Female Poker Player

Texas Hold’em Poker is the most common poker game played in casinos across the world.  It is also the version most often played in professional poker tournaments.  If you watch a tournament on television – like the World Poker Championship – you can be reasonably certain that this is the game that’s being played.

Each Texas Hold’em poker game starts with a deck of fifty-two cards.  There is one dealer in every game.  In casinos, a dealer will never play their own hand.  At home, most players use a disk or round dealer button to designate who is the dealer.  The round disk is passed around the players as the game progresses to show who is acting as the dealer.

Usually a game of Texas Hold’em requires at least two players who are situated to the left of the official dealer.  Each game has its own minimum bet that is required for play, set by the players or the rules of the tournament.  This guarantees there is always a pot or prize to play for.  In most cases, the first player will put up or post half of the initial bet requirement.  This is often referred to as posting a blind.

After the initial minimum has been met, all players will be issued two cards.  The cards will remain face down and are called the hole cards.  At this point, the official betting begins.  Every other player will now place a bet starting with the next player after the initial two.  Each player will look at their cards and determine if they wish to call, raise, or fold on their hand.  These terms each have specific meanings.

In order to place a call bet, a player must bet equal to the amount the first two players bet.  If a player chooses to raise, they bet the initial amount, plus raise the amount by betting more.  In this case, the first two must decide to match the new amount.  If a player folds, they simply walk away from the hand and don’t bet anything.

After the betting is done, the dealer will discard the first card on top of the deck being used. This is a measure to prevent cheating in case someone saw it during the dealing.  The next three cards will be placed face up on the table by the dealer.  This process is called the flop.  Another round of betting will commence in the same order around the table.  After everyone has had a chance to once again bet, the dealer will repeat the same process.

The dealer will discard one more card, but this time he or she will lay only one card down face up on the table.  This part of the game is called “Fourth Street”.  Next, the same process will be repeated until there is a fifth card on the table or the fifth street turn occurs.

After the fifth street hand, all players will make one final bet.  Each player can use the cards in their hand, plus any combination of the five cards on the table to make a hand.  Players do not have to include the cards in their hand if they don’t want to.  Once the final round of betting has concluded, all players will be required to show their hand to everyone else.  At this point, the person with the best hand wins the entire pot.

Before the surge in popularity of Texas Hold’Em Poker, Five and Seven card stud were the most popular poker games played in the US.  Each game is played with similar rules and just a few variations. Once you know how to play Five Card Stud Poker, it is very easy to pick up Seven Card Stud Poker.

Five Card Stud Poker begins with each player being dealt two cards – one will be placed face down and the other face up.  Cards will always be dealt in a clockwise fashion, starting with the player to the left of the dealer.  The betting will begin with the player who has the highest playing card shown.  If two players happen to have the same number value card showing, betting will begin with the player closest to the dealer’s left side.  Each player can choose to raise the bet or fold their hand.

After betting has commenced, the dealer will discard the top card of the deck.  The dealer then deals one more card to each player and this card will be placed face up.  Betting will then begin once again.  In this round, whoever has the best poker hand showing will start the bets.  Because there are only two cards showing, only pairs will be considered.  Play will continue in this manner until each player has five cards.  After the last bet is played, all players must show their hand and the player with the best poker hand wins.

Seven Card Stud Poker is played in a very similar manner, except there are five times in which the dealer will deal cards.  On the first round, the dealer will deal not one card face down but two. Everyone should have two face down cards and one face up after the first deal.  Betting is done in the same manner as in Five Card Stud Poker.  On the next three rounds, each player will be dealt one card face up and betting will be done between each round.

On the fifth and final round, each player will be dealt one last card face down on the table.  At this point, the players will disclose to all what cards they have.  A hand will be made from the seven cards that were dealt, but only five of the cards will be used.  It is at each player’s discretion which cards they will use of the seven. The player with the highest ranking poker hand will take the jackpot.

Both poker games can be a lot of fun to play.  Some people choose to rotate between both types of poker while playing.  For example, players may enjoy three hands of Five Card and then switch to a few rounds of Seven Card poker.  Both games can be played with as few as two players or up to eight.  There are also many variations of the game that have been created over the years. Some people like to make their own rules to add a little excitement, which is fine for private games, but expect casinos to play with this standard set of rules.

If you’re a novice poker player, you may find the rules to No Limit Hold’Em Poker to be a bit confusing.  However, after just a few hands, the average player will find the game to be exciting and fun.  The game is very similar to Texas Hold’em Poker in most aspects, but does offer higher stakes and a more exciting feel.

The game starts with a standard deck of 52 cards.  One player will start the game as a dealer and then each player will take turns being the dealer.  A round white chip marked “Dealer” is passed to the left with each hand to denote this status – whoever holds the chip takes their turn as dealer. The dealer will pass out two cards to each player.  These cards will be placed face down so that only the person holding the cards can see them.

At this point, the first bets are placed. The player directly to the left of the dealer will start the betting. There will be a minimum bet on the table and the first player must bet this initial amount, raise the stakes, or fold their hand and quit the game.  The next player has the same options. However, if the player decides to stay in the game and bet, he must bet at least the same amount as the previous player plus double of that amount.  For example, if the previous player bet 10 dollars, the next player must bet a minimum of 20 dollars.  No Limit Hold’em is the only game in which a player can choose to bet his or her whole stack of chips.

