When I began dating my husband, I never knew how much he’d truly change my life. In addition to becoming my life partner, my business partner and my family partner (we have 3 beautiful children) – he introduced me to poker. It may seem odd to include poker in this exclusive listing, but poker has genuinely changed my life. There was a void I just could not seem to fill. As a kid I played competitive soccer and danced competitively. I got good grades and was active in school clubs. Then I hit college, and was missing something. I became president of my sorority. The victory was rewarding but the job was not.

The first night I played poker was at the Palms Casino in Las Vegas. I was born and raised in Las Vegas, so being in a casino was old hat. But, entering the smoky card room was intimidating but equally exhilarating. I did not feel the same ease as walking up to a blackjack table. I sat down at a $2/$4 limit game and was captivated by the chip clanking surrounding me. I was inspecting these hands as they performed these impressive stunts with their chips and was astonished; I had the only red nails at the table. I glanced around at other tables and found the same thing, all men! So as my husband sat behind me and tried to give me some direction as when to act, another player began harassing me. Now this was really new. I am the first one to give the dummy, at the twenty one table, who hits a 16 when the dealer has a 5 showing a dirty look. But, criticize them aloud, now that never crossed my mind. The player across the table clearly wanted the one player per hand rule enforced. My husband was merely trying to keep the game going and help me feel comfortable.

I knew at this moment this game was for me. Finding poker answered the question. I was missing competition. The guy across the table stood up and wanted to have a physical confrontation with my husband for assisting me. I knew I could obviously never take the guy outside and kick his ass, but I could take his money! As I racked up my winnings that night, and began to wonder how this game had been right under my nose for so long and I missed it, I knew why. If my husband had not taken me to the Palms, talked to the host to get me a seat and explain he would be sitting behind and help with just my actions (i.e. how to look at my cards, when to act) and provide me no hand assistance, taken me to the cage to buy chips with my cash and defend me when I had no idea why the players were so angry – I might have cried! Yeah yeah yeah, so stereotypically female crying – but at the poker table? It would not have been the last time I cried at the table. But perhaps the reason you don’t see more of me when you’re at your local casino. In hindsight, I can only ask myself – wasn’t I good for the game? I happened to win that night, but clearly I was on track to give away a lot of money over the next few years… Why scare me away?

Photcred to memekode