Poker Queens

I think we're gonna have conflict

on this hand.

All right, get 'em all in there.

Indeed, all 50,000 goes in.

Makes it $100,000 pot.

If Daniel wins this, he's back in the running again.

All right, brother.

I'm goin' all in.

Okay, whaddya got?

He's got two queens

and Crandall just turned over two nines.

Only one card away

from being the world champion

and it's the 10 of diamonds.

Bobby Baldwin is world champion.

He got it!

He got it, he got it.

He's a shocked, amazed man.

He's the world champion of poker, Jack Straus.

Stuey wins the tournament.

Stu Ungar has won three World Series of Poker.

- Scotty's got a nine. - Scotty's got a nine.

Scotty's our new world champion.

And there it is.

Hellmuth wins the championship.

So Phil gets the money.

Scott Blumstein is the 2017 world champion.

That's the call and that is the tournament.

John Cynn can now call himself Main Event champion.

Martin Jacobson has his breakthrough win.

He has climbed the mountain

and is poker's world champion!

Sweden's first Main Event champion

is a worthy one.

They say that the game of poker

takes five minutes to learn and a lifetime to master.

But it only takes about 30 seconds to notice that

almost all poker players are men.

The biggest poker competition in the world

happens every year in Las Vegas.

It's been going strong for more than half a century.

It's called the World Series of Poker.

Winning a bracelet in the WSOP Main Event

is the most prestigious prize in poker.

Using skill, mathematics, aggression,

creativity, intuition and luck,

players knock each other out of the game

until there's only one table left: the final table.

Only one woman has ever made it to the final table

of the Main Event at the World Series of Poker

in all of its first 50 years: Barbara Enright.

Welcome to the West here in Las Vegas, Nevada,

for the 1995 World Series of Poker.

- These six players, there are five men and one woman

and this is the first time

that a lady has gotten to the finals.

Sitting at the final table

was a huge accomplishment for Barbara Enright.

But when Barbara went all in with her pocket pair.

Barbara's got two eights.

She was called by a guy holding arguably

one of the worst hands in poker.

Brent has a six three of diamonds.

Six three of diamonds.

Barbara is a huge favorite in this spot.

Oh boy, and how!

Then this happened.

Now flop comes...

Six, three, queen. - Queen.

- Flopped a sixes and threes. - Oh my god.

Barbara was knocked out

and women have not returned to a final table

at the World Series of Poker Main Event since

even though there are so many amazing female players:

Jennifer Harman, Liv Boeree, Kristen Bicknell,

Loni Harwood, Kelly Minkin, Kathy Liebert.

These women have made millions of dollars playing the game

and were poised to break the glass ceiling

and take home the coveted bracelet at the WSOP.

As a woman and a poker player,

I wanted to be a part of it all

and as a filmmaker, I wanted to document it.

I wanted to be there the first time

a woman took the bracelet

at the WSOP World Series of Poker Main Event.

On my quest, I would meet the most extraordinary women

in the game.

I am a professional poker player.

I'm a cash grinder.

- Yeah for a long time, I was just saying poker was a hobby.

And I guess now,

I'd be sort of considered a professional, yeah.

My name is Kelly Minkin.

I'm a professional poker player.

You know, it's not something common

like you're a doctor, you're an engineer.

You're a poker player?

Excuse me, are you a poker player?

You know, it's like a little shocker.

- And for us as women, it would be so amazing

and for the sport in general,

it would be so amazing for a woman to win

or at least come deep,

like at least deep in the final table

because it'll just open up the game.

There'll be more women in poker,

which makes poker a bigger sport,

which is good for everyone.

I'd like to see a woman win a bracelet

and definitely see at least one woman

at the final table of the Main Event this year.

- I mean what a dream to be at, you know, the final table

of the Main Event if we're thinking like that

at the World Series Main Event.

- I believe that in my lifetime, we will definitely see

more women approach the Main Event final table

and we've seen that already.

Like a lot of women getting down

to the final four, five, even two tables.

And so I definitely think we're gonna see more women

reaching very far, final tabling

and hopefully eventually being a champion,

a Main Event champion.

Ooh, my title would be poker enthusiast.

I never had any regrets about being a poker player.

It's provided a nice lifestyle for me, my family, my friends

and it's provided so many wonderful adventures.

I love poker, can't wait to play my next hand of poker.

It's very hard to say what I do

or like explain a poker tournament.

My number one reference is golf.

It's so easy to understand in golf terms.

Like okay, all these really good golfers come together.

They create this big purse or prize pool

and then they get paid out based on their performance.

A lotta times, luck is a factor.

Your ball can hit a rock on the side of the fairway.

You know, your swing could be off

by one little tiny thing, whatever.

So luck does play a huge factor.

But in the end and over the course of 100 tournaments,

you're gonna see like, a lot of the better players

be at the top a lot.

On the competitive side of it, it's the same.

Everything is dependent on your own self.

You don't depend on anyone else.

Yes, you can depend on your caddy, whatever.

But like, at the end of the day,

it's all in your own personal control.

So similar to poker and the biggest thing is

I don't think there's ever a ceiling

for how good you can get.

- Most people who are professional poker players

grew up playing poker.

I didn't, I never played a hand of poker until I was 21.

But the first time I played, I knew it was my thing.

I always say, "Everybody's good at something."

I was good at poker from the beginning.

Poker is a game that can be beat.

And unlike roulette and craps and things like that,

there's no professional craps players or roulette prayers

'cause it can't be beat in the long run.

But poker, if you play better than your opponents

and you make better decisions than they do,

you can expect to win.

I'm a professional poker player.

- I've been playing full-time for about 10 years now.

I think women are getting better every single day.

The game is getting tougher every day

and the women competitors are just really, really strong.

I think a woman has just as good of a chance as a man

to reach that final table.

I believe than anyone can be

a winning player with study.

Like nowadays, there's just so much information out there.

Back in the day before the Internet,

and before even the first books,

people didn't share the information as openly

about how to beat the game.

But now, there's just so much information.

If you wanna become a winning player,

it just takes hard work like anything else.

- Before I started playing poker on a regular basis,

I had no idea but there's a whole world

built around the people that love the game.

Today, poker has its own subculture

with so many resources for education and entertainment.

There are poker magazines,

poker blogs on YouTube.

There are poker cruises, poker podcasts.

Lines of clothing just for poker players.

Poker even has its own coffee.

There are dozens of poker books

and poker tournaments all over the world,

many with their own TV shows.

This is poker night in America.

There's even an unofficial poker uniform

and generally includes comfortable clothes,

a backpack filled with things like energy drinks,

water and nutrition bars