Poker: You Bet She Can Bluff
Written by playerpress.com, Friday December 12 2008
When playing poker it is natural to want to eliminate all distractions. If you are easily distracted, or prone to lose your head in the presence of a pretty woman, then you better never sit across from Jennifer Tilly when the stakes are high. Because, not only is the lady a distraction, this Queen of Hearts is a stone cold card player who will take your shirt and not in the way you were hoping.
Tilly has the distinction of being the first Hollywood celebrity to win a WSOP bracelet. She earned the costly trinket in 2005 in a $1000.00 Ladies Texas Hold’em event in which she out played 600 entrants. That netted her $158,625.00. She continued her hot run that year by winning the World Poker Tour Ladies Invitational Event at the Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens, CA.
Getting Ms. Tilly on to TV was a no brainer and she was soon lighting up the screen on the Poker Royale series on the GSN and the Poker Superstars on Fox Sports. I believe it was on that program that I watched her take Melissa Joan Hart to the cleaners to demonstrate that then late ‘40’s Jennifer Tilly did not have to acquiesce to a more youthful beauty.
In case you are wondering how she has managed to transition from actress to poker player it came about through an acting role. In 1989 she was in a film entitled “Let it Ride” which probably grossed far less than her WSOP winnings. The gambling themed movie created an interest in poker that Tilly continued at home and with friends after filming ended.
You can only take so much money from your friends before they suggest that you should go play elsewhere and eventually Tilly entered into competition. Coming in she had an upper hand having been coached by her boy friend Phil “The Unabomber” Laak. Laak is a professional player Tilly met at a WPT invitational. Once Tilly and Laak struck up a relationship and she hit the tables, she earned the nickname of The Unabombshell”.
There were critics of Tilly’s early success. They wrote it off to beginners luck and a good dose of Laak’s schooling, but questioned if she could hang. The Unabombshell dropped bombs on them when she followed up her WSOP bracelet winner with a win at the World Poker Tour’s Ladies Night two months later. On that night she won out over past champion Isabelle ‘No Mercy” Mercier, Cecelia Mortensen and Aidiliy Elviro. She dispelled the theory that she only knew as much as Laak had taught because along with beating a past champ in Mercier, Mortensen is the wife of pro player Carlos Mortensen and Elviro was the fiancé of Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi. In other words, there was enough inside knowledge at that table to cover everyone equally.
She may be The Unabombshell, but the lady has heart. She enters charity tournaments and often donates money from non charity events to a favorite cause. Another cause close to her heart is getting more women involved in poker. She appreciates the increase of Ladies Tournaments and feels they will add to the number of women who pick up cards. She admits that initially she found playing with men intimidating, but has gotten accustomed to it, just like she’s grown accustomed to taking their money.
Tilly is so proficient and involved with poker that acting is now her second job. What she misses in box office grosses she will easily make up in winnings.
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