while riding his bike he was hit by a truck, he had issues similar to my son. We supported each other and used each other for resources. She started working for an organization called the Arc as an advocate for persons with developmental disabilities. She asked me if I would be interested in being a board member. I had never done anything like this before and until my son was injured had no experience with persons with disabilities. After some persuasion on her part I said okay. I also started volunteering for activties at the Arc and even started a book club. This added meaning to my life, gave me something to share and talk about with my husband. I am still on the board of directors and even did two terms as President of the board.

This experience taught me that even though I love my husband and family very much I need to have something meaningful to do that is just for me. I didn’t want a regular job because I needed the flexibility to take care of my son and also because I like having my days free to do what I want.

When my husband first started playing poker I was supportive but not that involved in what he was doing. I would listen to him talked about players and hands but didn’t really understand what he was talking about. I was just happy that he found something that was making him happy. He bugged me to learn the game because he wanted to be able to play poker in Las Vegas without feeling like he was leaving me behind. I did learn and as you know have fallen in love with the game. It has also given my husband and I something to talk about and support each other. We have also learned that we can take trips without each other. Several times a year I will take a trip with my girlfriend or family and my husband will do the same for himself. I have married friends who are always together and are unwilling to try something new or unable. Boredom and stagnation was causing us to drift apart poker has given us a way to come together again. Someday we may become bored with each other again and have to find something else to keep us entertained until then we don’t have to sit and stare at each other over the lunch table.

My First Victory!

In September 2004, my husband and I went to Las Vegas to play in a friend’s tournament. This would be the second time we played in this tournament. The tournament was a three-day affair at the Sunset Station Casino in Henderson. This time we stayed in the hotel. It was very nice and had floor to ceiling windows across one wall that showed a fantastic view of the mountains. I left the curtains open the whole time we were there. On Friday we went to a small private welcome party in one of the conference rooms. It was very nice with good food and friendly people.

The first tournament was on Saturday. It had sixty participants and was also held in a conference room. We had prizes and gifts, even our own bartender. The dealers were fun, hilarious and very professional. We had the tournament director announcing some of the action. They even had a Sunset Station jacket for the first person out. It was funny watching a couple of the guys fight over who would win the jacket.

Even though we only had around sixty players they came from all over. We even had a young man from England come to play. He was very sweet and funny. I played tight and very basic poker. I was still new to the game and needed to work on my confidence in my decision-making.

When we got down to three tables I was moved to a table with M. from England, my husband and a girl friend named T. She is a very aggressive player and was running over the table. I watched her closely for a few rounds and started seeing a pattern to her betting. I started playing back at her by re raising and sometimes going all-in. After a few hands of this she re adjusted her play and started slow playing big hands. She got me a couple of times but not enough to put me out. I again had to adjust to her play and slow down. I knocked out M. from England with a hard to see boat. He didn’t believe that I would play anything before the flop other than premium hands and this allowed me to mask my hand.

He was so sweet he wanted to give me a hug after I knocked him out but wanted to make sure it was okay with my husband first. I laughed and said hug away I say it’s okay. There weren’t a lot of big hands after that and the table slowly whittled down to four people. After the forth person was out it left husband, T. and me. We decided to chop three ways and give the dealers a nice tip, then play on for the trophy and 1st place bragging rights.

It didn’t take long for T. to be out. Then it was just my husband and I. We had agreed before the tournament started that we would play each other just like anyone else if not harder. I wanted to beat him so bad. We went back and forth with lots of cheering from the railbirds. It was getting late and I felt that some of the people were getting a little antsy so I started pushing with any king, ace or connected cards. I finally knocked my husband out of the tournament with A6 and he held something like 87. I was so excited. I received a very nice trophy and a Sunset Station jacket. The bartender even made me a very yummy “fruity” drink, since I’m not a big drinker.

Overall it was a great experience. I really felt that we were treated like high rollers. It was well organized and lots of fun. The first trophy I have ever won in anything sits on my fireplace mantle. When my husband’s ego starts to get on my nerves I pick up my trophy and tell him I’m going to polish it.

Lisa "Shion" Torres

What are they playing?

In November 2001 my husband and I went to Las Vegas for the first time. We had a budget of $100.00 each per day for all of our expenses including gambling. We pretty much stuck with five dollar blackjack and some slots.

One day we were walking around Binion’s Horseshoe Casino when we passed by the poker room. My husband used to play Stud every Sunday with a group of friends when we were first married. He wanted to check it out. They weren’t playing Stud though it was some game called Omaha and Hold em. We didn’t have a clue what these games were and how to play them. We watched for a while but were too chicken to play.

After we arrived home from our trip the interest in what they were playing was still there. At this time poker on the internet was just getting up and running. My husband researched the games and found that a game called limit hold em was becoming popular. He learned how to play the game and signed up at Party Poker. I was too worried about security for my money and nervous about playing. My husband kept nagging me to learn so that we could play together. After awhile I gave in and said okay. He taught me the basics of the game and would beat me every time we played together. I would have given it up if not for the competitiveness between us. He tends to beat me at most competitions such as Jeopardy, cards, scrabble etc.

