Oh, What A Night!

Sept. 6, 2018, is a night I will never forget. The documentary, Cracking Aces: A Woman’s Place at the Table, made its debut in Las Vegas on the big screen at the Orleans Casino. This 67-minute film about women in poker played to a sold-out crowd as part of the Silver State Film Festival. Prior to the screening there were many photos taken on the red carpet. After the film, a panel consisting of some of the women in the film answered questions from the audience and then there was an after-party at the Bailiwick Gastropub.

The idea for this documentary began totally by chance one night almost five years ago. My best friend Jan Fisher and I were having dinner at Benihana’s and were seated at a hibachi table with three total strangers to us: Jim and Sheryl Gilmore, and Tracy Halcomb. After some chit chat, we learned that Jim, a journalism and screen studies professor at the University of Michigan – Dearborn, and Tracy, a communication professor at Flagler College, were in town to speak at a Broadcast Education Conference.

We asked them to interpret all that and they said they teach filmmaking and media skills to college and university students. In turn, they asked us what we did and we told them we are involved in various aspects of the poker industry. We found each other’s occupations quite interesting and ended up spending almost three hours getting to know each other and learning more about our respective careers.

As we told them stories about our early days in poker in the ‘70s and how difficult it was to be women in a man’s world, we could see their interest growing. They expressed that we would make good subjects for a documentary about poker’s pioneering women and asked if we would be interested in them following us around and filming our lives as they relate to poker. We were quite skeptical at first since others have “pitched ideas” for similar projects to us and nothing ever became of them, or the people who would supposedly do the filming wanted to “borrow” the funds to cover the production costs. Nevertheless, we exchanged contact information, though quite frankly, we thought we would never hear from them again.

Approximately six months went by and we got an inquiry letter from Jim and Tracy saying that they had procured the financing to begin the project. They wanted to know if they could come out to Las Vegas and film us during the WSOP. We agreed and shortly thereafter, Tracy and Jim arrived in Las Vegas. Over the course of about 10 days, they followed us around with cameras and microphones and filmed us in cash games at the Rio, at our homes, and at our Wednesday Poker Discussion Group. They went back to their schools and put together a 15-minute trailer and then used that to secure additional financing to continue with the project.

About a year later, they came back to Las Vegas and filmed us at the Women in Poker Hall of Fame luncheon, at several parties during Ladies Poker Week, at a home game, etc. We suggested that we include other female poker players in the documentary and give it a broader theme about women in poker rather than just about Jan and me. We wanted them to film interviews with women relatively new to poker and believed that it was important to differentiate between the horrible treatment we received 40 years ago and the way women are treated in poker today.

We got permission to film in the Aria cardroom (thank you Sean McCormack!) and we set up a full day of interviews with many poker players. Six months later Jim and his wife went on one of our Card Player Cruises poker vacations and filmed us “at work” teaching the beginner’s lessons, hosting excursions, and playing cash games. (At the screening of the documentary, Jim explained that it was a bit difficult to justify how the cost of a cruise was part of the filming expenses.)

The documentary took another year to edit since there was so much footage and so many sound bites to wade through. The finished product takes a good look at how conditions have changed for women in poker over the years.

Cracking Aces has been making the film festival circuit around the country including the Silicon Beach Film Festival, the Sarasota Film Festival, the Hobnobben Film Festival, and the Sunscreen Film Festival. Additional screenings are scheduled for Laughlin, Detroit, and Ft. Lauderdale. It is also going international; it has been selected to be shown at the Milano International FICTS Festival in Milan, Italy. Jim and Tracy should be proud that their project; Cracking Aces has won many awards already including an Award of Merit in the 2018 Impact DOCS Awards Competition, Best Documentary award, and two Telly Awards (a silver Telly for stand-alone documentary feature and a bronze Telly for a low-budget production) the total production costs were less than $25,000. Currently the Cracking Aces production team is working to raise the final funds to secure the E&O insurance necessary for a broad release of the film to the general public.

I thank the men and women who were with me at the screening on Sept. 6, 2018; what a fun evening! Also, thank you to everyone who was involved in the final product.
Now, let’s play poker! ♠

Editor’s Note: Linda Johnson is a WSOP bracelet winner and hosts tournaments, seminars, and charity events. She is a partner in Card Player Cruises, and invites you to cruise with her on any of the upcoming Card Player Cruises trips. Please contact her at [email protected] with questions or comments.