Men have long dominated poker. However, things are changing, and many women are bringing their abilities to the table – and, in many cases, outperforming their male colleagues. While no woman has yet to win the World Series of Poker Main Event, many analysts believe it is only a matter of time.
Ten of the best female poker players are featured on this page. Others are major winners on the international tournament circuit, while others dominate cash games. I’m sure there are many more women who could be added to this list – and that even more are now navigating the stakes.
List of the Best Female Professional Poker Players
- Liv Boeree
- Annie Duke
- Kathy Leibert
- Annette Obrestadt
- Maria Ho
- Victoria Coren
- Jennifer Harman
- Vanessa Rousso
- Joanne ‘JJ’ Liu
- Vanessa Selbst
Top Women in Poker: Honorable Mentions
Although this is a top ten list, there are considerably more than ten women who are now making money playing poker and building great careers on the felt. Here are five ladies who earned honorable mention for their poker prowess (and financial worth):
Joanne ‘JJ’ Liu
- Net Worth: $1.5 million
Maria Constanza Lampropulos
- Net Worth: $6.5 million+
Kristen Bickknell
- Net Worth: $5 million
Samdra Naujoks
- Net Worth: $2 mllion+
1. Liv Boree Net Worth: $4 Million USD
Liv Boree Net Worth: $4 Million USD
It would be an understatement to suggest Liv Boeree’s tournament record is excellent. She is the only woman to have won major tournaments on both the World Poker Tour and the European Poker Tour. Liv owns a WSOP bracelet as well. The 2017 10k Tag-Team event was won by this team (along with Russian Pro Igor Kurganov). At the time of writing, Liv had more than $3.5 million in poker tournament profits.
This PokerStars pro is from the United Kingdom. Her abilities extend well beyond poker. Boeree has a long list of TV appearances under her credit, having graduated with a degree in Astrophysics. Hosting big poker tournaments across the world, as well as non-gambling TV shows has been among them. ‘The Mind Control Freaks’ on the Discovery Channel was one of them, as was an appearance on the BBC breakfast show.
Liv Boeree launched a charity in addition to her journalism and poker activities. ‘Raising for Effective Giving’ is the term for this. This nonprofit provides effective altruism advice to poker superstars. It has given $6 million to several organizations thus far.
2. Top Female Poker Player: Annie Duke
Annie Duke Net Worth: $9 Million USD
Annie Duke dubbed the “Duchess of Poker,” is an author, businesswoman, and high-stakes poker player. While Duke’s tournament record is impressive, she is most renowned for her cash game prowess, which she has demonstrated at the highest levels. A WSOP bracelet, the 2004 WSOP Tournament of Champions, and the 2010 National Heads-Up Poker Championship are among his tournament victories. Duke was the leading female money winner at the World Series for many years. Vanessa Selbst recently shattered that record.
Annie Duke, like many other poker professionals, has produced strategy and instructional books. ‘The Middle Zone’ and ‘Decide to Play Great Poker’ are two of them. She’s also the founder of the ‘Ante Up for Africa’ foundation, which raises funds for organizations that help needy African countries. Annie also co-created the Global Poker Index and co-founded the ‘Epic Poker League.’
Her brother, Howard Lederer, the controversial creator of Full Tilt Poker, hails from a poker-playing family.
3. Top Female Poker Players #3: Kathy Liebert
Kathy Liebert Net Worth: $6.89 Million USD
Kathy Liebert has a lesser profile these days than many of the best female poker players. This should not detract from her great performance in high-stakes poker events. In live poker tournaments, Liebert has won more than $6 million. Her resume included a deep run in the World Series Main Event, when she finished 17th after busting within sight of the final table.
Kathy, who was born in Tennessee, holds a WSOP bracelet from the Limit Hold’em Shootout tournament in 2004. This is backed up by an incredible six World Poker Tour final tables. She was the Party Millions winner in 2002. This event alone increased her live tournament winnings by a million dollars.
4. Top Female Poker Players: Annette Obrestadt
Annette Obrestadt Net Worth: $3.9 Million USD
Annette Obrestadt was known by the online poker handle ‘Annette 15’ to millions of people. This poker pro is the only one from Norway on this list. She rose to prominence in 2007 after winning the World Series of Poker Europe, being the youngest player to do it at the time.
Annette Obrestadt was most renowned for her online poker successes, although winning numerous other significant tournaments. This includes the incredible achievement of winning a 180-player Sit N Go tournament without ever seeing at her own hole cards unless she was facing an all-in bet.
For this player, things were not always easy. She joined Lock Poker in 2012. Many players’ bankrolls were lost when this site shut down. While Annette was not involved in Lock Poker’s illicit practices, she has kept a lower profile since then.
5. Top Female Poker Players: Maria Ho
Maria Ho Net Worth: $4 Million USD
Maria Ho was just inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame, capping off an incredible (and still ongoing) poker career. This Taiwanese/American pro has hosting and broadcasting credits to go along with her impressive tournament victories.