A few months later we heard that the casino across the river from us was opening a small poker room. We decided to give it a try. It really wasn’t a poker room so much as a couple of tables in a roped off area. They only had 5/10 limit hold. That was a little steep for me but it was the only choice for live poker. We each sat down with $100.00 each. I was very nervous and sat by the dealer so that he could help me with betting etc.

I made lots of mistakes and got yelled at by the dinosaurs who made up the rest of the table. I let their words flow around me. One of the first things my husband said was that I would need a tougher skin to play poker. I had to learn to put up with the snide comments about my play, being a women etc. I did river my husband a couple of times which pissed him off. I told him I was going to play him just like everyone else from the beginning or I would be too intimidated. Underneath it I was thinking “Yeah baby, I finally found a sport I can beat you at.”

We both went home with double our buy-in. That was it for me I was hooked. I would practice every chance I could get. We would play poker once or twice a week. I would watch poker on tv and try to copy what the pros were doing. I subscribed to Card Player and read it from front to back. I stuck with the articles on hold em. I read Super System and drove my husband nuts with all of my questions. I was on my way to being a poker player.

Next time I will talk about winning my first tournament.
Lisa "Shion" Torres

Cards Gone Bad

It’s been a long few weeks that all poker players will eventually have to go through if they play long enough. “You’re not getting any cards or luck”. It seems that everybody else on the table are getting good cards, with lots of action happening around you, raising and reraising of the pots, hands going to the river with good cards being shown down at the end. You can’t seem to even get two connectors, let alone two flush cards so suited and connected – forget it. As for pairs – you end it preying for even a pair of ducks…

You try to make some moves to win the blinds but with others catching cards, its hard to bluff and when you try to win a race you fail. It can be a very long tournament when this is happening and a long slow death can happen until you’re eventually all in with the best “card” you’ve seen all day – or basically what you hope will be any “two live cards”.

Not much you can do but ride it out and keep your fingers crossed that it will end sooner rather than later, but know it will eventually come to an end. Statistically this will happen to everybody at sometime.

In the past year this has happened to me on two occasions, December 2006 was a very bad month and left me in negative equity for that month. But after the New Year it changed and I was able to play some good poker and finish in the money on quite a few tournaments more than making up for the previous losses.

The next time it started at The Amateur Poker Players Tour (APAT) Scottish Championship in Edinburgh on 14 April. Somehow I managed to last six hours with no cards. Once I did get a pair, QQs on the BB. With five callers in the pot I took the option and raised my BB by 9x the blind. All five called the raise… !!!. Flop came A52, SB came out betting. Starting to get frustrated I reraised him (I was the original raiser, wanted to make sure he had hit that Ace, but with six people in the pot it was a bad move – one of them was sure to have an Ace and there were four people behind me still to act). The rest of the table folded and the SB reraised me all in. I had to reluctantly fold after a few minutes of dramatics. SB showed an A 5o, you know your luck is out when he hits two pair on the flop, with all the callers out there I don’t really know what he thought he was beating preflop. You just have to hold your head in your hands and bemoan the fact that it had to happen in a large tournament.

Finally, last Friday and Sunday (4th and 6th May), my luck turned and I started to get hands I could play some poker with and I started to hit some of the flops. Friday I finished 1st and Sunday 2nd. Only the weekly tournaments at our local Casino - not big championship games but not bad payouts and not only am I back into positive equity for the month I have a nice profit.

Just remember negative swings in luck do happen to every player. Try not to let it get to you and don’t ‘push’ trying to win your money back. You’re not the only player out there it’s happening too (just feels like it at the time). Eventually it will end and you will start to get your fair share of playable hands and good flops for your cards.

Luck is just statistics and it does even out eventually, so with good play and good management of your bankroll you will be able to ride the bad times and make up for it in the good times. Good play will always be a pay off.



Linda Iwaniak
UK Ladies Open Poker Champion

Discussion with Senator D'Amato

Recently Woman Poker Player was invited to listen in to the Webcast with Poker Player Alliance Senator Al D'Amato and the president of the PPA Michael Bolcerek. There were some great points made that are the basis of the PPA and could help bring poker back to the internet legally by allowing us to deposit and make playing online poker in the US easier for all that enjoy the game.

1. The Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act of 2006 was literally passed in the middle of the night and was never open to debate or consideration. The Act was added to a bill to safeguard US ports from terrorist attacks. The bill itself was important to pass. The addition of the the UIGE was a sneaky attempt by some of our elected representatives to create the beginnings of internet gambling prohibition.

2. The law excludes Horse racing, state lotteries and betting on fantasy sports. Poker players are being discriminated against by the government.

