St. Cloud native overcomes disability through poker – plays ‘loose cannon' in hit TV show
From darkness to the bright lights of Las Vegas, the last decade has taken Jordan Handrich on a wild ride.
At 37, she suddenly found herself without a career, a home or a boyfriend. Handrich, born in Willmar but raised in St. Cloud, had a thriving career as a construction defect lawyer. After making the decision to switch the type of law she'd practice – to gaming law – she took a little vacation. While in Montana, she suffered a snowmobile accident and hurt her back. But that was just the beginning.
Back in Minnesota, Handrich visited a chiropractor for her back pain. The appointment was anything but ordinary. Immediately she knew something was wrong.
'This guy was just so rough with me, and he just spun my neck so hard it felt like I had a hammer come down on me,' she said. 'It felt like my brain had gotten loose in my head and was spinning around.'
The pain and disorientation didn't dissipate, so after a few hours Handrich took herself to the emergency room. After learning she'd recently been to the chiropractor, the doctors immediately scheduled her for an MRI scan.
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The scan revealed that she'd suffered a vertebral artery dissection – a tear in the lining of the artery that supplies blood to the back of the brain. The vertebral artery dissection caused a stroke that made continuing her career as a high-powered lawyer impossible.
That was 12 years ago.
Handrich still deals with migraines, aphasia, executive dysfunction and sight problems. She says she 'reads with a limp,' noting that it took her several months before she figured out her eyes were no longer tracking together. Handrich, as a lawyer, used to handle multi-million dollar cases with ease, but now she struggles to read, follow a recipe or clearly articulate her thoughts.
She might not be able to shine in a courtroom any longer, but poker? Poker she could play.
So she decided to go where she could heal and play poker without being treated differently because of her disabilities: Las Vegas.
Handrich was an impressive poker player before her stroke, but the game changed for her after the accident.
At first, Handrich enjoyed poker because it was both social and competitive.
'It was so fun to me to be able to meet people, and I really do like hearing everybody's life story. Poker is a way for so many different people of different backgrounds to be sitting together,' Handrich said. 'I remember being at a table with a bookie, a doctor and a billionaire. That's wild.'
Poker wasn't just fun for Handrich – it made her a better lawyer.
'In depositions I'd be able to say, hey, this person is holding something back here. Let's dig in,' she said.
She felt like if she could figure out poker, she could figure out life. And she was good at it.
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But after her stroke, her relationship with poker changed. Her aphasia made it difficult to communicate. She misplaced words, used the wrong ones at times and lost her train of thought.
'I love smart people. [But] I couldn't communicate with them anymore,' Handrich said.
When she went to Vegas to heal, she was already a highly ranked poker player. The way she saw it, everyone was already drinking while they played. If she messed up her words, they'd either not notice or they'd assume she'd had one too many. It was the perfect cover.
'It was more important for me to not be damaged. Like, people understand drinking, but people look at you different when they think you're disabled. And I wasn't ready for that emotionally. I was always masking a lot,' she said.
Handrich started to really appreciate how inclusive poker is. She's seen people use devices to help them move the chips back and forth as well as read the cards. She's watched people who can't verbally communicate use assistants to help them play.
'These people who might be isolated have an opportunity to be social with people and hang out in public and play a game with people that they might not otherwise have,' she said. 'It's just such a unique, unique opportunity for disabled people.'
Many stroke survivors live with the looming fear of a second event – a concern rooted in the unfortunate reality that their risk of another stroke is substantially higher. For Handrich, every migraine left her paranoid – worrying that she was having another stroke. Unfortunately, scheduling an imaging scan to rule out a stroke every time she experienced a migraine attack just wasn't financially feasible.
In 2023, Handrich decided it was time to get a service dog trained for stroke alerts. That's when she met Carmen, a cavapoo dog. Handrich's friend Tom Coleman, owner of Pawsitivity Service Dogs in St. Paul, helped her train Carmen. Within six months, Carmen was doing migraine alerts – something Handrich didn't even know was possible.
Carmen alerts Handrich of an oncoming migraine by sensing subtle shifts in behavior or chemical changes in her body chemistry. When Carmen senses Handrich is in the prodrome phase (the period up to 48 hours before full migraine symptoms hit), she licks Handrich's forehead and eyes to warn her. The alert allows Handrich to take her medication early to minimize symptoms.
'Just the calmness of mind that [a stroke] isn't happening again has been absolutely wonderful,' she said.
