Las Vegas Showgirls do Poker

It is June 23, 2006 and Bambi Darlin and Candi Kane are relaxing by their pool discussing their next assignment for Goddesschess. Bambi is reading to Candi...

Bambi: Candi, listen to this...according to Needham(1) playing cards, dominos and Mah Jong all originated in China, and developed from Dice. And then there is this article, which is also very interesting, "Chinese Origin of Playing Cards" by W.H. Wilkinson(2).

Candi: Dice...we just did an article about Dice and the connection to chess and the Goddess... "4-3-2 Goddess" . And now we discovered a connection between Dice and Cards...cool.

Bambi: Cards...people have been playing gambling games since the dawn of time. Man's ability to invent new forms of amusement out of old forms never ceases to amaze me.

Candi: Yes, invention certainly seems inherent within the species.

Bambi: Well said - oh, I see you're wearing those glasses again!

Candi: You know they make me feel intelligent, like Marilyn Monroe in "How To Marry a Millionaire."

Bambi: The topic of cards will make a fascinating article, but we need a hook...Cards... Poker! The history of poker is fascinating. Candi, did you know that historians can't even agree on how the name "poker" originated?(3) We need to talk to an expert on poker, one who knows about women who play poker professionally.

Candi: I have an idea! We should interview Georgia! She has been a professional dealer, a croupier, in Las Vegas for about 30 years.

Bambi: Great thinking, Candi!! Those glasses really work well. Let's call Georgia and invite her over for supper, and we'll ask her some questions about poker and the "World Series of Poker" that starts on June 25th.

Later that evening... Georgia Albert of the Goddesschess Partnership, Candi and Bambi are relaxing in the back garden, which has a gorgeous view of the Las Vegas Strip. They are sipping ice cold pink lemonade and eating poppy seed cakes as they talk about the "History of the World Series of Poker".

Georgia: If only Benny Binion had lived long enough to see how his Binion's Horseshoe Poker Tournament has become a multi-million dollar international event.

Bambi: Georgia, you have been in Las Vegas for about 30 years now, so you have seen the growth of poker over the years. Can you tell us a little about that?

Georgia: Poker had been a very important part of the casinos in Las Vegas since before I was born. When I arrived in Las Vegas in the 1970's, there were poker rooms in just about every casino. Then in the 1990's the corporate casinos, which are run by accountants, decided that poker was not profitable enough and they closed poker room after poker room. Only a very few poker rooms remained, until the 2003 World Series of Poker was broadcast on cable television. That's the one in which Chris Moneymaker made his miraculous win and took home his championship bracelet. Interest in poker exploded and the suits, sensing dollars to be made, began reopening the once-closed card rooms in all the major casinos.

Candi: Did you say bracelet? As in jewelry???

Georgia: Yes, a gold and diamond championship bracelet for the person who wins. A real Las Vegas work-of-art.

Candi: Have any women, I mean Goddesses, won a bracelet?

Georgia: Yes, the Academy Award nominated actress Jennifer Tilly won the 2005 Lady's Championship , and many other female players have won bracelets over the years in specialty tournaments.

Bambi: Georgia, do you think a woman could win the big Texas Hold'em tournament and win millions?

Georgia: Absolutely! I have been dealing tournaments for years now, and women play as well as men. More and more women are entering the $10,000 buy-in Hold'em tournament each year. It's just a matter of time until a Goddess wins.

Candi: Which Poker Goddesses do you think have a shot at winning this year?

Georgia: Well, let us look over the ten top-ranked women players...

Barbara Enright

Barbara Enright is an American professional poker player, motivational speaker, and Editor-in-Chief of Woman Poker Player magazine.
Enright began playing poker at home at the age of 4, playing five card draw against her older brother. She started playing in cardrooms in 1976. In the same year she was diagnosed as a sufferer of Lupus erythematosus.
Jennifer Harman
She won the prestigious deuce-to-seven no-limit draw title at the WSOP in 2000, overcoming a huge chip deficit heads up against prohibitive favorite Lyle Berman. That wasn’t the amazing part, though. She won that title having never played the game before! Talk about a natural.

Annie Duke
In 1991, while Duke was knee deep in doctorate research, she proposed marriage to an old friend, Ben Duke, packed up her life and research and left academia behind for Billings, CO. Living in romantic poverty with her husband, Duke began to play poker in local pokers rooms to pay the mortgage on their first home.

Kathy Liebert
Kathy Liebert’s name always comes up when the question of “best female poker player” arises. Now, it may be time to drop the female” denomination, and simply say she is one of poker’s “best players.” Period. Liebert made her case by winning the $1,500 buy-in Limit Hold’em Shootout event at the 2004 World Series of Poker. She officially received $110,180 for first place, along with her first gold bracelet. “Best poker players,” indeed.

Susie Isaacs
Over her many years of writing poker articles, Susie has authored more than 300 articles about poker, poker players and card games including articles for "Poker Digest". Susie Isaacs ranks seventeenth on the All Time Women's Money List. Susie has won two World Series of Poker bracelets.

