We are living in an age where female players have never been more important for the game of poker. A century ago, however, one of the most unique female poker players ever to play the game was in her pomp.
Today, 94 years after her death, Alice Ivers, known to almost everyone as ‘Poker Alice’, has seen her story brought to the silver screen by Elizabeth Taylor, had an indie band named after her and arguably left a legacy that no-one in poker ever has since.
The Birth of a Legend
As the 19th century moved into its second half, Alice Ivers was born in Devonshire on the South West coast of England in 1851. The daughter of Irish immigrants, Alice moved to Virginia when she was just 12 years old and was sent to a boarding school. When she was in her late teens, with her education complete and her ascension to ‘lady’ assured, the family moved to Leadville, nicknamed ‘Two-Mile-High City’ in Colorado.
Leadville was a Gold Rush city and was a magnet for prospectors, with gold having been discovered in the city only a decade before Alice arrived. The second most populated city in Denver, it wasn’t just gold discovered in Leadville and it became known more for its silver around the time Alice married her first husband Frank Duffield, who was a mining engineer. Frank played poker in his spare time, but his luck was out. Just a few years after their marriage, Frank died in a dynamite accident, blown to smithereens when he was setting a charge.
Alice had grown accustomed to playing the game of poker herself. With her winnings, she would travel to New York for the best fashions, before returning to Leadville and wearing her new threads at the poker felt. Alice was attractive and had a fiery personality. She considered her fashion items as workwear, wearing revealing outfits and the best silks to distract her victims at the felt.
Poker Alice Brings the Crowds
Nicknamed ‘Poker Alice’, the former immigrant and now established businesswoman made more money at the felt than she ever had in teaching or other local jobs. Saloon owners liked her. Far from being cheap, Alice was a classy player and constantly drew crowds who would watch her take on any man who dared challenge her at the poker felt. Some nights, Alice would walk away with $6,000, an amazing amount of money for the turn of the new century.
After Frank’s death, Alice became a poker dealer. As the 19th century entered its final decade and with Alice approaching 40, she married again, this time to Warren Tubbs. Also a poker dealer, Tubbs was threatened with a knife by a miner. Alice pulled out her .38 and got him to back off, before beginning a romance with Tubbs and marrying him.
Building her home, the Poker Alice ‘Resort’ became the subject of a siege when Troop K soldiers and Alice clashed. A number of the South Dakota guard, along with five soldiers, arrived at the property armed to the teeth and after being refused entry, threw stones at the windows and cut telephone wires by way of intimidation.
Alice came out firing – literally. She landed five shots, one of them in the head of a Troop K soldier who later died. Shortly after the siege began, the Sheriff arrived at the property and Alice’s reason for defending it became clear. She was running a brothel. While the State Attorney didn’t file charges over her defending her property, Alice did face charges over her house of ‘illfame’, with six girls convicted of frequenting the house for business purposes.
The Mother Ship
Having an unconfirmed number of children – official reports put the number at between three and seven – Alice and Tubbs lived together happily for several years. However, in 1909, Tubbs became ill as a result of contracting tuberculosis. Just before his death on the final day of the year, Alice moved him to a ranch near the Moreau River in South Dakota and upon his demise, she wrapped his body in blankets before arranging a full burial for the man she loved. It took Alice four days with a team of horses and their wagon to put the funeral together, but she did so, paying for the memorial by becoming a local bartender in the nearby Rapid City.
Still a poker player by nature, Alice would more often than not be found at the poker table, chomping on a cigar and taking her opponents’ money. Alice later claimed that in the period between her first husband dying and her third husband coming along, she won over $250,000, the equivalent of $3 million in today’s money and far more valuable back in the early 20th century.
Now in her fifties, Alice took a third husband, George Huckert, who worked for her at Alice’s homestead and was constantly asking for her hand in marriage. Owing Huckert back wages, Alice relented to his latest marriage proposal instead and continued in her poker-playing lifestyle. Another shootout led to more soldiers being fired upon as Alice faced charges of bootlegging and prostitution.
A Parting Gift
Alice continued her habit of run-ins with local authorities as her empire of brothels, built on the back of her poker prowess, continued to thrive. Alice was widowed for a third time when Huckert died in 1924, leaving her all alone. But Alice’s ability to make friends and influence people would yet be her salvation.
With the authorities looking to take down ‘Poker Alice’, the community of Rapid City came together to petition the governor in support of Alice. She was a poker legend, but she was also a local hero, and hundreds signed the petition, forcing Governor William Bulow to relent and pardon the poker heroine. It was late December 28 of 1928 and Alice, now 77, retired from her activities in order to enjoy some form of retirement.
It was less than 15 months later that Poker Alice played her last hand. Diagnosed with a gallbladder problem, doctors operated on Alice and initially, the operation was a success. Two days later, she was healthy enough to return home, but three weeks later, Alice Ivers Duffield Tubbs Huckert died at home after complications. Buried just two days later at the St. Aloysius Cemetery in Sturgis, the local Father Columban gave a sermon at Alice’s grave.
There was one final twist to the story of Poker Alice. After her passing, her last will and testament was read. Going against the grain, Alice had disinherited her relatives. Believing her family to have abandoned her in her later years, Poker Alice left her entire fortune and estate to be divided between her friends, the family she made at the poker table.
Almost a century on from the end of her days, Poker Alice lives on in the fierce spirit and combative poker skills of all female players today.
