Clonie Gowen

What’s your game?
I love anything from $25-$50 pot-limit to $50-$100 Omaha. I like to play in big games where there’ll be as much as $20,000 or $30,000 in one hand or pot. You get lawyers and doctors who don’t play too well but are comfortable playing with that amount of money. Move up another level and you’re playing against other pros. But why would I want to play against them? I want the largest edge I can have.

I will destroy you!
Poker is always over the long-term. At any given time I could play you and you could win. But if I was to say, ‘Okay, let’s play for eight hours a day for a month,’ and at the end of the month you’ve got me, well, baby, you’re a better player than I am. But don’t sit down, get lucky on one hand and say ‘I can beat Clonie Gowen’. That’s bullshit. In the long-term I’m going to have you.

Pretty girl looks?
In the early days no one gave me any respect. These guys would think, ‘she’s a girl and she’s pretty’, so they’d never realise I was calculating pot odds or assessing players. Now the guys have played long enough to know women are more than capable at the table.

Dream heads-up?
I’d love to sit down with Bette Midler or Lucille Ball (star of US sitcom I Love Lucy). They were great strong women that succeeded so much in life. I love Bette Midler. She’s made a life in her world when maybe she wasn’t the most attractive woman, but she’s very strong. When I drink I’m very funny, I sing and I dance but Lucille was like that all the time.

I ♥ mum
My father died when I was 11 years old. My mother had been a waitress and was about to join nursing school when my father passed away. She was a widow and had six children to raise by herself while working two jobs on top of her studying. Upon assessment the college gave her less than a fi ve percent chance of fi nishing the four-year course. She not only completed it but she was on the dean’s honour list. We didn’t live a lavish lifestyle but she taught me values that meant I had to get up and go to work every day. She was so strong.

Saint or sinner?
There’s not one religion that I claim, but I am a very spiritual person. The Baptists believe that if you’re a gambler you’re a sinner, and you’re going to hell. My best friend is a Southern Baptist and I do believe that her life goal is to save me. I love her for that. On Mondays I’m on the prayer list of her church and they all pray for me. In her beliefs I’m a sinner but in her eyes I’m worth saving.

Light bulbs?
A reporter once asked Edison how it felt to have failed over a thousand times before he invented the lightbulb. He replied that he hadn’t failed a thousand times, but that it was a thousand-step process. You may not be a genius but as long as you’re passionate and you believe in yourself you’ll get there. Only the people that aren’t afraid of failure will make it in the end.

Pretty girl looks?
In the early days no one gave me any respect. These guys would think, ‘she’s a girl and she’s pretty’, so they’d never realise I was calculating pot odds or assessing players. Now the guys have played long enough to know women are more than capable at the table.

Handle: Clonie Gowen Play her online at: FullTilitPoker.com