Alice “Poker Alice” Ivers is one of the most notorious women of the Old West, remembered for her sharp wit, unflappable courage, and remarkable skill at the gambling tables. A cigar-smoking, gun-toting poker player, Alice defied social conventions to carve out a life for herself in the saloons and gambling halls of Colorado, New Mexico, and South Dakota.
While she has often been reduced to caricature – a colorful side note in frontier folklore – this book reintroduces Alice in full, blending her legendary exploits with never-before-seen archival discoveries about her dual life as both gambler and Madam. These revelations shed new light on her complicated relationships with lawmen, politicians, and rival gamblers, as well as her controversial years running a brothel in South Dakota.
Poker Alice: The Untold Life of the Legendary Gambler and Madam will be the most definitive portrait of Alice Ivers ever published – part biography, part social history, and part true-crime tale of vice in the American frontier.