Wendeen Eolis
Wendeen was the first woman at the final table of a major tournament. Wendeen was the 1st woman to finish in the money of the WSOP and she did it twice! Binion's Horseshoe WSOP issued a commemorative poker chip in her name and likeness awarding her contribution to "women's milestones" in the WSOP final event. Also, she is the only woman to win European Open No Limit event. She is a member of the Women's Poker Hall of Fame.

Cyndy Violette
In 2004, Cyndy finally achieved her dream of winning the 7 card stud high-low tournament of the World Series of Poker. She now can enjoy her World Series bracelet, the $135,900 in prize money, and the title as poker champion.

Isabelle Mercier
Isabelle was born in 1975 in Canada and obtained a law degree from the University of Montreal. She moved to Paris after practicing commercial law for a year and attended Sorbonne University. She pursued her Master's degree while she worked at the Aviation Club de France and poker grabbed and kept hold of her. She never returned to the practice of law.

Shirley Rosario
I worked four nights a week while going to school at L.A. Harbor College. I was taking my general education classes and was going to transfer to Cal State Long Beach and get my teaching credentials. I worked really hard for two years (even made the honor roll), but as soon as it was time to transfer, I changed my mind. I was making a lot of money in the casino and I knew that I would be taking a pay cut if I pursued a teaching career. I took a break from school so I could decide what I wanted to do with my life. It was during that time that I discovered poker.
Clonie Gowen
I started playing poker at age 15. My boyfriend and I used to play a lot of poker with his family. When I was 18 I came here to Las Vegas to play some black jack, I actually didn't know that you could play poker at the casinos, but I ended up playing poker instead and became hooked.

Candi: I didn't realize there were so many poker goddesses!

Georgia: Those are just a few of the moneymakers. Thousands of women play online, and women make up over 60% of the viewers of televised poker tournaments. With internet gambling sites becoming so popular and getting bigger every day, more and more women are learning to play poker, so in the years to come expect to see a large representation of women in international tournaments.

Bambi: Poker will never be the same.

Georgia: When casinos learn how to cater to women gamblers, which IMHO, has been lacking, they'll be great growth of ladies' poker tours.

Candi: Georgia, you haven't mentioned last year's Texas Hold'em champion, who won a record over $7,000,000.

Georgia: Dealers don't ever speak of him.

Candi: Why?

Georgia: He's a stiff! he won over $7 million and he didn't leave anything for the dealers, not one penny! Not even a penny for the dealer that dealt him the championship hand!

Bambi: Well, I sure wouldn't date a stiff like that. Greedy men make terrible boyfriends and bad lovers.

Candi: Yeh, real bad lovers!!

Georgia: I never thought of it that way, but I can see where you're coming from - selfish is as selfish does!

Bambi: Precisely. No woman in her right mind wastes time with a stiff.

Candi: We are going to be writing an article about this year's Tournament and we could really use your expertise, will you help us?

Georgia: I'd love to help you out with the next article.

Candi: Cool! Let's take a dip in the pool...

Bambi: Now that's an idea!

Footnotes:

(1) Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, Vol. 4: Part I, Physics and Physical Technology, Section 8 "The Magnet, Divination and Chess" at 328-9, Cambridge University Press, 1962, ISBN 0521058023.

(2) W. H. Wilkinson, The American Anthropologist, Volume VIII, January 1895, Pages 61-78, as transcribed at the University of Waterloo Elliott Avedon Museum and Archive of Games, http://gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca/Archives/Wilkinson/Wilkinson.html.

(3) For instance, at "The Real Deal," pokerpages.com , in an article "The History of Poker": "Jonathan H. Green makes one of the earliest written references to Poker in 1834. In his writing, Green mentions rules to what he called the "cheating game," which was then being played on Mississippi riverboats. He soon realized that his was the first such reference to the game, and since it was not mentioned in the current American Hoyle, he chose to call the game Poker". . . .

"The origin of the word Poker is also well debated. Most of the dictionaries and game historians say that it comes from an eighteenth-century French game, poque. However, there are other references to pochspiel, which is a German game. In pochspiel, there is an element of bluffing, where players would indicate whether they wanted to pass or open by rapping on the table and saying, "Ich Poche!" Some say it may even have derived come the Hindu word, pukka.

"Yet another possible explanation for the word poker, is that it came from a version of an underworld slang word, "poke," a term used by pickpockets. Cardsharps who used the 20-card cheating game to relieve a sucker from his poke may have used that word among themselves, adding an r to make it "poker." The thought was that if the sharps used the word "poker" in front of their victims, those wise to the underworld slang would not surmise the change.

"There are those who also believe that "poke" probably came from "hocus-pocus", a term widely used by magicians. The game of Poker later evolved to include 32 cards, and eventually the modern day deck of 52, not counting the two Jokers."