• Clonie Gowen Poker
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• Clonie Gowen was a breath of fresh air on poker broadcasts. Men (including me), loved watching her, and women players wanted to be her.
• For a time, Clonie Gowen was one of the most popular female poker players in the game. A former teen beauty queen Gowen was famous for both her good looks and her solid skills at the poker table. Gowen first rose to poker stardom after winning the 2003 WPT Ladies Night Event.
• Clonie Gowen's poker tournament results and rankings. Players: 643,664 Screened events: 266,786 Latest Weekly Update: 18 Nov, 2020 Next update in 2 days.

• Facebook: Clonie Gowen
• Twitter: @cgowan
• Website:www.cloniegowen.com
• Birthdate: 6th November 1971
• Birthplace: Florida
• Residence: Dallas, Texas
• Biggest Win: $437,775
• Total Winnings: $1,639,064
• Sponsored by: Ex Full Tilt Poker

Clonie Gowen is our last female standing in the $1,500 PLO rebuy event. It is 2am and Clonie is on her way to her 3rd cash of the series. Clonie is in for $12,000 though most people bought in for much more.

Clonie is actually short for Cycalona, the name her parents gave her when she was born in the midst of a cyclonic storm that shook the windows of the delivery room where she was born. The wind remained in Clonie’s sails as she was growing up and swept her to impressive heights as she excelled at basketball and high jump whilst at school. Her confidence was further boosted when she earned the title of Miss Teen McAlester Oklahoma. At this time, through a boyfriend’s father, she was introduced to the game of poker and unwilling to regard it as a male domain, she began to get quite good.

After her first marriage failed, she started driving to Louisiana at weekends to build up a moderate bankroll in the casinos there but it was during a scuba diving holiday to Costa Rico in 2002 that she first showed her poker mettle. She came second in a World Poker Tour No Limit Hold’em event surviving, not only her opponents’ poker play but, a barrage of sexist comments also. This led to an invitation to a televised WPT ladies event in September 2003 and the victory she attained proved to be one of the most watched poker events of the new millennium.

Since that moment poker proved to be Clonie’s calling and she was present at most major events until early 2009, often participating but, increasingly working as a pundit offering expert analysis. Her poker views were in much demand and she was a regular contributor of articles for Bluff magazine plus Clonie was on the Directors’ Board for the United States Poker Association.

Gowen is also an active charity worker and teacher at her own poker school. Away from the casino she enjoys spending time in the great outdoors, camping, hiking and scuba diving where she won’t be recognised. Being telegenic, and a two time winner on the TV show ‘Poker After Dark’, has led some to suggest that her fame outweighs her achievements.

After her major tournament victory in July 2008 at a Bellagio WPT event, she seemed to redress this imbalance and realise her full poker potential. She was a member of the Full Tilt Poker Pro team and was let go in 2008, she filed a $40 million lawsuit against them in November the same year. She claimed to have been promised a 1% share for promoting the company, the lawsuit was mostly dismissed in May 2012. Gowen’s attorneys have filed papers to continue the case over other issues that the judge did not dismiss. The fight goes on. Her troubles with Full Tilt may be the reason she has disappeared off the circuit. Some press reports say she married her fireman fiancée in Melbourne in November 2011.

Las Vegas Cash Game

Clonie Gowen was holding J♦10♣ in a Las Vegas cash game and looking at a flop of J♣ 10♠ A♥. Vanessa Rousso, holding A♣ 4♠ had hit the top pair and made a bet of $1200 which Gowen called. The turn card of 5♦ produced more action with Gowen betting $2,500 followed by an inexplicable Rousso call, making her wager based on the assumption that Gowen, on the big blind, was making some sort of bluff.

The river card was an innocuous seeming 4♣ and Gowen put in her remaining cash, another $9,300. Rousso dithered for a moment before matching the bet and taking a pot that owed much more to luck than good play.

But Gowen, with no money left on her person, still had the desire to make up her bad beat deficit and borrowed more, showing her willing to not let a moment of misfortune get in the way of her game. Still, she had a face like thunder which was strangely apt given that she is named after a stormy weather system.

