Billie Brown enters the Women's Poker Hall of Fame
Founded in 2008 to highlight women's place in the predominantly male sport of Poker
, the Women's Poker Hall of Fame has announced that September 3rd three new inductees. Billie Brown was a poker visionary for carving a place for women that is taken for granted in online poker room reviews.
Sadly she didn't live to see women's role in poker honored in this fashion as she passed away in 2004. Her achievements in poker, though spectacular, are only part of her story. She was a great teacher focusing on those most in need of the patience, mentally handicapped children.
Her experience in a male dominated culture was not isolated to a poker room. She worked as a Ford Model and courier for high fashion. This travel lead her around the world including Saudi Arabia, certainly a country known for having gender barriers. While there she worked with the government on important desalinization plants. This ground breaking work right alongside male counter parts allowed her to feel right at home playing in the male dominated game of poker back in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
While in Las Vegas she used her skills of negotiation to create the first tournament with a guaranteed purse. This upfront money allowed the tournaments to grow in popularity, and as any poker room review will tell you more people participating annually in the tournament larger the winning pots will grow. This led to the first guaranteed million dollar tournament.
As well as building up the reputation of Las Vegas she helped create promotions and poker rooms in Indian Casinos in her home state of California. This ground work bringing poker out of the back rooms of bars and into the general play around the United States led the way to its popularity in the online gaming market. This overwhelming popularity directly led to the volume of poker rooms and the need for established online poker room rating systems.
As the year 2000 came and went she was primarily promoting an Ocean's Eleven Casino in California. As a former girl friend of Rat Pack member Peter Lawford she would have had firsthand knowledge of this iconic time frame. While working on this she created and hosted the California Ladies Poker Championship. This tournament dedicated to the women of poker is still drawing women from all over the country.
Though her mark is not as strong online, she was certainly a pioneer for women in general and those in poker specifically. Her entry into the Women's Poker Hall of Fame is certainly deserved.
Billie Brown enters the Women's Poker Hall of Fame