The poker industry is dominated mostly by male poker players and only during the past couple of years has there been an increase in female poker players who have been able to compete with the men and come out on top. Pamela Wilson is not a full time poker player but she did incredibly well at the 2015 Midwest Poker Classic which took place at the at Ho-Chunk Gaming Wisconsin Dells.
Wilson took part in the $50,000 guaranteed Main Event which had a buy-in of $350 and had a total of 333 player registrations. The total prize money on the line was a little over $85,000 and another $21,312 spread out in PPC Aruba packages. Wilson played an outstanding game and managed to win the main event, taking a cash prize of $17,902 along with a $5,000 PPC Aruba package. While the amount is not a six figure sum, this victory was very special to Wilson because it was the first time that she has won so much money playing poker.
Wilson has also been going through a tough time with her health. At the start of 2015, she experienced fatigue and also pain in her body. After going through a full checkup she was diagnosed in February 2015 with Stage 2 invasive Breast Cancer. The news shook her and her husband as the doctors discovered that her lymph nodes were affected and she was initially not very sure how far the cancer had spread.
The 46 year old Wilson who is an entrepreneur took the news seriously and decided to shutdown her business interests till she sorted out her health. She had to go through surgery, two months of radiation and then a long recovery period but managed to come out on top and believes the worst is now behind her. Apart from being an entrepreneur, Wilson is also passionate about playing poker and said she used her time in the hospital to think about poker and how she could improve her poker strategy. Her main event win at the 2015 Midwest Poker Classic confirms that her efforts have paid off.
After her win, Wilson said
I was in a lot of pain and fatigue at the final two tables, but I just decided, ‘I’ve got a shot‘, so whatever, I’ll just deal. I had so many people coming up to me saying ‘I was cheering for you, I was hoping you would win‘. I think with less than five percent of the field being women, people viewed me as the underdog, and it’s always fun to cheer for the underdog! The Ho-Chunk poker room gals said I was their first woman champ. They were so happy. I know it sounds kind of corny but it makes me feel great for others to take something positive out of the results of my efforts.