After the first round of betting, the dealer will deal three cards face up on the table.  These cards are used by all players to help make their hand.  Before laying the three cards, the dealer will discard the top card of the deck to prevent cheating, since someone could have seen it during the initial deal.  The next round of play works just the same – the players will each make their way around the table betting and raising.  Some player may drop out during this session if they feel the stakes are too high or if they don’t believe they have a good hand.

At the end of that round, the dealer will once again discard the top card.  The dealer then lays one more card face up on the table and the betting commences again.  After all players have once again bet or folded, the dealer repeats the process for the last time.  There will be one more round of bets and then the players show their cards.

Upon showing their cards, the players will say which five of the combined seven cards they are using for their hand.  Players may use a combination of their two cards and three on the table, or all cards on the table.  The combination of cards used is at the player’s discretion.  Whoever has the highest hand is declared the winner and gets to take the whole pot as a prize.

Jennifer Harman is a professional poker player who can often be found playing the highest stakes games at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.  It’s because of her dedication to the game and her past record of achievements that she’s being featured in today’s “Women Poker Player Profiles.”

Jennifer Harman came to the game of poker early on – her dad taught her the game when she was only 8 years old, and she turned pro when she was just 21.  In fact, it’s rumored that before she turned pro, her dad would often call her in when he was losing at his home games and that she’d win back all the money he’d lost.  Today, she’s known as a 5′ 2″, 100 pound dynamo and a great all-around poker player.

When she made the leap to professional player, Jennifer was quick to make a name for herself.  In 2000, she won the World Series of Poker deuce-to-seven event, even though it was the first time she’d ever played the game!  Her remarkable series of wins also includes the 2002 World Series of Poker $5,000 Buy-in Limit Hold’em Event and winning $1.7 million in a single pot.  At the time she won, this was the largest amount ever won in a single poker hand.

Jennifer’s success also led to her being profiled in the book, “The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King,” a text which ” Traces the events of the 2001 Bellagio Hotel and Casino poker game, a competition involving a twenty-million-dollar stake, in an account that describes the strategies employed by game newcomer Andy Beal and his challenge to some of the world’s top players,” according to Amazon.com.  Her expertise has also been cited in the Poker SuperSystem 2 guide, for which she wrote the Limit Hold’em chapter.

Jennifer’s fans are also eager to support their favorite female poker player, calling her “…the best female poker player out there” and “the real deal.”  When asked by interviewers from homepokergames.com how she feels about being a woman in a sport so dominated by men, Jennifer responded, “It probably helps me to be a woman. In general, most men don’t think women can play. So, what often happens is that they try to run over me. They bluff their money off to me. I guess they see me as a meek little girl and think that I’m easily bluffed. I’m not.”

Today, Jennifer focuses most of her attention on cash games, although she is working to improve her tournament play and cites winning a no-limit title at the World Series of Poker as a goal.  She’s also dedicated herself to learning all the different games of poker, saying “I still learn something new every day. I enjoy the challenge of playing with the best. It’s a constant learning experience. I make mistakes, but as long as I learn something from those mistakes, they can actually be good for me.”  When she’s not at the table, she enjoys spending time with her husband, Marco Traniello, and playing with her dogs.

Few women have made as large a mark on the world of female poker players as Annie Duke, the woman who known by the title “Duchess of Poker.” And that’s not just a give-away title, either – Duke has more than earned the designation.

History and Personal Life

Born in 1965 in Concord, New Hampshire, Duke never set out to become a major figure in the world of women’s poker. In fact, she fully expected to lead a normal, quiet life. She married Ben Duke while the two were in college, earning her graduate degree in psycholinguistics and continuing doctoral work in the same field.

However, in 1992, just a month before defending her dissertation, she left graduate school to become a professional poker player. This decision was made after seeing her brother, Howard Lederer, succeed as a professional poker player for years. In fact, Howard became her coach and even helped support her financially during her first few years.

Two years later, the Dukes moved to Las Vegas so that Annie could begin playing full-time. This decision quickly paid off. In 2000, she finished tenth in the World Series of Poker main event – doing so while pregnant, no less. In 2004, she picked up her first gold bracelet and defeated her brother and coach Howard in several events – making her one of only three women to win an open event at the 2004 World Series of Poker.

While 2004 saw her professional career pick up, it also marked the end of her marriage to Ben Duke. However, Annie found victory even in this defeat – she’d bet $500 to fellow professional poker player Steve Zolotow that her marriage wouldn’t last five years. Following her divorce, she moved to Los Angeles with her four children.

Winnings

Out of all the female poker players of 2008, Annie currently holds the record for “in the money” finishes at the World Series for Poker. And before Annette Obrestad’s win in 2007, Annie held the record for the most money ever paid to a female player at one event, for her $2,000,000 win at the first World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions in 2004.