Ho has over $3 million in tournament earnings throughout the course of her career. Her achievements include 54 World Series of Poker cashes. In 2007, Maria was the last woman standing in the Main Event, finishing 38th. She’s also reached five World Poker Tour final tables, as well as other triumphs in smaller tournaments throughout the world.
Maria became the first female’strategic commentator,’ despite the fact that numerous female broadcasters moderate televised tournament events (for season 9 of the Heartland Poker Tour). She also worked for NBC Sports, where she was a color analyst for the Super High Roller Bowl.
This female poker expert is more than just a card shark. Maria Ho has also competed in professional Majong games and appeared on reality television series such as The Amazing Race and American Idol.
6. Top Female Poker Players: Victoria Coren Mitchell
Victoria Coren Mitchell Net Worth: $10 Million USD
Liv Boeree and the second British female poker pro on this page have some similarities. Both have worked for PokerStars, an online poker site. After PokerStars created a casino in 2014, Coren quit. She has been a writer in numerous periodicals from the age of 14 and is a regular live poker player at casinos in London.
In 2006, Coren became the first woman to win a European Poker Tour event, winning the televised EPT London. This was the first of many notable tournament victories. Her best result came in the 2014 EPT San Remo, when she finished first for nearly half a million Euros. Victoria Coren has over 2.5 million dollars in lifetime tournament earnings. In 2016, she was inducted into the Female Poker Hall of Fame for her efforts.
Victoria Coren, like many of the other top female poker players profiled here, has a long list of accomplishments outside of the game. She writes for the UK Observer newspaper on a daily basis, has performed at the Edinburgh Festival, and has been on various television shows. Many of Europe’s largest televised competitions have been held there.
7. Top Female Poker Players: Jennifer Harman
Jennifer Harman Net Worth: $15 Million USD
Jennifer Harman is a regular in Las Vegas’s highest stakes cash games, and she also excels in poker tournaments. Her first gold bracelet at the WSOP occurred in a format she had never played before. In the year 2000, the 2-7 Lowball tournament was held. Before the competition, Harman had a 5-minute training session from Howard Lederer, and went on to defeat seasoned players. In 2002, he won a second WSOP bracelet in the $5k Limit Texas Hold’em tournament.
Jennifer Harman has writing credits, as do many of the female poker pros included on this page. These include a famous chapter in Doyle Brunson’s Super System book’s 2nd edition. In 2015, she was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame.
Regular appearances on High Stakes Poker and Poker After Dark were among his many television appearances. She was a long-time part of Full Tilt Poker’s pro team.
8. Top Female Poker Players: Vanessa Rousso
Vanessa Rousso Net Worth: $6.5 Million USD
Vanessa Rousso is the third female pro on our list to have a PokerStars affiliation. Between 2007 and 2015, she was a part of their professional team. Rousso is a powerful player in both cash games and tournaments, sporting a unique appearance that includes a cap, headphones, and expensive sunglasses. While she has yet to earn a WSOP bracelet, she has won more than $3.5 million in tournaments.
In 2007, he finished second in the World Championship of Online Poker main event. That one touchdown was worth over $700,000.
Poker After Dark was one of his TV appearances. In 2015, she competed in Big Brother and came in third place. Rousso has also written for American Poker Player and is an advocate for internet hosting company GoDaddy.
9. Top Female Poker Players: Joanne ‘JJ’ Liu
JJ Liu Net Worth: $3.4 Million USD
Joanne Liu, often known as ‘JJ,’ is noted for her quirky headgear as well as her poker success. This pro was born and raised in Taiwan and now lives in Palo Alto, California. JJ, a computer scientist with experience in Chinese gambling games, swept the poker industry in the early 2000s. After finishing second in the World Poker Tour Bay 101 event in 2004, she became the highest-placed finisher in WPT history. She would take her accomplishment to the WSOP, where she would reach the final table.
JJ has over $1.7 million in tournament cash and was inducted into the Women’s Poker Hall of Fame. This places her in the top ten female tournament pros – not bad for someone who had never played poker before moving to the United States in her twenties.
10. Top Female Poker Players: Vanessa Selbst
Vanessa Selbst Net Worth: $12 Million USD
Vanessa Selbst was in the news in 2018 for all the wrong reasons. She won the World Series of Poker Main Event with a bluff that many pros thought was insane. This should not detract from her stellar track record at the top of the game. Selbst would have been hailed as a genius if the bluff had paid off!
Selbst is the only woman to have ever held the top spot on the Global Poker Index. Her total tournament wins are an incredible $11.8 million (and counting). She is the fourth woman on our list to work for PokerStars as a member of their team or as a pro.
The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure provided her with her single largest win. She took home $1.4 million in the high-roller tournament. Three WSOP bracelets, as well as back-to-back wins on the North American Poker Tour, are among his other achievements.
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