3. Legitimate poker sites are being chased out of the US to be replaced by more unscrupulous poker outlets coming in.

4. One of the issues being brought up in the debate of online poker is that teenagers have easier access. If the US can regulate online poker there is plenty of technology to prohibit teenagers and minors from having attmittance to the online sites. Senator D'Amato used prohibition as an example. When prohibition was in effect people found alcohol anyway. It opened up underground clubs, dangerous conditions, people were drinking anything including poisonous substances.

5. The US is losing over $3 billion in revenue. Many of the online poker rooms have agreed that they would pay US taxes if they were able to do business in the US.

6. The UK and other countries are supervising the online poker rooms. There is no reason why the US cannot do the same.

7. The United States has already been found in breach of the trade accords set by the WTO for keeping other countries from competing with the US. If the US continues to take this stance on online gambling there are likely to be more sanctions.

8. Many diabled and senior citizens enjoy the sport of poker. Many do not have the means to go to legal land based poker rooms. They are being discriminated against by the UIGE.

The PPA and Senator D'Amato encourage all poker players to continue writing their elected officials. Remember, we elected them, we dont have to do it again.

You can hear more about the conference at the Poker Players Alliance website

So...you got a job yet?

Although I would never class myself as a professional poker player, it’s really all that I do now to earn money. What started out as fun nights out after work has slowly developed into my passion.

After we sold our business, I was left with a great deal of time on my hands and I went back to work doing temporary work as an accountant. Not being experienced in the SOX legislation and being out of the profession a few years, it was extremely difficult to get a job that paid enough to warrant going back to work fulltime. I was playing poker more and more between assignments. I was making more money playing cards than I was on the temporary assignments and I didn’t have to deal with the way temps are treated by co-workers. After much soul searching and discussion with my husband, we decided that I wouldn’t go back to work and just play poker fulltime. His paycheck covered our expenses and allowed me the flexibility to pursue this venue. Thanks to premade frozen dinners or double meals made, there is usually dinner for the family on the nights that I’m not home. I set myself a goal of earnings each week but met with much up and down success. In January, I took a poker camp, which turned on a “light” for me and I’ve had more consistent success ever since.

Unfortunately, my husband was let go 2 months ago and the safety net that I’ve always had was gone! Senior management positions are fewer and we both know that it may take awhile before he returns to work. The onus is now on me to provide income. This is a task much easier said than done. I had to get past….”my family is depending on me….don’t lose your money”….thoughts streaming through my mind. I must admit that I’ve tightened up my playing style but I try to push these thoughts away while playing. “Just play the game, think each hand through before you act”, this is what I concentrate on . I keep meticulous win/loss/expense records for our beloved IRS, which also allows me to track my own progress through the months. It has taken the pressure off of my husband and thus, lowered any related tensions. I know he is very proud of how well I am doing and has told me so many times.

Every time that I phone back home and talk to my father, he always asks “Do you have a job yet”, though I’ve told him several times what I do. “No, Dad” I answer, with a sigh. Maybe when I win the WSOP……….

When Expectations Fail

Two weeks ago I planned a much needed poker trip to Mount Pleasant, a two-hour drive from my home. After a busy month I was looking forward to some alone time with some poker thrown in. I signed up for the end of the month tournament. It was $175.00 for 5000 in starting chips with thirty-minute rounds. The blinds did double instead of increasing slowly but I am used to this structure. 180 players entered.

I arrived a day early so that I could play some limit poker. I haven’t played live limit poker in ages. It didn’t go well at all. Hands such as K2 off suit etc called my raises. I would flop two pair and lose to rivered flushes and straights. You know how it goes. Sometimes you can’t buy a hand. After losing my buy-in I decided to take a break. I played another session in the evening and lost that one pretty much the same way as the first. I could not get any of my good hands to hold up. I was starting to get frustrated and impatient. I didn’t want to go on tilt before the tournament so I called it a night.

The next day started out much better. I was pleased to see a few women in the tournament, especially as it was on a Friday morning. I had a slow start in the chip building. I was moved a few times and nothing exciting to report for the first four levels. After the second break I was beginning to get short stacked when I got KK in the small blind and my all-in was called by QQ. My hand held up and I doubled my chip stack. I was moved after that hand again. Nothing much to report at the new table, I didn’t get many playable cards. After the next level I was moved again. I was really short stacked by this time I only had ten times the big blind. I got lucky though and had a table that was very tight. I had four players behind me who were tighter than me. If all of the players before me would fold I would raise four times the big blind to get the tight players to fold. They did and I stole the blinds three hands in a row.

I won a couple of hands out right and increased my stack to 21,000 with levels at 2000/4000. They paid out 20 places and at this time we got down to twenty-two players. An older gentleman in early position made a standard raise. Everyone folded to me in middle position. I have AK clubs. I have the raiser covered and all of the tight players behind me covered as well. I decide to go all in and the raiser calls me. He has 33 and his hand holds up. I am out in 22nd place. At the time I felt that I played the hand well. After talking to my husband and women on the forum, I think I could have played it better. The gentleman who called my all-in had stated when he first sat down that he knocked out two people by calling an all-in with pocket twos. I wasn’t worried about a call but I was pretty sure it would be a race. If I had just re raised him another 4000 he may have folded before the flop. He would still have 9000 in chips if he folded the hand and almost another round to pick up better cards. He may still have called but by just re raising him 4000 I would represent a stronger hand and be inviting him to call me.

