Women And Poker 1

Part I: A Brief History of Women in Poker



The precise history of poker is one that is riddled with myths and legends. The truth is that no one historian of the game knows for certain how poker came to be the world famous phenomenon we now see every day on our TV screens. Some have speculated that because it closely resembles the Persian game of as nas, Persian sailors may have passed this game on to settlers in New Orleans while restocking supplies at the local harbor and it eventually took hold as the modern game known as poker.



Others believe that it may be an offshoot of the Irish card game Poca or even the French game poque, which is thought to be descendant of the German pochen (which essentially means to brag as a bluff.) The true origin of the game may never be known and in fact the more likely story is that somebody created poker after learning various similar games from different backgrounds.



Whether poker is a Chinese, Persian, Egyptian, French, German or Irish creation is of no consequence. What is certain is that some point in history the Persian Ganijifa (Treasure Cards) were changed from a solely Persian game into a new hybrid called poker.



French colonials are thought to have imported their beloved poque to the New World when they first arrived in Canada. The game was then brought to New Orleans in the beginning of the 18th century by a group of French Canadian settlers.



In 1834, Jonathan H. Green made one of the earliest known written references to poker when he mentioned rules to the “cheating game,” that had been gaining popularity on various Mississippi riverboats. Before people knew how it even happened, poker became the fashionable game for river-boaters all over the Mississippi. What started out as Louisiana phenomenon quickly turned into one of the most popular games in America.



At the turn of the century poker was still an illegal game in most parts of the United States. Its popularity was too wide-spread to keep its fans from playing and the game soon spread to the Old West where legends such as Wyatt Earp and Wild Bill Hickock earned reputations as sharp card players as well as pistol slingers.



While poker became a popular mainstay among men, women soon caught on and began playing as well. The first of these women to gain a serious reputation is none other than Poker Alice, the first known professional female poker player. Born in Devonshire, England she soon moved with her family to Colorado where she married a mining engineer, Frank Duffield. After the death of her first husband Alice needed a new way to support herself. Duffield had shown her a few hands of poker and she had taken a liking to the game. After his death she began to pursue gambling as a career becoming a card dealer.



During her career as a poker player, Alice gained a serious reputation. On good nights she would earn as much as $6,000 and would gloat amongst her peers daring any newcomers to try their luck against her. Never one to be caught off guard, she was known to carry a .38 revolver with her and never hesitated to use it. By the time of her death in 1930 she had already firmly established herself as one of the most legendary poker players of all time and paved the way for future generations of professional female poker players.



During the 1920’s, there were only five games that were legal in Las Vegas and three of those were variants of poker. The legalization of gambling began in 1931 and the first legal casino license was issued to a woman, Mayme Stocker. Her husband and boys were working for the railroad and anybody caught in the gambling world who worked for the railroads would be immediately fired from their job. That is why Mayme put the license in her name instead of her husband’s. It was a good gamble for the Stockers as they quickly became one of the leaders of the casino community in Las Vegas.



Although legal in Las Vegas, card playing remained illegal throughout the rest of the United States. It was during these post-Prohibition years that poker gained its reputation as secretive game played in back alleys and garages. Doyle Brunson, one of the original Rounders (road gamblers), often talks about how taboo the game was, "I remember one time back in the fifties," he shook his head as he reminisced, "I saw an old college buddy walking down the street, coming toward me. He crossed the street so he wouldn't have to talk to me."



Gradually poker gained popularity to the point where, nowadays, almost everybody has at least played poker for sunflower seeds or M&M’s. Starting in the late 1990’s a new game started to emerge on the poker scene, that game was Texas Hold’em. Ever since the creation of Texas Hold’em, poker has become one of the most popular games in the world. Nowadays one can see more poker on ESPN than baseball and kids start playing for money as early as Junior High.



Along with the explosion of the contemporary poker scene we have seen the emergence of women as dominating figures in the game. Who are these women and just how successful are they? These questions and more will be answered in Part II!

Original source: http://biginternetarticles.com/women-and-poker-1-341161.php