A Hollywood woman has started a company that specializes in ladies-only poker tournaments, and some local card room managers like the idea
BY JENNIFER MOONEY PIEDRA

To the eight men at the poker table, Lauren Failla didn't look like a threat.

With her long manicured nails, she carefully lifted the corners of her cards, glanced at them with her hazel eyes and tossed a few chips toward the center of the poker table.

She laughed in between plays and chatted with passing poker-room employees.

A minute later, she jumped up from the table, clapped her hands and shouted, ''Yes!'', after winning a hand with a three-of-a-kind.

But not all women poker players are as comfortable playing poker with men.

That's why Failla, 38, a Hollywood wife and mother, is starting what she calls the High Heels Poker Tour, the first all-women's poker tour on the East Coast of the United States.

''Many women want to play poker, but they feel intimidated playing with men,'' she said.

``I hope that I am able to bring more women to the poker scene.''

The company, which was launched this week, will cater to women who want to play online poker or live the game in a casino setting against other women.

The way the tour will work, Failla said, is that casinos will host ladies-only poker tournaments. The High Heels Poker Tour, which costs joiners $30 annually, will organize the events and bring in the players.

Failla, a poker player for 20 years, says her business is filling a need in the poker world.

''This is a niche in the market,'' she said. ``Only 6 percent of the people who play in poker tournaments are women because it's a male-dominated sport. But I want to change that.''

Warren Targia, the poker-room manager at the Seminole Casino Hollywood, which will likely host tournaments for the tour, thinks Failla's concept will succeed. .

As the Texas Hold 'Em poker phenomenon continues to sweep the nation, more women are taking seats at card tables, Targia said.

Still, they are far outnumbered by men, he said.

''It's getting to be more and more women all the time,'' Targia said. ``But, unfortunately, it's not enough.'' Download poker wallpapers.

The problem, he said, is that some women are turned off by male players.

''Guys will be guys,'' he said. ``Sometimes they get loud-mouthed with each other, and it can be too much for some women.''

Failla, who regularly plays against men in local card rooms and in high-stakes games in Las Vegas, agrees. Play route 66 poker.

''I play in tournaments with men and see how they try to intimidate women,'' she said. ``They think you don't know how to play because you're a woman.''

On a recent Friday night at the Seminole Casino Hollywood, nearly 200 poker players battled it out in a $65-per-person Texas Hold `Em tournament.

At each table of 10, only one or two players were women.

Whenever Failla plays in a tournament or online poker, she makes sure to let people know about the High Heels Poker Tour.

Failla wears a black baseball cap and black T-shirt bearing her company's logo -- a royal flush sticking out of a red stiletto high-heeled shoe.

Around her neck is a silver necklace with a pendant bearing playing cards.

Curious players, like 20-year-old Brian O'Keefe, often ask Failla what the High Heels Poker Tour is.

''It's a ladies-only poker tour,'' she says across the poker table.

''Isn't that kind of discriminating?'' asked O'Keefe, a student at Florida State University. Play $500 match poker bonus.

''It's definitely discriminating,'' Failla says, laughing.

''For the last how many years, it's always been men, men, men, men, men. We finally deserve a break,'' she said. Stay tuned to our poker blog for more updates.

Poker News Source: Miami Herald

The women poker players played down to the final nine last night and one of those left standing was a member of the World Series of Poker Academy Ladies Only class. It looks like Sally Boyers graduated from the class with honors.

She was one of five classmates who made it into the money of the 2007 WSOP Ladies No-Limit Hold'em event. Joining her were women poker stars Cyndie Joy, Colette Ward, Dana Reutter and Michelle Lewis.

Boyer, who has only been playing poker for a year, didn't win her seat from the World Series of Poker Academy, but chose to wear its logo during the Ladies Event anyway. She said the class helped her immensely to get her to where she is now.

"It helped me amazingly. I have a lot more self confidence," she said. "It helped me with different strategy, pot odds. I worked on some table demeanor and habits - watching people and knowing what to look for in reading them." Play online poker.

Perhaps that's what helped all the pieces of Boyer's game come together to get her into the final table poker tournament. When play got down to 10, she did express some concern about making it into the final nine because she was fairly short stacked.

However, she was able to pick a good spot to go all in and double up, helping ensure her a final table seat and at least $14,628 for ninth place. Play route 66 poker.

On the play that doubled her up, everyone had folded down to Boyer and she was the small blind, and the big blind just checked her.

"And usually if she had a good hand she would raise, and so I sensed weakness in her," Boyer said. "I had a ten-eight and the flop came with a 10 in it. So I called her and she had worse cards than I did." Play $500 match poker bonus.

Of course, it wasn't just those last few women Boyer had had to survive to make the final table. A world-record making 1,286 women poker pros played in the event including several well-known pros and celebrities.

While some like former champion & online poker pros Jennifer Tilly, Karina Jett, Jennifer Leigh, Kathy Liebert, Marsha Waggoner, Clonie Gowen and Shannon Elizabeth were sent home before the money, former back-to-back champ Susie Isaacs as well as the reigning champion Mary Jones both made it deep to cash. Download star poker wallpapers.