I was not going to fold into the money. I feel that my game has improved enough to always play to win a tournament not just to get some of my investment back. I came home disappointed but still happy with my play. Sometimes our expectations don’t always come true but I think we should still keep them high.
Lisa "Shion" Torres

In the beginning…

First, I just wanted to thank you all for contributing to the blog. Whether you are reading the blog or writing for it…you all contribute so much to it and I look forward to taking it further. I think it will be a very useful tool for women who play poker to be able to relate to the stories, hands and general poker information that it contains.

WPC is the brainchild of Maryann Morrison also known as Goddess. When she started playing poker she saw the number of women in poker growing but saw no place for women to get together with out the hassles of men cajoling and teasing them out of the game. She wanted to create a safe haven for women of all walks of life, all levels of play and mostly women who wanted to share their passion for poker with others who felt the same. Thus, Women’s Poker Club was born and from it more chances for women to compete in poker.

My beginnings on WPC were pretty typical. The very first freeroll tournament that WPC hosted was on Feb 25 of 2004 on the now defunct Jet Set. It was a freeroll and opened to any woman who wanted to play. All you had to do was join the forum. I thought it would be a fun tournament and loved the idea of women only. The women only part did not last very long. With in hours of the announcement of the freeroll the men of Jet Set decided it would be a good idea to play….I think they figured women were easy money. I am happy to say not one of them got to the cash. A problem remained however, the men had to go. There was no sense in having a women’s only club if the men could not leave it alone. A number of safeguards including requesting ID from some and the threat of being added to the bodies in my basement were then put into place to ensure that men had a harder time getting in. Many women grumbled and there are still a few who do when they come into the club but it is necessary to the integrity of the club and to us all that these safeguards are in place.

WPC grew very rapidly and hit 1000 members by August 2004. With the growth of WPC came its share of “publicity” in the poker rooms. Most of us had “WPC” in our mouse overs or added to our user names on the poker sites. WPC as a whole became thought of as a group of men haters. Which was the furthest thing from the truth. There was and still is very little man bashing that goes on at the club. There are of course rants about a bad beats by men or discussions about the way women are treated at the hands of men at the tables and a few men jokes. But not much more than that. We showed anyone who had that train of thought differently by the way we played and the way we supported one another at the tables. It was not long before we were feared at the tables versus looked down upon. I see none of that now…as a whole we have become a respected part of the poker community.

WPC now has over 3,600 members; we are still winning online and live. I have seen beginning players come on to WPC with very little experience and have seen their confidence grow to take part in major tournaments, many times cashing in them. I have seen the support of the club and poker itself responsible for many successes in the lives of these women in and out of poker. Confidence, focus and vision are key in their personalities now.

I look back at the very beginning of WPC and compare it to the great community it has become with awe. I am proud and honored to be a part of such a great society of women. Thank you to you all for all you have contributed to WPC and to me personally. And thank you Goddess for your tireless efforts in keeping WPC a place for us all to share and grow on and off the felt.

Ladies, we have come so far together and have so far to go. I look forward to taking the small steps and the huge leaps with each and every one of you.

Back into Poker

Well I know i have been a little remiss about blogging but yesterday was the first day i have played poker in over 2 weeks. I played 3 small tournaments yesterday 5.50, 11.00 and 8.80 at UB, Pokerstars and FT respectively. In all 3 i busted out before the money. But as in life, tomorrow was another day. I ran some errands and ate lunch and settled in for an evening of poker.

I played 4 tournaments thursday 4/26. The first was a 5.50 tourney on full-tilt. Nothing too remarkable in the tourney, i got my money in with the worst of it 2 times. 99 vs JJ and AQ vs Ak and that was that.

I also played the 5.50 rebuy tournament on Pokerstars. Again the Total prizepool was greater than their 25k guarantee. I ended up spending 27$ in the tournament and near the end of the rebuy i had 14,000+ in chips. i proceeded to make my way through the huge 1847 player field. The big hands were coming, but i could'nt seem to get paid off. AA, KK, and QQ all got me the blinds and little else,even though people would call all their chips with JT and A8, i could not take any big pots. Then came the Quads.....I limped in from early position with TT and got 3 callers for a pot of 550. the Flop came Tc Ts 8c......i flopped quads and since there was a flush draw i figured i'd bet and hope someone would come over the top. Stupid idea on my part, the Check was the right play, but i got caught up in the rebuy mindset. I should have checked and let someone catch up and then they would have pushed. I sat dumbfounded on why i had bet out for the rest of the rebuy period.

