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