After seeing success on the movie pageant circuit, the acclaimed poker documentary Cracking Aces: A Lady’s Place on the Desk is lastly going mainstream. The movie’s Producers, Professors Tracy Halcomb and H. James Gilmore, have simply signed a distribution cope with Bitmax, paving the best way for the movie to be launched on main streaming platforms together with Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and Google Play starting on Thursday, August 21.
Past sharing the distribution information, this text will serve to refresh individuals’s recollections relating to how the documentary got here to be produced in addition to present quotes from Professor Halcomb, with whom I spoke previous to publication.
From Competition Favourite to Streaming Launch
Initially accomplished in 2018, Cracking Aces spent its first years solely on the pageant circuit. Screenings at occasions such because the Sarasota Movie Competition, Silicon Seaside Movie Competition in Los Angeles, Hobnobben in Indiana, and the Silver State Movie Competition in Las Vegas drew sold-out crowds and rave critiques. However the broader public has by no means had entry to the movie about ladies in poker till now.
That adjustments with this new distribution settlement, which is able to lastly make the 67-minute documentary accessible worldwide, marking the prospect for everybody to expertise the tales which have already resonated so strongly with pageant audiences.
A Highlight on Girls Who Broke the Glass Ceiling
At its core, Cracking Aces tells the story of pioneering ladies who carved out their place in poker regardless of an trade dominated by males. That includes trailblazers like Linda Johnson and Jan Fisher, in addition to fashionable stars and fellow Girls in Poker Corridor of Famers Maria Ho and Lupe Soto, the movie paperwork each the struggles and triumphs of girls who refused to be sidelined.
Via interviews with gamers, trade leaders, and teachers, the movie explores the whole lot from the “poker babes” period of televised poker, to on-line poker anonymity, to the #MeToo motion’s influence on ladies within the sport. Tales vary from ladies utilizing southern accents and flirtation to outlive in earlier a long time, to youthful generations insisting they be judged solely on their poker abilities.
Once I requested Professor Halcomb why getting a distribution deal for Cracking Aces was essential to her and Professor Gilmore and why that took so lengthy, she stated that “we didn’t actually have time to attempt to get the eye of distributors when the movie got here out. We’re each full-time faculty professors and make films on our breaks from college. We had enjoyable taking it to festivals, however stored considering that there needed to be so many poker gamers and lovers who actually would take pleasure in this little snapshot of poker historical past. So Jim and I lastly pulled the set off and signed with Bitmax. While you spend 4 years making a film you actually do need to get it in entrance of an viewers.”
From Likelihood Encounter to Award-Profitable Movie
The mission started when Gilmore, a professor of Journalism and Display screen Research, met poker legends Johnson and Fisher by probability in Las Vegas. Their tales of breaking into the sport within the late Seventies impressed him and Halcomb to start a four-year analysis and filmmaking journey. What began as a brief movie concept advanced right into a feature-length documentary after dozens of girls in poker got here ahead to share their experiences.
“Because the movie’s producers, we’d definitely prefer to see Cracking Aces get substantial views on each streaming platform. Frankly talking, we’d additionally prefer to make again our preliminary funding; breaking even could be nice! We had a blast making this documentary and hope to maintain making these entertaining documentaries, funds allowing,” stated Halcomb.
A Well timed Launch
Cracking Aces‘ distribution to streaming audiences worldwide comes at a second when discussions about gender illustration and fairness stay central to each poker and society at giant. By giving voice to those that fought to be revered on the tables, the movie gives each historic context and inspiration for the long run.
Lastly, I requested Professor Halcomb what, ideally, she’d like for the movie’s viewers to remove from Cracking Aces, to which she replied “I might find it irresistible if individuals got here away with a brand new appreciation for these ladies who had been pioneers in skilled poker. It will be great for informal followers to be taught a bit extra concerning the poker skilled’s thought course of, and for the feminine poker gamers of immediately to pay homage to some of the ladies who paved the best way for his or her alternatives.”
Cracking Aces: A Lady’s Place on the Desk can be accessible for digital buy and rental starting on Thursday (August 21, 2025) on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play, and different main streaming platforms.
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Written By.
Robbie Strazynski
Robbie based Cardplayerlifestyle.com in 2009. A longtime veteran of the poker media corps and previous World Poker Award winner, Robbie has produced an unlimited portfolio of written and video work, hosted a number of poker podcasts for a decade (Prime Pair, Purple Chip Poker Podcast, The Orbit, and CardsChat Podcast), and has coated scores of dwell poker […]
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