Hello and welcome to my new poker blog.  Here you will find my fortunes and misfortunes as I travel through the world of Professional Poker.  Hopefully you will hear more about my fortunes than my bad beats.  I would like to first thank Lupe Soto of LIPS for putting the call out for women poker bloggers.  I am just getting started on the circuit, so I found this very inviting to write about it at the same time. 

I have been playing poker now for 5 years.  My fabulous hubby said it was time for me to start taking it to a whole new level.  See, I use to be a top Real Estate Agent for a huge company in Orange County.  With the market the way it is, I had to do the only other thing I know how to do to make money and that’s Poker folks.  I am going to give you a quick run down of how it’s been for me the last few weeks.  

On April 8th (Tuesday)-My dlh (darling loving hubby) woke up and decided on a whim to stake me for the WPT Ladies Championship.  Now mind you I have only played in a couple of daily tourneys at local casinos and a few cash games, but my dlh thought I had what it takes.  Excited about the opportunity I quickly tried to figure it all out.  I was signed up to go to a WPT Bootcamp the following weekend.  I thought it would have been more cost effective to do it after the Bootcamp, but dlh said go for it.  So, I did.  I emailed Linda Johnson “The First Lady of Poker” to ask for some advice.  Believe it or not she called me within an hour.  She said “Hello, this is Linda Johnson.”  My surprised response…”No it isn’t!”  And it was…she is the nicest person.  She invited me to her home the following Saturday for a party that she was having for the ladies.  Of course I said that I would be there.

On April 12th (Saturday)-I drove to Las Vegas from Orange County that day.  It’s about 4 to 4.5 hours for me to get to my house in LV.  I got there and got ready for the party.  Now everyone says Linda Johnson has more money than God, but you would have not known it with her modest home.  It was in a guard gated community on a golf course with a front yard view of the strip.  Linda’s home is a museum to Poker.  All of her walls are covered in memoriable with every big name in poker.  I esspecially loved her huge photo with Doyle Brunson.  I stayed for a few hours and met all the ladies.  Clonie Gowen, (who I think I am related to by marriage somehow because Gowen is my maiden name), JJ Liu, Jan Hansen, Kathy and Kelly were our speakers for the evening.  Clonie made a huge impression on me.  We spoke quite a bit and what I got out of it…it’s not about the cards…it’s all about the people.  Her big thing was she didn’t like to hear the words “card dead.”  She says there is no such thing.  It was really a great learning experience and I also met Lupe there.  The support system that these ladies have is out of this world.  I am glad to say I am becoming a part of that circle.

On April 13th (Sunday)-WPT Ladies Championship at the Bellagio…talk about every woman in poker being there…I even heard Jennifer Tilly was there, but didn’t see her.  I looked around my table and figured alright this looks like an interesting bunch…until the bomb dropped on me right before the tourney started.  A lady stood up to hand out some Tiffany braclets to previous winners on the circuit.  They called for Vanessa Selbst, the winner of the LAPT at the Commerce.  I just saw her photo on a few days before, but didn’t recognize her at the table until the braclet was given to her.  Oh crap…I thought…here I thought I was going to play with others more on my level…not a proven champ.  I was so nervous that I had to hide my shaking hands underneath the table.  Needless to say, my pocket Queens got cracked by the pocket Kings early on…so short stacked I shoved twice all in….once with pocket 10’s against A10 and a straight hit the board…so chop….second time I had A3…against Vanessa’s AJ…I got a 3 on the flop, but she hit the Jack on the River…so I was out. 

After sulking and hanging around the Bellagio for a couple more hours I decided to go home.  I lost my favorite hat at the Bellagio…It’s black with diamond skull and cross bones with “Dead Men Tell No Tales” embroided on the side…also it had a diamond “Winner” pin in the middle…I have called Lost and Found at Bellagio 3 times now, but no luck…figured someone thought those diamonds were real…but they are not…lol…Check back here later so I can tell you later how I won my $1590 buy-in back the same night, but at The Orleans nightly tourney…that I won with no chop.

May the Poker Gods shine their luck on you!

Melissa aka Athena8

 

We have the same taste in clothes.

She looks great and I love her hat.

Sorry Kathy…I don’t know if it’s with a C or a K…

She is so nice and a cancer survivor..you go girl!!

The nicest woman you will ever meet…thank you again Linda!!