Nancy Todd “Queen of Diamonds“

Birthplace
Germany

Birthday
June 19

Total Winnings
$132,417

Nancy Todd Tyner was born in Germany and raised in Europe, but she moved to the United States before college and attended Louisiana State University to get an undergraduate degree. She then attended LSU Law School and became interested in politics during her years in the South. She subsequently became immersed in politics, eventually becoming an international political consultant. She has run 196 political campaigns in 42 states and six countries, having won 98% of them. After 30 years in politics, she continues to stay involved by giving keynote speeches and appearing as a consultant on television and radio programs.

Nancy first learned poker at the kitchen table with family, but it wasn’t until early in 2006 that she actually played Texas hold’em. She had been a fan of the World Poker Tour on television, but she finally entered a casino in 2006 to escape a personal tragedy – the loss of her 14-year old son to cancer. Living in Las Vegas at the time, she went over to the MGM Grand to “keep from going crazy” and sat down at a table in the poker room. What she found was that she had a penchant for and skill at tournament poker. The competition and strategy involved resembled the numerous political campaigns with which she had been involved, and the ultimate goal of winning a tournament kept her in the games.

After having won some small tournaments and cashed in some medium-sized buy-in events, she wanted to improve her game and signed up for the WPT Boot Camp in March of 2006. She actually won the Boot Camp tournament and continued to improve her game on her own. But it wasn’t until 2008 that she hit her stride. In April, she entered the $1500 WPT Ladies Championship at the Bellagio, and though the final table was a struggle at times, she finally won her first major event. The first prize of $68,640 was impressive, but for a woman who has made her living in the cut-throat world of politics, it was the victory that mattered.