Janice Goodman Blog

NEW POST March 2011
RECOVERY







My Christmas plans were rudely interrupted by a hernia I’d had and ignored for 20 years. Two nights before Christmas I was standing in the bedroom deciding what to pack for our Christmas visit to Shreveport when I got this pain in my gut. Thirty minutes later I was in the emergency room yelling my head off for drugs. The next morning I had emergency surgery for a strangulated hernia. I was in the hospital for 10 days. I’ll spare you the grisly details but in the words of my surgeon….”Mrs. Goodman. You had BIG BIG surgery.”


Recovery from “big big” surgery takes a while. In my case it would be 6-7 weeks at home. My first thought was that this would be the perfect opportunity to rebuild my poker game. I had a brutal run in 2010 and my game had suffered for it. I wasn’t playing a lot of poker recently but what I did play I played badly. My heart wasn’t in it. I’d just been sucked out on so often that I was really beaten down mentally. I was now faced with several weeks at home giving me a chance to work on my game.


Gyla loaded my account with some cash. I was ready to go. After several days at home I finally ventured over to the computer. The cobwebs in my brain from all the drugs had cleared out. I was moving much better and feeling good. I thought it was time. I logged into my Full Tilt account and signed up for a $2.00 tourney just to test the waters.


It took about five minutes for the pain to register. It was an ache across my middle under the site of my repaired hernia. I cursed…dumped my chips….and logged off.


A week later I tried again only to repeat the experience. More pain in my mid region. I was determined this time. I hung in there. I even registered for a second tourney. I’m not sure why. I was much more in tune with the pain in my gut than the tourneys on the computer. I went down in flames again.


This repeated itself several times over the next few weeks. I just couldn’t sit long enough to play anything well. I did manage to cash in one tourney but it was quite by accident. It was during the freeze and Houston was experiencing rolling electricity blackouts. One hit our house while I was playing a tourney. The electricity was off 40 minutes. When I logged back in I still had chips and continued on to actually cash. I’m sure if the electricity hadn’t blacked out I would have managed to donk off my chips. The blackout gave me a break so I was ready to play again when the lights came on.


When I was feeling better we took a trip over to Lake Charles and I played some live poker. It was my first big outing. I played about 3 hours. I was in a lot of pain but I was so glad to be out of the house that I didn’t care.


I went to the doctor and told him about this pain I kept having in my mid region. He explained it was where the muscles had been pulled back together to repair my hernia. It was muscle pain I was feeling.


Then it hit me. Exercise causes muscle pain. If I was having muscle pain while I was playing poker then POKER MUST BE EXERCISE!!!!!!!!! Now that was an A-Ha moment.


I’m still healing. The discomfort in my mid-section is getting much better but I still can’t sit long in a straight backed chair. My attention span is still not great. I’ve watched thirty episodes of The Closer and just about every episode of Dateline and 48 hours Mystery ever made. I’m back at work but not yet being very productive.


We drove over to Lake Charles last weekend to get some “exercise”. We played in a $100 tourney. Early in the tourney I picked up QQ in the BB. UTG had raised and it folded to me. I re-raised. UTG was pretty surprised by that. I’d been playing pretty tight. He seemed to tilt a bit and pushed all in for about 7K. It was a huge over bet. He had me slightly covered. I really don’t like that kind of confrontation early in a tourney but my gut was screaming for me to call. I certainly couldn’t ignore my gut after having been so focused on it for the past 2 months. I called. He had AK. My hand held up and I doubled up. I couldn’t believe it. I actually won a race. That bolstered my confidence and courage. I started jabbing at pots here and there and winning. My favorite hand was when I tried to steal the blinds and antes with K9 and got called by the lag in the bb. I hit K9 on the flop and ended up winning a bit pot when the lag checked and called me all the way down. I knew I’d played it really well by the shade of crimson on the guys face. He was still defending his play 5 minutes later. It was one of those really good poker moments.


I went on to chop for 3rd. It was a huge personal victory for me. It was kind of like getting back on the horse and riding away into the sunset. I played well and knew it. It was a great feeling. I was recovering and I’m not just talking about my surgery.




NEW POST DEC. 2010


Year End Review


Good riddance 2010. My poker year was less than stellar. I've been on a pretty bad run. The good news is that I've been happy with my play. The races just haven't been going my way. Here is a recap of my tournament year.

