One stormy day of 1971 a girl was born in a small town in Oklahoma. Her parents decided to call her Cycalona because of the weather outside the window. Did they know that the name influences a man’s character and destiny? We can only guess. But the fact is that a lot of poker players experienced the echo of that storm in Cycalona’s playing style.
To Poker With A Boyfriend Cycalona (or Clonie as everybody call her) Gowen has always been a very active person. She worked as a waitress while attending high school. She also liked sports and was a member of the varsity basketball team. One day her boyfriend introduced her to play poker with his family (hmm… rather a good pretext to take a girl to your home). They played 7-Card Stud and Hold’em. “By the time I was legally able to gamble, I was ready for Las Vegas,” recalls Clonie. “I bought in for $40 in a seven-card stud game with a 10-cent ante. I lost my money and was devastated — but I was hooked.” She liked the game but didn’t take a risk of playing it professionally. She opened her travel agency, which made her extremely busy. However she tried to play her favorite game at least once a week. An Amateur Blonde Once enjoying scuba-diving in Costa Rica she decided to participate in a World Poker Tour event which was being held there. Her opponents didn’t take the amateur player seriously and cracked jokes about blondes to each other. But Clonie surprised everybody by finishing tenth, in the money. She also won the sit at WPT’s “Ladies Night” tournament and finished first. She managed to beat such stars as Annie Duke, Jennifer Harman and Kathy Liebert and thus gained a great popularity. After winning at Costa Rica she sold her business because it was taking too much time. Now she lives in Dallas with her husband and two children and plays poker for living. She can outplay not only women. “With the guys I play with in Dallas, I am just another player who is capable of taking their money. I don’t think being a woman hurts me at all. Most men don’t give women credit for playing poker well, so that hurts them.” And men do respect her “super-aggressive” (as she states it) playing style. “She plays pretty damn good,” said TJ Cloutier about Clonie Gowen. And this man is worth believing.
