In 2012, Maureen decided to enter a 200CHF NLH tournament. She found herself at the casino as almost everything is closed on Sundays in Switzerland. Knowing the poker hand rankings from playing 5 card stud and video poker with her grandparents and she had seen NLH in movies, she figured she’d give it a shot. That tournament was the beginning of her poker journey. She claims it would have made a better story if she had won it, but it wasn’t meant to be that day.
In 2015, she traveled to Las Vegas for her husband’s 40th birthday and stayed at the Aria and saw a flyer for the WSOP happening at the RIO. She saw the WSOP Ladies Championship event but had never played a $1K Buy In. (When she lived in China, she would often fly to Macau for the APPT and play satellites for the Main Events, but she never paid a $1K Buy In in cash). I then saw an ad for a $250 LIPs Ladies Championship the next day and decided to enter. Long story short, her husband flew back to Switzerland alone and she stayed to play day 2. Maureen met many Ladies at the event and they also told her there were events in Europe, even with Ladies Events and she was hooked.
We Maureen returned to Vegas in 2016 she planned her trip around the LIPs Ladies Week. She met even more wonderful Ladies and was inspired to start the Globetrotting Poker Ladies Facebook group so she could post about Women’s Poker Events happening around Europe and the World. (In 2020, this idea and posts in Globetrotting Poker Ladies evolved into a calendar in Cardplayer Lifestyle).
In 2017, she also began working as a poker dealer and in the same year was asked to help develop a new concept and group for women which I was dedicated to through January 2019. In March 2019, I joined the admin team of the WPA Ladies Summer Camp group to provide information about Las Vegas, the WSOP and Ladies Week. I also became more involved with Swiss Poker and developed the buy-in.info group for all Swiss Poker Players and I hosted the first Swiss Ladies Championship at Grand Casino Luzern in 2019.
With the changing regulation in Switzerland, there is never a dull moment and lots of work to be done to bring back legalized online poker. When not traveling around the world chasing the Hendon Mob flaghunter flags, you can find Maureen playing in Europe.
As her journey continues, she hopes to witness a female WSOP Main Event Champion and continue to grow the percentage of women in poker.
It’s our pleasure to present Maureen with the WPA Media Support Person of the Year Award.