Mesquite, NV tourneys


Lots of calling stations. Just couldn't get anything going.


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Venetian Deep stack tourney, Las Vegas


KK in early position. I raise. Guy behind me (table chip leader) puts in a substantial re-raise. Little old man with a University of Texas cap tanks then pushes all in. I felt sure he wouldn't have thought about it so long if he'd had aces. He'd been playing some questionable hands so I did not hesitate to call all in. The re-raiser calls. The re-raiser is a really good player. I have him on a premium hand but probably not aces.

The cards: My KK. Re-raiser has JJ. LOM has A10o. He catches an Ace and acts like he was entitled to win the hand because he has an ace. (Don't you hate it when they do that?) I'm a goner.

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Card Player Poker Cruise, Somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico


I cashed in my first ever live Omaha H/L tourney. I came in 4th. I was really excited about that.

In the N/L tourney I couldn't get anything going. I pushed utg with 10 10. It folded to the blinds where they both called.....One had AK another AJ. I lost that race.


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Golden Nugget Omaha H/L tourney, Las Vegas


I made it deep but no cigar. OHL is a game in which you have to catch the cards and I didn't. I had a great time though. I played with some really nice good old boys. One was a pest exterminator from East Texas. We talked a lot about snakes. (I really, really, really hate snakes.)

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LIPS Sat to the Ladies WSOP, Las Vegas
I continued my satellite streak and won my seat. That's 4 out of 5 for me. I made a bad call against Ruth and lost most of my stack but rallied back and sailed into the $$$.


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Ladies WSOP, Las Vegas


The previous 2 years I've been out within the first hour with good cards but bad flops. I was determined not to suffer the same fate again. I played very cautiously the first hour and was relieved when I make it to 1:00 and still had my starting chips. I played until 10 at night and went out about 100 shy of the $$$. Late in the afternoon they closed our table and I went to my new table to find Lisa Parsons and Karina Jett on my immediate left. That is not what you want to find when you change tables. Behind Karina there was a third action player. They all seemed to enjoy jumping into pots together and gambling it up. I knew any of the three could outplay me post flop so I tightened up. When I realized they were laying down to my raises because of my tight image I took advantage of it and continued to survive by stealing. Finally I pushed all in on the button with KJs. Karina woke up with AA in the bb and I didn't survive.


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Poker Queen, Las Vegas

This was another tourney where I survived by steals. Sigh. We got down to 4 tables. Stacey Nutini opened for a raise to $10,000. Stacey had me slightly covered. I had $40K. I pushed with AKs. Stacey went deep into the tank. She thought about it long and hard. Finally she called with 88. She hits the 8 on the flop and I'm a goner. Stacey went on to win the tourney. At least my chips made it to the end even if I didn't. Sigh.

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Women's Poker Hall of Fame Weekend

After a year like I'd had I decided not to attempt the Lips Lady Poker Championship. When you know you'd be the fish at the table it's just not wise to play. My mind set wasn't just right. I played a daily tourney at the Nugget and was really bored and dumped my chips to go off and do stuff with Gyla. I also played a Poker Gives tourney. It was fun. I played with some nice people but again my heart wasn't in it. My play wasn't great.

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Ladies Tourney , Lake Charles, La

Isle of Capri hosted a women's tourney for the first time. We met up with Ruth at the casino. I expected a varied playing field and that was exactly what showed up. There were some very good players that I recognized from other area tourneys. There were several women playing their first live Casino tourney. There was one woman playing her very first tourney. She heard them announce it and decided it would be cheaper than playing the slots. LOL We started with 8K in chips so I started very tight knowing that these inexperienced players would be gambling it up. I was so right. The play was all over the place. There was a woman 2 to my left that was a chatterbox. She thought she was the world’s greatest lady poker player and told us about it for several hours. We heard all about how she loved to beat the guys. Yadda Yadda Yadda This woman made me understand why so many play with I pods and I wished I'd had mine.


I picked up some pots here and there and preserved my stack until the ante's started and some of the newbies were gone. I changed tables where I found Ruth, Gyla, and I were all at the same table. Gyla was gone in a flash losing a race to a questionable call.


It was at this table that a the dealer was shuffling and a woman asked if she could leave the table to go to the bathroom while he shuffled. The dealer said "sure". She asked "If I don't get back in time will you wait for me before you start dealing?"

