Here at Grosvenor Casino, we’re eager to see more women at the felt. This is why every year we host the Women’s Poker Championships as part of our Goliath tournament. The largest tournament in Europe, Goliath is where players of all abilities come to compete for a £100,000 guaranteed first prize.
Need some inspiration before heading to the Ricoh Arena? We’ve rounded up 10 of the most successful female poker pros. This is how it’s done, ladies!
Vanessa Selbst
With winnings just shy of $12 million, Vanessa Selbst is the most successful woman to have sat down at a poker table – ever.
Having first studied at MIT and then Yale, Selbst traded a career in law for poker.. and for good reason. She has since earned herself three WSOP bracelets and became the very first woman to reach #1 status on the Global Poker Index.
Kathy Liebert
Liebert first started playing poker at the tender age of 12, at her home in Long Island. However, it was during her 30s that she would go on to make her pipedream possible, trading in her nickels and cents for millions of dollars.
In 2002, she became the first woman to take home $1 million from a limit event. Since then, Liebert has gone on to amass lifetime earnings of more than $6 million – not bad for a player who started out on $5 no-limit poker!
Annie Duke
Characterised by her headphones and steely gaze, Annie Duke currently sits at 250th on the All-Time Money list.
How successful is Duke? Well, to take the World Series of Poker in isolation, she has won a whopping $1.1 million and banked 39 cashes. And, not only was “The Duchess of Poker” once the leading WSOP money winner among women, but she also won the National Heads-up Poker Championship in 2010. Today, however, you’re more likely to find the pro with a pen in her hand rather than a chip, as she has written several instructional books for poker players.
Annette Obrestad
Having developed a love for the game in her teens, Obrestad remarkably claimed her first WSOP bracelet at the tender age of 19 – making her the youngest person ever to win a bracelet at the world’s most prestigious poker festival.
“The Huntress” has since racked up approximately $4 million in live tournament earnings. In fact, Obrestad is so good that she has even claimed to have played entire tournaments without looking at her cards!
Liv Boeree
The most successful female poker pro in the UK, Liv Boeree started her poker career on reality TV show, UltimatePoker.com Showdown. While on the show, she was coached by a trio of top poker pros – one of whom was fellow female poker champ, Annie Duke.
But it wouldn’t be long before Boeree was playing Duke at her own game. By 2017, she earned her first WSOP bracelet and became the only female poker player in history to hold both a WSOP and European Poker Tour title. Today, her winnings total more than $3.6 million.
Vanessa Rousso
Having learned the rules of poker from a young age, Rousso started to take the game seriously during her summer break from law school. Since then she has never looked back, amassing an estimated $3.5 million in just six years.
Though she is yet to snag herself a WSOP bracelet, she has cashed seventeen times. Her most notable finish was in 2007, when she finished 2nd in the World Championship of Online Poker event.
Joanne ‘JJ’ Liu
Having moved from Taiwan to the U.S.A as a youngster, Liu went on to work as a software engineer in Silicon Valley. During this time, her love for computer chips quickly transformed into a love for poker chips, and she became a regular at national poker tournaments.
JJ has since finished at two WSOP final tables, and has earned more than $3 million in winnings. Not only is Liu famous for her amazing abilities at the felt, she also always sports a distinctive hat at each tournament she attends!
Maria Lampropulos
Hailing from Buenos Aires, Lampropulos only started to pursue her passion for poker in 2014. However, even in this short period of time, Lampropulos has earned just shy of $3 million from live tournaments, with wins at the European Poker Tour and five cashes at the WSOP, both in 2016.
One of her largest wins came in January 2018, when she won the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, taking home a juicy $1.1 million.
Maria Ho
Ho began playing poker at college, where she developed a penchant for dominating local limit cash games. By the time she graduated, she had moved onto high stakes cash games and had amassed a humongous bankroll.
With 45 WSOP cashes, four WSOP final tables, 6 WPT cashes and 1 WPT final table, Ho is one of the most successful female poker players in history. Her earnings stand today at more than $2.7 million and, while she continues to play professionally, she also spends her time commentating and hosting poker tournaments.
Jennifer Harman
Born in Reno, Nevada, Harman practically grew up around poker. So it’s no surprise that one day she would be inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame.
A regular feature on the poker scene, Harman had to take time away due to a life-threatening kidney transplant. However, she came back fighting better than most, enjoying a fierce winning streak and taking home two WSOP bracelets in just two years (a feat which only two other female pros have managed).
Now you’ve seen how it’s done, why not hone your own skills with online poker or put your skills to the test in one of our Goliath satellites?
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