Marsha Waggoner Profile

Marsha Waggoner - About the time that America was getting a kick out of saying “Put another shrimp on the barbie” in a really bad Australian accent, Marsha Waggoner was discovering Las Vegas. It was the 80’s, a time when technology was advanced enough to provide enough cheap, plentiful film for pictures that would ensure we would never again, as a Nation, wear legwarmers over jeans, and a time when the World Series of Poker was beginning to break out from Oddity to Outstanding. When Marsha came around the world to visit Las Vegas, she was astounded at the amount of poker action she found. So excited she was, she picked up and moved to Sin City, where she lived for a year before moving to near by Southern California with her family.

Marsha was born and raised in Brisbane, Australia, where she searched out a way to provide for her family as a Blackjack dealer. She found that poker dealers were making more money, so she tried her hand at that, and inevitably tried the game itself. To her surprise she was quite good at the mathematics and strategy of the game, and a new career was born. As a contemporary of Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan and Amarillo Slim, she was there to watch the evolution of poker and the World Series of Poker as it became the household name it is today. She isn’t just along for the ride, either; she makes a good deal of money at the game. In tournament winnings alone she has taken home more than $400.000 over the last ten years, and hit a career highlight when she made it to 12th place at the World Series of Poker.

Marsha has five grandchildren and is married to fellow professional poker player Kenna “Cowboy” James. She recently distinguished herself by making the final table for the World Poker Tour’s popular segment, Ladies Night III.