I was feeling good about my play and my chip stack when I sat down but soon found out that the table was full of land mines. There was a lot of "All In's" and calls at the table. Some really strange hands went down. My cards went seriously dead and I couldn't get into the action with so many "all inners" around. As usually happens in small tourneys the blinds skyrocketed and suddenly I was getting short. There was a late position raise and a call before me. I was in the bb with KQs. I decided to go for the squeeze. I pushed. I had enough chips to really hurt the players behind me. The initial raiser instantly folded. The 2nd one starts going on about how "this would really be a sick call" and "this is my favorite hand" and "I win a lot with these cards". She called with 97s. She hit 2 9's and I was out. Ruth went on to win and Ms 97s got 2nd. Again my chips made it to the end without me. Ruth says the woman was wearing two circuit rings. I hadn't noticed. My bad I guess.

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Women's circuit event, Biloxi, MS


Just shy of 100 women showed up to play in this event. I had a blistering sinus headache so I wasn't in good form. I probably would have skipped it if it had been more than $100 to buy in. Again, Ruth was at my table. (Ruth hates playing with friends but I always enjoy playing with Ruth.) I hit one set of 10's for a nice pot. Other than that 82o was the hand of the day for me. I never got a lot going. I finally pushed with AQ from mid position. The woman in the big blind says she guesses she's going to double me up. I HATE hearing that. Sure enough she calls and turns over Q10o. I'm looking good until 10/10 hits the board. Once again I'm the loser in a heavily favored hand.

On a side note two men showed up at the Biloxi tourney dressed in drag. They came in late and were told by the officials that the tourney was closed. Apparently it was closed the minute the men walked in the door. (WTG WSOP Officials) These guys were really mad. They walked over to the tourney area and started telling all the players that they were denied entry and that they were playing for charity. Their attitude was that it was a forgone conclusion that they would win. They went on and on about how long it took their wives to make them up and how they were being discriminated against. They really huffed and puffed. Actually they looked pretty stupid. I guess they learned if they are going to act in such a disrespectful manner toward women they had better show up on time.


Gyla kicked butt in this tourney. She made it to the final table where she was cold decked. She went out 4th. I was really proud of her. Biloxi is good to Gyla.

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If you have made it to the end of this self-indulgent diatribe I thank you. While writing this self analysis of my year I realize that my game has gotten really stale. I just didn't approach my game with the same level of expectation that I have in the past. I'm a big believer in the Law of Attraction and I pretty much got what I attracted. I've got to go back to the books to re-energize my game. I've also got to play live more often. I love playing live tourneys and in 2011 I plan to play more.


Happy Holidays to everyone and I hope your 2011 is your best year ever.









NEW POST OCT. 2010

Linda Johnson – An Angel Amongst Us


(I wanted my blog this month to be a tribute to Linda Johnson upon her nomination to the Poker Hall of Fame. Unfortunately I’ve been suffering from raging allergies and alligators nipping my “azz” at work. I just couldn’t get my head in the place it needed to be to write it. I asked my partner, Gyla Whitlow, to write it for me. She did an excellent job. While the words are Gyla’s the sentiment is also mine. Janice )

I remember like it was yesterday, the 2005 WSOP Ladies final table. You remember; the one that Jennifer Tilley won. How will they let us forget that one? It was the largest women’s tournament to date and the final table was played at the same time that Johnny Chan was going for his tenth bracelet, playing heads-up against Phil Laak. The nine ladies were nestled at a regular poker table with no bleachers, no monitors, no lights and no announcer. As we huddle around the stanchions, it was impossible to see the action taking place. I am proud to say that I led a very vocal protest with twenty other women on the floor of the WSOP. We chanted over and over “announcer, announcer, announcer!!” This protest led to the WSOP tournament director, followed by Phil Laak, coming over to see what the chaos was all about. I stated that all we wanted was to have the final table of the Ladies tournament announced so the spectators would know what was happening. During his break, Phil was right in the middle of it with me telling the director to give us what we wanted. Little did I know the WPT announcer was in the room. After a brief conversation with the WSOP Director, Linda Johnson came over to me and said that she had offered to announce the final table, but was told that they were bringing in someone from their own staff to announce. That was my first of too-many-to-count encounters with Linda Johnson. I am glad I led that protest because I might have never known that there is an Angel amongst us.

