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Top Femme
Poker Players
Annie Duke - The Duchess of Poker
Born in 1965 in Concord, New Hampshire, Annie Duke began playing poker at
her early twenties after learning the game from her brother, poker champ, Howard
("The Professor") Lederer. After several years
of mastering her game, and just before finishing her PhD
in Psycholinguistics,
she decided to give up a promising
academic career to become a professional poker player.
Today, Duke is considered
by many as the world's best female poker player, proving
one hand at a time, for those who still need such a proof, that women can
be superb poker players. Annie, the top female money winner
in poker, is the divorced mother of four children. She
is remembered for finishing in 10th place (one position short of the final table)
at the 2000 WSOP when she was eight months pregnant
with her third child. Duke has her priorities. “If it is a school play or a
poker tournament,” she once said, ”the school play
always wins." 
In 2004, Duke received huge publicity as the private poker tutor of actor
Ben
Affleck, who later won the
California State Poker Championship. In 2005, Annie Duke has won one
WSOP bracelet and more than $3 million in tournament play.
Ironically, she eliminated her brother and ex poker
teacher from 4(!) separate 2005 WSOP events. Playing
barefoot, sitting with one leg folded under her, Duke is
known as one of the toughest players in today's poker.
Annie Duke, AKA Annie Legend or The Duchess of
Poker, refuses to play in women's only tournaments,
claiming that "Poker is one of the only sports where a woman can compete on a totally equal footing with a man, so I don't understand why
there is a ladies only tournament."
Annie
Duke recently formed her own production company and
sold a poker-related game show to the GSN cable network.
Duke's production company, Ten Dimes Productions, is
developing a horror flick - the poker player's own
brainchild. Duke
is also promoting a line of ESPN poker products and the
no-calorie beverage, Coca-Cola Zero. Her
autobiography/poker guide "Annie
Duke: How I Raised, Folded, Bluffed, Flirted, Cursed,
and Won Millions at the World Series of Poker"
was published in September.
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Barbara Enright - The First Lady of Poker
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Barbara Enright is a true female
poker pioneer with a triumphant career goes back to the mid 70's. She started playing
home poker at the age of four, and
entered, in her youth, the poker scene of LA where she was born and raised.
In 86', Enright won her first
World Series of Poker tournament - the $500 Women's 7-Card Stud event, and
left the final table $16,000 richer.
The mother of 11(!!!)
children, Barbara Enright reached higher than any other woman in the
WSOP Main Event by making it to the 1995 final
table and finishing 5th. She also won the
96' WSOP pot-limit Hold'em tourney.
She often plays online under the
screen name "ItsOnlyMe". Her
favorite poker variants are No-Limit and Pot Limit Hold'em
Author and poker player Mike Sexton said
once: "Barbara Enright
is the most dominating, relentless, aggressive woman on the tournament circuit,"
Enright
is the chief editor of Woman Poker Player magazine, which debuted
early this year.
Barbara Enright
believes that when it comes
to poker, we have the higher hand: "Women may have a basic advantage over their male counterparts. Psychologists tell us that women possess a sixth sense, and this...
can be a valuable asset at the poker table."
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 Woman Poker Player
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Jennifer Harman - Brave
Victory
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The proud holder of 2 World Series of
Poker bracelets, Jennifer Harman is one of the
world's most
successful female poker players. Poker
legend Daniel
Negreanu once said: "Harman is without a double the
best female poker player on the
planet, but that's not a fair title at
all. She is also one of the best all
around players in the world -
period!" Daniel may be slightly biased (Jennifer is his best
friend), but, still, Harman is,
undoubtedly, a poker
queen.
Jennifer Harman
was born, raised, and still
lives in Reno, NV. Her dad taught her to
play poker when she was only 8.
Shortly
after, he would call her in to play
his hands when he was losing
at his home games. She’d always win
his money back. Harman became a professional
poker player when
she was 21.
Harman
once won $1.7 million in a single
pot - at the time, the highest sum ever won in a single hand of
non-tourney poker.
She sees her gender as an
advantage: "It probably helps me to be a
woman. In general, most men don't
think women can play. So, what often
happens is that they try to run over
me. They bluff their money off to me.
I guess they see me as a meek little
girl and think that I'm easily
bluffed. I'm not.”
During the 2004 WSOP, Jennifer
underwent kidney transplant surgery.
Today, a year after her niece saved
her life, she is doing quite well. One of her goals is to make
people more aware of the option of being an
organ donor. She plans to hold the Jennifer Harman
Challenge - a poker charity event
to raise donor
awareness.
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Kathy Liebert
- Million Dollar Savvy Kathy
Liebert was born in Tennessee
and grew up in Long Island. Now she divides her time between
Vegas and Southern California. She began playing poker tournaments in
94', and did great right from the start.
Liebert
graduated with a degree in business and
finance, and worked as a business analyst for
D &B. She invests her poker money in the stock
exchange market. Liebert won the
2002
inaugural Party Poker Million. She was the first woman to win $1 million at
a tourney. Two years later, she earned her 1st
WSOP bracelet after winning the 2004 Limit
Hold'em Shootout. Kathy
Liebert
is an exceptional poker player, ranked in the top 20
tournament players three times (4th, 13th, 17th). Known
for her calculated yet aggressive play, she
usually skips the women’s events in favor of the
higher prizes offered in the general events.
In
an interview with Fox Sports, Liebert
said: "There's no question the
top women players can hold their own anywhere.
They are very competitive with the top male
players. The fact is, the top women players
are among the top players period."
Kathy
Liebert is the poker coach of
actor
James Woods
who plays regularly at Hollywood
Poker, an Internet venture he has a stake
in.
KathyLiebert.net
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Jennifer Tilly - Double
Celeb
Jennifer Tilly
is not only a fine actress, but also a
successful poker player. By winning
the Ladies-Only No
Limit Texas Hold 'Em event at the 2005
WSOP, and then the Ladies Night
Invitational of the World Poker Tour,
she became the first woman to
win both titles.
After beating out
600 female players and winning the World Poker Tour Ladies
Night she said: "I felt like I was suffering from
the 'imposter syndrome, I had these
niggling self-doubts. But now I know I
can really play. These women were
extremely tough pros with blood lust
at the poker table. My goal has always
been to win a World Poker Tour event
and now I've done it!"
Jennifer Tilly's
boyfriend is pro poker
player Phil
Laak. She often beats him.
Jennifer Tilly
was nominated for an Academy Award for her role in Woody Allen's
Bullets Over Broadway (1994).
She is the voice behind several animated characters, including Celia in
Monsters, Inc.
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Cyndy Violette
- Veggie in Vegas
Cyndy Violette was born in Queens. Her family
moved to Vegas when she was 12. As a child,
she loved to play cards on the kitchen table with her
uncle. The first time she tested out her
poker skills in a casino was when she was pregnant with her
first daughter.
In 1984 she became a professional poker player.
She won the 7 card stud Golden Nugget tournament
and pocketed $74K, the highest
sum ever won by a woman at the
time.
Falling for her second
husband, has caused Cyndy
to take a 2-year break from
poker.
On a 1990 trip to Vegas, Violette couldn’t resist
the temptation of participating
in a poker tournament. She won it,
collecting the $62,000 prize.
This joyful event convinced her
to return to poker. Big
time.
After her 1993 divorce, Cyndy Violette
bought a house in the Atlantic City area and
made it a haven for her
countless books, transformational tapes and
vegetarian cooking.
Cyndy Violette
finally fulfilled her lifelong
dream by winning the 7-Card Stud
High-Low Tournament at the 2005 World Series of Poker.
CyndyViolette.com
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