Doyle Brunson reveals Jen Harman’s Fight with Gangster Jimmy Chagra

She looks like butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth, but Jennifer Harman is hard as nails according to fellow legend of the game Doyle Brunson, who this week reminisced about the time she had infamous drug trafficker Jimmy Chagra thrown out of Bobby’s Room...

Chagra may be best-known for being the man behind the murder of Judge John “Maximum John” Wood – a hit carried out by the father of Hollywood star Woody Harrelson.

He dropped by Bobby’s Room during the Big Game, the legendary highstakes cash game that would see Brunson and Harman joined by the likes of Chip Reese, Johnny Chan, Phil Ivey, Sammy Farha, Barry Greenstein and a host of other famous names across the years.

According to Doyle, on the night Chagra was there:

“Jennifer lost a big pot, screamed for the floor man and demanded he leave.”

When Texas Dolly asked her:

"Do you know who that is?" Harman yelled in reply: “I don't care if he is Al Capone. I want that xxx out of here.”

Chagra’s reputation obviously meant nothing to Harman, and she explained why she didn’t want the drugs kingpin hanging around in the Bellagio’s famous highstakes room.

“Because I don't like, and I'm not alone in this, for strangers to come in and watch the game for many different reasons,” tweeted Jennifer.

She also warned Doyle about sharing such stories in public:

“Doyle, What happens in Bobby's Room stays in Bobby's room. There are many stories with many different poker players, that I could tell.”

Harman added the rather cryptic and very interesting:

“No-one is innocent in that room.”

Fifty-six-year-old Harman is the only woman to have ever taken part in the Big Game, and she was also part of The Corporation, a team of the Big Game’s regulars who pooled their resources to take on Texan billionaire Andy Beal.

That match was revealed in detail in Michael Craig’s incredible book The Professor, the Banker and the Suicide King: Inside the Richest Poker Game of all Time.

Having played at stakes as high as $100k/$200k, it’s unlikely that asking for a criminal to leave the room was likely to phase Harman, with Danielle 'dmoongirl' Andersen among those impressed by the double WSOP-bracelet winner.

As for Chagra, his drug trafficking operations paid for his love of gambling, as well as a $1million Vegas mansion and all the trappings of a drug lord.

However, his involvement in the assassination of Judge John Wood, who Chagra had tried and failed to bribe (Wood rejecting a “$5million or $10million” offer) saw him heavily prosecuted for his drug dealing.

Chagra eventually served 23 years of a 30-year prison sentence, released in 2003 and dying of cancer in 2008.

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