I wanted to make sure that I was using the word “Angel” with the correct definition. After surfing the word on the Internet, here’s some definitions that re-enforce my comment: typically benevolent celestial being that acts as an intermediary between heaven and earth; a guardian spirit or guiding influence; a kind and lovable person, one who manifests goodness, purity, and selflessness. The informal definition of the word usage is a financial backer of an enterprise.

We all have read the bios of the Poker Hall of Fame nominees. Often times, we judge poker greatness by the amount of money and tournaments won or how many bracelets the poker player has. If you research Linda on Hendon Mob, you will find that she has won tournaments, she has many WSOP cashes, she has a WSOP bracelet and has more than $300,000 in life time tournament earnings. Sure, these facts don’t match the statistics of the other nominees, but there is one criteria that the others can not touch. That criteria is that the nominee has “… contributed to the overall growth and success of the game of poker, with indelible positive and lasting results. “Although Linda does meet all the criteria, I think as a “retired” professional poker player this is the one criteria that Linda has excelled in. I am not going to re-quote Linda’s bio in this blog, but I invite you to research Linda’s life, her endeavors and her contributions to the poker industry.

I believe that destiny brought Linda to the game of poker. With her intermediary skills between the recreational player, the professional player and the hungry poker industry, Linda was there during the infancy of the poker boom. From the beginning of the boom, Linda has been, and remains to this day, the guardian and guiding influence that rocketed poker in a new era. She has nurtured and guided the boom in kind and caring way. And she manifests goodness, purity and selflessness in her undying desire for this game to continue to grow in the right way for all people. Her willingness to financially back organizations and enterprises for the good of poker is what being an Angel is all about.

Could you imagine what the poker boom would have been like if we did not have the Tournament Director’s Association? Abuse would be a commonly used tool at every table, individuals would use their cigar or cigarette smoke as a weapon against the player sitting next to them, cheaters would be developing new techniques to line their pockets and inexperienced tournament directors would not have a guideline to make judgments in questionable plays. And do we even need to mention the outrageous abusive and discrimination that women would still be subject to? Linda is a founding board member of this association.

Where do you think online poker would be if we didn’t have the Poker Player’s Alliance? If we didn’t have the PPA, we wouldn’t have the privilege to continue to play poker online. Our bankrolls would have been completely frozen and online poker blocked from our freedoms of the internet. With the PPA, we have proven to our government that we are a force to be listened to. The PPA works tirelessly in changing the laws against playing poker. But online poker isn’t the only thing that the PPA has taken on. It stands for our rights to play poker. Linda is a founding board member of this Alliance.

Finally, where would women’s growth in poker be without Linda Johnson championing our growth,spreading knowledge of the game and supporting women’s events around the country? I cannot count how many seminars she has led for women, most of them have been free. How many times has she championed our growth? How many articles has she written concerning women in poker, both instructional and personal? How many times has she focused on the success of women owned poker businesses and endeavors? How many times has she played in low buy-in ladies poker tournaments to support the event? How many times has she sat down with us at the 4-8 or 1-2 games when she could play the highest limit that the room provided? Yes, her lifetime earnings in tournament play is only $300,000. But it seems that she has been busy teaching and promoting the game.

One of these commitments would be a notable undertaking, but Linda has led in all of these. But I think the noblest undertaking is her undying desire to help others. From the homeless and hungry to wounded veterans and the handicapped, she, along with Jan Fisher, Mike Sexton and Lisa Tenner founded Poker Gives, a non-profit organization to assist organizations in fundraising efforts using poker as the vehicle. I think this will become her legacy.

Linda’s works reminds me of my favorite Maya Anglou’s quotes “love life, engage in it, give it all you’ve got, love it with a passion, because life truly does give back, many times over, what you put into it” . I think Linda lives by this quote and doesn’t even know it. But on the other hand, I think that all Angels must live by this quote.

As in the space industry when one is about to start their mission, I say to the First Lady of Poker “God’s speed, Linda!” because whether people realize it or not, we have needed you all along the way.

PS

If Linda Johnson is the Rock of the poker boom, then her business partner and friend Jan fisher is the Sword. You cannot speak one name without adding the other. I will be writing about the Sword of the poker boom and industry in the near future!


