QUEEN OF CARDS
Good poker players lose 70 per cent of their tournament games. One moment they have lots of money in front of them, and the next it’s gone. “You learn nothing more valuable in poker than how to fail, get up again and carry on,” says Natalie Hof Ramos. The 39-year-old speaks from experience. She has been playing poker professionally for 18 years. At the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, the world’s most prestigious poker event, she reached the final table in 2022. In one tournament, she finished 13th out of over 14,000 players.
Good poker players lose 70 per cent of their tournament games. One moment they have lots of money in front of them, and the next it’s gone. “You learn nothing more valuable in poker than how to fail, get up again and carry on,” says Natalie Hof Ramos. The 39-year-old speaks from experience. She has been playing poker professionally for 18 years. At the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, the world’s most prestigious poker event, she reached the final table in 2022. In one tournament, she finished 13th out of over 14,000 players.
QUEEN OF CARDS
Good poker players lose 70 per cent of their tournament games. One moment they have lots of money in front of them, and the next it’s gone. “You learn nothing more valuable in poker than how to fail, get up again and carry on,” says Natalie Hof Ramos. The 39-year-old speaks from experience. She has been playing poker professionally for 18 years. At the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, the world’s most prestigious poker event, she reached the final table in 2022. In one tournament, she finished 13th out of over 14,000 players.
Good poker players lose 70 per cent of their tournament games. One moment they have lots of money in front of them, and the next it’s gone. “You learn nothing more valuable in poker than how to fail, get up again and carry on,” says Natalie Hof Ramos. The 39-year-old speaks from experience. She has been playing poker professionally for 18 years. At the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, the world’s most prestigious poker event, she reached the final table in 2022. In one tournament, she finished 13th out of over 14,000 players.
GOOD HAND
In poker, the winner is the player who bluffs cleverly or holds the best cards. Failure is also part of the game of strategy and psychology. “The journey is the goal,” says Natalie Hof Ramos.
GOOD HAND
In poker, the winner is the player who bluffs cleverly or holds the best cards. Failure is also part of the game of strategy and psychology. “The journey is the goal,” says Natalie Hof Ramos.
The rebellious woman? An accurate description, she says. “Even as a child, I was rebellious. I questioned school and always did what I wanted, not what others expected of me. Otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have got into poker.” Poker is still a male-dominated world. Those unfamiliar with the scene might imagine dark back rooms of pubs, glitzy casinos and perhaps also a few shady characters. “That all exists. But what you see on television is too extreme,” says Natalie Hof Ramos. Poker is very professional at a high level. Players are intelligent, think strategically and have a high degree of self-control, she explains. And then, unlike in chess, there is also the luck factor, which allows novices to win sometimes too. “That fascinated me from the very beginning.”
We meet Natalie in Vienna where she lives with her husband, Brazilian poker pro Felipe Ramos, and their daughter. She spends fewer nights playing poker these days. “I need to be able to take my child to nursery in the morning,” she says. She plays in selected tournaments and travels with her family to the World Series in Las Vegas once a year. Those are six very unusual weeks for the Ramos family. She beams when she talks about it. “I love the atmosphere. My parents or Felipe’s parents look after our daughter while we both play poker. If things are going well for me, I sit at the gaming table for 12 hours, until seven in the morning.”
Natalie discovered her love for poker as a teenager. She comes from a village in East Frisia, northwestern Germany. As a child, she did ballet, then competitive gymnastics and then took up skateboarding – because of the boys – and played billiards. Her best friend suggested playing poker. “That was at the village disco. We played drinking games using pretzel sticks as our stake.” She received a tournament ticket for the casino in Bad Zwischenahn for her 19th birthday. “I’ll never forget that experience, the pensioners at the roulette tables. I played so badly and I still came third. After that, I thought I had it all figured out,” she says, grinning. From then on she played poker every day and went to the casino in Bremen at weekends.
We meet Natalie in Vienna where she lives with her husband, Brazilian poker pro Felipe Ramos, and their daughter. She spends fewer nights playing poker these days. “I need to be able to take my child to nursery in the morning,” she says. She plays in selected tournaments and travels with her family to the World Series in Las Vegas once a year. Those are six very unusual weeks for the Ramos family. She beams when she talks about it. “I love the atmosphere. My parents or Felipe’s parents look after our daughter while we both play poker. If things are going well for me, I sit at the gaming table for 12 hours, until seven in the morning.”
