At my age I suppose I should be knitting but I would rather play poker with five or six experts than eat.
Alice Tubbs was born in England in 1851 but moved to Virginia at 12 years old, receiving the majority of her education in the United States. Better known as Poker Alice, Mrs. Tubbs became the most recognizable female name in the annals of Americana due to her penchant for poker and brazen ‘do-it-yourself’ attitude.
Alice’s interest in poker was first piqued when she met her first husband Frank Duffield in Colorado. Frank noted Alice’s keenness and nurtured her latent skills, teaching her the tricks of the trade. Unfortunately Frank was killed several years later while setting a dynamite charge, but Alice continued playing poker across the United States, even working at a saloon in Colorado owned by Bob Ford, the man who killed Jesse James.
Alice worked various jobs throughout her life. Although she enjoyed these odd jobs, which included a brief tenure in an educational institution teaching, Alice pined for the quick, exciting and tangible rewards of the pasteboards. Whenever hard times fell she felt comfortable knowing a return to the felt would likely be lucrative. Alice was extremely good at counting cards and calculating odds. Her poker games would attract large crowds to saloons, where men from all walks of life would come to challenge ‘Poker Alice’, trying their hand against the queen. Alice claimed that she had made a grand sum of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars throughout her years playing poker, roughly three million dollars in modern money. With her beloved .38 pistol hanging from her waist and a dogged cigar hanging from the corner of her mouth, it’s easy to see how the modern mold of a cowboy came to exist; think Clint Eastwood poncho-clad, six shooter in either hand, chewing on a stogie.
Alice was not known for her frugality. After a big win she would travel to New York and spend the winnings on expensive dresses, keeping up with all the latest fashions. Primary sources from the time describe a strong and good-looking woman. Retaining her youthful spark late into life, many men sought to woo the Queen of the Pasteboards. Alice took great pleasure using good looks and charm to dazzle and distract male players at the felt.
While working at a casino in South Dakota, a drunken miner threatened fellow dealer Warren G. Tubbs, prompting Alice to draw her .38 and scare the would-be assailant away. Tubbs and Alice became romantically involved and married soon after, producing seven children. Fearing the effects gambling houses and the dinge of saloon life would have on their impressionable children, the couple upped and moved to Sturgis in South Dakota.
Again Alice’s happy ending was thwarted. Tubbs soon passed away after a lengthy battle with pneumonia arising from TB complications. In order to pay for his funeral Alice pawned her wedding ring, which she later bought back using poker winnings.
Alice’s third and final husband, George Huckert, worked on her homestead taking care of the sheep. It is believed Alice did not want to wed him but owed him over one thousand dollars in back wages so conceded in order to relinquish the debt. He proposed multiple times before this. Huckert died in 1913. Alice would not marry again after the third tragedy.
Years on the road began to take their toll and Alice longed to settle, opening her own saloon Poker’s Palace in 1910 which offered merriment, gambling and refreshment on the ground floor and ‘alternate entertainments’ upstairs. A prime example of Alice’s strong but slightly skewed moral barometer, she would offer prostitutes to drunken sailors at the felt while insisting the business remain closed on Sundays out of respect for the sabbath.
Trouble with the law was a staple throughout the twilight years of Alice’s life, suffering numerous arrests for bootlegging. Fines were always paid in due time but Alice never let any unwanted attention from the law discourage her business ventures.
One Sunday while Poker’s Palace was closed for business, a squad of unruly drunken soldiers arrived shouting for Alice to open up. Drawing her pistol, she fired a warning shot from the window but the bullet misfired, killing one soldier and wounding another. This resulted in the arrest of Alice and six of her girls, including a short prison sentence for the Madame. The trial result in the closure of the saloon despite Alice pleading self-defence. She was arrested once more for bootlegging but served no time due to her advanced age.
After undergoing a routine gall bladder operation in 1930 Alice succumbed to a virus. She was 79 years old and her grave marker sits today in Aloysius Cemetery, North Carolina. Alice cemented her legacy in life, vividly remembered 80 years later through quotes and Americana literature. I think the impression the general public have of this no-nonsense card sharp would please her greatly — still charming, still got it. Those who remember watching games in her prime recall Alice gleefully rubbing her hands together, saying “Praise the Lord and place your bets, I’ll take your money with no regrets.”
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