Jan Fisher:
Practicing What She Preaches
by Lucy Kim
Photos courtesty of World Poker Tour
and WPT Bootcamp
Poker champions are measured by what they have accomplished at the poker tables. Although she has a string of wins and has final-tabled four WSOP tournaments, poker professional Jan Fisher’s true successes can be measured by what she has accomplished away from the poker tables.
A 10-year veteran columnist for Card Player magazine, a writer for Poker Player newspaper and the co-owner of Card Player Cruises, Fisher’s interest in poker began at a young age when her now 84-year-old father used to host home games. Poker turned into a profession when, at the age of 21, Fisher moved to Las Vegas from Seattle to become a poker dealer. For the next 20 years, she worked in more than dozen cardrooms, which helped her poker skills improve.
I have gotten to know Fisher fairly well, as I have played poker with her and was very fortunate to have her as one of my lead instructors at a World Poker Tour (WPT) Boot Camp. I have also met her family and friends, have witnessed her interacting with a legion of fans and have interviewed her for many of my articles. After 2 years of our association, I have a story to tell: It’s the tale of The Jan Fisher who puts her money where her mouth is.
Fisher has voiced that women still feel timid about playing cards and that “that needs to change.” So what is she doing to bring about this change? She and long-time pal and business partner, Linda Johnson, often give poker seminars to groups of women. A few months ago, a friend of mine, Marcea Barton, told me that Fisher and Johnson were planning to give a one-hour poker tutorial prior to a Ladies NLHE tournament in Oklahoma, where Barton resides. Some of the women poker players were disheartened because they were not able to attend the events. To their amazement, Fisher and Johnson made a special visit to their home game and repeated their poker lecture—gratis.
A week later, when I had asked Fisher what prompted them to give that private lecture, she explained that “If they can’t come to us, we’ll go to them.” I then recalled Johnson saying that they both “enjoy helping women poker players become better players.” This was before the time when one of my Boot Camp classmates, who had told me about this incident, called them to ask about how rebuy tournaments worked. There had been only a 4-hour window between shooting a WPT event and getting on a flight for another tournament when they received the call. Even though this would be an inconvenience for most, Fisher and Johnson took pleasure in helping out their student and took turns giving her a private poker lesson over the phone. This led to the student cashing in her very next rebuy tournament.
Fisher and Johnson also avail themselves for charity events, volunteering their services in any way they can. A nonprofit organization which is of particular interest to Fisher and Johnson is Ivey Ranch Association, an educational and recreational center for disabled children in Oceanside, CA. I had spoken to Fisher after she won a NHLE open event at Oceans Eleven Casino in the fall of 2006. That win was very special to Fisher, because the tournament was a charity event which raised money for Ivey Ranch. During our discussion, Fisher announced that she and Johnson had plans for the following year, which was to invite some of their friends to join them for a hands-on beautification project at Ivey Ranch. Having previously donated money to Ivey Ranch, Fisher wanted to do something different—that is, to contribute “sweat equity.”
Again, Fisher accomplished what she had set out to do. In September of this year, Fisher, Johnson and thirty of their poker friends got together to work on gardening and fence-painting projects.LK: Thinking back on the Ivey Ranch project, what was your favorite part of the day, and would you do it again?
JF: The coolest part was seeing the kids smile and act like kids, seeing the horses and beautiful landscape . . . the pets, the home-like atmosphere. As for the work we did, with 30+ people working half a day, about 100 “man” house of labor was accomplished and was immediately noticeable. I hope we can make the work brigade an annual event. I know they can count on Linda and me.
LK: You first arrived in Vegas during a time when it was very difficult for women to break into the world of poker. What led you to make such a dramatic decision?
JF: I was young and didn’t know how tough it would be, so it never occurred that I might fail. At the time I moved to Las Vegas, I was 21 and the year was 1977. I was in a well-paying but dead-end job in Seattle, and it was time for a change for many reasons. It wasn’t what you knew, it was WHO you knew. I didn’t know anyone, so I had to break in the hard way. I lost many jobs while learning the system and how it worked in those days. Luckily, there are laws now that help to abate unfair terminations, although Nevada is still a fire-at-will state. I bought a house in ’78 and still live in it today. I have seen Las Vegas grow from 165,000 to nearly 2 million people. What once was the edge of town, where my house is, is now the center of town !
