Backgammon or Poker
She started playing backgammon, but very soon she realized that backgammon does not interest her much. She got a feeling that backgammon is not going to be her hobby, as she got disinterested in less than half an hour. One option that was available to her was to keep backgammon as a reserve for emergencies only.
The game of backgammon could not hold her interest for a long time. It was also difficult for her to simply leave the game. Torn between two feelings, she decided to start lessons and continued for about 4 weeks, and then she just could not take it any more and moved on.
She was again without any hobby and was searching for one. She used to hear about “having a poker game“ in the club. She got interested because she thought she had card sense. She approached people who were in charge, and would request them to allow her to have a go at the game. This was very brave on her part because till now neither had she won even a single hand of poker or knew as what an ante or blind is.
Her first experience was a disaster, which was expected. She did not even know that the players were playing Hold'em. It also became evident very soon that she was a novice and had no clue, whatsoever, as to what was going on at the table. a
The bitter experience quickly taught her that knowledge about the game being played is altogether a different ball game and is remotely related to card sense.
Learning Poker
The first game that she played was a 2-5 No-limit Hold'em game. Till this time, she didn’t had any clue what game, she had played but the prospect of an interesting learning experience kept her going. She stayed there for a couple of days, but it didn’t help matters. Suddenly, she remembered that at Catskills, her dad had played poker when she was a child.
At Catskills, she managed to find the poker room she was looking for. She decided to spend some time there and started to talk to different, but right people who were involved in poker. She learnt about antes and blinds, and for the first time started feeling that she was acquiring a lot of valuable insight.
Initial Poker Success
After she learnt the basics, she decided to have hands-on experience of the game and played a 7-Card Stud game the night after. She won 17 dollars and decided to exploit her newly found confidence.
She returned to New York and went straight to Mayfair to play the game of Hold'em. By this time, she had acquired the knowledge of antes and blinds, but was still not clear as to what the game was.
With the limited knowledge she had acquired, she started to play carefully and won a few dollars. It was not long before, she realized the need to know a great deal before she can make an impact and win on a regular basis. She decided to get hold of a few poker books and took help of the manager at Mayfair Club. The manager offered a book to her, which was Doyle Brunson's Super System. The book was related to how-to tomes and was regarded by many as one of the best books ever published on the subject.
Eolis took home the book and read it several times over until she had almost mugged the book even though she did not understand the whole of it. The enthusiasm of learning poker engrossed her and she took it as a challenge to learn the game as fast as possible. For the weeks to come, she kept on switching between Limit and No-limit games. Though she was learning fast and was enjoying the game play, success still eluded her, but didn’t lose her patience.
Turn of Tide
After the 1985 World Series, things changed for Eolis. Most of the professional players had gone to New York from Las Vegas and were busy banging their heads. At Mayfair, she became friends with Jay Heimowitz. Jay was known as a high-stakes player from the Mayfair to the World Series. In fact, Jay also became her mentor in No-limit Hold'em. There were other big names also, who were playing at Mayfair. There were such players as Howard Lederer, Erik Seidel, and Dan Harrington but they were all interested in playing at Las Vegas.
Poker Exploits
It was her friendship with Heimowitz because of which she participated in her first World Series in the year 1986. It was during that year in one of the preliminary Hold'em tournaments, Heimowitz won his first World Series bracelet. Eolis became very motivated by Heimowitz’s win and decided she herself will play in the main event of the $10,000 buy-in No-limit Hold'em Championship.
Her proud achievements include being the 1st woman to finish in the money of the WSOP. She done this twice. In honor of her exploits in poker, Horseshoe issued $5 limited-edition poker chip, one in a series of five chips that commemorate "Women's Milestones. In the 1986 WSOP, Eolis was placed 25th and became the first woman ever to cash in the World Series. It was in Ladies' Night II that she made her World Poker Tour debut. She also features on television in other invitation-only poker action.
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