How does a woman succeed in a man’s world? In the American West of the 19th century, the majority accepted what society offered. Find your man, get married, have babies, then commit to washing, cooking and sewing a life; tough, ruthless, and invariably thankless.
But some women had none of this. Anything a man could do, they argued, a woman could also do. And they proved it. Some, notably Annie Oakley, made their point with a gun. Something else the game table. The cards were a great gender leveler and three women in particular showed how.
Alice Ivers (1851-1930)
When you marry an American mining engineer, Alice agreed, the mining camps in states like Colorado and Texas become your home. You may be the only woman in a tough, tough male world who is only relieved by drinking and gambling. The girl originally from Devon, in England, played the “game” of society, up to a point. She sewed and cooked for her husband Frank.
But if he can have fun playing games, Alice reasoned, why can’t I? So Frank followed her into the gambling hall and found that she was good at cards, very good. Poker in particular. How well they quickly discovered gambling dens like The Gold Dust in Deadwood, Colorado. They realized that there was a woman who was a “natural” poker player. One with a good head for numbers who could quickly weigh the odds. Someone who could keep a straight, ‘poker’ face. She became known as ‘Poker Alice’ with good reason.
Alice was quite capable of making $ 6000 in one night and breaking the bank. The owners realized it was best to have this little 5’4 “beauty with shiny brown hair working for you as a merchant. The men were drawn to their table like flies to a spider web. Hypnotized by her looks, distracted by the cigars that she loved to smoke, many were honored by her skill with the cards.
“I’d rather play poker,” Alice joked once, “with five or six ‘experts’ to eat.” Except we have Sunday. A strict moral upbringing and strong religious convictions guided her to the end, even when in later years she ‘branched out’ into prostitution.
And no one came across her. Everyone knew she had a .38 pistol in the voluminous folds of her fashionable dresses, bought on regular shopping trips to New York. And he was not afraid to use it.
Eleanor Dumont (1834-1879)
Few consciously quarreled with Eleanor. Certainly not the drunken miner who nicknamed her ‘Madame Mustache’, alluding to the lock of hair on her upper lip. A rare woman in the California Gold Rush mining camps, everyone knew she had a Derringer pistol up her skirt. To approach this lady and demand her purse, as two gentlemen discovered one night, was to invite a blast of lead. Neither of them, registered, waited for it to reload.
Like Alice, Eleanor was an accomplished card player who surpassed men. An early professional blackjack player, her skill as a dealer and card counter was legendary. Few men improved it. Many tried as they flocked to the tables at the Dumont Palace, the card den he ran with another professional gambler, David Tobin.
Everyone knew the entry rules: dress smartly, behave properly, and no women. The all-male clientele was fascinated by their elegant and jeweled hostess, who soothed them with her quiet dignity and deflected problems with her sharp wit. Most soon got used to the lady who rolled her own cigarettes and drank champagne.
As time stole his appearance, it became more difficult to enchant and disarm; prostitution was added to the career portfolio. The serene and elegant hostess became the character of the room, exchanging obscene jokes over a glass of whiskey.
But Eleanor never lost her passion for cards or her principles. Despite being slandered by jealous rivals for being a shrewd person, she maintained to the end her reputation as an honest trader who never defaulted on a debt. When luck finally ran out at the gaming table and the money a friend had lent her could not be returned, Eleanor quietly left the room and out of life, aided by a glass of wine with morphine. A note found next to his body said simply that he had “tired of life.”
Lottie Deno (1844-1934)
What was a southern beauty, from a prosperous Kentucky family, doing at Fort Griffin, Texas, in the 1870s? This outpost, near the Texas peninsula, was one of the wildest border towns of its day, home to notoriety on both sides of the law, from Sheriff Pat Garrett to Billy The Kid, a place, according to people. , which “had a man for breakfast every morning”.
However, this striking redhead, with a personality that glowed as brightly as her brown eyes, revealed her notoriety and capitalized on her booming economy. This was a city full of cash from high bison prices, and much of that money was spent at The Beehive arcade. In addition to good looks, Lottie was a talented card player, who thrived by separating men from their money, including gunman and prominent card player, Doc Holliday, whom Lottie freed from a whopping $ 3,000 a night.
His strict Episcopal family would have been horrified. But born woman Carlotta J. Compkins made sure they never found out, hiding behind a string of pseudonyms of which Lottie Deno was the most famous. An abbreviation for Dinero, money in Spanish, was won after beating all participants in a hand of poker. A drunken voice from a far corner of the bar yelled, “Honey, with winnings like that, you should call yourself Lotta Money.”
His father, a successful racehorse breeder who died fighting for the Confederacy, might have winced around him. But he would have been quietly pleased. His daughter “flipped the cards” with a skill and passion to match her own. All those hours spent teaching young Lottie about cards, on paddle steamers, and in the best gambling halls in New Orleans had paid off.
And she behaved like the Lady of the South she had raised, exuding class to the end. A lady with impeccable manners, who expected the same from others: no one dared to drink, curse or smoke at her table. A woman to trust, whose word was their bond.
And she was smart. It’s rare for a player’s luck to last forever, but Lottie Deno was that oddity. She retired with her earnings intact and grew into a comfortable retirement with her only husband Frank.
As good as any man
Three women, each very different from the others, all with a gift: a natural ability to play cards. Not long enough on his own to survive in a man’s world, but all three took advantage of this ability. They proved they were as good as any man through strength of character, innate intelligence, and sheer determination.
