Sorry to say Cat Hulbert died today after a long bout with cancer.

https://twitter.com/RWM21/status/157...DQ-Yaw5tErAAAA

Female players from the boom to the present stand on this giant's shoulders.

Cat Hulbert: How I got rich beating men at their own game

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-38103674

This sad news.

I knew Cat but not that well, but a friend of mine was good friends with her, and because of that I was aware she had been sick for a long time.

Mason

That was a good read.

RIP.

I had a brief history with Cat in 2004.

I encountered her on the Interpoker network in high stakes limit holdem games -- which were a mixture of pros and megafish. These were great games, but they revolved around getting a seat when the megafish were there. She would play as high as 50/100 but only railed the games bigger than that, which went up to 300/600.

I befriended Cat while chatting with her, and I joked about how I wished there was some kind of "donk alert" which would call me whenever a megafish sat. Cat said that she watched the games frequently and would be my personal "donk alert" if I wanted. I told her that I didn't want to burden with her with such a thing, but she insisted, telling me that she enjoys helping out friends.

I gave her my phone #, and indeed she was calling me every time a known fish sat. Keep in mind that she was about 20 years older than me, so there were no sexual or romantic overtones to the whole thing. She never asked for anything in return. One of my friends assumed maybe she liked young guys and was interested in me, but if that was true, she never said anything along those lines. We had never met in person, and I was not a known poker player at the time, as my online "Dan Druff" identity was not yet linked with who I was in live card rooms.

This went on for a few weeks, but one of my longtime friends (who was known to other players to be my friend) took a bad beat against her and really let her have it. He said a lot of really insulting things to her (mostly about her age), and she was furious. Cat told me something like, "Your friend ruined it for you", and never talked to me again.

I was really pissed at my friend about this, and called him to really let him have it. He apologized and said he just let his temper get to him, but had also assumed she wouldn't have blamed me for his behavior. I sent Cat an e-mail of apology for my friend's behavior, but she ignored it, so I quietly went away.

About a year later I saw her at Hollywood Park. I considered going up to her and apologizing in person, but it seemed she made her feelings clear about not wanting to hear from me anymore, so I didn't. That was the first and last time I ever saw her in person.

Seemed like a very interesting woman, and I know a lot of people from the old school poker/gambling world respected her.

RIP

Interesting lady, part of the older 70-90s downtown Vegas era.

I wonder who the poker author and mathematician, who smelled like blue cheese and kept a copy of How to Pick Up Women on his bedside table was…..lmao.

Mike Caro and Mason Malmuth have never been known to be chauvenist pigs. They are both gentlemen. Fact.

goodbye cat.