Playing Her Cards Right, She Bucks the Odds

At first glance, Cyndy Violette could be just another tourist enjoying a long weekend here. But if you wind up across the table from this diminutive 38-year-old, you might want to surrender your hand and catch a show instead. Violette, who bears some resemblance to tennis legend Chris Evert Lloyd, is one of a handful of women who make their living playing poker. (This year, 13 women entered the World Championship; Violette was busted out on the first day. Her highest finish in the last five years was 36th.)

A divorced mother of a 16-year-old daughter, Violette lives in Atlantic City, N.J., but travels the country in search of action. At tournament time, she comes to Vegas in search of big-stakes side games. You can find her most nights at the upscale Mirage card room--stacks of $100 bills neatly piled in front of her. A health-food freak, Violette often brings her own brown rice and miso soup to the game, a diet that seems wildly out of place among the three basic food groups of most gambling pros--caffeine, nicotine and aspirin.

Her specialty is not the current game of choice, Texas Hold ‘Em, but the more traditional 7-card stud. Her reputation is that of a steely competitor not afraid to take on the men, one who will play “high.”

“Cyndy is one of the only women who will play for any stakes,” says Jim Albrecht, tournament director at Binion’s Horseshoe. “They can’t run her over.”

Just a couple of weeks before the tournament, Violette was in Atlantic City playing $3,000-$6,000 stud (meaning the bets move from $3,000 on the first three cards to $6,000 on the next four). “In a game like that, you can win or lose a lot of money,” she says calmly. “Last time we played, I won $89,000.” (When playing the very highest stakes, Violette usually has a “backer,” someone who stakes her and takes a percentage of her win or covers her losses.) Her staple game is $150-$300 7 stud, where she can expect to win or lose between $10,000 and $15,000 a night.

She is the first to admit she has also lost big. On her worst night ever, she dropped $250,000 in one session. But Violette has survived as a pro for more than 15 years, and though she won’t divulge exact figures, she regularly clears more than $100,000 annually.

Violette’s family moved to Las Vegas when she was 12. She married at 21, but the relationship soured; finding herself pregnant, she started playing poker “just to get out of the house.” She schooled herself before giving up her day job as a poker dealer.

She never went to college, and, unlike many of her peers who are blessed with extraordinary mathematical intuition or a photographic memory, Violette’s strength is her intensity.

“I think one of my best traits is my attitude,” she says during a break in the tournament. “I don’t dwell on the last hand. Poker is all about the big picture and getting the most out of the hands you do catch.”

And she’s not at all intimidated by the men she has to stare down across the table. Rather, she says: “I feel it’s an advantage being a woman. The men don’t give women players enough credit. You can run bluffs at them because they don’t think you’ll try it or they underestimate your hand because they don’t think you’re that good. They play me different than they play men, so I can work off of that.”

What makes her so aggressive?

“I don’t think about the money and I don’t have any fear. I’m not thinking, Uh-oh, there goes the rent money. To me, they are just chips. I’ve sat down many a time with my entire bankroll on the table. I’ve definitely got gamble in me.”

At home in New Jersey, she tries to restrict her play to weekends to allow more time for her daughter and her boyfriend.

Violette displays a genuine passion for poker.

“I love the people, and I love the freedom it gives me,” she says.

Though she has been a waitress and a lifeguard, the days of reporting to a boss are long gone. She says her goal is to retire and open a combination bookstore and health-food cafe. But tonight, like most nights, her bread and butter will come from the other tables--the ones covered in green felt.