Jen Leo Hits Lucky 7-7-7

I first met the award winning traveleditor Jen Leo soon after she threw caution to the wind and moved to Las Vegas. Grownrestless from her travel writing niche, her CA lifestyle, and a love life in denial, Jen decided to throw her lot in with poker - and the poker world has never been the same.

Jen first made my radar with a post she made for pplayer, the precursor for Card Squad. I was relativelynew on the blogger front and wasso tickled when she gave me a shout out. I tried to find an email address to thank her - but never tracked her down. A month later, I was sitting in theWSOP media room when awhirlwind ofenergy and fun flopped down beside me. I had been covering the2005 WSOP for about a week and had never seen this woman before - but everyone else seemed to know her and she seemed to know everyone. We struck up a conversation (as she continued towrite three posts to my one) andI finally discovered that this was THE Jen Leo.

The 2005 WSOP was sort of a seminal (although celebate - 45days but who’s counting)adventure for me. Thewriters that I met there became the friends Ivalue today. Our writing pack included Jen,Pauly, Dan, John Caldwell, Jay Greenspan, BJ Nemeth, the LasVegasVegas crew, Otis, and Steve Hall. We worked hard and played harder.Andif there was something mischievousafoot, you could bet Jen Leo had something to do with it.

One particular night, we crashed the Doyle Brunson party. It was a semi-surreal scene, withscantily clad strippers dancing on pedestals, as pictures of the gentlemanly legend flashed on a large screen.No one was dancing on the spacious dance floor except somelonely freak dancing in front of one of the strippers.Someone suggested paying Jen to dance with the guy. $50 was quickly assembled; but the question was - would Jen be game?It was then I would discover that Jen is always game. And she didn’t wuss it, she gave it her all…well until this moment when she couldn’t stop laughing.

Jen’s chronicle of her Las Vegas adventure can be found in Women’s Poker Night. To some extent, it tells how her love affair with poker first began.But it also divulges the beginnings of another love affair. Jen thought her Las Vegas adventure was one borne of irresponsibility and wrecklessness. In the end, she found the most responisble and loving relationship of her life.

How did thestory end? Jen Leo and John Caldwell just announced their engagement (and yes, I, the Poker Shrink, Pauly, and Jay Greenspanknew about it before Jen:). And true totheir love’s roots, they are tying the knot on 7-7-(0)7 in Las Vegas - during the 2007 WSOP. Wedding vows inVegas - it don’t get any better than that.

Congratskids!!

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 4th, 2007 at 10:56 am and is filed under Uncategorized.