The Kansas City StarWorld champ Chris Moneymaker showed his poker face Sunday at Harrah's casino.

Wilma Glorioso of Kansas City had never played a hand of poker until last week when she had two 30-minute lessons.

But that didn't seem to matter Sunday when she competed against nine other players at Harrah's North Kansas City Casino & Hotel, including the 2003 world champion of poker.

Glorioso more than held her own. In fact, she won.

“I don't like to lose,” said Glorioso, who, when asked her age, said she was “pushing 80.”

Harrah's on Sunday held a grand opening for its 12-table poker room — bringing back a game that had been missing from the casino since 1997.

To celebrate, Harrah's brought in Chris Moneymaker, who won $2.5 million in last year's world championship.

Glorioso was among a handful of players picked in a lottery with 10,000 entries to play against Moneymaker. The players were split into two groups, and the first-place winner in each group won $500 after the 45-minute rounds. The rest won up to $400.

One of poker's attractions is that the randomness of the cards gives any player a good chance of winning a round, although over the long run professionals have the advantage.

Moneymaker, a former accountant, was an unknown last year when he when he won a poker tournament on the Internet that allowed him to compete in the world championship against the game's top players.

In the round that included Glorioso, Moneymaker was “busted out” early by losing a hand that he had bet all his chips on. “I'll be back,” he joked.

Source: Steve Everly, The Kansas City Star