She challenges reduced range in card game (8)

I believe the answer is:

provoker

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'she' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are singular nouns.
Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?

'challenges reduced range in card game' is the wordplay.
'challenges' becomes 'provokes' (provoking is a kind of challenging).
'reduced' means to remove the last letter.
'range in card game' becomes 'r' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'provokes' with its final letter taken off is 'provoke'.
'provoke'+'r'='PROVOKER'

Can you help me to learn more?

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.

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