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Carmen helps her when she's experiencing emotional flooding. Since the stroke, Handrich struggles to communicate effectively during stressful situations. Carmen jumps on her chest and helps her calm down until Handrich is able to communicate again.
Handrich often jokes that Carmen 'tells me to take my medicine and how to not get arrested.'
Dogs are welcome in casinos, so Carmen also helps at the poker table. Before Carmen, Handrich felt like she was masking her disabilities. But with Carmen, she's comfortable asking for help because everyone sees she's with a service dog.
'I think it improved things because it gives people a heads up that I'm going to have trouble with things, and they're more understanding,' she said. 'Before, I didn't play very much because I was trying to mask all my disabilities. I was too embarrassed to tell people I was disabled.'
Not only does Carmen make Handrich more comfortable asking for help, but she's also a much-needed source of comfort following a long, traumatizing court battle against the chiropractic clinic for medical malpractice. She ultimately lost the case, which left her devastated and feeling more isolated than ever.
Again, it was poker that helped her heal.
Around the tables, Handrich heard some women talking about a free tournament. It can be tough to play in a lot of tournaments because they aren't usually free. When Handrich showed up, she was shocked to see cameras everywhere. She didn't realize she was playing for a spot as the 'Loose Cannon' on season two of PokerStars' smash hit series 'Big Game on Tour.'
To get the chance to audition, she had to play in a tournament and win $50,000 in chips. Luckily, the fast-paced tournament style was her specialty. She was the third person to win an audition spot. Handrich's lawyer brain kicked back in, and she began to study. She watched audition videos from season one, listened to the podcast put on by the judges, talked to former reality television stars and workshopped her audition strategies with her husband.
She sailed through to the third and final interview.
'I screwed it up so badly,' she says. She couldn't organize her thoughts and was certain that, once again, her disability had gotten in the way. She asked if she could see the judges again, but this time with a piece of paper so she could write down and track the information. After thirty minutes, she was told the judges didn't think her having a second chance would matter.
It turns out, the judges were already set on Handrich being part of the show after her impressive second interview. She had just 12 hours to prepare to play poker against a star studded line-up of celebrities and professional poker players, including Jennifer Tilly, Gerard Pique, Andre Akkari, Sam Grafton and Griffin Benger.
Handrich had a blast cracking jokes and getting to know everyone.
'It was just constant laughing. Everybody's so great,' she said.
Each episode showcases high-stakes no limit hold'em cash game action. As the amateur player, or 'Loose Cannon,' Handrich was staked at $50,000 and could keep any profit she made at the table.
For Handrich, it wasn't just about the chance to earn thousands of dollars. It was about getting her identity back. Not only was the stroke physically and emotionally traumatic, but the trial left Handrich so emotionally devastated that she didn't leave the house. It's one of the reasons why she got Carmen. She took the loss personally and decided she was unlikable.
That's why she was so surprised about how she was treated on the show.
'This whole experience really did change my life because each time I made it through to a new round, I was like, what is happening? This is insane. They just like the dog,' she said.
Carmen may be cute, but it wasn't about her. Sam Grafton and Jennifer Tilly, in particular, went out of their way to make Handrich feel welcome, comfortable and happy.
'They radiate as people,' she said. 'I was so appreciative.'
Episodes began airing on May 24. The episodes air weekly on PokerStars' YouTube channel through late June. The episodes will also be shown on Fox Sports 1 two weeks after their YouTube premiere.
Now Handrich wants to be an advocate for service dogs, especially because they can be so misunderstood. Handrich has had to fight to keep Carmen with her in certain public places. Before Carmen, she was scared to leave the house. With Carmen, she feels safe and comfortable.
'It's changed my life so much, so I want to give back,' she said.
Handrich is also an advocate for stroke awareness.
'People need to know that there's a risk of stroke with chiropractors. Because if they know, then if something happens to them, they can get helped right away,' she said. 'If I had gone in right away instead of waiting, I might be able to read now. I might have a legal career.'
Handrich is more determined than ever to continuously improve her poker game. During the show audition, everyone became very close. She met a participant who owns a training site that utilizes artificial intelligence to improve your poker game.
Handrich took the training and won $19,000 the first week the show aired.
'To win on the week the show comes out was such an emotional high for me,' she said. 'It's crazy to have such horrible things happen to you and then really exciting things.'
This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: St. Cloud lawyer is loose cannon in PokerStars Big Game on Tour
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