the Chip Shuffler

Actress Mimi Rogers has taken big risks both on-screen and at the poker tables.

“Mimi? $800? That’s a lot of money.”

Poker legend Phil Hellmuth has barely been sitting at his table three minutes at a Bay 101 event in San Jose and he’s already lobbing verbal shots at one of his opponents. What’s more, his opponent isn’t even a tour veteran. At least not compared to the WSOP champion and holder of eleven gold bracelets (no player has more bracelets, Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan, each have ten).

After all, this is Mimi Rogers he’s talking to. Mrs. Kensington from Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery and the sexy Claire Gregory from Someone to Watch Over Me; a freaking actress for Pete’s sake. But she isn’t backing down any. “Yeah?” Rogers shoots back at Hellmuth. “Come on and play.”

He’s all in, she calls. She’s got two black queens to his Ace-King off-suit. The flop comes down all spades. The river? It’s an ace of spades. Rogers’ flush knocks out Phil Hellmuth before his butt even has a chance to warm up his seat. The room, which by now includes about thirty pros and a number of television cameras, is stunned.

Rogers can only look over at an incensed Hellmuth. “Bye bye, Phil” she whispers under her breath. She isn’t just some token female celebrity giggling her way around the World Poker Tour. She’s as calculated a risk-taker as there is on the tour. But you don’t need to witness her work at the table to see that. Just look at her career.

“The professional risks I’ve taken are scarier and ultimately more impactful (than risks playing poker),” Rogers says. “Being a calculated risk-taker is a key thing. Being able to recognize the moment when you should take a risk is very important.” She should know. Besides her more mainstream work, Rogers has put her career and reputation on the line more than once.

In the early-90s, she starred in The Rapture, the incredibly controversial Michael Tolkin film about sexually liberated swingers turned born-again Christians. It’s one of the scariest things Rogers has done, but also the most rewarding project she’s ever been a part of.

In 1993, at age 37 (not exactly median playmate age), Rogers posed for the cover of Playboy. Just five years ago, she had a full frontal nude scene in The Door in the Floor, a small film starring Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger. Heck, the woman married Tom Cruise for crying out loud (“I don’t consider it particularly invigorating conversation,” she says of the requisite questions about Cruise, whom she divorced in 1990. “).

Risk is Mimi Rogers’ currency and it is also one of the primary secrets behind her success on the World Poker Tour, which has seen her become a member of its Board of Directors.

But it hasn’t been an overnight transition from Hollywood starlet to cashing in at the Bay 101, where she finished 27th. Sure, she wants you to think she just learned how to play No Limit Texas Hold ‘em, but that’s clearly not the case. “I actually like being in a situation where I’m underestimated,” she says. “You can usually capitalize on that.”

But there’s a polish to Mimi Rogers’ play at the table. A pedigree, if you will. This is the California girl whose dad taught her the game and who was playing blackjack up in Lake Tahoe when she was fifteen. Radiating a sophisticated, mature beauty even then, nobody bothered carding her. It was the perfect training to play Austin Powers’ Mrs. Kensington years later.

Equipped with good looks and a superior intellect (she graduated from high school at age fourteen), Rogers was counting cards at the blackjack tables in her teens. “It was just interesting to me that when I started counting as a process it worked,” she says. “If I was counting, I could pretty much consistently win.”

With a career marked by a series of risks, none more daunting than deciding to become an actress in Hollywood in the first place, it was only a matter of time before Mimi Rogers joined the high-stakes environment of the World Poker Tour. She has since competed in a number of tournaments, including the WPT Championships at the Bellagio, World Poker Championships in Dublin, and a number of other pro poker events.

“I must say that she has handled herself with class in the poker community,” says Hellmuth, who has nothing but respect for Rogers despite the very public embarrassment he suffered at her hands. “When I first met her, she asked me for my autograph when it should have been the other way around.”

That appreciation from the pro players seems consistent across the tour. Anyone doubting her ability only needs to ask Phil Hellmuth for confirmation. Forget the cute actress slumming with the pros; Mimi Rogers is for real. When she first started competing on the tour, she bought a number of computer programs for practice and read about nine instructional books, including Hellmuth’s, to help her game.

