There is often a misconception about women. If you listen to the rhetoric from the rampaging pack of shemales that makes up the National Organization of Women (or any other advocacy group that will talk about a woman’s right to choose, then condemn any choice that involves breast implants as “giving in” to the “culture of beauty”) you would think that women were all June Cleaver clones until the magic of the sixties somehow set them free. The success of the 19th century poker legend, “Poker Alice” stands in stark contrast to this mythical image of women in America.
Alice Ivers was born in Devonshire, England in February 17, 1851. Her schoolmaster father moved the family to the American state of Virginia when she was small. While she was a teenager he brought the family to Leadville, Colorado in hopes of cashing in on the silver rush. She was educated in elite boarding schools, and like most refined young ladies, she married a professional. Her husband, Frank Duffield, was a mining engineer and the two of them tied the knot when she was twenty. Frank didn’t last long. He was blown up during a mining accident. Before his unfortunate demise he taught his young bride to play poker. Seeing as playing poker was the major leisure activity in mining camps, it gave her something to do during the day. She was a natural at the game, and her skills helped her make a living following the death of her husband.
“Poker Alice” became a successful poker player, faro player, and dealer. Her beauty and ladylike fashion sense belied her skills and occasional ferocity. The man who would become her second husband, Warren G. Tubbs, fell for her after she shot a drunken miner who was threatening Tubbs with a knife.
Alice and Tubbs supported their family of four children primarily on her winnings. On a good night Alice could bring up to $6000 home. Tubbs passed away of tuberculosis in 1910. Soon after the death of her second husband she married again. George Huckert was a gentleman she hired to watch over her livestock while she was away gambling. She eventually gave into his charms. The marriage was a brief affair as hubby number three died in 1913.
In her later years she was a bootlegger during prohibition and eventually Alice opened a boarding house that existed for the purpose of teaching women how to gamble. During this time she was repeatedly harassed by the law. She would often be arrested for running a whorehouse and paid thousands in fines, but continued to operate the house. When she was 75 she was convicted of being a Madame and sentenced to a state penitentiary. She never served a day of the sentence. The Governor of South Dakota immediately pardoned her.
She died in 1930 following Gall Bladder surgery. This pretty, gun toting, cigar smoking, gambler was born way too early. In today’s world she would be a superstar in the television poker industry.
