Hello, dear ladies! Since our website was specifically created to discuss women and gambling, it’s only appropriate to dedicate an article to the leading ladies in the world of gambling. Our focus today is the female poker stars.
We will tell you about the most notorious female poker players and how much money they have made over the years. We hope this article shows you that poker is not (at least anymore) a man’s world, but it’s open to everyone and these ladies and their accomplishments exemplify just that. So, sit back and enjoy reading!
The Poker Stars
Before we get into details, we think it’s important to tell you how we chose poker players that we included in this article. One of the criteria was winnings, meaning that we looked at the most affluent female players.
The other criteria had to do with breaking the glass ceiling or ones of the first professional female poker players who gave us the courage to follow in their footsteps. Sometimes, the two categories overlap, so we will not divide the players by them.
Barbara Enright
The California-born Barbara Enright is a pioneer for all women who enter the poker industry. She started playing poker as a small child and then began frequenting poker rooms in 1976. Enright eventually gave up her regular job for a full-time career in poker, which certainly paid off.
She is the first woman to win an event at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) and the only woman to have ever reached a main event final table where she finished fifth. Enright also became the first woman to win three bracelets at WSOP, but she’s not the only one to hold this record today. Finally, she was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame as the first female player in 2007. Enright has lifetime winnings of $1.6 million.
Liv Boeree
Liv Boeree, also called the Iron Maiden, is a British player who made her name with the Ultimatepoker Showdown in 2005, during which she both presented and played. Perhaps her experience as a poker reporter helped her succeed. Boeree is the only woman to have won a WSOP bracelet and a European Poker Tour (EPT) title.
She has also won the European Poker Awards’ Female Player of the Year for three consecutive years (2014, 2015, 2016). Her biggest success came in San Remo during the EPT where she won €1.25 million. Boeree has lifetime winnings of $3.57 million.
Jennifer Harman
The American poker star Jennifer Harman is somewhat of an outlier on this list. That’s because when she first won a bracelet at an open event, was the first time she played poker! Harman won another bracelet two years later and she was eventually inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame. Her lifetime winnings are $2.7 million and they mainly come from high stakes poker games.
Annette Obrestad
Annette Obrestad, the Norwegian poker star, caught our eye when she became the youngest person to win a WSOP bracelet in 2007 at the age of 18. She managed to bag $2 million from this event, which turned her into a star overnight. However, nowadays she’s more concentrated on her beauty and fitness YouTube channel. Obrestad’s lifetime winnings are $3.9 million.
Kathy Liebert
American-born Kathy Liebert, also referred to as PokerKat, continues to be one of the most successful and prolific female poker players. She has been a constant present in the industry for the past two decades. During this time, she reached six final tables at the World Poker Tour (WPT). She also became the first woman to win a prize over $1 million at PartyPoker Million.
Liebert won her WSOP bracelet in 2004 whereas her highest WSOP Main Event finish was in 2000 when she was at the seventeenth place. Liebert continues playing and she lives in Las Vegas, Nevada where she plays poker very often. Her lifetime winnings equate to the staggering $6.17 million.
Vanessa Selbst
Now hands off to the queen – Vanessa Selbst. The Brooklyn-born player is perhaps the best female poker star to this day. Selbst started playing the game while she was studying political science at Yale University and almost immediately started participating in tournaments.
She went on to win the North American Poker Tour in 2010, which made her a global star. Selbst has 3 golden bracelets to her name, 8 final tables and 20 money finishes. Her biggest win came at the Partouche Poker Tour where she made $1.82 million. Selbst is the richest female poker player in history with winnings of $11.8 million. She is also the first (and so far the only) woman to have reached the number one ranking on the Global Poker Index.