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Alice Ivers
Poker Alice Photos

That’s what Alice Ivers Tubbs said. She was better know as Poker Alice, the most famous female poker player in the old west. Alice was born in England in 1851, but her family came to the United states when she was a girl, and she was educated in the East before her family moved to Colorado.

Directed by Arthur Allan Seidelman. With Elizabeth Taylor, Tom Skerritt, George Hamilton, Richard Mulligan. Alice Moffit, 'Poker Alice' (Dame Elizabeth Taylor), has been disowned by her Boston, Massachusetts family because of her incurable penchant for gambling. She is travelling the West with her cousin, John Moffit (George Hamilton), when she wins a house in a poker game on a train. Poker Alice Tubbs was a professional gambler who played her cards in boom towns throughout the wild west. Her stories of risk, and reward reveal the gritty history of towns like Creede, Leadville, and Central City in Colorado, Silver City in New Mexico, and Sturgis and Deadwood in South Dakota. Three of the more famous women gamblers of this time were Calamity Jane, Poker Alice, and Madame Mustache. Before long, many of the Old West mining camps such as Deadwood, Leadville, and Tombstone became as well known for gunfights over card games than they did for their wealth of gold and silver ore. Jul 09, 2019 Alice Ivers never sat down to play poker without holding at least one gun. She generally carried a pistol in her dress pocket and often times she also had a backup weapon in her purse. The frontier was rough and wild and wearing a gun, particularly while playing cards, was a matter of survival. It was a habit for Poker Alice.

Alice Ivers Duffield was her actual name. Born in England as Alice Ivers in 1851, she moved to the US at age 12. Her Father was a Headmaster, and she was educated in a private boarding school. After her family moved to Colorado, chasing the Silver mines, she married Frank Duffield, a mining engineer. Her husband taught her the games of poker and faro, and she proved to be enthusiastic and talented. After her husband was killed in a mining accident, she turned to the games as solaceand an income. At 5'4'
with blue eyes and a pretty face, she was soon in demand as a dealer.
A lady gambler was a rare sight in the mining camps she traveled in. At least one who wasn't prostituting on the side. She traveld and gambled all through Kansas, Arizona, New mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. Soon she had acquired the nickname , 'Poker Alice' and was well known, with a big cigar stuck between her teeth and her trademark poker face. Religious, she never played or drank on Sunday. In fact, she was a drinker but wouldn't touch the stuff while playing her skillful gambling trade. She also carried a .38 revolver, and was known to threaten to shoot cheaters in the mug.
Poker alice photos

She was a big draw wherever she went and was welcome in gambling halls because of her drawing power.
She made her way to Silver City, New Mexico, where she broke the bank at the Gold Dust Gambling House, winning some $6,000. This brought her fame and notoriety throughout the west. Sometime later, she made a trip to New York City, which she often did after a large win, to replenish her wardrobe of fashionable clothing. She then went to work, dealing in Bob Ford's Saloon, in Creede Colorado. This was the Bob Ford that shot and killed Jesse James.
On to Deadwood, South Dakota, where she married Warren Tubbs. She often played against Tubbs at the gaming tables, and often cleaned him out. On one occasion when a drunken miner threatened Tubbs with a knife, Alice pulled out her .38 and put a bullet into the miner's arm.

The two built a ranch nearby and raised their seven children, and slowed down the gambling habit. Then misfortune struck and Tubbs took sick and died of Pneumonia in 1910.
Nearing 60, Poker Alice went back to what she was good at and opened up casino/brothel in Fort Meade South Dakota. She had a standing policy: No gambling or whoring on Sunday. One Sunday, a drunken soldier began to cause havoc in the saloon, destroying the furniture, and causing a ruckus. Alice responded by pulling her .38 and shooting the man. She was soon arrested and jailed, spending her time smoking cigars and reading the bible while awaiting her trial. She was acquitted on the grounds of self defense.

her casino was shut down, and in her 70s, with her beauty and smart dresses long gone, Alice played on through her winter years, continuing to gamble, but now dressing in men’s clothing.

She was featured at events like the Diamond Jubilee, in Omaha, City

Nebraska

Alice Ivers

, as a true frontier character, and regained some of her fame. She once said, 'At my age I suppose I should be knitting. But I would rather play poker

Poker Alice Photos

with five or six 'experts' than eat.' Pictures

She continued to run a brothel in Sturgis during her later years and was often arrested for drunkenness and keeping a disorderly house. Though she paid her fines, she continued to operate the business. Finally, she was arrested for repeated convictions of running a brothel and sentenced to prison. However, Alice, who was 75 years old at the time, was pardoned by the governor.
At age 79 she was sick with a bad gall bladder and the doctors told her she needed immediate surgery, to live. She returned to the tables instead and had the surgery afterward. She died of complications soon after, on Feb 27, 1930.
Alice claimed to have won more than $250,000 at the gaming tables and 'never once cheated'. In fact, one of her favorite sayings was: 'Praise the Lord and place your bets. I'll take your money with no regrets.'

Poker Alice - Famous Frontier Gambler

Poker Alice Pictures