Ladies Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony

I had the privilege of attending the recent induction ceremony for the Ladies Poker Hall of Fame. All of the inductees are famous in the poker world: Linda Johnson is often referred to as the "First Lady of Poker," and is the winner of a World Series of Poker bracelet in razz. Susie Isaacs is the only lady to win back-to-back World Series of Poker titles in the ladies event, and she finished 10th in the main event one year. Marsha Waggoner has 19 World Series cashes, including a near miss in the ladies event one year (she finished second). Last but not least, Barbara Enright was the first woman inducted into the World Series of Poker Hall of Fame in 2007. Barbara has two ladies titles at the World Series, an open-event pot-limit hold'em title, as well as a fifth-place finish in the main event. She is the only woman to make the final table of the World Series championship event.



All four of these ladies have been longtime friends of mine (more than 20 years each), and I cannot think of more deserving candidates for the initial induction. Lupe Soto deserves a lot of credit for helping to put this together. Mike Sexton and Jan Fisher took turns both praising and harpooning the inductees. As humorous as they both were, the funniest jokes were told by Barbara Enright – often at the expense of her longtime sweetie Max Shapiro. Max likes to consider himself the world's foremost poker humorist – and he continually tells us that.



Barbara started off by saying that she wanted to thank Max for writing her speech for her. Then she went on to say that she threw it away because hers was better. Since it is well-known that Max can't play poker a lick, she said the only reason that she keeps him around is so that she can ride in the diamond lane in Los Angeles. Someone from the audience then asked Barbara if Max is as funny in person as he is in his Card Player columns. She immediately responded, "He's funnier on paper."



Later in the afternoon, a $560 buy-in tournament was held. As luck would have it, I was at the same table as Barbara, and the fun continued. Somehow, the conversation got around to whether I was dating anyone or not. I said that I was between girlfriends. Barbara immediately said, "I'm between bankrolls." Later, our esteemed Card Player Publisher Barry Shulman joined our table. He eventually got involved in a hand with Barbara, who had him covered. As luck would have it, Barry actually had a real hand this time – pocket aces with an ace on board. He got the rest of his money in on fourth street and kept talking to Barbara, and finally convinced her to call him. Barbara had a flush draw and a gutshot-straight possibility. Boom – the last card completed her flush and eliminated Barry. As he left the table, I said, "You're a good salesman." This cracked up the whole table – especially Barbara, who was busy stacking up what was left of Barry's chips.



It must have been Barbara's day, because she went on to win the tournament. Fortunately, I saved 5 percent with her, so I got most of my buy-in back. On her way to victory, she made an incredible laydown that saved most of her stack and enabled her to come back and win the tournament. She called a small raise from the button with the Q J. The flop came with two queens and a 7. Her opponent checked, and so did Barbara. A rag came off on fourth street. Now, her opponent bet about the size of the pot and Barbara put in a decent raise. Her opponent immediately moved all in. Barbara thought about how this hand had been played up to this point. Her opponent had put in a small preflop raise and was now willing to risk going broke against the only player at the table who could bust her. Barbara figured that she must be up against A-Q, and folded. Sure enough, her opponent held A-Q, and Barbara went on to victory.



A few other humorous things were said at the luncheon. It was held in Benny's Bullpen at Binion's in Downtown Las Vegas. As you know, that was the original home of the World Series of Poker, so it was a very appropriate place to host this event. The World Series of Poker began there in 1970. One of the jokes was that the garage elevators didn't work then, and still don't work. Another wisecrack occurred when Susie Isaacs was giving her speech and decided to quote something out of her latest book. As she started reading, someone asked her if she intended to read the whole book. That, of course, brought gales of laughter from the audience. When Linda Johnson was up there, someone said that these ladies could still do the same things now as when they were 21. Linda thought about that for a moment, then said that they must have been pretty lame at 21, then. One final comment was in regard to that famous ladies tournament player Jose Canseco. Barbara said that he was one person she missed at the luncheon. If you aren't aware of it, Jose is a former major league baseball player who is still built like a Mack truck. In California, there is a no-discrimination policy at Commerce Casino. That means that, technically, ladies-only events cannot exclude men if they insist on playing. Well, Jose insisted on playing in one. To say that he was unappreciated and out of place – as well as out of line – is an understatement.



All in all, I had a great time visiting longtime friends. Phyllis Meyers, one of those longtime friends, walked into the room and we greeted each other. She looked around and saw all of the people she has known for years, and said that it felt like home to her. She said that attending today's tournaments with the huge fields and relatively few people she knows did not feel like home. Phyllis, I could not agree more. I can only hope that next year's Ladies Poker Hall of Fame gathering is as much fun as this year's was.



Tom McEvoy is a representative of PokerStars.com. He can be found playing under his own name on PokerStars, and is happy to chat when he can.