LK: How did your parents feel about your decision?
They were very supportive. As mentioned, I was in a dead-end job after dropping out of college following only one year. They weren’t pleased with that, but knew I’d do better going to school when the time was right, not because I had to go.
I was a Teamster making good wages working for Eddie Bauer. If I hadn’t moved when I did, I might still be there today. My mother visited frequently, and was a very good and savvy 21 player. She taught me those ropes, but poker was my passion. She’d come to visit, and it became “socially acceptable” for her to visit Las Vegas many times a year. Shortly before she passed away, in 1990, she had begun to play poker. Being a world-class bridge player, she took to the game like a fish to water. Unfortunately, she didn’t see the boom or my success in the poker world. I was still dealing cards when she died, and she was still very, very proud of me for making it on my own.
I did return to school when I knew dealing wasn’t the end-all be-all, and received my BS degree in business management with minors in accounting and finance from UNLV in 1985, shortly before turning 30. Better late than never!
LK: You had worked in over a dozen cardrooms, including the Golden Nugget, where it was tough to be a woman dealer. What were those early days in Vegas like for you, and how did you last so long in that profession?
JF: I’d be lying if I didn’t say it was tough. I was the victim of such abuse over the years, yet I was one of the few dealers (of either sex) who truly didn’t tolerate it. That is partly why I did lose some jobs. The things that happened to me or my friends would never happen today in the cleaned-up cardrooms. By dealing for so many years, I was able to watch the best players in the world and pay attention and learn to play without the costs usually involved. I was an excellent dealer, so I was generally put into the biggest games. Unfortunately, this was sort of a punishment, as you made the least amount of money in those games. However, what I learned was stuff that hadn’t yet been published, so in the long run, I came out well ahead. The verbal abuse and male chauvinism was really the worst stuff. Of course, the cardrooms all allowed smoking then, too, which was a huge problem.LK: Because one of your poker goals is to promote the longevity and integrity of poker, it’s befitting that you are the co-founder of the Tournament Directors Association (TDA). How is the TDA helping to accomplish your goals?
JF: Along with Dave Lamb, Linda Johnson, and Matt Savage, we formed the TDA several years ago once we’d given up on standardizing live cardroom rules. For tournaments, we thought we stood a chance. The first year, I think we agreed to 14 rules. When I say “we,” I mean the 4 of us and the handful of tournament directors who attended the meeting. We have since grown to 40 rules, and the way this helps the longevity of the game is that players don’t have to re-learn the game when they travel. They don’t have to wonder, in tournaments, whether there will be a forward or dead button, or how players are moved, or question whether there is any integrity and fairness. We have helped to give players a feeling of security and safety when playing in any of the well-known events. Even many of the smaller cardrooms have gotten on the bandwagon and proudly post that they follow the TDA rules. We also man a Q and A email where one of the 4 of us will answer poker-related questions about rulings and such. It is amazing how much mail we get!
LK: How did you become involved with Card Player Cruises?
JF: I started dealing the cruises back in the early 90’s when June Field still owned Card Player magazine and the cruises. From there, I went to work for Linda and eventually rose up the chain from dealer to dealer coordinator, to shift manager to both shift manager and tournament director. Then when Linda and her partners bought the cruise division from the magazine after she sold, I bought a tiny, tiny part. I owned about 4% along with 3 others who had the rest in equal shares. When one of those spots was open for sale, I was given the first opportunity to purchase it, which I did about 8 years ago give or take. Now Linda, Mark Tenner, and I are 1/3 partners in the business and love our jobs. Having worked every facet of the cruises, it was a natural fit for me to get a piece of the pie somehow.
LK: What’s a typical day like on a Card Player Cruise?
