It's not the high stakes, glamorized Hollywood version of a poker game where everything hinges on luck.
Instead of relying on fate, the international club called Poker Power helps women and girls worldwide learn the true skills necessary to win, not just at the poker table, but throughout life.
Club members learn poker-playing strategies like risk assessment, negotiation and strategic thinking in a non-gambling environment.
Lark McCarron had already learned how to play poker two summers ago, then was spurred on further after hearing a story on the program Marketplace about Poker Power.
The concept piqued the interest of the high school senior, so last year, after winning over her school advisor, McCarron started the first-ever high school level Poker Power club at Champlain Valley Union High School in Hinesburg.
How do you tell your opponents, 'I like my hand. I'm playing to win. You should be scared of me,' right? And that's a skill that a lot of girls aren't taught.Lark McCarron
Self-made billionaire Jenny Just founded Poker Power in 2020, along with her daughter. The aim was to ensure women are at every table and in every room where important decisions are made.
“We don't play with any money," McCarron said of the high school club. "Because of this, there are no stakes. We are able to fully exercise our skills, and therefore, make mistakes, because the learning isn’t punitive."
In its inaugural year, the CVU Poker Power club had between 20 and 25 girls showing up weekly to learn the game.
"Poker Power really is centered around education," McCarron said. She said the hope is that if and when they do go play poker with real money, they take what they've learned and play it as a game of strategy, and not gambling.
"They’re using numbers, not luck," McCarron said.
McCarron said club members focus on emotional resilience, negotiation and confidence-building. It's also touted as a method for companies and organizations to build leadership skills among its employees.
"In poker, you have to make confident decisions with limited information," McCarron said. "And that's something you have to do every day in the real world, right? Our world, like poker, is a game of imperfect information. So you have to know how to take the information you have and make a judgment call."
One key takeaway is learning how to assert yourself during gameplay. McCarron said, "How do you tell your opponents, 'I like my hand. I'm playing to win. You should be scared of me,' right? And that's a skill that a lot of girls aren't taught."
She said learning poker has given her permission to fail. "I'm someone who has always kind of held myself to a degree of perfection," McCarron said. "But in poker, I realized sometimes you'll be dealt a bad hand, or maybe you'll be dealt a great hand, and you still won't win. And you can't let that one bad hand shake you."