Today, Boyer will head into a final table that looks like this:

* Seat 1: Vanessa Selbst with $345,000
* Seat 2: Katja Thater with $340,000
* Seat 3: Mindy Trinidad with $344,000
* Seat 4: Kathy Giva with $147,000
* Seat 5: Anne Heft with $277,000
* Seat 6: Sally Boyer with $326,000
* Seat 7: Julie Dang with $48,000
* Seat 8: Frauke Ritter Von Sporschill with $523,000
* Seat 9: Randi Calabro with $110,000

Boyer is hanging out right around the middle of the pack chip-count wise, and she's got a healthy fear of the chip leader.

But when asked how she plans to handle the final table, her response was to "just keep doing what I'm doing and play my game." Stay tuned to our poker blog for more updates.


Poker News Source: Poker Listings

There's a reason Marsha Waggoner is called the Grand Dame of Poker. When you first meet her, you instantly get the impression she's all smoothness and class and you can tell she brings a sort of gentility to a poker world filled with a lot of rough edges. Her soft-spoken nature, however, doesn't detract from how she plays the game. Decades of being part of the industry have given Marsha the status of poker royalty as well as the experience to know you have to use every advantage you can at the poker table. Marsha Waggoner took time to chat with PokerListings.com about her career and the current state of poker before she embarks on another hectic World Series of Poker.

How long have you been playing poker tournaments?

I started to play 30 years ago in Sydney, Australia, which is where I'm from. So I've been playing pretty consistently since then. I moved over here in about 1978. I moved to Reno and I spent 10 years there. That's where I got involved in poker in the U.S. It was very different in those days - quite different from now.

Were you mainly a cash game player when you started?

That was my introduction to poker, to play in cash games. Of course, I became interested in Poker tournaments when Amarillo Slim brought his tournament to town to host his annual tournament up there in Reno. I was kind of intrigued by that and started to play tournaments.

I felt that I did well, and I'm fortunate to be one of the minority, I would say, of tournament players that succeed in cash games. I find that most of the time tournament players are strictly tournament players because the cash game is a completely different game.

The strategy is completely different. I feel lucky to be able to have mastered both of those games and have done well.

Was it intimidating when you first started playing, since it is such a male-dominated profession, especially back then?

It was a little intimidating for me - not when I started in Australia, but it was when I came over to this country. I felt a little intimidated because I didn't really know the games they were playing here. I had to be prepared to just jump in, and did so, but started at very small limits - $3/$6.

Do you see a difference from when you first started playing to now, with more women poker players in the playing field?

It's extremely different now. In those days, women poker players were few and far between in poker. I started and I got to become successful early on, and I did earn the respect from the guys, so I didn't feel intimidated anymore. Also being one of the few women poker player who competed with the guys, I got a lot of recognition after a while, and that was fun.

I've often opted to keep kind of a low profile. I haven't promoted myself, so to speak, where I probably should have. But who knew poker was going to take such a turn. I was really just going with the flow and enjoying the ride. Then poker just exploded.

With the advent of the Internet / Online poker, that had a huge bearing on what happened. Particularly all the young people came into the poker world via the Internet to play online poker. It was like, "What's happening to our poker world?" It's been taken over.

Do you find there's a big difference between the Internet players and those who gained their experience offline?

Yes, I do notice a difference. I notice that a lot of the players that came through the Internet are the young guys. I say guys because those are the ones I really notice. I also notice that they seem to get to know each other over the Internet. They seem to develop a very aggressive style of play.

It's funny sometimes to come into a tournament that has (players who have) never played live before. Although they're very experienced at playing online poker, they don't know how to handle the chips.

This can be a little confusing, because you think by watching them - and as a live player you do watch people and watch the body language - you do see somebody coming into a game who doesn't know how to handle the chips or the cards, and you basically judge them as a new player, as an inexperienced player.

That's just one of the things I've noticed about playing with them.

Are you planning to play in many events this year at the World Series of Poker?

You know, I haven't decided. I'm going to play in some of the events. I haven't decided which ones yet. It's overwhelming actually, the World Series of Poker schedule. It's too much, it's too big, so I have to sit down and study it and decide which ones I'm going to play.

You're also married to a professional poker player, Kenna James. Do you do anything to try to find some balance so your whole life isn't about poker?

Well, yes. Since I've been in poker for so many years, it's not always my favorite topic 24/7. Where my husband is quite a few years younger than me, he's quite new to the game in comparison to me.

He's much more excited about being a poker player than I am these days. So, I've tried to take a back seat to him and let him forge ahead and grab the limelight, which is what he enjoys anyway because he's been in show business and that's what he likes.

Having more experience, have you ever given your husband advice?

Oh yes! Particularly early on. We've been together for 10 years now, and early on we met in the casino at Hollywood Park in California, and he was working there as a tournament director and trying to break in as a player.

So I was able to take him by the hand, so to speak, and show him the ropes a lot of the way. I was able to take him abroad, because I was traveling to a lot of tournaments around the world. I was able to take him along and open his eyes not only to the rest of the world but to the rest of the poker world.

I was able to introduce him to the high-limit players, seasoned players that I've been playing with for so long. That was a great advantage for him.

Now that you're taking more of a back seat in the poker world, are you exploring other interests?

(Laughs) I'd like to retire. But there's always things out there that grab my attention business-wise. I also have five grandchildren who I like to spend time with, and I'd like to take it easy a little bit now. I don't have that luxury just yet.

Waggoner may be looking forward to retirement, but the poker world isn't yet ready to see her leave. She's still making her presence known in the tournament circuit, including two cashes in WSOP events last year. She has yet to earn herself a bracelet at the World Series, but we'd certainly like to see her take one down to cap off a long and successful career.
Good luck this year, Marsha!

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