Columnist Susan Snyder: Competitive edge is in the cards

Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2001 | 8:32 a.m.

OK, so the "shoe" is different. And "16 hands" isn't the same thing in cards and horses. But the rest is pretty much the same deal, she says.

Time, money, guts and focus.

"You've got to play your own game," she said.

Fitzgerald plays a mean one. She walked home Nov. 4 with a trophy and $200,000 as winner of Paris Las Vegas' first baccarat tournament.

"It didn't really and truly hit me until that Wednesday about how much money it was," Fitzgerald, 54, said. "But it's not the money. It's the win."

Talk of the 200,000 smackaroos didn't edge into the conversation very often. But Fitzgerald's whole face lit up when asked to show off the royal-blue glass trophy.

The money will help a lot of people. Fitzgerald says she has donated some of it to four area churches and will provide Thanksgiving dinner for 10 families this year rather than the two she typically supports. But the trophy is something she has for herself.

"The money will be gone, but the trophy is forever," she said. "It tells me I have not lost my competitive edge. That's important to me."

Fitzgerald has her own business as a sales and marketing coach. But in her younger days she was a champion barrel-racer, winning two state titles in her native Iowa and one in Texas, where she lived before she and her husband moved to Las Vegas 12 years ago.

She started riding when she was 7 years old, and it was on horses that she says she learned how to win and how to lose. She never warmed up to that losing part. She learn to figure out what wins and stick with it, without fretting over the competition's skills.

"I wanted everyone to do good so that when I won, I knew it was really mine," Fitzgerald said. "I'd loan anybody anything. I'd let someone else ride my horse, even. If they beat me on my own horse, then they beat me.

"But they wouldn't beat me the next year," she said. "I'm not a smart person, but I can outwork anybody."

Not smart? I'm afraid to even walk past a baccarat table. Fitzgerald says she began playing soon after moving here. Slot machines don't provide human interaction, and baccarat wasn't hard to learn.

The dealer determines the cards to be drawn and figures wins based on set situations. What players really need to do is to watch for patterns and know how to anticipate their next bet, without worrying about what everyone else is doing, Fitzgerald said.

"When I go to the tables, I am there to win. I don't eat, drink or chew gum. I don't want to socialize," she said. "I just want to play baccarat."

She plays whenever the mood strikes her, and she wins more than half the time. Her winning record is what got her into the three-day, invitation-only Paris tournament.

The 192 players didn't use any of their own money. They played for prizes with the casino's cash. Fitzgerald earned her title by being the last one standing with $380,000. She didn't get to keep that money. Her take-home money was the $200,000 first-place prize.

And, of course, the trophy.

"This is one of the biggest things to happen to me in the last five years," she said. "It's just the win. I'm the luckiest person you'll ever meet."