Linda
“First Lady of Poker” Johnson WPT Season 6 Ladies Night, 2nd place
finisher autographed 8 x 10 glossy color photo.
*All proceeds of this sale goes directly to “Baby Hannum” Charity
(www.babyhannum.com)*
Linda
Johnson was born in 1953 in Long Island, New York, but her father’s military
career caused the family to move quite often. She counted New York, Georgia,
England, Kansas, and California among her temporary homes. After college, she
took a job with the U.S. Postal Service, moving up from letter sorting to an
eventual management position, and her free time was spent on weekend trips to
Las Vegas to play blackjack. It was her father who turned her casino interest
to poker, though, convincing Linda that it had better odds as it wasn’t
a house game, and further sharing with her that he had used poker to supplement
his income through the years. In order to best learn the game, she read some
poker books, then tested out her newfound skills against her friends on the
job to find that she did have what it took to win consistently.
Mostly concentrating on cash games, Linda traveled
quite frequently to card rooms in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. In 1978, she competed
in her first tournament but found the competition to be unfriendly to a woman
at the table. By 1980, at the age of 27, she entered her first World Series
of Poker event, and with her all-around successes in the poker world, was able
to quit her job with the Postal Service and move to Las Vegas to play poker
on a full-time basis. Since then, her tournament success include a World Series
of Poker bracelet in the 1997 $1,500 seven-card razz event, victories in the
Orleans Open and California State Ladies Poker Championship, and cashes in numerous
events around the world.
Over the years, she also became involved in
numerous poker endeavors, such as the purchase of Card Player Magazine, where
she was responsible for much of its growth in the 1990’s, and the founding
of the Tournament Directors Association, which remains the leader in industry
standards for poker events. She currently conducts industry conferences, offers
poker lessons, volunteers for the Poker Players Alliance, co-owns Card Player
Cruises, and is the official studio announcer for the World Poker Tour tournaments.
She still finds time to play high-stakes poker and tournaments, though mostly
online due to her rigorous travel schedule, and spends much of her time promoting
poker around the world.
$500.00
USD + Shipping is the sale price.
(All proceeds of this sale goes directly to “Baby Hannum” Charity
(www.babyhannum.com)
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