Cat Hulbert, longtime female gambling figure, writes long article about her life in poker and blackjack
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-38103674
I had a brief history with Cat in 2004.
I encountered her on the Interpoker network in high stakes limit holdem games -- which were a mixture of pros and megafish. These were great games, but they revolved around getting a seat when the megafish were there. She would play as high as 50/100 but only railed the games bigger than that, which went up to 300/600.
I befriended Cat while chatting with her, and I joked about how I wished there was some kind of "donk alert" which would call me whenever a megafish sat. Cat said that she watched the games frequently and would be my personal "donk alert" if I wanted. I told her that I didn't want to burden with her with such a thing, but she insisted, telling me that she enjoys helping out friends.
I gave her my phone #, and indeed she was calling me every time a known fish sat. Keep in mind that she was about 20 years older than me, so there were no sexual or romantic overtones to the whole thing. She never asked for anything in return. One of my friends assumed maybe she liked young guys and was interested in me, but if that was true, she never said anything along those lines. We had never met in person, and I was not a known poker player at the time, as my online "Dan Druff" identity was not yet linked with who I was in live card rooms.
This went on for a few weeks, but one of my longtime friends (who was known to other players to be my friend) took a bad beat against her and really let her have it. He said a lot of really insulting things to her (mostly about her age), and she was furious. Cat told me something like, "Your friend ruined it for you", and never talked to me again.
I was really pissed at my friend about this, and called him to really let him have it. He apologized and said he just let his temper get to him, but had also assumed she wouldn't have blamed me for his behavior. I sent Cat an e-mail of apology for my friend's behavior, but she ignored it, so I quietly went away.
About a year later I saw her at Hollywood Park. I considered going up to her and apologizing in person, but it seemed she made her feelings clear about not wanting to hear from me anymore, so I didn't. That was the first and last time I ever saw her in person.
