An Interview With Beth Shak - Part I

By Justin West

Currently in the top ten most searched for players on Poker Pages, Beth Shak is not your average poker player. Beth has come to be defined by her class, style, and grace at the table, just as she has for being a ruthlessly good player.

Having played poker for just four years, Beth has achieved the kind of success that most players can only dream of. Beth has already cashed in four major tournaments, including a World Poker Tour event and two World Series of Poker events. In 2005, Beth finished 8th in the World Series of Poker ladies event, earning just over $16,000. Since then her total tournament winnings have vaulted to an impressive $355,106. Of course, with such success at the table comes due recognition, and in Beth's it is evidenced by her recent sponsorship by Full Tilt Poker.

Beth, a mother and businesswoman, is also a philanthropist, using her fame and success as a way of promoting concerns dear to her heart. Beth is in the process of organizing an upcoming charity event benefiting the Children's Hospital in Philadelphia. And when she's not busy fighting for important causes, she might be found developing her new clothing line or even shopping with Eva Longoria.

I was lucky enough to catch up with this rising star for an exclusive Poker Pages interview. What follows is part one of three.

Justin: You've only been playing cards professional for about four years. How did you first get into the game?

Beth: I taught myself online. My husband, Dan, was playing so much that I said to myself, "I have to learn how to play." Every time he was traveling it was to play poker. So I signed up on Full Tilt, at first getting a play money account and then a real money account, and I literally taught myself how to play, even thought that sounds insane.

Justin: Did you do what most of us do when we start playing online, which is learn how to play the "hard way?"

Beth: Well, I think every time I play I learn something. So, yes, there were a lot of mistakes I learned from while playing online. But once my husband saw that I was playing and starting to do well, he said, "You have to play live." He encouraged me to play.

Justin: Was it hard to make the jump from online to live?

Beth: Oh, it's completely different. You have to learn how to sit in front of people and keep a straight face with good hands, bad hands, and being a woman I had to learn when I started playing to not let men intimidate me. So yes, it was completely different for me.

Justin: There are a lot of people out there playing online looking to make that transition. Any advice for them?

Beth:I would say the advice I have is to not be intimidated if you feel you have the best hand, to go with it, to play it, and if you lose you lose. I follow that rule even today. In fact, the last tournament I lost I knew I had the best hand, I made a move with it, and unfortunately I got rivered but if I hadn't I would have left Foxwoods on day one with the chip lead.

I don't care who I'm sitting with. It doesn't matter if I'm sitting with a table of unknown people, or a table of pros. I know my cards are my cards, and if I hit them I hit them, and I just don't get intimidated.

Justin: You've said you want to be known as a good player, not a good woman player. A lot of folks are of the opinion that the ladies event is archaic and sexist, and should disappear. What's your opinion on that?

Beth: Well, I think it's great that they have ladies events, although I'm not playing them anymore. I'm thankful they had them in the beginning, because for a woman that's an entry-level poker player it gets your feet wet, and it made me less scared to play initially. But, I don't think a bracelet should be given out for the event.

Women should play with men, we are all equal at the tables. Men don't have an all male event, so why should there be a disparity when it comes to a bracelet?

Justin: Aside from the ladies event, what would you say could be done to bring more women into the game?

Beth: I think there are other small tournaments popping up all over that try and encourage women. I think maybe online play may help, as well. I think that women that aren't afraid and sign up online would then try to play live. But, they would have to not be afraid of sitting down with men. That's why I think there is a need for ladies events, but I hate to see a World Series bracelet given out for it. Not that I wouldn't take the bracelet if it were given to me - a bracelet is great - but I really want a World Series of Poker bracelet in a mixed event. I don't think it would mean the same if I won it in a ladies event.

Justin: You've got three cashes at the World Series of Poker. I'm curious... this last one. You came in second place. I want to know what was going through your mind as you're walking up to the final table, this time in a mixed event, very high profile, with Phil Hellmuth there trying to win his 12th bracelet.

Beth: This is going to sound insane, but I just knew I was going to do well this year. I kind of thought I was going to win an event. I didn't, I came in second, but I left saying to my older kids, "If Mom does well, you guys all promise me you'll fly out at the drop of a hat if I call you in the middle of the night."

I went to that final table saying I was going to win it. I really did. I really thought I was going to win. And I'm not upset with second because it's still quite an achievement.
But, now it's going to be hard to top, because now I have to win it, right?

Justin: You've always said the presence of Phil Hellmuth at the table didn't really bother you...

Beth: No. I think Phil is a great guy. I'm actually trying to put together a charity poke tournament in New York with Children's Hospital in Philadelphia and I'm hoping Phil's going to come on board with me. I think Phil has his "shtick," meaning he tries to get into people's heads and goes after them, but I think deep down he's a good person. Again, I'm going to go back with my earlier statement, which is that you can sit down at a table with anybody and depending on your cards, depending on the situation, I really think poker is anybody's game. I wasn't really bothered. If anything I thought it was advantageous that he was there, because I was at a final table with Phil Hellmuth, and all the press and attention that comes with that. It didn't bother me that he was picking on me.

Justin: You were the one that took him. Surely there's some part of you deep down inside after you bust him out thinking, "Yes! I got Phil!"

Beth: I'm telling you that I was trying to not battle with him. You just never know. I was in the big blind, I had Q-K, there was no way I was not calling. It didn't make sense for me to not call. And when I hit top pair, if he'd have hit his set he would have won. I wasn't throwing my hand away. I really wasn't thinking "I wanna get Phil Hellmuth" or "I wanna take him out," I purely went into that final table thinking, "I want to win this tournament. I want to win a World Series of Poker bracelet and take it home."

part I | part II | part III

More Interviews

Justin West played poker since the age of 17, he spent more than a year earning a living on the green felt; a modest living, to be sure, but a living nonetheless. His aim was at one point to win the WSOP main event, thus causing Hell to freeze over. However, given his penchant for sin and his extreme dislike of cold weather, Justin has put that dream to rest.