Growing up in the midst of Wisconsin's bitterly cold winters, Bonnie Damiano was forced to find ways of entertaining herself indoors. No one could have predicted that the state's climate would eventually dictate her chosen profession.

"My family played cards and introduced me to poker when I was eight years old. We even played for money, 5¢ and 10¢ games," she says. "Talk about a tough way to get a raise on your allowance! My sister Cathy got me involved in playing poker in Las Vegas when I was about 23. She would be visiting Las Vegas and I would come out to meet her and we would play poker at the Fremont. Stud/8 was the game and $3/$6 was the limit. We played for days at a time. Cathy loved to play, as did I, and we had so much fun, met so many interesting people, and laughed so much."

Damiano's name is associated at least as much with organizing poker tournaments and cruises as with actual play. She's known to have a great talent for producing high-quality, exciting events.

She grew into the career after working as a corporate travel manager and a professional event planner. Her involvement in poker management came about as a result of her playing in poker tournaments and concluding that she could make them much better than they had ever been before.

Damiano wanted events to have a more personal touch with more attention to detail and more fun for the players. She has been the Coordinator for the World Poker Players Conference and an Assistant Tournament Director for the World Series of Poker. She works for CardPlayer Cruises, with whom she has organized many a fun-packed poker trip to such enticing locales as Alaska, the Mediterranean and the Caribbean.

Some time was needed before Bonnie could persuade people to buy into her vision; she spent two years making presentations to 15 casinos before she finally put on a tournament in Vegas. Thereafter, word of her talents spread so rapidly that, by the time she revived the Four Queens Poker Classic, players from around the world were flying to Vegas for a piece of the action.

Damiano is always thinking of new ways to make tournaments even more appealing, such as offering a "Breakfast of Champions" as part of a tournament prize package. As she says: "It's no easy task to win, because the playing field is getting tougher each year. The players are getting more educated and experienced. I wanted to do something to honor and thank them for playing."

With her groundbreaking work in organizing poker tournaments, Bonnie has brought increased integrity and professionalism to the tournaments and helped generate greater respect for the game. And besides ensuring that the tournaments are a guaranteed good time, Bonnie sees to it that they are fairly run and offer solid structures that allow players the time to play and the opportunity to use their skills.

This is what Bonnie says of her reputation as the ultimate tournament organizer: "I've found that people generally want to come back to my tournaments, not just because they're run professionally and deliver lively games, but because of my concern, personal touch, and attention to detail. Hopefully, players also walk away winning some money, making new friends, and realizing someone really cared about them."