Forthcoming
Raising the Stakes
A working memoir of high-stakes negotiations from the board room to the card room — the lessons of an ambitious woman who learned to read the table whether the chips were plastic or political.
The Journalist
Writer for legal and business affairs, gaming and poker publications — cover stories, in-depth investigations, and the special features that read like a held card finally turned over.
For more than three decades Wendeen has filed bylines that move between the marble of Manhattan boardrooms and the felt of the World Series of Poker. Her copy connects what most reporters treat as separate worlds — corporate strategy, political maneuvering, and the negotiating instincts that win pots and proxy fights alike.
Current Project
A book is on the way.
Wendeen's current writing project gathers new lessons learned in high-stakes negotiation — from the board room to the card room — alongside a partial index of her encounters with high profile achievers who have found their way into her notebooks.
A working title circles the manuscript: Raising the Stakes in Business, Politics and Cardrooms and Beyond. A memoir of an ambitious woman's unusual path, told with the pace of a column and the patience of a long hand.
The Library
Books & Collected Writings
Collected Columns
Power Poker Dame
A curated edition of Wendeen's poker writing — bylines from Poker Player Newspaper, Bluff, and the broader gaming press, chronicling the players, the rooms, and the regulators who shaped the modern game.
Field Manual
People Reading Secrets
The 12-Point People Reading System — a prescriptive manual distilled from decades of deal-making, jury work, and tournament play. Read the room before you raise it.
From the Notebooks
A partial index of encounters.
The vignettes that have found their way into Wendeen's columns and the chapters still in draft. Names that recur because the rooms recur — and because, sooner or later, every interesting person turns up at the same table.
- ♠Barack Obama — a chance meeting at a synagogue.
- ♠Nikki Haley — on her tour at the United Nations.
- ♠Helen Mirren — an unforgettable evening.
- ♠Prince Albert II — a private welcome in Monte Carlo.
- ♠Rudy Giuliani — counsel sought from the back of the “ice cream truck.”
- ♠George Pataki — recruited into a campaign in full sprint.
- ♠Wayne Newton — sweating a libel case at Casa de Shenandoah.
- ♠Donald Trump — at dinner, and again at Mar-a-Lago.
- ♠Lyle Berman — World Poker Tour CEO, bailing Wendeen out of a tight spot.
- ♠Dick Parsons — the former AOL/Time Warner chief, warning of sharks.
- ♠Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno — keeping watch at her mother's front door.
- ♠James Woods — pressing for a biographer's sources.
- ♠Telly Savalas — crippled at the World Series of Poker.
- ♠Tobey Maguire — grabbing a hundred and coming back for more.
- ♠Doyle Brunson — a private lesson in No-Limit Hold'em.
Inquiries
Editors, producers, & biographers.
For commissioning, reprint rights, or interview requests relating to Wendeen's writing — current projects, archived columns, or forthcoming work — please be in touch.