About Me

Before I tell you a bit about myself, I want to congratulate Gretchen on a job well done! The site is a great outlet for women who are trying to compete in what used to be a “mans’ world.” I hope you all get all you can out of it and put into it what you can.

My name is Amy Zupko on most forums and sites I go by the name Zupko2001. I am a wife and mother of three. Two boys ages 18 and 15 and one girl who is just turning 7 and truly believes that she is a princess. I can tell you from experience that my mother got even.

I work at a local retail establishment as a “third key” in other words I do the same job as the management but don’t get the pay that goes with it. I enjoy my job though. I work with several departments that I order, market and merchandise. Only thing I am not crazy about is the hours. With my daughter so young it can be tough to work nights.

My other job is probably the most satisfying and rewarding job of all. I am a writer/publishing assistant for Woman Poker Player Magazineas well as a moderator for Womens Poker Club. I also co host a show on Hold’em Radio about women in poker.

I’m sure you have heard some horror stories about women in poker. I can easily tell you that most of us are not gambling addicts, we do not spend our mortgage money on poker, and we don’t neglect our kids due to online poker. We are women trying to make it in what has always been considered a man’s game. We are no different from the musicians, career women and athletes trying to break through the glass ceiling and just want to be treated equally and taken seriously.

Making it in poker is not all that easy. First there is skill involved (no matter what anyone tells you, any poker player who is semi-decent, whether well known or not studies, reads, and consistently works on their game). I’ll admit there is a certain amount of luck involved but it’s what a poker player does with her cards and how much she reads the other players and follows the math etc¦ only then does that luck come into play.

All of that aside, I think the toughest thing about a woman entering poker is the desire, more like the need, to be taken as an equal at the tables. There are physical differences between men and women. We cannot get around it. A woman is not likely to get chosen for a man’s football team, not because she is not good, but because as our bodies mature our bodies are different. Not much we can do about that. But when it comes to games of the mind and careers that require brains, skill and finesse. I see no difference between the two sexes.

Many men don’t quite share my opinion. And that is okay, I give it to them anyway. I have always had thick skin. There is very little you can do or say to me that would hurt my feelings so I cannot say that the abuse that I have taken online and off has bothered me. Actually it has worked in reverse. It gives me the fuel to feed the fire. I just want to get better. But I have seen women cut down so badly that they have left the tables in tears.

My goal in this blog is not so much to promote poker-or myself for that matter. But to share stories and life lessons that all women who have goals and have to overcome the odds to make their life dreams and hopes a reality can relate to.