It's rare to ever catch Angela Jordison sitting still. Life comes at you fast when you never sit out a hand.
A serial entrepreneur turned tournament grinder, she has stacked more business ventures into one life than most build across an entire career: Wall Street broker, nightclub and sports bar owner, poker room manager, RV dealership operator, and most recently, an ambassador for Phenom Poker.
Most weekends find Jordison on the road, playing one Main Event at a time before returning home to tend to family, business interests, gardening, and her Polish chickens, aptly named after friends in the poker community.
“Now that I'm in the Midwest, it's so easy to go to MSPTs, RunGood series, and WSOP Circuit events two to three weekends a month,” says Jordison. “But I do enjoy coming home to my Iowa ranch and my favorite chickens: Kyna, Nikki, Caitlin, Pokerface Ash, Jacki, and a few more, yet to be named.”
Shifting priorities
Tournament poker was far from Jordison’s focus when she first fell in love with the game.
“When I came into the game in the early 2000s, I jumped right into the $2/$5 and $5/$10 cash games. I had success right out of the gate, so I figured that I must be really good at this.
"But then reality kicked in, and I thought to myself, ‘I'd better really learn how to play this game.’ Back then, there were no training videos, no coaching sites, or anything like that."
“I read books and truly learned how to play from my experiences on the felt. I think that approach helped me so much. When I started to incorporate studying the game, I had a lot of instincts developed through trial and error. I think those experiences gave me a little bit of an edge as my game grew.”
It wasn’t until the beginning of the pandemic that Jordison shifted her focus primarily to tournaments.
“Before the pandemic, tournaments were maybe 10% to 15% of all the poker I played. I was a heavy fixture in Northwest cash games. And all my friends were men, because of the stakes I played, there weren't any women in the game. So I never had a big group of female friends. Once I started getting into tournaments, that's when I really started to develop a really big circle of women players like Kyna England, Jackie Burkhart, Nikki Limo, Caitlin Comeskey, and others."
“I really value those friendships. We have a huge group chat with all these women players. It's really fun. They're hilarious. It's nice to have that support and to support each other through the upswings and downswings. The upside's easy—it's the downside that can be rough.”
The hard work and study habits paid off in 2022, a breakout year that saw Jordison finish a hair’s breadth from winning both GPI Female Player of the Year and Mid-Major Player of the Year.
She closed the year with nearly $600,000 in cashes—roughly a third of her career total of $1,793,133—and added to a résumé that includes a WPT Legends of Poker title, two WSOP Circuit wins, and two MSPT Main Event victories.
Along comes Phenom Poker
Phenom Poker, the decentralized cryptocurrency platform launched in October 2024, found Jordison early in its development and brought her on as one of its first ambassadors.
“I got a call from Nathan Gamble, wondering if I would like to be an ambassador for a new site that was crypto-based. Their primary goal was to uphold player integrity and site security. And they really wanted players to have a voice on the site. That immediately interested me.
“I have watched their ups and downs like any new business or new site. But the way that they've responded has impressed me and makes me proud to be part of Phenom. When things come up, they really listen to players. They're really good with communication and transparency. That's really all you can ask. I'm excited for where the business is headed.”
Without a genuine love for the game and its community, poker might have been just another chapter in Jordison’s entrepreneurial career. Instead, it became the one she chose to pursue with the most passion.
“I always say nobody loves the game more than me. They might love it as much, but nobody loves it more, mainly because I love the game's competitive nature.
“I love all the different characters that are in the game and the people you meet from Yale to jail. And I just like being in the mix and part of it. I have met some very interesting people and lifelong friends.
“When you're a woman in the game, and you tell people outside of poker that you play, they're fascinated by it. It's truly a fascinating sport, and it feels like the sky's the limit. And I like that. I like the risk.”
Follow Angela on X and find her at the tables on Phenom Poker.