Natalie discovered her love for poker as a teenager. She comes from a village in East Frisia, northwestern Germany. As a child, she did ballet, then competitive gymnastics and then took up skateboarding – because of the boys – and played billiards. Her best friend suggested playing poker. “That was at the village disco. We played drinking games using pretzel sticks as our stake.” She received a tournament ticket for the casino in Bad Zwischenahn for her 19th birthday. “I’ll never forget that experience, the pensioners at the roulette tables. I played so badly and I still came third. After that, I thought I had it all figured out,” she says, grinning. From then on she played poker every day and went to the casino in Bremen at weekends.
The rebellious woman? An accurate description, she says. “Even as a child, I was rebellious. I questioned school and always did what I wanted, not what others expected of me. Otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have got into poker.” Poker is still a male-dominated world. Those unfamiliar with the scene might imagine dark back rooms of pubs, glitzy casinos and perhaps also a few shady characters. “That all exists. But what you see on television is too extreme,” says Natalie Hof Ramos. Poker is very professional at a high level. Players are intelligent, think strategically and have a high degree of self-control, she explains. And then, unlike in chess, there is also the luck factor, which allows novices to win sometimes too. “That fascinated me from the very beginning.”
We meet Natalie in Vienna where she lives with her husband, Brazilian poker pro Felipe Ramos, and their daughter. She spends fewer nights playing poker these days. “I need to be able to take my child to nursery in the morning,” she says. She plays in selected tournaments and travels with her family to the World Series in Las Vegas once a year. Those are six very unusual weeks for the Ramos family. She beams when she talks about it. “I love the atmosphere. My parents or Felipe’s parents look after our daughter while we both play poker. If things are going well for me, I sit at the gaming table for 12 hours, until seven in the morning.”
Natalie discovered her love for poker as a teenager. She comes from a village in East Frisia, northwestern Germany. As a child, she did ballet, then competitive gymnastics and then took up skateboarding – because of the boys – and played billiards. Her best friend suggested playing poker. “That was at the village disco. We played drinking games using pretzel sticks as our stake.” She received a tournament ticket for the casino in Bad Zwischenahn for her 19th birthday. “I’ll never forget that experience, the pensioners at the roulette tables. I played so badly and I still came third. After that, I thought I had it all figured out,” she says, grinning. From then on she played poker every day and went to the casino in Bremen at weekends.
We meet Natalie in Vienna where she lives with her husband, Brazilian poker pro Felipe Ramos, and their daughter. She spends fewer nights playing poker these days. “I need to be able to take my child to nursery in the morning,” she says. She plays in selected tournaments and travels with her family to the World Series in Las Vegas once a year. Those are six very unusual weeks for the Ramos family. She beams when she talks about it. “I love the atmosphere. My parents or Felipe’s parents look after our daughter while we both play poker. If things are going well for me, I sit at the gaming table for 12 hours, until seven in the morning.”
Natalie discovered her love for poker as a teenager. She comes from a village in East Frisia, northwestern Germany. As a child, she did ballet, then competitive gymnastics and then took up skateboarding – because of the boys – and played billiards. Her best friend suggested playing poker. “That was at the village disco. We played drinking games using pretzel sticks as our stake.” She received a tournament ticket for the casino in Bad Zwischenahn for her 19th birthday. “I’ll never forget that experience, the pensioners at the roulette tables. I played so badly and I still came third. After that, I thought I had it all figured out,” she says, grinning. From then on she played poker every day and went to the casino in Bremen at weekends.
Her mother wasn’t happy about it. But Natalie saw what else the game offered: “Playing poker teaches you some important things in life: failure, patience, the willingness to take risks and how to make quick decisions even if you don’t have all the information to hand.” She promised her mother that she would study something sensible first, and decided on educational theory and theology. Theology? “I’d already studied it for my school-leaving exams. I thought it wouldn’t take too much effort, but it actually turned out to be really complex. Educational theory saved the day,” she explains. Her degree certificate with a good grade of 1.9 still hangs in her mother’s study today. As a student, she landed her first TV hosting job in 2010 through a casting call for a TV poker show. “I actually wanted to find a sponsor that way. Also, in the past I used to fake a stomach illness every time I had to present a paper. But then I did it anyway,” she says. To date, she has hosted a range of formats including the European Poker Tour, Stefan Raab’s TV Total PokerStars and German High Roller.
