More Photos

Luck Be a Lady 2001
By Jan Fisher

The Bicycle Casino hosted the second annual Luck Be a Lady tournament over the five-day weekend March 22-26th. Believe me, it was the ladies who attended who were the lucky ones. What a time they had. The Bicycle Casino does nothing second rate and this event was no different. There were banquets, luncheons, games, field trips, and also poker tournaments. The camaraderie was great and old friendships were rekindled and new ones made. Only in its second year, it is hard to imagine what this gala event will do to top itself in the future!

Commencing on Thursday evening, a beautiful cocktail party was hosted. What this club calls a cocktail party I would describe as a sumptuous buffet dinner, complete with chocolate dipped gourmet strawberries! Following this was a doubles tag-team event. Half hold'em and half seven-card stud were played with a $50 buy-in and one $50 add-on per team. The winning team was Sherry Wu and Jackie Juan and they pocketed $1,800 for the day.

Friday morning, the Bicycle Casino raised the bar on these types of get-togethers by hosting a day at Disneyland's new California Adventure Park. A bus full of ladies were escorted on a beautiful video equipped transport and taken to the park. Along the ride, we danced the Electric Slide in the aisle and told some bad, bad jokes. All in fun of course, and we arrived at the park ready to tackle some of the most extreme of rides. Kelley O'Hara, marketing director, really iced this cake by giving each of us $30 spending money in addition to the entrance to the park. Wow! All that fun and money too! Can it get any better than that? Once inside the park, after mugging for the camera, we split up into different groups, some who wanted to go on the lazy rides and attractions, others who headed off to the wildest of roller coasters. The bus ride home was a lot quieter and many of the ladies fell asleep. They had to as the evening's event began at 7:15! It was a $120 buy-in limit hold'em event with no rebuys. Prior to the tournaments start, General Partner Haig Kelegian stopped by to address the ladies and make sure that they were being well cared for. Taking down that event and $2,275 was Stephanie Point.

Saturday afternoon saw a $60 buy-in seven-card stud tournament. Many of the women were totally whipped from the previous days activities, but that did not stop them from coming out for the poker. Besting the field for $805 was Marie Sohn. After the event, everyone got into their best clothes and put on their dancing shoes for the gala party! A wonderful buffet was served, a la Bicycle Casino standards, and the greatest band played music until the wee hours. Security finally told us last dance, which was strange to us as we are more accustomed to hearing "last call". It is a good thing that the party finally ended as we had another full day on Sunday.

Sunday's festivities began at noon with games, a hypnotist, a handwriting analyst, and a champagne brunch. It was tough pulling ourselves away from all the fun to get down to the business at hand…that of trying for the last time to qualify for the free-roll points championship the next day. COO Hashem Minaiy came by to see what all the laughter was about, and then he remembered that he had walked in on yet another great ladies event at the Bike! Winning that final event, a half Omaha 8/B and half stud 8/B, was Charity Perry-Turner and she received $780 for the victory.

The ladies were once again treated to an orgy of desserts as they entered the room for the $10,000 free-roll. All 32 qualifiers, many who had come from out of town, showed up to play. They were delighted to find out that just by qualifying, they had won a minimum of $100 a piece.

Tournament Director Denny Williams decided to use Tex's TEARS for the first time ever at the Bicycle Casino. The ladies really enjoyed the structure as it allowed for a lot of play. When it got down to 18 players, a suggestion was made and adopted that all remaining finalists would each get $400 and the balance of the money would be paid to the final table. The play really got fast and furious after that!

Heads-up play between Patty Pfeil and Ronni Taylor was short lived as Ronni had a tremendous chip lead to start." As usual, the Bike put on a great show. Best of all, the Bike used Tex's TEARS for the first time and the ladies loved it" said Patty. This was the first big win for Bicycle employee Ronni Taylor who has six children and a wonderful husband. The money will be put to good use! "This is exhilarating, the ladies were great and we had a wonderful time. In fact, I feel sorry for the women who missed it and hope that the event gets bigger and better." Ronnie won $960 for her effort.

Mere thanks are inadequate to the Bicycle Casino for hosting such a fabulous event. It was GREAT! Kudos to employees Kelley O'Hara, Eveliene Dullaart, Rick Cloward, Denny Williams, Christel King, Donna Milligan, Angie Marquez, Kim Washburn, Lucy Garrett, Reuben & Sharon Silvas, Chef Mario, Charmaine Faulkner, Cynthia Cibrian and a great kitchen and banquet staff. Thanks for providing us with an outstanding event. I can hardly wait until next year!

The Ladies go to Disney Land! The following photos are listed below: Jan and the gang arrive Having Fun Eveliene Dullaart On their way
Return to Article

More about The Bicycle Casino | More Casino Profiles

Comments? Please post them in our Poker Forum.