Cathy "Cat" Hulbert (1950 – 2022) was an American professional
gambler
Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three ele ...
.
She was one of the world's first professional female
card counters
Card or The Card may refer to:
Common uses
* Plastic cards of various types:
**Bank card
** Credit card
**Debit card
**Payment card
* Playing card, used in games
* Printed circuit board, or card
* Greeting card, given on special occasions
Arts a ...
. ''
Card Player
Card players are those participating in a card game. Various names are given to card players based on their role or position.
Position
Games of Anglo-American origin
In games of Anglo-American origin played in English-speaking countries, ...
'' magazine named her one of the top
seven-card stud
Seven-card stud, also known as Seven-Toed Pete or Down-The-River, is a variant of stud poker. Before the 2000s surge of popularity of Texas hold 'em, seven-card stud was one of the most widely played poker variants in home games across the Unite ...
players in the world in 1996.
Life
Hulbert was born in 1950, one of six children of a truck driver and a nurse. She left school at 15 and put herself through college. She first developed an interest in gambling when investigating the industry as an assistant to the minority leader of the
New York State Senate
The New York State Senate is the upper house of the New York State Legislature, while the New York State Assembly is its lower house. Established in 1777 by the Constitution of New York, its members are elected to two-year terms with no term l ...
, took a course in
blackjack
Blackjack (formerly black jack or ''vingt-un'') is a casino banking game. It is the most widely played casino banking game in the world. It uses decks of 52 cards and descends from a global family of casino banking games known as " twenty-one ...
dealing, and in 1977, at the age of 25, moved to
Las Vegas
Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...
.
Hulbert became one of the first professional female card counters, a member of the Czechoslovakia team, and a companion to
Ken Uston
Ken Uston (January 12, 1935 – September 19, 1987) was an American blackjack player, strategist and author, credited with popularizing the concept of team play at blackjack. During the early to mid-1970s he gained widespread notoriety for perfe ...
.
She then moved on to
7-card stud
Seven-card stud, also known as Seven-Toed Pete or Down-The-River, is a variant of stud poker. Before the 2000s surge of popularity of Texas hold 'em, seven-card stud was one of the most widely played poker variants in home games across the United ...
and dated
David Heyden.
In 1996, ''Card Player'' magazine named her one of the top 7-card stud players in the world, the only woman on the list.
The Game Show Network called her "the best female gambler on Earth".
[ She taught poker classes for women.]
At one time, Hulbert employed people over the age of seventy to play casino slot machine
A slot machine, fruit machine (British English), poker machine or pokie (Australian English and New Zealand English) is a gambling machine that creates a game of chance for its customers.
A slot machine's standard layout features a screen disp ...
s for her.[
In 2016, she was named as one of ]BBC's 100 Women
''100 Women'' is a BBC multi-format series established in 2013. The annual series examines the role of women in the 21st century and has included events in London and Mexico. Announcement of the list is the start of an international "BBC's wome ...
.
Personal life
Hulbert was diagnosed with bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder (BD), previously known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of Depression (mood), depression and periods of abnormally elevated Mood (psychology), mood that each last from days to weeks, and in ...
in 1990. She was married twice, both ending in divorce. Since a bout with cancer, she had retired as a gambler and worked as an online casino consultant. She died on September 20, 2022 from cancer.
References
External links
Hendon Mob profile
WSOP profile
1950 births
2022 deaths
American blackjack players
American poker players
People with bipolar disorder
Place of birth missing
{{gambling-stub