When the real tournament started i had 21K and i hit enough hands to get close to the money bubble and then i tightened up. I finally made a move with 260 players left and the blinds increasing. The 244th-342nd paid 32.61....but i wanted much more.....i played aggresive as each new bubble came. I got all my chips in with 77 AK and 88 and survuved each race, but i finally went out when my TT could'nt dodge a river King for my opponents AK. I found a way to make a super bubble spot for myself as i was the 127th player out. It paid 47.10...126 and only 126 paid 50.72 and 100th-125 paid 50.73 LOL all that playing and i wanted the extra 3.62 and that damn extra penny LOL.

The Ultimatebet 6.50 bounty tournament was another bubble for me...there were 316 players and only the top 4o were paid. I managed to get my last 4300 all in with pocket red Aces and lost to JJ when my opponent hit 4 clubs on the board to make a Jack high flush.

My last hope for a big win was the Full-Tilt 19:01 22k guarantee tourney......I used my one and only 75$ token to enter this tournament and it must have been my lucky token. LEt's just say that in the first 2 hours i hit alot of flops and i got 2 "get out of Jail" cards when i got all my money in with 99 versus an oppents QQ and i rivered a nine, then i got QQ in the big blind and a table bully raised and i re-raised all-in. When his cards appeared i was devastated. He had AA.....arrgghh! I then got another huge river suckout when my beautiful lady came. At 9:30 pm i was in 3rd place with 80 players left. We started with 375 players and only the top 35 got paid so i was in good shape, but very nervous. At 10:10 pm i was in 7th place when the money bubble burst. At 10:30 i had fallen to 14th with 27 left. I had to push all-in about 14 times in the last 2 hours and i had 3 hands hold up: KK vs QQ and JJ vs 87 on a 856 board and finally AA vs 77. A few hands later i flopped a queen high flush and i got paid off and was in first place with 16 players left.

I had145K in chips and i had visions of the 6K+ first place dancing in my head.....but that all went away when i got KK. Somehow KK had always been a danger premium hand for me. I got one caller when i made it 5x the big blind to go. I was trying to entice someone to think i had small pair and instead i got called by another large stack with QQ....she hit the wueen right on the flop and i was down to under 50,000. The next hour and a half is a blur of push and pray and watching each person getting knoked out until the final table started. At the final table i was in 7th palce with 83K and with only 2 people with less i was in trouble. 4 hands in and one short stack gone and i was so happy. Then another short stack gone on AJ vs 99 and there were only 7 left. I doubled up from the big stack with KQ vs A7 and another elimination and now we were talking some serious money. The next half hour was raise and fold and consolidating by the 3 big stacks who had 200, 320 and 417k. My 76K never looked so small....with the big blind at 10K and an AQ in my hand i went all in when a large stack raised. Unfortunately she had KK and alas no Ace for me. I went out in 4th place for 2,393.44. My biggest Cash ever. I write this now and the adrenaline is still coursing through my body. I don't know when i'll get to sleep :)
Cya at the Tables,
Lara L.
LLM at Full-tilt and UB
LLMVT at pokerstars

A Different World

Two short years ago, my image of a poker room was of a smoky, poorly lit back-room where the exits were flanked by hulking, dangerous men. While it may seem that these opinions are archaic, these beliefs were held by a thirty-two year old woman.

When I met my boyfriend, Michael, he told me that he and his family played poker on a regular basis. Whereas other families sat around fireplaces singing Christmas carols and reveling in past holiday celebrations, his family sat around the freshly cleared dining room table, brought out their cash, and played poker. I could only wonder what type of family this was? What type of man was I choosing to date? What type of element was I exposing my son to?

My first visit to a poker room was a shocking experience. The sheer amount of people in this well-lit environment, playing this game of chance was overwhelming to me. The tremendous buzz of voices combined with the sound of chips being clicked made me develop an incredible headache. I asked my boyfriend how he could stand the noise, and he said he didn’t know what I was talking about.

Figuring he would probably be bored in about an hour, I reasoned it would not be that bad. While watching, I couldn’t understand why anyone would choose to spend hours playing such a boring game. I mean, he kept giving his cards to the dealer - he wasn’t even playing! Instead of leaving, he bought me some Motrin, and had a floor person bring me a chair. I decided this would be my only trip to a casino.

This happened many more times, and although I never left the house to go to the casino without Motrin in my purse, the noise did get a little more tolerable. Out of sheer boredom, I started to ask him questions about why he was doing certain things. Why do you put your cards down without playing? When you keep the cards, why do you put something on top of them? How do you know when it is your turn?

I listened while he and his friends discussed their bad beats, how their Aces were cracked by gut-shots, their sets got sucked out by the river flush, and the guy who called even though he couldn’t beat the board. I nodded politely and pretended to understand this world with a language all its own. I couldn’t understand how they could remember all five of the cards that were in the middle of the table as well as the order when they were put down, or why it mattered.

