As it’s the International Women’s day – a celebration of the economic, political and social achievements of women – we decided to give some information about the rising force in the world of poker – Female Poker players!
For those who don’t know it, International Women’s Dayis celebrated in honour of the work done by the Suffragettes, and celebrates women’s success, whilst reminding us of inequities still to be redressed. Women’s day was first celebrated in 1911 and this year’s celebration is the global centenary year.
In the last few years, more and more women have started to participate in poker events all over the world. And it’s not just small buy-in events – Players like Vannessa Rousso have entered prestigious events such as the $25,000 EPT high roller championship placing first at the tournament, putting many of the ‘Macho’ players who consider poker as male territory to shame. This shift may still come as a surprise to many male players who feel that women are slightly softer at poker, maybe because traditionally, Poker has been perceived as a man’s game.
Not that women have anything that sets them at a disadvantage at the felt, far from it, some may argue quite the opposite; yet the fact remains that women are outnumbered in the world of poker, although the scales are getting more balanced year upon year.
For today’s update, we prepared a list of the best female money winners in Poker to help fuel the trend of increasing female activity at the felt, and possibly encourage some more ladies from the local community to give our favourite card game a try at the local land based casinos.
So, without further ado, here are the top female money winners in Poker so far.
In first place we’ve got Kathy Liebert. Kathy, a professional female poker player is originally from Nashville, Tenessee, and currently resides in Las Vegas, Nevada. Kathy has won numerous tournaments around the world since 1994. Her most successful year was in 2002, when she cashed out $1,156,398 at the first Party Poker Million event. This was not Kathy’s only big time win though, in her poker history, she’s racked up over $5.7 million in tournament winnings alone. Some of her more sizable wins include her 2nd place at the WPT 2009 $9,500 event where she won $550,000. She also claimed a chunky $306,000 at the 2008 WSOP where she finished 3rd in the $10,000 Pot limit Hold’em event. With the wins mentioned plus over 180 more money finishes and a WSOP bracelet, Kathy is at the top of the all time winners money list.
In 2nd place, there’s Annie Duke with over $4.2 million in tournament winnings. Duke a.k.a. “The Duchess of Poker”, was born in New Hampshire in 1965, and is sister to world famous poker player Howard Lederer. She achieved her biggest money finish in 2004 with her $2 million win at the World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions. She also proved her heads up skills in March 2010 when she took home the sum of $500,000 for winning first place in a male dominated field at the NBC National Heads-Up Championship 2010. Some of the players she defeated included – Andy Bloch, Paul Wasicka, and Erik Seidel.
Duke has made over 38 cashes at the WSOP so far and 4 at World Poker tour events. “The Duchess”, who is also a mother of four, is considered one of the worlds top Poker Players. In September 2005 she launched her autobiography “Annie Duke: How I raised, folded, bluffed, flirted, cursed and won millions at the World Series of Poker”
Third place is occupied by Vanessa Selbst who has taken her winnings to over $3.6 million so far. The New York born player was under the radar in the early part of her poker career, yet she started to make a name for herself in 2007 when she achieved two money finishes at that year’s WSOP tournament. Since then, Selbst has reached many milestones in her career like winning the NAPT in 2010. In the same year she also became part of Team Pokerstars where she currently plays online poker. Sebst has had 7 cashes at the WSOP so far and got very good money finishes in 2006, 2007 and 2008; the latter being the year when she won her WSOP bracelet at the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha event, winning $227,933. Her biggest win to date is undoubtedly the 2010 Partouche Poker Tour, where she won €1.3 million ($ 1.65 million) at the €7,750 event for placing first.
In fourth place we find Annette Obrestad a.k.a Annette_15, who became world famous after winning the 2007 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event taking home £1,000,000. Annette had already made a name for herself before then with numerous online money finishes, and from her seemingly magical skill where she’d cover her hole cards during the game and play against her opponents based on their behaviour, without ever peeking at her cards.
Annette, continued on her winning spree with further wins like the EPT Dublin main event, where she took 2nd place, and 13th at the EPT Monte Carlo Grand Final. In the few years that she’s been playing, Annette has accumulated over $3 million in tournament poker winnings, putting her in the top five of our biggest female poker player money list. Annette is currently signed up at Full Tilt Poker, as one of their online Poker Pros.
In 5th Place Vannessa Rousso closely follows Annette Obrestad with $2.9 million in tournament winnings. Rousso, a.k.a “Lady Maverick” born in 1983 and married to Chad Brown is from New York and a member of Team Pokerstars. She’s been a pro player since 2005 and has already made 13 money finishes in the WSOP. One of her biggest wins to date came in 2007 where she earned $700,000 during the World Championship of Online Poker NL Hold’em Main Event placing second from almost 3,000 players in the field.
She made her biggest win to date in May 2009, where she won the €25,000 EPT High Roller Championship. The event featured 79 entrants and had a first prize of €720,000, however a deal was made at the table which resulted in a €570,000 win ($750,000)
Rousso maintained her result consistency in December 2010 at the No Limit Hold’em WPT $10,000 event. She placed third at the event out of 438 players where she won $358,964 for her placing.
So, we’ve ifnally come to the end of out top Female Poker winners money list. We hope you enjoyed the post, and that it may be a source of inspiration to the female Poker players in Malta!