Linda Johnson – Pokerology Hall of Fame
Do you ever feel that you have seen someone before but can’t pinpoint where you saw that person? Linda Johnson is the kind of person that fits that description. If you are a poker player and have attended a few tournaments you may have noticed her calling the action. If you watch poker on television, you may have seen her announcing at the final table. However, Johnson did not earn the name “The First Lady of Poker” just by being an announcer for the WPT. No, her contributions to the game have been among the greatest the game has ever seen, and that is why she is the newest member of the “Pokerology.com Hall of Fame.”
Linda Johnson was first introduced to the game of poker by her father. While in the Army, her father made a fair amount of money from poker and tried to stress to his daughter that it was one of the few “gambling” games where you can make money with a proper skill set. Johnson understood what her father was saying, but she forgot what her parents had taught her as soon as she left for college. Instead of playing poker, she would play blackjack, and while with the basic strategy, you can almost make the game break even, her father was still alarmed when he found out her daughter had stopped playing poker. In a heart-to-heart kind of conversation, her father told her that with poker; you can constantly make money, and with any other game in the casino, that is not possible. This time, the advice stuck, and so began Linda Johnson’s descent up the poker ladder.
After mopping up the competition from her co-workers at the post office, the next logical step was moving to the casino. In early 1970, Johnson was considered a bit of a joke by the casino regulars, all guys. Almost everyone playing poker at the time was a male. Johnson immediately wiped the smirk off their faces by finishing at the final table of a 44-dollar tournament, where she was also believed to be the first woman to ever participate in that tournament. Linda would become a successful cash game player over the next 20 years, but as the years went by, she could not help but feel there was something more she could do for the game.
In 1993 she began publishing CardPlayer Magazine, today’s most respected poker magazine. Up until relatively recently, poker was still regarded as a game played by cheats and con artists, so it was Johnson’s goal to bring poker into a positive light, concentrating on the good of the game, such as the competitive spirit, and the genuinely good people who play the game. People began to see her efforts, and Johnson became very well-known within the poker community.
While attending the magazine, Johnson played poker, winning a WSOP Bracelet in Razz in 1997. The cash of $96,000 was one of the highest cash ever for a woman. Her competitive juices continued to flow, and in 2000 she left her position at the magazine to return to being a professional poker. However, just a few weeks into her second life as a professional poker player, she was asked by a brand new poker circuit named “World Poker Tour” to join them in some capacity. Johnson took the job as an in-studio announcer, and of course, the launch of the WPT coincided with the biggest poker boom in history, making it a huge success. Johnson loved her new job but had remembered a promise she had made to herself – if she ever became even more famous, she would help the game even more. Well, being on television weekly got her that fame, and she used it to her advantage.
Arguably one of the greatest organizations to ever be founded in terms of helping the game of poker grow is the Tournament Director’s Association. Before the TDA, many tournaments, even well-known ones like the WSOP, did not have a set-in-stone rule list, which made it very hard for a poker tournament to run properly, especially considering some contests now have over 8,000 entrants. The TDA created a list of rules and structures they hoped all casinos would follow, and for the most part, any tournament circuit that wants to be taken seriously has adopted these rules. Linda Johnson co-created the TDA with the help of her best friend and fellow poker professional Jan Fisher, tournament director Matt Savage, and poker room manager David Lamb.
Over the last few years, Johnson has also helped direct CardPlayer Poker Cruises, specifically designed just to play poker. The idea of a poker cruise was initially met with funny looks, but they have since become great fun for beginners and advanced players alike. You get a chance to sit down with the best players in the world (if you dare) and simultaneously see some beautiful spots around the world. Poker Cruises first appeared around 20 years ago but have only since gained popularity, and much of that can be attributed to Johnson’s experience.
Last year was a big year for Johnson. She started the charity “PokerGives.org” which makes it easy for professional players to contribute money to their favorite charities. She was also inducted into the World in Poker Hall of Fame for her tireless contributions to the game, which makes it a no-brainer that she has been elected as one of the inaugural members of the Pokerology.com Hall of Fame.
