The other big event at the Nugget is the second annual induction for the Women in Poker Hall of Fame.
I am honored and humbled to tell you all that I’ve been selected to enter that esteemed group, alongside June Field and Cyndy Violette. We will join last year’s inaugural recipients Marsha Waggoner, Linda Johnson, Susie Isaacs, and Barbara Enright on the “soon to be infamous” Wall of Fame. The June 5 event starts at 7 p.m. and is a dinner dance emceed by Mike Sexton. Those who attended last year may purchase tickets for $75 and the cost for first-timers will be $80. For those of you who’ve never heard Mike speak, it will be a funny and poignant walk down memory lane with some of the business’ finest. June Field was the founder of Card Player Magazine back in 1988, the dark ages of poker, and Card Player Cruises in 1992. She also was instrumental in moving poker journalism into what it is today. She is an avid poker player and won a gold bracelet in the ladies seven-card stud event at the WSOP in 1982. I have known June for more than 25 years and am proud to call her a personal friend as well as pleased to share this honor with her. Cyndy Violette is also an icon in the poker world. I first met Cyndy when she played at the Golden Nugget in the early 80s. While some looked at her as though she couldn’t have been legal in those years—no one said that about me—she was a fierce competitor and was often the only other woman in the cardroom besides me. Moving to the East Coast and playing in Atlantic City casinos for years, she’s been an advocate for women’s poker and good conduct as well as a poster child for healthy living and veganism. She has a clothing line of fun to wear T-shirts and accessories that can be found on her website, www.cyndyviolette.com. Always a role-model, she achieved one of her life goals in 2004 by winning a coveted gold bracelet at the WSOP.