Other Notable Facts

In addition to her monetary winnings, Annie also gained fame for tutoring actor Ben Affleck in poker. As the result of her tutelage, Affleck later won the 2004 California State Poker Championship. She’s also had her own television show on GSN called “Annie Duke Takes on the World” and has appeared on “Ultimate Blackjack Tour” and on NBC’s “1 vs. 100″ as part of the Mob. She was the only celebrity out of her Mob group who was not eliminated by answering 35 questions correctly. Her most recent television appearance as of 2008 was on the hit game show “Deal or No Deal.”

Like many professional female poker players, Annie sees poker as one of the games where there’s no difference between male and female players. Because of beliefs, she doesn’t see the point of women-only tournaments and has turned down every invitation to play in them.

There are many different poker tournaments out there, and while all of them are open to women, some of them are specifically women-only competitions. These tournaments have brought up some interesting issues over the years from both men and women – so you may want to think about them carefully before you decide to play in one.

Of course, all the major tournaments are open to women. This includes the World Series of Poker – which is perhaps the most well-known poker tournament in the world. Many women, including Annie Duke, Kathy Liebert, Sabyl Cohen, and Cyndy Violette, have won huge amounts of money at these tournaments. In fact, Annie Duke won the first World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions in 2004 – an event that invited the top ten best players in the poker world to compete together. At the time, Duke was the only woman at the table.

So what’s so bad about women-only tournaments? After all, there are women’s divisions of sports at every level, women-only gyms, and even entire television stations aimed exclusively at women. Well, unlike other sports, poker is primarily a game of the mind. Many of the top female poker players find it insulting that they’re being told their minds aren’t as good as those of the male poker players. And if Annie Duke can defeat nine of the top ranked poker players in a tournament, then why hold women-only games? There’s no physical reason for it.

Many men are opposed to the idea, too. There aren’t male-only tournaments, they say, and there would be a huge stir if anyone even suggested the idea. These men welcome the challenge that playing against women represents. Many studies do suggest that men do think differently than women – differently, not better – and these distinctions can be seen in how men and women approach the game of poker. Mixed gender games can therefore be more challenging, which many players welcome.

One good thing that can be said about female-only tournaments is that they encourage more women to become involved in the sport. Women who are just starting out may be intimidated by more experienced male competitors, causing them to shy away from highly-publicized tournaments. Women-only tournaments allow these women to build their skills in a more comfortable atmosphere before making the leap to traditional mixed-gender tournaments.

Despite this controversy, many women-only tournaments still exist. Since some women prefer to play against women only, organizations exist to cater to these groups. Strictly female poker associations, like the Women’s Poker Club, sponsor women-only tournaments on a regular basis. The prize money is generally on the same level as open tournaments, but these ladies-only games don’t garner quite the attention that tournaments like the World Series of Poker do, because of their lack of history and prestige and since some women players refuse to play in them.

No matter what the future of poker, one thing is certain – wanted or not, women have a seat at the table and there’s nothing anyone can do about that. As to whether every seat should be filled by a woman, only time will tell what happens to women-only poker tournaments.

Say you’ve found friends with two rare qualities – they’re women and they love playing poker! Now it’s time to take a page out of the boy’s manual and set up a women’s poker night. It can be quite difficult to find enough interested ladies to put together a women’s poker circle, but once you have four or five ladies who are serious about sitting down and playing some cards, it’s time to start planning your event.

First of all, if you’re planning a serious game, you’ll need a serious table. While your kitchen table or a folding table can work, it’s not an ideal solution for the long-term. A nice felt-covered table made specifically for playing cards on is – of course – your best bet. And although these tables can be quite expensive new, it’s not that hard to take a nice table from a garage sale and covert it into a poker table. Sometimes, all it takes is creating a smooth felt top, while other times you may need to be a little more skilled – you might need to add longer legs or redo the top. If you’re really good with tools, simply build your own poker table.

Next, you’ll need to think about cards and chips. It’s always a good idea to have several decks on-hand and to replace older decks as the cards get worn. If you’re going for the look and feel of a professional table, you’ll want cards with nondescript backs. If you’re just playing for fun, then any deck will work. As for chips, just be sure you have enough of them. Most chip sets you buy come with a good number of each color, but if you’re playing with chips you’ve had for some time, some may have gotten lost.

Do a quick assessment of the room you’ll be playing in. Can everyone get up from the table without needing to squeeze behind someone else? Is there plenty of room between seats so that no one can peak at another’s hand? Is there good lighting? Are your chairs comfortable? You’ll be sitting in them for a few hours or more, so you’ll definitely want to invest in some padded seats.

And while it might seem not that important, be sure you put some thought into planning your snacks and drinks. You don’t want food that’s going to be hard to eat one-handed. Likewise, messy foods like nachos can ruin your nice poker table – and you certainly don’t want that after all the effort you’ve put into building the table! Be sure to have coasters for all drinks and napkins for anything that could potentially get on the cards or chips.

Finally, do some family planning before your women’s poker night. You don’t want to be interrupted by the kids or your spouse, so find things to entertain them. Even better, get them out of the house for the evening. Ensuring that every member of your family has some outside activity to keep them occupied is a good preventative way to keep interruptions to a minimum.

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