World Poker Tour

Linda Johnson “First Lady of Poker“

Hometown
Las Vegas, NV

Birthday
October 14

Total Winnings
$1,855

Linda Johnson was born in 1953 in Long Island, New York, but her father's military career caused the family to move quite often. She counted New York, Georgia, England, Kansas, and California among her temporary homes. After college, she took a job with the U.S. Postal Service, moving up from letter sorting to an eventual management position, and her free time was spent on weekend trips to Las Vegas to play blackjack. It was her father who turned her casino interest to poker, though, convincing Linda that it had better odds as it wasn't a house game, and further sharing with her that he had used poker to supplement his income through the years. In order to best learn the game, she read some poker books then tested out her newfound skills against her friends on the job to find that she did have what it took to win consistently.

Mostly concentrating on cash games, Linda traveled quite frequently to card rooms in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. In 1978, she competed in her first tournament but found the competition to be unfriendly to a woman at the table. By 1980, at the age of 27, she entered her first World Series of Poker event, and with her all-around successes in the poker world, was able to quit her job with the Postal Service and move to Las Vegas to play poker on a full-time basis. Since then, her tournament success include a World Series of Poker bracelet in the 1997 $1,500 seven-card razz event, victories in the Orleans Open and California State Ladies Poker Championship, and cashes in numerous events around the world. Most recently, Linda place second in the 2007 WPT Ladies Night event.

Over the years, she also became involved in numerous poker endeavors, such as the purchase of Card Player Magazine, where she was responsible for much of its growth in the 1990's, and the founding of the Tournament Directors Association, which remains the leader in industry standards for poker events. She currently conducts industry conferences, offers poker lessons, volunteers for the Poker Players Alliance, co-owns Card Player cruises, and is the official studio announcer for the World Poker Tour tournaments. She still finds time to play high-stakes poker and tournaments, though mostly online due to her rigorous travel schedule, and spends much of her time promoting poker around the world.