We watched poker on television, and to my own surprise, I started to enjoy watching. I enjoyed their various personalities, and tried to understand why they would get angry or upset.

We traveled to Las Vegas on vacation, and I spent time by the pool during the day while Michael played poker for hours on end. We shared meals together, and visited the Hoover Dam. Every day, he would win money playing poker, and then he would play Blackjack with me in the evening. Every night he would lose money he had won playing poker, while I would walk away from the tables a winner.

While we were in Vegas, the WSOP Main Event was just beginning. We visited the Rio on the first and third day. The adrenaline in the room was palpable and the buzz of voices and chips were overwhelming. I searched the room for familiar faces from television and was so excited with my first glimpse of a poker celebrity. It was Chris “Jesus” Ferguson walking out of the poker room.

It was this trip, in July, 2005 Michael decided it was time to teach me to play this mysterious game. Upon our return I became a fierce student. In addition to playing I read every poker book that I could get my hands on. One was a book dedicated to poker slang so I would understand what I was reading and what people were saying.

Less than two years later poker has become a part of my life. Now I am the one expressing interest to go to the casino. And while Michael is patiently waiting to leave, I am saying “Let me play one more round”. I have discovered a competitive nature that I never knew I had and have parlayed this competitiveness to final tables in many tournaments. I too, can describe and analyze how I won or lost a hand.

My image and perception of poker rooms have changed as well. My nine-year-old son is planning his twenty-first birthday celebration in Vegas. Then he will have the opportunity to play poker in a poker room with his mom. This past Christmas he won his first $7.00 playing poker around the dining room table. I don’t know who was more proud – my son, myself, or my teacher.

By Kerri PKR Stroming

To Talk or Not to Talk

Are you the quiet one at the table or the noisy one? What does table chatter at the poker table really mean? What can we learn from all the noise and nonsense that surrounds us as we try to play poker?

I am normally a quiet person until I get to know you and then I never shut up. When I first started playing poker I was very quiet, hardly saying a word. I had many reasons for this, part of it was my over all shyness in new situations, some it was nervousness and part was because I was trying to pay attention and not embarrass myself.

As time went on and my confidence rose I thought about opening myself up by joining in the table chatter. I could not get comfortable with the bragging, exaggerating and out right ego stroking that was going on. Maybe that is one of the many differences between men and women. Men use words at the poker table to boost themselves up like a peacock fluffing up its feathers. Women are more modest and quiet by nature.

How important is all of this talk and how much am I losing out if I don’t join in? You can get information from people when they talk. You can also get information from them when they don’t so I think its up to your comfort level.

I have tired to find other poker players with a style similar to mine so that I could learn from watching them. I put myself in the same category as Dan Harrington, Allen Cummingham, Chris Ferguson and Greg Fossilman. I used to think that you had to be in the middle of the table talk to be accepted by the players. I now know that this is not true. I don’t have to change the basic me to be competitive at poker, especially when playing with men. I can be aggressive and quiet at the same time.

I definitely observe all of the table chatter around me. You can pick up tells from other players. In general I find that the players come in the following groups:

Whiner: A player who spends most of their time whining about all of the bad beats they suffered. They are easy to put on tilt.

Bragger: The ones who brag about their car, house, money, women etc have a big ego and are aggressive. This can be exploited because they do not want to lose to a woman and find it hard to lay down their hand. If you can show one bluff against them they too can be easily titled.

Loose: This is a player who is there to have a good time. A lot of time they are drinking and playing with their buddies. They will make statements such as “lets gamble”, “I know it’s a bad call but what the hell I came to play”. They are usually the players who will straddle to induce action. Patience is the key to taking down this player. They do tend to suck out more often or so it seams but if your hand holds up you will win a larger than normal pot. Finding the big hands to push hard with is important. Let this player lead the way to the bank when you have the nuts.

Lastly what I consider my style, the quiet player. Because I am quiet at the table I generally establish a tight image whether I am getting hands or not. I can use this to my advantage even when I am card dead by making well timed bluffs or semi bluffs. To help counter my tight image I will try to be very aggressive when I am in a pot. I don’t want to appear so tight that every time I raise a hand everyone folds. You can’t make money if no one will play with you. On the flip side I give the same credit to players of similar style unless they prove otherwise.

You don’t have to participate in table chatter for it to be of benefit to you. Let how much you talk it up be based on your comfort level.

Lisa "Shion" Torres

St. Louis Girl - April 22, 2007

Another week has passed and I’ve had some interesting hands, most were a blur.

It’s funny when you sit down to write about your experiences, the ones that stand out most in my mind are the ones that you lose. I try to pay attention so that I can learn from my mistakes, missteps and maybe just wishful thinking. I had a good week, so I’m happy with the overall results, but I know I can do better.

