• Poker Alice Lake City Colorado
• Alice Ivers

Alice Ivers Duffield was her actual name. Born in England as Alice Ivers in 1851, she moved to the US at age 12. Her Father was a Headmaster, and she was educated in a private boarding school. After her family moved to Colorado, chasing the Silver mines, she married Frank Duffield, a mining engineer. Her husband taught her the games of poker and faro, and she proved to be enthusiastic and talented. After her husband was killed in a mining accident, she turned to the games as solaceand an income. At 5'4'

Find a Grave, database and images (accessed ), memorial page for Alice Huckert “Poker Alice” Ivers Tubbs (17 Feb 1851–27 Feb 1930), Find a Grave Memorial no. 28982213, citing Saint Aloysius Cemetery, Sturgis, Meade County, South Dakota, USA; Maintained by Find A Grave. Soon the miners and other gamblers were calling her Poker Alice. She had a good head for counting cards, figuring odds and distracting male players with her looks: most pictures of Alice show a rough woman in her 70's with a cigar in her mouth but even into her 50's she was an attractive woman who wore only the finest clothes (poker and faro.

Aug 02, 2017 What can be verified is that Poker Alice was familiar with firearms. There is plenty of legend to go around about Deadwood’s famous card shark. It’s hard to know whether she became a gambler from a young age as some suggest, or as the cigar-chomping elder in the famous photos; or if she impressed future husband Warren Tubbs by shooting a.

with blue eyes and a pretty face, she was soon in demand as a dealer.
A lady gambler was a rare sight in the mining camps she traveled in. At least one who wasn't prostituting on the side. She traveld and gambled all through Kansas, Arizona, New mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. Soon she had acquired the nickname , 'Poker Alice' and was well known, with a big cigar stuck between her teeth and her trademark poker face. Religious, she never played or drank on Sunday. In fact, she was a drinker but wouldn't touch the stuff while playing her skillful gambling trade. She also carried a .38 revolver, and was known to threaten to shoot cheaters in the mug.
She was a big draw wherever she went and was welcome in gambling halls because of her drawing power.
She made her way to Silver City, New Mexico, where she broke the bank at the Gold Dust Gambling House, winning some $6,000. This brought her fame and notoriety throughout the west. Sometime later, she made a trip to New York City, which she often did after a large win, to replenish her wardrobe of fashionable clothing. She then went to work, dealing in Bob Ford's Saloon, in Creede Colorado. This was the Bob Ford that shot and killed Jesse James.
On to Deadwood, South Dakota, where she married Warren Tubbs. She often played against Tubbs at the gaming tables, and often cleaned him out. On one occasion when a drunken miner threatened Tubbs with a knife, Alice pulled out her .38 and put a bullet into the miner's arm.
The two built a ranch nearby and raised their seven children, and slowed down the gambling habit. Then misfortune struck and Tubbs took sick and died of Pneumonia in 1910.
Nearing 60, Poker Alice went back to what she was good at and opened up casino/brothel in Fort Meade South Dakota. She had a standing policy: No gambling or whoring on Sunday. One Sunday, a drunken soldier began to cause havoc in the saloon, destroying the furniture, and causing a ruckus. Alice responded by pulling her .38 and shooting the man. She was soon arrested and jailed, spending her time smoking cigars and reading the bible while awaiting her trial. She was acquitted on the grounds of self defense.

her casino was shut down, and in her 70s, with her beauty and smart dresses long gone, Alice played on through her winter years, continuing to gamble, but now dressing in men’s clothing.


She was featured at events like the Diamond Jubilee, in Omaha, Nebraska, as a true frontier character, and regained some of her fame. She once said, 'At my age I suppose I should be knitting. But I would rather play poker with five or six 'experts' than eat.'
She continued to run a brothel in Sturgis during her later years and was often arrested for drunkenness and keeping a disorderly house. Though she paid her fines, she continued to operate the business. Finally, she was arrested for repeated convictions of running a brothel and sentenced to prison. However, Alice, who was 75 years old at the time, was pardoned by the governor.
At age 79 she was sick with a bad gall bladder and the doctors told her she needed immediate surgery, to live. She returned to the tables instead and had the surgery afterward. She died of complications soon after, on Feb 27, 1930.
Alice claimed to have won more than $250,000 at the gaming tables and 'never once cheated'. In fact, one of her favorite sayings was: 'Praise the Lord and place your bets. I'll take your money with no regrets.'

Poker Alice Lake City Colorado

Alice Ivers

Poker Alice - Famous Frontier Gambler