Poker Alice
| Poker Alice (Alice Ivers Duffield Tubbs Huckert) |
|
|---|---|
Poker Alice (pre-1930)
|
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| Born |
February 17, 1851 Devonshire, England |
| Died | February 27, 1930 (aged 79) Rapid City, Pennington County South Dakota, USA |
| Cause of death | Failed gall bladder surgery |
| Resting place | St. Aloysius Cemetery in Sturgis, South Dakota |
| Residence |
Sturgis, Meade County South Dakota |
| Occupation | Gambler; Brothel operator; Rancher |
| Spouse(s) |
Three-time widow: |
| Children | Seven children from second marriage |
Three-time widow:
(1) Frank Duffield
(2) Warren G. Tubbs
Alice Ivers Duffield Tubbs Huckert (February 17, 1851 – February 27, 1930), better known as Poker Alice, Poker Alice Ivers or Poker Alice Tubbs, was a famous poker player in the American West.
Her family moved from Devon, England, where she was born, to Virginia, United States, where she was reared and educated. As an adult, Ivers moved to Leadville, Colorado, where she met her first husband, Frank Duffield. He got Ivers interested in poker, but he was killed a few years after they married. Ivers made a name for herself by winning money from poker games in places like Silver City, New Mexico, and even working at a saloon in Creede, Colorado, that was owned by Bob Ford, the man who killed Jesse James.
"Poker" Alice Ivers was born in England, to Irish immigrants. Her family moved to Virginia when Alice was twelve. As a young woman, she went to boarding school in Virginia to become a refined lady. While in her late teens, her family moved to Leadville, a city in the then Colorado Territory.
It was in Leadville that Alice met Frank Duffield, whom she married at a young age. Frank Duffield was a mining engineer who played poker in his spare time. After just a few years of marriage, Duffield was killed in an accident while resetting a dynamite charge in a Leadville mine.
Ivers was known for splurging her winnings, as when she won a lot of money in Silver City and spent it all in New York. After all of her big wins, she would travel to New York and spend her money on clothes. She was very keen on keeping up with the latest fashions and would buy dresses to wear to play poker.
Alice met her next husband around 1890 when she was a dealer in Bedrock Tom’s saloon in Deadwood, South Dakota. When a drunken miner tried to attack her fellow dealer Warren G. Tubbs with a knife, Alice threatened him with her .38. After this incident, Tubbs and Ivers started a romance and were married soon after.
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Wikipedia