The first hand: (I am playing 2/5 NL HE cash games for all hands)
The aggressive player, two seats to my left, makes a preflop raise to $20 on my BB, two callers before me and I see a 6,7 diamonds for my hand. I call. The flop comes out 6,7, 2 rainbow and I check. The preflop raiser makes it $40 and everyone folds around to me. I raise to $100. He hesitates and calls. On the turn, a J diamonds comes out and I bet $100. He looks at his chips, hesitates and then goes all-in. Sigh. What do I do! I have top 2 pr and now a diamond draw on the turn. It’s another $170 to me. Did the turn give him trips, maybe he had trip 2s already? With no flush or straight possibility on board and a pot of $530, I call the raise. He turned over an open-ended straight draw with a 4,5 OS. I felt pretty good, for all of 10 seconds, until a 3 of clubs hits on the river. With a sheepish grin, he stacks the pot. Burning inside, I tap the table and say “nice hand”. The table moves on to the next hand. I waited a few hands, so that I didn’t let him know he was getting to me, and I went for a walk around the casino to regather my concentration. This usually means that I go pump $5 into a penny slot machine. Back to the table, in recovery mode and the game continues.

Another interesting hand:
I don’t recall ever seeing this before and I have no idea what the odds of it happening are, but here goes: The player two seats to my left (not same person from last example) raises preflop to $20, 3 people call before me, and I look down and see pocket 7s. I call. The flop comes out 3,7,8 with 2 clubs. The preflop raiser makes it $100 to go. I’m assuming that he has an over pair and wants to take the hand down now. One caller is before me. With trip 7s and a straight and flush possibility on board, I re-raised to $300. To my surprise, both players called immediately. On the turn, comes another club – Queen, the first player checks the second player goes all-in for his remaining $125. I can’t possibly fold at this point, if he has a flush, he has a flush and I’ll be paying him off. Maybe the river will pair the board. The other player calls also. The river is no help to me and I check. Fortunately, so does the other player. We all turn over our cards. Trip 3s for the all-in player, trip 7s for me and...trip 8s for the last player!! The whole table stared in amazement. Of course, all I saw was the $1,300 going to someone else. After all the excitement died down, I realized how lucky I was. I would have gone all-in on the turn, had the club not arrived. Count your blessings, right? I hope that I never see that hand again, unless of course, I am the one with the trip 8s. Ha Ha.

Next blog, I’d like to talk a little about how poker playing has affected my home life . .. Bye ‘til then.

How I got started

I have been playing poker for about 3 years now. I started in home games with family and friends. I shared the buy ins with my sister-in-law Lynne. I think everyone thought we really didn't add up to 1/2 a player with our knowledge of poker, so they allowed us to be one. We'd whisper in each others ears what we thought we should do when our cards were dealt. At first we would ask questions about what we needed help with and everyone was friendly but then after a few games and no improvement they said if you want to play spend time learning away from the table. Lynne would leave the table and socialize in the kitchen and leave me to play by myself. This made me nervous because I was playing with her money and I didn't want to lose it. So that started me questioning my husband about hands and position and folding and raising and so on. I was showing improvement and by this time and Lynne wasn’t making to the games and I started to play by myself. I was really b becoming a competitive force at the table.

My husband and I share poker as an interest and he is very supportive and good at coaching me. At one point I was really worn down physically and my husband was adamant about us not going to the Saturday poker night at my brothers. He wanted me to stay home and rest after working all day. He was right but of course I was longing for poker. What I didn't know was that he had signed us up and made a deposit on a poker site. All of a sudden missing Saturday poker night wasn’t so bad. My first really big win was when I was playing on pacific poker. They sent me $10 to play on their site and I turned that into around $977. OMG what a rush.....I remember the movie Rocky was playing in the background. How ironic! I've had many more winnings since then but never quite that surreal. Oh wait, maybe the APLady $1k shopping spree.... what woman doesn't like a shopping spree!

I work on my game everyday; I am trying to take myself to the next level. My focus has been off the past year, my Mom was battling lung cancer. She lost the battle, but lately I feel her presence in me so strong, it’s like I feel her strength helping me change my game for the better. I love playing on the internet. I am shy and not very confident so I think it's been good for me to be able to work on my game and build that confidence right in my own home.

But this month I found out our local casino has a ladies night every third Thursday. There aren't any women in the area that I know that really know how to play so I just took a deep breath and went...

Next first my B&M experience.

dizzi :) aka dizziartist, dizzi_artist, dizzinonna

Lessons Learned

In February 2007 my grandfather passed away after living a long (age 93), happy life. One of my favorite memories of my grandfather was being taught how to play Gin at the age of eleven. Both of my grandparents loved to play cards, Gin Rummy and Pinochle being their favorites. The first thing I had to learn was how to hold eleven cards in one hand. “You have to learn how to play a game before you can become good at it”, said my grandfather. It took lots of fumbling and dropped cards for my small hands to control. But I did it because I wanted to play the game. For the next year I would bug my grandfather to play Gin with me at Christmas, Birthdays and Summer Vacations. After a year of playing and losing I finally beat my grandfather at a game of Gin Rummy. I was so happy. I smiled for weeks.