JF: Each cruise is so different. We just got off of our annual Mexican Riviera cruise where we had 600+ passengers. We had 25-28 games going. We hosted a tournament each sea day, with an added ladies-only event opposite the Omaha/8 tourney, so had 4 on this past cruise. Usually our cruises are about 12-15 tables and 250-300 players. It is the same thing though, a tournament each sea day, which would generally be 3 - 4 tournaments. Our exotic cruises (those that leave from foreign ports) are generally smaller groups. Our recently complete 2-week Australia and New Zealand cruise had only 100 passengers, but we held 5 great games each night. Rarely any tournaments on the exotics, as we don’t have a tournament coordinator. We always have at least one seminar and often times two. There’s always a Q and A and tips-from-the-pros sort of thing. It all is included for our guests, except for the poker entries, which they have to pay for separately.
LK: You are an incredible poker instructor, and I enjoyed every
minute of my WPT Boot Camp experience.
Tell me what you like best about teaching the Boot Camps.
JF: Oh, that’s easy. It is the wonderful people we meet and the follow-up emails we get from our students, both telling us of their successes and asking questions. I love seeing players cash for their first time and actually SEE how what we said does, indeed, work! It is so very rewarding. On a more selfish note, I learn something every time I teach. Oftentimes, it is a student asking a question or hearing the other instructors answer one that gets me to thinking about a situation in a way I hadn’t done before.
LK: What aspects of what you teach at the Boot Camps came into play when you won the LPA Pro Tour NLHE event at Cherokee Casino a couple of months ago?
JF: All of it . . . truly. There isn’t one thing I teach that I don’t use in every event. Aggression likely being the most important, along with bet sizing.
LK: Although you play in open tournaments, you support the women’s poker movement by playing in the women’s events. What differences do you see in events like the LPA Pro Tour tournaments versus the lower buy-in ones?
JF: The higher buy-in ladies-only events play like open events for the most part. Of course, there is more hugging, I guess! The tiny buy-ins are novice events, and I’d like to see those offered for both men and women who’ve been too intimidated to play previously. That being said, I still think it is tougher for women to “put it out there,” so playing only against women helps them get past that intimidation hurdle.
LK: You liken women-only tournaments as “starter kits for women.” What do you envision for the world of poker in the very near future, and what will your role be?
JF: In the near future I don’t think much will change. I hope the UIGEA gets repealed and we can go back to enjoying personal freedoms in our homes. I hope my role will always be that of an inspirational person with a good reputation for fairness and integrity. While not everyone may like you, I think it is possible to have everyone respect you. I would hope to always have that role . . . regardless of what professional position I may be in. Currently, I am looking to semi-retire but projects keep finding me, so who knows where I’ll be or what I’ll be doing? I’d love to do more charity work and think that likely will be my goal for 2008.
LK: What advice do you have for women who are considering playing in tournaments—both mixed and women’s—with bigger buy-ins, like the WSOP and LPA Pro Tour events?
JF: Have no fear and know what you are doing before you enter. That is, get experience in smaller events first so you can make your mistakes cheaply. Never ever give up. WPT events have been won by players down to a few chips, as was Linda Johnson’s WSOP bracelet. One of my Cherokee wins came after being down to a few chips in about the 4th level. NEVER give up, especially in no-limit, where only a couple of double-ups, and you’re right back in it. IF you are the type to give up, save your money and find another pastime.
LK: I said that you put your money where your mouth is. What poker goals
have you set for 2008?
JF: I want to do more charity work, where I give of myself in addition to writing checks. I hope to expand the TDA rule book and also change venues for my Mesquite events, as well as starting a new event possibly in the Laughlin area. I want to continue to teach and do seminars for home-game groups, bar leagues, and other such entities that don’t have big bucks behind them. If I am in your home town, call me and I’ll come over and talk. I do love the mic! Likely, I can persuade Linda to come along. . . .
At my WPT Boot Camp, Fisher admonished that “If you fail to plan, then plan to fail.” Although she was using the battle axiom to teach us to prepare strategies for every stage of our poker game, the adage could be applied to all areas of our lives. As we approach the New Year, I look forward to seeing Fisher’s newly-created plans in action.
Thank you, Jan Fisher, for championing the cause for poker players. You are a true poker champ! For more information regarding Card Player Cruises and WPT Bootcamp.
Men and Women Welcome