Looking back at her beginnings, she sees that she always had a certain predisposition. “I wasn’t a good student at school, but I was very good at three things: sports, behavioural biology and calculating probability.” All useful skills for poker. At the gaming table, Natalie is often on her own among eight men. “Poker is like a war against everyone,” she says. “At the poker table, you have to want to destroy someone.” But she says she’s a quiet person and not at all aggressive. “I listen to rap music to get me into fight mode,” she explains. “Sometimes I also listen to Taylor Swift; she gives me confidence. Poker is also a game of information. I have music in one ear, and with the other I’m listening carefully to what other people are saying. I calculate the probabilities of a particular hand being played. I look at everything: how someone sits, their facial expressions and gestures, how fast their pulse is, their breathing. People often do lots of things the same way out of habit, and I pay attention to that.” Another thing she notices in games is opponents who tend to stare at their phone or those who freak out, insult the dealer and push the chips away. “Only men do that,” she says, laughing.
Looking back at her beginnings, she sees that she always had a certain predisposition. “I wasn’t a good student at school, but I was very good at three things: sports, behavioural biology and calculating probability.” All useful skills for poker. At the gaming table, Natalie is often on her own among eight men. “Poker is like a war against everyone,” she says. “At the poker table, you have to want to destroy someone.” But she says she’s a quiet person and not at all aggressive. “I listen to rap music to get me into fight mode,” she explains. “Sometimes I also listen to Taylor Swift; she gives me confidence. Poker is also a game of information. I have music in one ear, and with the other I’m listening carefully to what other people are saying. I calculate the probabilities of a particular hand being played. I look at everything: how someone sits, their facial expressions and gestures, how fast their pulse is, their breathing. People often do lots of things the same way out of habit, and I pay attention to that.” Another thing she notices in games is opponents who tend to stare at their phone or those who freak out, insult the dealer and push the chips away. “Only men do that,” she says, laughing.
Her mother wasn’t happy about it. But Natalie saw what else the game offered: “Playing poker teaches you some important things in life: failure, patience, the willingness to take risks and how to make quick decisions even if you don’t have all the information to hand.” She promised her mother that she would study something sensible first, and decided on educational theory and theology. Theology? “I’d already studied it for my school-leaving exams. I thought it wouldn’t take too much effort, but it actually turned out to be really complex. Educational theory saved the day,” she explains. Her degree certificate with a good grade of 1.9 still hangs in her mother’s study today. As a student, she landed her first TV hosting job in 2010 through a casting call for a TV poker show. “I actually wanted to find a sponsor that way. Also, in the past I used to fake a stomach illness every time I had to present a paper. But then I did it anyway,” she says. To date, she has hosted a range of formats including the European Poker Tour, Stefan Raab’s TV Total PokerStars and German High Roller.
Looking back at her beginnings, she sees that she always had a certain predisposition. “I wasn’t a good student at school, but I was very good at three things: sports, behavioural biology and calculating probability.” All useful skills for poker. At the gaming table, Natalie is often on her own among eight men. “Poker is like a war against everyone,” she says. “At the poker table, you have to want to destroy someone.” But she says she’s a quiet person and not at all aggressive. “I listen to rap music to get me into fight mode,” she explains. “Sometimes I also listen to Taylor Swift; she gives me confidence. Poker is also a game of information. I have music in one ear, and with the other I’m listening carefully to what other people are saying. I calculate the probabilities of a particular hand being played. I look at everything: how someone sits, their facial expressions and gestures, how fast their pulse is, their breathing. People often do lots of things the same way out of habit, and I pay attention to that.” Another thing she notices in games is opponents who tend to stare at their phone or those who freak out, insult the dealer and push the chips away. “Only men do that,” she says, laughing.
Looking back at her beginnings, she sees that she always had a certain predisposition. “I wasn’t a good student at school, but I was very good at three things: sports, behavioural biology and calculating probability.” All useful skills for poker. At the gaming table, Natalie is often on her own among eight men. “Poker is like a war against everyone,” she says. “At the poker table, you have to want to destroy someone.” But she says she’s a quiet person and not at all aggressive. “I listen to rap music to get me into fight mode,” she explains. “Sometimes I also listen to Taylor Swift; she gives me confidence. Poker is also a game of information. I have music in one ear, and with the other I’m listening carefully to what other people are saying. I calculate the probabilities of a particular hand being played. I look at everything: how someone sits, their facial expressions and gestures, how fast their pulse is, their breathing. People often do lots of things the same way out of habit, and I pay attention to that.” Another thing she notices in games is opponents who tend to stare at their phone or those who freak out, insult the dealer and push the chips away. “Only men do that,” she says, laughing.