OLD POST AUG 2010
Janice Goodman

To introduce myself, my name is Janice Goodman. I share my home in Houston, TX, with Gyla, my partner of 18 years. Although Hold ‘Em is named after my state of Texas live poker is illegal here. Our primary options are illegal poker rooms or home tourneys. I'm not a fan of either so we occasionally drive to Louisiana to play tourneys in the casinos. Most of our play is for entertainment online. I primarily play on Full Tilt under the name Jebber99.


This summer was noteworthy for women's poker because of all the controversy over men playing in the Ladies WSOP. It's been on my mind a whole lot so I decided I'd make it the subject of my first blog.

First I have to set this up with a little personal background. I graduated from college in 1973 with a degree in business. It was a time when very few women majored in business. I went to work at a major oil company in their new computer department. I worked with almost all men...many of whom didn't think I should be there. Very few women were entering the field. I changed jobs several times but it was a long time before more than a handful of women were in my department. I suffered discrimination over the years. I've been told by my boss that I shouldn't be there because men needed my job. Another told me that my male co-worker got a raise and I didn't because he had a family to support. The worst comment I received was when I had a co-worker who I was always bailing out of trouble. I complained to my boss because the co-worker made more money than me. My boss leaned back in his chair and looked and me and said, "Of course he does, Darlin'."
I'll tell you this to show that:

1. I don't have any trouble mixing it up with the guys. I've been doing that for years.

2. I have a big bold feminist streak down my back.


I don't remember when I first learned to play poker. My first memories of poker are watching the WSOP on TV every year since it was first televised. I thought it was so cool. I thought it would be so much fun to play in something like that. I never gave it any thought at all if women played. I just knew that I wanted to play in it one day.

Fast forward to 2004. Poker came to the Travel Channel. I started watching and began playing some online. We traveled to Vegas to watch the WSOP in action. We played live low limit hold 'em at the casinos in Louisiana but had never played a tourney.

Tragedy struck when my beautiful 21 year old daughter died in a boating accident in June. In December, Gyla's Dad lost his battle with colon cancer. Poker became a refuge for us. We could turn off the pain for awhile while concentrating on a game or an online tourney. We played a lot.

In January 2005, Gyla came home one day and said we were going to Tunica, Mississippi to play in a women's poker tournament.

It had been awhile but my feminist streak came out full force. I couldn't believe she wanted to play in a women's tournament. I'd never done a whole lot of women's "anythings" in my life and didn't really relish the idea of doing it now. I could play with men. Women didn't need their own tournaments.

I went along with the idea though because we needed the trip. We needed a distraction from our grief and a trip seemed like the perfect thing. I'd just put my feminist feelings in check and play the tournament. I'd never played one live before so I was interested to see what it was like.

That poker tournament changed our lives forever.

400 women played that day. At that time it was the largest women's poker tournament that had ever been held. I looked around that sea of faces and I felt empowered. It was a celebration of women....women who played poker. It was nice to see the men's faces on the rail and I cheered with everyone else when they announced they had closed and cleaned the men's bathroom so they could serve us all during the break.

I realized that for the first time in my life, I was surrounded by women like me who were comfortable crossing that imaginary boundary between the women's and the men's world. IT WAS SO COOL.

Gyla made the final table that day. We made a few contacts that resulted in events that led us to life long friendships. We travel often to poker events these days. Most often these are women's events because that is when all our friends are together. It's as much or more about the friendships than the poker.

I feel that the ladies WSOP is a great celebration of women and always feel the same thrill that I did in Tunica when I sat down to play that event. It was no different for me this year. I didn't let the men's entries ruin it for me. I even sat next to one of the guys. It's really not a big deal to me. We invaded the "Men's World" when we started to play poker. It's okay with me that a few want to play with the girls. Personally I don't appreciate the women cheering when a man gets knocked out but I appreciate their right to do so.

My problem starts with those who are using way too much energy to try to stop the women's event from happening. I'll not name names here. It's not necessary and personally I don't want to give them any more attention than they have already managed to get for themselves. I'll just say that they all seem to have some hidden agenda. Why else would they be using so much energy trying to have women's events stopped?

I applaud and appreciate Harrah's intention that the tradition will continue. Good for them.

You've gotten to know a little more about me and how I think. Look me up. You'll find me playing in all the women's events I can.