Her calculated strategy, not to mention several hours spent playing online, have helped make Rogers a formidable player on the World Poker Tour. But she stresses the calculated nature of her risks. She’s not just a ribald gunslinger running wild across the tables. Not that the poker world doesn’t have its fair share of those. “If you’re taking risks all the time, eventually it’s going to catch up with you. I’m not like Phil Laak or Antonio Esfandiari who are great players,” she says. “I could never play the way they play. They’ve got a different level of courage or sensibility. I don’t know if it’s blind faith or they just have big balls.”

And that’s what might give Mimi Rogers a sizable advantage in the World Poker Tour. Going all-in can be tough, but if you want stress try navigating your way through the Hollywood casting couch with your head held up and your career intact. For Rogers, poker is fun, but it’s child’s play compared to some of the things she has had to do on-screen.

It’s one of the reasons WPT founder and CEO Steve Lipscomb invited her to become a member of their Board of Directors. She can play Hollywood and a poker tournament the same week. What else do you need? Not that she considers one career any easier than the other. For Mimi Rogers, competing in a poker tournament isn’t any less impossible than surviving as an actress in Hollywood. She’s done both and she’s still trying to figure out which is harder.

“I think having a successful career in Hollywood is a combination of talent, timing, luck, and persistence, and winning a tournament is a combination of talent, timing, luck, and persistence,” she says. “So yeah, I guess it’s the same thing.”

The Old West and Poker

Bill Carson walked into the saloon. There was a quiet, humble air about him. To look at him you wouldn’t know there was also a strong confidence in him too. He walked over to the bar and ordered a glass of water. The bartender gave him a puzzled look and set a glass down in front of him, keeping a hold of the glass while saying “that’ll be 5 cents partner”. Carson paid him and fixed his tea.

Some cowboys were making fun of his tea, but Carson ignored them, enjoying. Carson lived perfectly in the moment. While playing poker, don’t be concerned about distractions, be only focused on this hand, this moment. Loud, noisy, mouthy players are often the worst, beware the quiet Gary Cooper types. Loud players are often big bluffers and loose. Quiet players are often solid, slow players.

Some drunk cowboy was trying to pick on Carson and rile him, even pulled his 6 shooter and stuck it in his face. Carson, not stupid, ignored him. You’re not catching good cards, it seems others are getting good hands and winning pots, getting a lot of action and increasing their chips. Ignore them, you’re waiting for good situations as well as good cards, be patient, your time will come.

The drunk cowboy slapped a soiled dove and kicked over the wash bucket, still bullying everyone around. Carson ha had enough. Absorbed in his own ego, the cowboy had then started to punch Carson. Carson was ready for this. You’ve noticed the limpers and who raises 3x BB. UTG had raised it up 3x, and 2 others called, it was now a sizable pot, you finally caught QQ on the cutoff seat, and raised the pot 2.5x. UTG folded as did one of the limpers, the last limper called with his AK.

Carson redirected the cowboy’s punch, at the same time stealing the cowboy’s pistol and using leverage, threw the cowboy through the glass plate window. The flop came AKQ, limper quickly checked, setting his trap, you bet it 1/2 pot, limper with his high 2 pair thinking you’re weak, so pleased with himself and his little trap, reraises all in, not thinking about the possible made straight or set.

You think if he had a made straight he’d smooth call, if he had a higher set, he would have reraised preflop, so quickly call, turn and river of no importance. You double up, and have won 80% of your starting bankroll and decide to quit. Patience and being in the present paid off. Often quit after a big hand or a couple big hands. Most people after a good run will keep playing and lose it all back, feeling invincible and getting looser without realizing it.

Carson finished his tea. Don’t think about how past hands turned out, play every hand like it should be played, don’t worry about the outcome or concern yourself with winning the hand, just play it like it should be played and the winning will take care of itself. Money lost with someone rivering you for a suckout is just a loan and it will come back with interest if you keep playing your hands like they should be played.

Have the attitude of nor caring about winning or losing a hand; just so long as you play it correctly, be satisfied with a pretty good win, especially when you’ve been playing for a long time and need a break. Better a small win than a big loss.