About Famous Female Poker Players

From the early 1800s, the movies and television shows captured the heart of the old western days by having scenes of men engaged in playing poker. No western show was complete without the poker game inside the saloon where women were very seldom allowed unless they worked there as entertainment for the men. Down through the years, poker was known as a man's game that a woman would not be interested in, but women were taking notes. It was during that same century that women rose up to the challenge of playing the casino game of poker, and became good at it.

Poker Alice Ivers

Born in 1851, Alice was a wiz at dealing the cards and winning poker games all over the West. This is how she earned her nickname. Her original home was Devonshire, England, but she moved with her family to the states in 1863. She was out west in Colorado where she married her husband. He was an avid poker player, and Alice would join him at the tables. After he died, Alice started using her poker talents to make a living for herself. She played poker across the United States and did well during her entire lifetime. She played poker and smoked cigars until she died in 1930.

Mayme Stocker

Mayme moved to Las Vegas with her husband following the railroad industry and made that their permanent home. She opened the Northern Club which was a soda shop where gambling later took place. All kinds of poker games were played there. When gambling became legal in Nevada, Mayme was the first to obtain her license to have legalized gambling at her establishment. This set the precedent for all of the other gambling spots in Vegas where poker is still one of the most popular features.

Barbara Enright

In the more recent era, Barbara Enright is one of the greats at playing poker. When she was in her twenties, she was holding down three jobs, and playing poker for fun. She soon realized that she was making more money playing poker than she was at her other jobs combined. She started playing poker full time which jump-started her career. Reaching the final table at the World Series of Poker, but she became the first woman to do it in 1995, and she finished fifth. She continued on to win three World Series of Poker bracelets and was the first woman to be inducted into the World Series of Poker Hall of Fame in that same year. She is also a Hall of Famer in three other poker events, and her career still goes strong to this day.

Annie Oakley

This famous woman is remembered as one who can shoot many holes is a playing card before it hits the ground. Not much is known about her skills at poker, but it is speculated that with all of her interaction with playing cards, she must have played a hand or two of the game. Born in 1860, Annie was around for the wild days of saloon gambling, and may have accepted may challenge to play.

Today, the game of poker is played by both women and men. Many of the worldwide poker tournaments have women exhibiting their skills and talent for the game. It would be accurate to say that poker is definitely not a man's game only anymore. The table games at casinos are not gender-specific as people can see that both sexes are well represented. Women are good at the game and can be a much better attraction at the opposite end of the poker table.