A MATTER OF THE HEART
Since her daughter was born, Natalie Hof Ramos has cut down the time she spends at the poker table and has dedicated herself to a new project: the Queen of Hearts club, where women who play poker support each other.
A MATTER OF HEART
Since her daughter was born, Natalie Hof Ramos has cut down the time she spends at the poker table and has dedicated herself to a new project: the Queen of Hearts club, where women who play poker support each other.
Has she had any negative experiences? “Of course. You hear people say things like ‘I’m losing today; I’ll only win against that woman’. Or in Vegas, where it’s always cold because of the air conditioning, and then someone will say ‘It’s got hotter since you’ve been at the table’. Or last year in Baden, a guy threw me a chip to change and clicked his tongue. So I asked him directly whether he would do that with any of the other men. I used to just laugh things like that off; but I won’t put up with it anymore, especially now I’m a mother. I have to say, the lower the skill level, the more often that kind of thing happens, unfortunately.” She says that is also one of the reasons why she founded the Queen of Hearts club seven years ago. It’s a community of more than one hundred female players who support each other and chat – and it’s a project close to her heart.
Does she play poker at home? Rarely, she says. “We hate it when other people want to play poker with us. It’s like when hairdressers are constantly asked to cut their friends’ hair.” To unwind, Natalie does Pilates. She also meditates and likes cooking. A glimpse at her Instagram feed shows she usually looks radiantly cheerful. What makes her happy? “My family, and being able to do what my heart tells me. Poker is a battle against yourself, which I love. But I have different phases. I can also enjoy spending a week in bed, with tea and Netflix.”
Does she play poker at home? Rarely, she says. “We hate it when other people want to play poker with us. It’s like when hairdressers are constantly asked to cut their friends’ hair.” To unwind, Natalie does Pilates. She also meditates and likes cooking. A glimpse at her Instagram feed shows she usually looks radiantly cheerful. What makes her happy? “My family, and being able to do what my heart tells me. Poker is a battle against yourself, which I love. But I have different phases. I can also enjoy spending a week in bed, with tea and Netflix.”
Has she had any negative experiences? “Of course. You hear people say things like ‘I’m losing today; I’ll only win against that woman’. Or in Vegas, where it’s always cold because of the air conditioning, and then someone will say ‘It’s got hotter since you’ve been at the table’. Or last year in Baden, a guy threw me a chip to change and clicked his tongue. So I asked him directly whether he would do that with any of the other men. I used to just laugh things like that off; but I won’t put up with it anymore, especially now I’m a mother. I have to say, the lower the skill level, the more often that kind of thing happens, unfortunately.” She says that is also one of the reasons why she founded the Queen of Hearts club seven years ago. It’s a community of more than one hundred female players who support each other and chat – and it’s a project close to her heart.
Does she play poker at home? Rarely, she says. “We hate it when other people want to play poker with us. It’s like when hairdressers are constantly asked to cut their friends’ hair.” To unwind, Natalie does Pilates. She also meditates and likes cooking. A glimpse at her Instagram feed shows she usually looks radiantly cheerful. What makes her happy? “My family, and being able to do what my heart tells me. Poker is a battle against yourself, which I love. But I have different phases. I can also enjoy spending a week in bed, with tea and Netflix.”
Does she play poker at home? Rarely, she says. “We hate it when other people want to play poker with us. It’s like when hairdressers are constantly asked to cut their friends’ hair.” To unwind, Natalie does Pilates. She also meditates and likes cooking. A glimpse at her Instagram feed shows she usually looks radiantly cheerful. What makes her happy? “My family, and being able to do what my heart tells me. Poker is a battle against yourself, which I love. But I have different phases. I can also enjoy spending a week in bed, with tea and Netflix.”
CREDITS
Photography: Lisa Edi, Production: Vanessa Zeeh, Styling: Julia Eisenburger, Hair & Make-up: Lydia Gronostay, Production assistant: Patrick Rieser, Location: Thanks to Casino Wien
Photography: Lisa Edi, Production: Vanessa Zeeh, Styling: Julia Eisenburger, Hair & Make-up: Lydia Gronostay, Production assistant: Patrick Rieser, Location: Thanks to Casino Wien