Last updated May 2013

Photos by Ralph Unden 12

The former Full Tilt Poker spokesperson and longtime Team Full Tilt member has seen new life breathed into her lawsuit versus the sinking online behemoth with the recent decision by a US Court of Appeals to re-open the previously dismissed case. Adding to the strange twist in Gowen’s fate is the news that a former defendant in her suit — Phil Ivey — is taking a big swing at Full Tilt with a filing of his own.

• 1% stake of Full Tilt Poker Gowen claims she was promised.
• 40millions of dollars Gowen seeks in damages.
• 150millions of dollars Ivey seeks in damages.

Gowen’s original lawsuit, filed in 2008, included Full Tilt representatives Ivey, Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson, Mike Matusow and Gus Hansen. Gowen claimed she had been promised a 1% stake in Full Tilt in exchange for joining Team Full Tilt as well as exclusively representing the site. She sought damages of $40 million from FTP but the case was dismissed by US District Judge Robert C. Jones in May 2009.

In a surprising reversal earlier this month, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the district court erred on a number of counts in its dismissal of the case. Most notably was the dismissal of fraud and negligent representation claims against Lederer and alleged Full Tilt CEO/CFO Raymond Bitar. Gowen’s attorneys argued both men reneged on their proposed oral contract of ownership. According to the court papers, despite all of the other FTP celebrity poker superstars’ non-written agreements of ownership it was only Gowen who was not given a share of the company profits.

Gowen chose not to comment for this story directly, instead allowing her Las Vegas-based attorney Jim Kohl to do her talking.

Clonie Gowen Poker

“[Gowen] is pleased that at least part of the case has been re-opened,” Kohl said. “She feels gun-shy about the whole thing and doesn’t want to create any waves. She’s definitely pleased that [the lawsuit] is not dead yet.”

While both Gowen and Ivey were members of Team Full Tilt, it is Ivey who stands to suffer far greater economic hardship as a result of Black Friday’s stinging blow to the fortunes of Full Tilt. And it certainly shows in the form of damages requested by Ivey’s attorneys — upwards of $150m for their client.

Both players may be attempting to line up at a teller window at a foreclosed bank, however. Without U.S. players or the ability to pay them their account balances, Full Tilt’s long-term future success is certainly in question.

While Gowen appears to be looking mainly for financial retribution, Ivey’s case is more complicated.

• Feb 2004Ivey allegedly enters agreement with Tiltware.
• Nov 2008Gowen files suit against Full Tilt reps, including Ivey.
• May 2009Gowen case is dismissed by Judge.
• May 2011Ivey files suit against Tiltware.
• June 2011Gowen case is re-opened.

A portion of Ivey’s 2004 agreement with Tiltware – essentially the company created to provide software to Full Tilt Poker but with common ownership between the two – consisted of exclusive endorsement of the site by the well-known pro. As his case alleges, Ivey and Full Tilt have become synonymous in the poker world. Without a US player base to target with his endorsement and therefore increase his ability to earn, a key component of Ivey’s lawsuit involves dissolving his non-compete clause with Full Tilt, a request his attorneys say has been denied by the company.

Furthermore, Ivey’s case seems to be an attempt by the superstar to distance himself from the stench circling the alleged illegal banking activities of Full Tilt and their inability to payback their former US players. His lawsuit asserts that paying customers believe Ivey is part of the problem in preventing all of the money owed to US-based players to be returned to them.

From the court documents: “Additionally, people are demanding that Plaintiff [Ivey] pay the owed player’s funds personally.”

Clonie Gowen Poker Player

It is no surprise, then, that Ivey’s case claims he has “suffered public ridicule, humiliation, and loss of personal and professional reputation.”

Poker Clonie Gowen

In a statement of its own, Tiltware claims Ivey has been “invited — and has declined — to take actions” that could assist the company in its efforts to pay back its players, including a large sum of money “he owes the site.”

Poker Pro Clonie Gowen

It is very possible the uncertainty surrounding online poker will be resolved by the time either of these cases reaches trial. Regardless of when, or if, they ever do, these two one-time teammates, then legal foes, are once again aligned against a common opponent.