I thought the craziest thing I’d do at the poker table is play on my due date, February 15, 2026. Now, six months later, I’ve played the World Series of Poker including the Main Event, and attended the Tournament Directors Association Summit, while pumping breast milk and sending it back to the hotel where my daughter and nanny were.
Thanks to a number of state and federal laws, I can pump, hand-express or breastfeed anywhere. Originally, I envisioned myself getting up from the table, going over to the slots, and breastfeeding my daughter like a champ before returning to the game. But fantasy is a lot rosier than reality.
In reality, my daughter gets too distracted breastfeeding in almost any position except side-lying; my husband and I are particularly recognizable, so maybe I shouldn’t be seen with my breast out in case of weirdos; we aren’t allowing our daughter to see screens, and the slots would be too overstimulating for her; and the nanny, my daughter and I ended up staying off-Strip.
And that’s not even factoring in leaky breasts, time away from the table, potential smoke-filled atmospheres, and being told by someone at the Silverton Casino that I couldn’t even change my then-four-month-old’s diaper in the stroller near the slot machines because “she wasn’t old enough to be on the casino floor."
The reality of pumping at the WSOP
I also didn’t have a sufficient breast milk stash. And to maintain my milk supply, I had to pump as often as my baby ate, even when I wasn’t around her. So as the new exclusively breastfeeding ‘Momma Kitty’, I pumped at the table. I expected people to be weird about it, and worried the pumps would be too noisy or hard to clean.
Trying to prevent any potential complaints, I made sure I acted even faster than normal (and I normally act very fast) whenever I was pumping, cleaning my breast pumps, or arranging ‘milk deliveries’. I specifically bought the quietest and slimmest pumps I could.
For all my planning, much like the fantasy of breastfeeding near the poker table, I didn’t expect what actually happened: men opened up about their wives’ breastfeeding journeys. At the poker table. No man or woman complained. Instead, they were fascinated by the new technology.
They talked about how their mothers, grandmothers or wives didn’t have such technology, and marvelled that I could now pump while playing poker. A few shared how their wives couldn’t breastfeed because of low supply or health reasons, and how that affected them. Two men discussed how their wives created their own breast milk formula. Men asked sincere questions: ‘How does your body know to produce more?’
I was open, and happily answered every question as well as new information I had learned: breast milk changes based on time of day, the seasons, and the age of the baby; it can be used to help with baby eczema and cradle cap, and even dry scalps in adults; and your body knows how to produce more based on how much milk is expelled and the baby will cluster feed to signal it to produce more.
One player made it weird
Only one poker player was weird about it. He was sitting at another table and asked me, “Is that water in your bra?” He smirked to himself, until I calmly answered “No, I’m pumping breast milk so my four-month-old can eat.” His smile quickly faded and he sat down, looking a bit embarrassed, but very sincere, and said, “Oh… good for you!” And while he was out of line, it was refreshing to see that even he understood the beauty of breastfeeding.
During my conversations at the poker table, men also defended breastfeeding in public: "It’s science. It’s beautiful. It’s natural. I don’t know why anyone would be against it – even perverts can at least see some boob!"
As I navigate new motherhood again, I want to encourage all new mothers, especially those breastfeeding, to not let anything stop you from achieving whatever you want – whether that's playing the Main Event, attending a conference, traveling, or anything else. It won’t necessarily be easy, but you may just be surprised by how accepting and supportive people can be.
