In the early 1980's, Cyndy Violette was on pregnancy leave from her job as a blackjack dealer in the Horseshoe Casino. She and her then-husband went to sample the buffet at the Silver Slipper, where Cyndy's sister was dealing. That night, she played poker for the first time, a $1/$3 stud game. Cyndy says: "I'll never forget it. This lady at the table was so mad at me. I was, like, winning every hand and I had no idea what I was doing."

Not too long thereafter, Cyndy played Hold'em for the first time, a $1/$4 game at the Holiday Casino. She soon moved on from being a blackjack dealer to being a poker dealer at the Four Queens across from the Horseshoe on Fremont. She even dealt for the late Jack Strauss' tournament at the Frontier.

Then, in 1984, she entered as a player in Amarillo Slim's Super Bowl of Poker at Lake Tahoe. She says of those days: "I did well enough I decided I could make it as a professional and never had another regular job after that." Her husband was not interested in poker. "He liked to go fishing. What we'd do, we'd compromise and go to Laughlin. He'd go fishing and I would play poker."

Cyndy admits to going through a phase where she had a serious crush on the late Stu Ungar, though nothing ever came of it. "He was married at the time and he was such a big player and I was...this young girl. But we were friends and he used to let me watch him play. I just loved his energy and charisma."

Cyndy maintains a house about twenty minutes away from Atlantic City's casinos but spends a lot of time in Las Vegas. For her day-to-day poker games, she prefers $75/$150 stud games, though on the weekends she'll often play at the $400 and $800 levels. When she's in New Jersey, she'll play at the Taj Mahal or other Atlantic City card rooms three or four nights a week, on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays, as she says, "If people are sticking around."

Cyndy has her opinions of what's required at the professional level. "Anyone wanting to turn professional has to play regularly at the $30-$60 level or higher. Everything depends on the kind of lifestyle you want for yourself."

Before Cyndy won a title in the 2004 World Series of Poker, she concentrated on cash games rather than tournament play. She says: "One thing I always wanted and didn't have was a World Series bracelet. I decided this was going to be the year I would make a big effort to get one."

Not that the 2004 WSOP win was her first great victory. In 1985, she won the $75,000 first prize in the Golden Nugget's Grand Prix of Poker Seven-Card Stud Championship. She says: "My win at the Nugget was the most money ever won at that time by a woman in a single tournament."