When Marla Schram Schwartz sat down at a Southern California poker club two decades ago, men rose from the table and swore never to play with a woman.

Not today. With Texas HoldEm transfixing millions of cable TV viewers, poker is red hot. And women like Schwartz have now turned the tables as the hottest draws in poker entertainment.

"We're ready now," declared Schwartz, 48, of Thousand Oaks, Calif., raising her arms in mock victory as she and hundreds of women filed into the Ladies Poker Party tournament tent recently at the Bicycle Casino, in Bell Gardens, Calif.

"As women, we're trying to make our claim in a man's world."

The stakes: $35,000 in prizes and a seat at the televised World Poker Tour.

Last year, the World Poker Tour "Ladies Night Out" premiere on the Travel Channel was the most-watched poker game in history, with more than 5 million viewers. Organizers expect the December airing of "Ladies Night Two" to trump that number.

An American Gaming Association survey found this year that, although men slightly outnumber women as poker players, more women in their 20s and 30s played in 2003 than men in their 40s and 50s. A Bicycle Casino spokeswoman reported that five years ago, 50 women attended tournaments, whereas one tournament alone this year attracted 500 contestants.

Though women don't yet dominate top poker tournaments, thousands - from college students to pensioners - now feather their cards for high-stakes billing.

They're hungrier and smarter, promoters say, and, with honed intuition, can smoke the men at cards.

"If we could get half of these women to play in half of our events," said Steve Lipscomb, of Los Angeles, founder of the World Poker Tour, "the poker world would be changed forever. The fact is, women can play better than men."

SUBHED HERE: Four kinds of cake

The neon blinked over "The Bike" as 350 women from across the nation put down $20 for registration and $100 for chips during a two-day event planned as the largest-ever women's poker tournament.

"Be a poker star and play for the whole world to SEE," read a promo for the games.

"It's more fun to win," sang Donna Blevins, 55, who flew in from Florida - with a broken leg - for a 1-in-350 shot at the World Poker Tour.

"I'm going to take it all," insisted Melanie Pinkus, 28, of Covina, Calif., who had played Texas Holdem poker with friends "but nothing like this."

As a special inducement not offered men, chefs dished up a buffet that included bacon-wrapped scallops, chocolate-dipped strawberries and four kinds of cake.

There were women, barely 21, escorted by boyfriends who were banned from the tournament tent. Middle-aged women in office dress. Grandmothers with rose-colored glasses. Newbie players.

Professional winners. Each giddy - and ready for action.

Ready to wager on the three-up "flop." The penultimate "turn."

The last and perilous "river" card.

"I'm here for the thrill," said a chess player from the Balkans who asked to remain anonymous. "I'm a sucker. Others come for the money. I come for the adrenaline rush."

Soon, laughing moods turned serious. A clatter of poker chips filled the tent. Women hunched shoulder-to-shoulder over 33 tables - scraping winning pots across the felt with polished French tips, acrylic Mandarins, crimson nails or teeth-bitten stubs.

That spreading smirk, that lowering eyelash, that tightening dimple - clever bluffs for hapless hands?

"Dangerous!" said one woman, pointing darkly at a contestant.

"I'm hurting," piped up another, rising from her table to walk off her stress. "But I'm still in."

Most women say they became hooked on poker when family members coaxed them to the table in search of easy pickings. Many soon bested their brothers, dads or husbands.

"Now I'm hooked. Completely addicted," said Patty Huston, 61, of Simi Valley, who began playing tournament Texas HoldEm six months ago with her daughter. "Our husbands say we can't play really as well as the men. [But] in the home games, I'm usually the last one out, and my husband usually gets knocked out early."

SUBHED HERE: Poker's not pretty

It was Evelyn Ng who stole the pot during the World Poker Tour "Ladies Night Out" premiere. The glamorous 28-year-old Toronto poker pro said it takes every wile to be on top.

"It takes a lot to be a winner. You have to be part mathematician, part actor, part psychologist - and have a real competitive nature," she said. "Aggression is also very important in poker."

And luck.

To coax fortune, many women relied - for better or worse - on such talismans as porcelain dogs, jade turtles, lucky angels, dolphins, children's toys, even 1-inch steel bolts.

"Look at this," said Alberta Damas, of Corte Madera, Calif., pulling a small wooden elephant from her purse after raking in a $260 pot.

"This is my good luck charm."

"One of my kids left a toy in my purse, and now it's my good luck charm," added Anna Kazarian, 28, of Corona, Calif., eyeing a Dexter top perched atop her stack of chips. "It's not working."

For most, it was enough to combine poker action, a fast heart rate and a shot at winning.

"This is a blast, an absolute blast," said Debbie Rolland, 48, of Sherman Oaks. "I'm up."

"Apparently, I've been lucky," said Amy Rutberg, 22, of Sherman Oaks, folding on a K-10 "pocket" and a 7-5-9 flop.

But as her stack of $2,300 in chips showed, her luck wasn't always that bad.

"I had a straight flush and didn't realize I had a straight flush."

One by one, women leave the tables, plumb out of chips.

It was Zaynab Mogadam, of Canoga Park, Calif., who would be defeated by Cuiling Zhang of Montebello, Calif., for the $11,830 top prize and the World Poker Tour seat. Theresa Solnes, of Saugus, Calif., placed seventh, while Amanda Glogow placed eighth.

"She played me," said Mogadam, 42, a mother of two and immigrant from Iran who dreams of becoming a champion player in Las Vegas.

"Unfortunately, she trapped me, but I played good."

Mogadam, who works part-time at a card room and plays poker to round out her income, said many women aren't yet serious about professional play.

"You're not at home," she said. "You're not shopping. Some women, they don't understand: This is poker. We're here to gamble. This isn't a party."

Schwartz started her game trajectory with Go Fish, then poker, then TV game shows, on which she has written a book. She hit the poker clubs 20 years ago when there were but two or three women in the room.

Since then, she has scored at the top of tournament play, including betting as one of 50 women among 3,000 competitors in the 2004 World Series.

"We're more intuitive. We're better at reading when a man is lying. We don't have that macho testosterone going on, so we're much more humble about winning," she said.

"Men, they try to dominate you. If they raise, they think you'll be scared. But you know what I tell them? You can't scare me; I have teenagers."