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