Military discipline steadies Jessica Dawley at poker table

Jessica Dawley’s right shoulder gave out when she was 16, leaving the aspiring softball pitcher to find a new way to pay for college. Working at Pizza Hut and winning $20 a night in the poker games in Palmyra, Ind., wasn’t going to cut it.

So, Dawley followed her oldest brother into the military and enlisted in the Air National Guard.

It’s perfect, she thought. One weekend a month, and money for tuition.

“When you join, they say it’s for homeland defense, stateside defense,” Dawley said. “They never mention you’re going to be in a war.”

Dawley spent six months overseas, including time in the Middle East during Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom in 2003. Throughout her deployment, Dawley bonded with fellow soldiers by playing poker.

The former Air Force intelligence analyst turned poker pro will be one of the hundreds of participants in the World Series of Poker’s $1,000 buy-in Ladies No-limit Hold ’em Championship starting today at the Rio Convention Center.

“I am so grateful for everything I experienced in the military, and obviously having discipline is one of them,” Dawley said. “I feel like that’s what’s kept me the most grounded, is poker. And it’s kept me from losing my ‘stuff,’ as I call it.”

Dawley, 32, the youngest of five children, grew up in southern Indiana and learned how to play five-card draw poker as a 7-year-old during fishing trips with her uncle. During high school, she played in a regular Sunday home game with her boyfriend’s family but was more focused on softball until suffering a career-ending injury.

Dawley graduated high school early and, with no hope of earning an athletic scholarship, signed up for the National Guard in April 2001. She was in Texas training to become an intelligence analyst during the Sept. 11 attacks.

“The intel had a top-secret clearance, so we literally worked in a bowl with no outside communication,” Dawley said. “We used to do scenarios all the time, so I really didn’t think it was ‘real world,’ like a situation that we were going through. And then all of a sudden they locked down the base. … That’s pretty much when I knew that things were going to change for my life.”

Dawley’s unit was activated, and in May 2003, at age 20, she was deployed to the Middle East. She was stationed in United Arab Emirates and also spent time in Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait and Pakistan.

To help get through the day, Dawley and others began to hold regular poker games.

“There’s a ton of down time when we were overseas, especially where we were,” Dawley said. “And you can’t really do a whole lot because of the laws they have there.”

Dawley returned to the United States in 2004 and graduated from Louisville in 2006 with degrees in marketing and management. In 2007, her six-year military commitment ended and Dawley needed a new career.

The following year, she packed up her car and drove west with her dog and $3,400 in her pocket to pursue her dream as a professional poker player. Dawley rented an apartment in North Las Vegas and steadily built her bankroll before moving to Florida in 2011.

Primarily a high-stakes, cash-game player, Dawley has more than $151,000 in live tournament earnings, according to Global Poker Index’s Hendon Mob Poker Database. She cashed in two WSOP events this summer and also finished in the money of the Ladies Championship in 2011 and 2012.

“For me, it’s kind of relaxing, because for the most part when I play in the bigger buy-in tournaments, everyone takes it so seriously. There’s arguing and yelling and calling the floor (supervisor),” Dawley said. “And in the Ladies event, it’s like, ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to do that.’ They always apologize, and they’re so friendly.”

Dawley has been an outspoken advocate for women in poker and, through her sponsorship with online poker room 888poker, has led several tutorials aimed at increasing female participation.

She also has become a fixture on Season 2 of CBS Sports Network’s “Poker Night in America” and hopes to parlay her popularity into a gig as a TV talk-show host.

“I honestly think the (poker) boom will come back one day,” Dawley said. “I hope I’m around for that. I hope I’m still playing cards and doing my other interests as well.”

Contact reporter David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidSchoenLVRJ.