Poker 101 for Ladies, Roxanne Rhodes style. Handy Tip No. 1:
Do not hesitate to use your feminine wiles to best your male opponents.
“We’re still a novelty and a distraction,” Rhodes says, gesturing a French-manicured hand toward her students. “Flirtation can be a very effective weapon.”
The 25 women gathered at Sacramento’s Granite Bay Golf Club nod knowingly. They may not know a flop from a turn, but they seem to understand this particular strategy.
Rhodes, 45, will school them on the finer points of the game as well. Besides being a wife, a mother, a grandmother, a nurse and a health-care consultant, she is a professional poker player — a pretty good one.
About three years ago, Rhodes began playing in tournaments. Last year, she earned more than $100,000 and was ranked among the top women in the country. She has competed against many of the world’s greats, as well as celebrities including Ben Affleck and Tobey Maguire.
Sold-out classes
Now she is passing along her skills to a sisterhood of women who pay $100 for five lessons in Rhodes’ sold-out classes. These women are trading scrapbooking and bunco for a game that, until recently, had been a male bastion.
“It’s been nothing short of an explosion, the number of women who have taken up the game in the last few years,” says Steve Lipscomb, who founded the World Poker Tour, the first professional circuit for poker players, and created the popular Travel Channel program about it.
Television, Internet poker and high-profile celebrity female players, including Kathy Liebert and Annie Duke, are luring more and more women to the green felt.
The best estimate seems to be that at least 50 million people play poker regularly in the United States and that more than 30 percent of them are women. About 10 percent of professional players are female.
“All over the country, women are having poker parties,” Lipscomb says. “Let’s face it, it’s a heck of a lot more interesting than knitting parties.”
Women are drawn to poker for many of the same reasons as men: the fun, the challenge, the camaraderie and, of course, the big bucks, says Liebert, who in 2002 became the first woman to win $1 million in a tournament.
“For so long, it’s been considered a man’s game. But women are now thinking, `Why not? Why shouldn’t I get in there and make some money too?'” says Liebert, who splits her time between homes in Las Vegas and Southern California.
Rhodes, a Granite Bay, Calif., mother of five whose husband, Tom Coffey, also plays professional poker, says women have natural talents that, combined with knowledge and skill, can make them superior players.
“For sure, women can do everything that guys do at the poker table,” she says. “Personally, I think we can do it better.”
Women, says Rhodes, have an automatic advantage when they sit at the poker table because their male opponents invariably underestimate them.
“I know I have an advantage when a man apologizes to me for taking my money,” says Rhodes. “It happens all the time.”
A bodybuilder who has no qualms about “enjoying being a woman in a man’s game,” Rhodes displays different personas at tournaments, from the buttoned-down “librarian look” to “the Barbie look,” complete with go-go boots.
“You have a limited amount of time to size people up,” says Rhodes, who in tournaments often is the only woman at the table. “I’m thinking, `Is he smiling at me? Can he not take his eyes off me? Or is he completely unaware that I’m here?'”
Keeps eyes hidden
Rhodes typically wears sunglasses when she plays so that her eyes give away no secrets.
More Top Picks Arbors Plants
If you believe in “women’s intuition,” Rhodes says, then it’s easy to understand why females hold an advantage over males in poker. Women, she says, are better at decoding body language and other forms of nonverbal communication.
“Their judgment also is less clouded by ego,” adds Coffey, her husband. “Women who think they have a bad hand are much more likely to put it down than men.”
Lipscomb agrees. “They aren’t burdened with all that machismo,” he says. But that trait can work against them in Texas Hold ‘Em, which can reward aggressive play.
Male aggressiveness, says Liebert, can occasionally be intimidating.
“It does make it harder when the men are constantly attacking, trying to show they don’t respect you,” she says. “Occasionally a guy gets under my skin, but usually I don’t let it bother me.”
Overt sexism is rare, says Rhodes, although sometimes poker rooms do take on “a strip club mentality” when females are around.
She advises novice players to be keenly aware of their environment when they go to card rooms or casinos. Beware of carrying around wads of cash in your purse, Rhodes warns; use valet services.
“And do not accept bad behavior as the norm. No one has the right to touch or speak suggestively to you.”
Rhodes is part of a new breed of poker players who smash the stereotype of desperate, grizzled men engaging in their secret indulgence in smoky back rooms.
At her “Introduction to No-Limit Texas Hold ‘Em” class at the tony Granite Bay Golf Club, Rhodes entertains women of all ages and skills. They arrive in full bling in their Escalades and Lexuses, flashing diamonds, wearing Versace and carrying Gucci. “I get doctors, lawyers, teachers,” Rhodes says.
On a recent night, Cindy Miller indulges in a martini, then touches up her pink lipstick before the session begins.
“I didn’t know zip about poker before I came here,” she says.
Started just for fun
“I wanted to learn so I could play with my husband and my family. But now I have decided that this could be my part-time `mommy job.’ I want to actually make some money at it.”
Rhodes begins a recent session by offering the women tips for reading their opponents: Is he aggressive or passive? Does he play “loose” or “tight”?
She advises her charges to be a little bit of each.
“It’s the kiss of death when someone can label you and you’re true-blue to that label,” she says.
She talks about “tells,” or mannerisms that may offer hints as to how an opponent will play his or her hand. For example, a player who neatly stacks his chips is more likely to play conservatively. A “sigh of sorrow” usually means strength.
But don’t rely too heavily on “tells,” she advises.
“They’re probably the least-reliable way to read an opponent,” says Rhodes.
Rhodes places male players into three broad categories: the “Smart Guy,” the “Macho Guy” and the “Nice Guy,” and offers tips for handling each. “My favorite’s the Nice Guy,” she offers. “He will try to beat you, but he won’t take too much of your money because he doesn’t want you to leave.”
Finally, Rhodes gets down to the real business of the evening.
She grabs a stack of chips and a deck of cards, fishes her sparkle-framed sunglasses out of her briefcase and finds a place to sit down.
“Let’s play poker!” she shouts.
After three rounds of playing and schooling, Rhodes has secured more than half the pot at her table.
“Never trust a woman in poker,” she says, flashing her brightest smile and scooping the booty her way. “We’re winners.”