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When it comes to poker, Barb Tanner is no high roller. She prefers the lowest limit on betting. And she still bemoans her single biggest loss in three decades of poker - $120 - at Saloon #10 in Deadwood, S.D.

"I felt real bad losing that much money," says Tanner, a retired school nurse in University City. "I'm not a gambler, really. I'm a card player."

But Tanner is a true poker champion. She proved it this week by capturing the title in the Budweiser Poker Classic, becoming the first woman to win in the tournament's 23-year history. The finals were held at the Holiday Inn Southwest Viking Conference Center at 10709 Watson Road.

As the popularity of televised poker matches grows nationally, so too has the turnout at the tournament. Tanner was among 809 players to start off. That number dwindled through competition to a final table of seven in the last round Wednesday of seven-card stud.

She won in spectacular fashion, with a royal flush, the best hand in poker. She had an ace, king, queen and jack of clubs showing, and a 10 of clubs that had been dealt down.

Tanner, 63, tried to put on her best poker face.

"But I don't bluff well," she says, "so I just didn't look at anybody. They were betting crazy, saying, 'No way could she have it.'"

The next best hand was held by a man with three 9s. In the end, Tanner had nearly all of the chips, and the win was so obvious that officials didn't even bother counting them, said tournament director Glenda Bridges.

"Very smart poker"

Jerry Clinton, chairman of the tournament sponsor Grey Eagle Distributors, raved about Tanner's lucky hand.

"She was playing very smart poker, betting wisely," he said. "And I have no idea what the odds are of getting a royal flush, maybe 10 million-to-1."

Actually, the odds aren't that high.

"The probability of getting a royal flush using seven cards is only about 1-in-30,940," said Michael Shackleford, adjunct professor of gaming math at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. Shackleford is the man behind the Web site www.wizardofodds.com.

The tournament raised $23,277 for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Tanner gets no cash prize, but she does walk away with bragging rights and a trophy. She played nearly every year in the Poker Classic but had never won it. Her only other tournament win was at the Ameristar casino in St. Charles.

A trip to Vegas

Tanner's love for cards probably started with her grandmother, "a card shark" whose game of choice was rummy. Tanner's mother favors bridge. "It's in my blood," says Tanner, who started with hearts and spades and grew interested in poker when she visited Las Vegas in 1971 with friends.

"I watched them play for two hours, spent 10 minutes listening to the rules and sat down and played," she says. "I haven't stopped since."

She formed a women's poker group in 1987 that met monthly on Sundays until 1999. "I think my mother did shudder in those early days when I'd talk about poker," she says. "I was brought up in a minister's house."

Last year, Tanner and her partner, Linda Bethane, sold their condo in the Central West End, gave all their furniture to relatives and friends and decided to live full time in a motor home.

Every time Tanner travels into a new state by RV, camper or car, she scouts potential poker spots. She stops at the visitor information centers and picks up a casino industry newspaper that lists casinos, then calls ahead to make sure they offer poker.

"In all the years I've played, generally I'm the only woman at the table," she says. "There's something about this game - the intrigue about what's the next card going to be. Part of it is skill and part of it is luck."

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