The best female poker players
One of the most popular games to play is poker. It’s considered one of the more difficult games to play at a casino as there is a bit more skill involved.
You have to be able to read the cards as well as read other players to see if they’re bluffing or not. This can be especially tricky when you play poker online as you can’t see the faces of the people you’re up against.
Poker has often been looked at as primarily for men but we’re going to be looking into the women’s side of the game.
Women only poker tournaments
The World Series of Poker is the most prestigious poker tournament in the world. There are lots of different tournaments that are held across the globe every year. However, they used to be just for men.
All of that changed in 1977 when the first women’s only poker tournament took place. Soon there were enough female poker players to keep this event going annually.
The first women’s tournament took place in Las Vegas with a $100 buy in. Due to the low buy in rate, the winnings were the lowest ever recorded at the World Series of Poker.
However, Jackie Collins still took away her prize with pride and since that year, the women’s tournament has grown exponentially.
These poker tournaments have been such a hit with female poker players that a “WSOP Academy Ladies Only Poker Camp” was set up. This has been running since 2007 and is a great way to get more women involved in the world of poker.
Three of the top female poker players of all time
With this in mind, let’s take a look at three of the best female poker players in the world.
1) Vanessa Selbst
The best female poker player to date is none other than Vanessa Selbst. She was the first woman to win $10 million when playing live tournaments and has racked up a total of $20 million in winnings thus far. Vanessa also won the PCA high roller back in January 2013 for $1.4 million, making her the highest-earning woman in poker history
Vanessa is the only woman to ever reach the number one ranking in the world on the Global Poker Index. She is the only woman to have accumulated three World Series of Poker bracelets – a huge achievement for someone who is only 39 years old.
Her achievements in poker are staggering for anyone to achieve, but all the more impressive being the first woman to manage a lot of her titles.
She officially retired back in 2018, but that hasn’t stopped her getting involved in the odd game here and there.
2) Kathy Liebert
Kathy Liebert is another very successful female poker player. She started out in the industry as a prop but quickly made her way up the leagues and onto the proper tables.
Kathy has a number of tournaments under her belt including winning the first Party Poker Million event back in 2002. This was the first limit poker tournament with a $1 million prize which she managed to get.
Since that time, Kathy has made it to the final table of six major World Poker Tour events. She won first prize for one World Series of Poker event and Kathy also went on to make a record at the 2009 Shooting Stars tournament. She ended up placing second to Steve Brecher in the longest final table in World Poker Tour history.
As of 2022, her total live tournament winnings exceed $6,650,000 – an amazing feat for any gender!
3) Annie Duke
Annie Duke is one of the most prestigious poker players of all time – although she has sadly now retired from the game. She started out playing the game just for fun, aged 22 but soon found a love for the game.
Her brother encouraged her to play professionally and even sent her some money in order to kick start her career. Within the first month of playing poker at a professional level, Annie won $70,000.
This incredible amount of winnings meant that there was only one path for her career to take. She took the poker world by storm and kept placing higher and higher in the tournaments she was competing in.
In the World Series Of Poker World Championship event back in 2000, she placed 10th out of a total of 512 players, which at the time, was the second-highest finish by a woman in the event’s history. And she did all of this whilst being nine months pregnant with her third child.
Despite her prosperous career, Annie has not played poker professionally since 2012 and has therefore retired.
There are so many more incredible female poker players but we just couldn’t fit them all in! But all of their successes have left the door open for more female poker players in the future.