My grandmother also played cards. She would play Pinochle every Sunday. I never learned this game but I did learn other things from her. For as long as I can remember I would have to get pots and pans from the bottom cupboard at her house. She had arthritis and couldn’t bend down. She never complained but I knew that it was painful for her. She taught about quiet strength. In a recent conversation with my mom she told me that my grandmother loved to play cards and was a constant winner. They played for small stakes back then. She said that my grandmother would be proud of me.

Last Fall I joined a poker club. We play every other Saturday at a private home. I have recently been trying to focus on one area of weakness in my game each week. This time I wanted to concentrate on betting patterns. I am pretty good at changing my betting patterns but weak in recognizing patterns in others. I chose to observe one person who I believe had bluffed me off a couple of hands earlier in the game. After watching him I noticed that he seemed to play the “board”. Frequently he would show a weaker hand than what he was betting.

I decided to re raise him after he bet on a board that showed a flush draw. I didn’t think he had the draw but that he was “representing” it. He called my raise. When a blank came on the turn he checked and I bet three fourths of the pot, he folded. A couple of hands later he was in the small blind, I was in the big blind. He called, I raised, and I wasn’t playing my cards at this point but my opponent. He called my raise. The flop showed a straight and flush draw. He bet, I raised and he called. He wasn’t known for re raising or going all-in so I felt safe trying to push him off his hand. The turn was a blank. I bet he called. I thought he may have a small pair at this time or thought that I was on the draw only. River brought another blank. He checked I bet and after thinking for a few seconds he folded.

Later the same type of hand came up but we had a player between us. I had a pair of kings on a board of A K Q 10 8. I didn’t think he had the J or any of the board because he would check raise when he had a strong hand rather than just call. He did bet. I threw my hand away because I had a good player behind me. The other player folded too and the bettor showed a pair of threes. He didn’t change his betting pattern after hours of play.

Lisa "Shion" Torres

St. LouisGirl - First Post

Starting your first blog is a difficult thing. So, let’s begin with a little about my life.

I play a lot of poker – 3 days a week live and “whenever” on the internet. I much prefer live – the interaction with the other players, the joking, the discussions, trying to see that little tell which gives away their hand and mostly, the feel of the real chips as you rake them in.

I usually play 2/5 NL HE cash games, with the odd foray into the Omaha arena. But I do have a love for tournament play. It’s a great equalizer. Tournaments allow you the ability to play your game. There is no big stack coming into your table, at least not at the beginning. So, I do play in the local tournaments once or twice a week, no big buy-ins. They allow you to practice, practice, practice…getting ready for the big tournaments – WSOP satellites and the big events in Vegas.

For now … cash games pay more. I live in the St. Louis area (bet you knew that already). There are only a few casinos there and fewer still that have poker rooms. I find myself most days at Harrah’s and sometimes over at Ameristar. I can hardly wait for the new casino to open downtown. It’s supposed to have a larger poker room which is very exciting and it’s much closer to home also. I travel to Tunica, MS on occasion and twice yearly to Vegas.

I’m married, 3 grown children and looking at the end of my 40s, with dismay. It’s no longer necessary to get kids off to school, worry about daycare or after school activities. I worked for years as an accountant and owned my own business for several years as well. I’m no longer in the 9-5 lifestyle, so I have the freedom to play late hours and sleep until noon. I usually arrive at the casino around 2 -3 in the afternoon and play until …. well sometimes I’m there until closing - 4:15 a.m.

For future blogs, I’ll probably discuss certain hands as they play out, mood at the table and how this lifestyle affects my homelife.
Bye for now . . .

St LouisGirl

The Poker Player

She was just a woman. Hardly made of rock.
Wife, mother career woman – made of ordinary stock
But, somehow she was different – true players always are –
She took the beats of the felt, she prided on the scars

She swore she would win, no matter what the cost.
So many times she endeavored forth; so many times she lost.
And when they said, “It’s OK, you tried”,
She shook the hands of the winners and by herself she cried.

But from her tears came courage, that never ceased to spin,
She rose again, determined that the next time, she would win.
Her game steadily strengthened; her heart soared toward the sky,
Her determination toughened. She had fire in her eyes.

And so she practiced relentlessly; she struggled and she played,
Her conscience beat her painfully for every mistake she made.
She practiced online, she practiced live, and then she practiced more.
She’d tell herself, “I have to”, and then ask herself, “What for?”

It suddenly was ended. The silence seemed to shatter.
A crowd was cheering in the distance, but to her, it didn’t matter.
There was one thing she was thinking – a thought that made her smile;
She had given all he had, and that’s what made it worthwhile.

She stood and faced her sisters, with pride instead of shame.
She knew not that she’d won the final hand, but that she’d played the game.
And some call her a poker player, and some call her a woman,
But she called herself a winner…
As the bracelet touched her hand.

Amy Zupko