When you enter a poker tournament, do you ever look around to see how many women are playing? Do you wonder if there will be a “pro” at your table to cause you stress and grief? The truth is, both are a good probability with women’s success on the rise in the poker industry. Still, women make up less than 5 percent of most playing fields in tournaments.

The most untapped market today in poker is women. The online sites want them and are patiently waiting to scoop up the next winner to add to their promotable stable of professional players. One very possible venue for these ladies on the rise to emerge from is ladies-only poker tours. New women’s poker tours are popping up on an average of two a year, promoting events for women and providing environments for women to learn how to build their game and move into open events.

One of the most successful women poker tours traveling around the United States is the High Heels Poker Tour (HHPT). With founder Lauren Failla at the wheel, she plans to make the tour international and increase women’s interest in poker. “The only tour that existed prior to 2007 when the HHPT began was on the West Coast. With research in hand and realizing that women’s poker was virtually non-existent on the East Coast, I decided to create an outlet where women could make their mark,” she says. “Understanding the market is paramount as I continue through this journey to bring women’s poker to the next level. The High Heels Poker Tour now has events all over the United States and abroad. In looking toward the future, my efforts will continue to focus on this demographic while creating new and exciting opportunities for the HHPT and HHPT Academy for Women.”

Events like HHPT make for a comfortable first experience for women to get their feet wet in a competitive poker environment. Once that comfort zone is achieved, women are encouraged to keep building their games and step into open events like deep stack series and circuit events.

With more and more women rising to the ranks every day, let’s take a look at some of the most successful females of the felt.

Jennifer Tilly: Poker players stroll out of all walks of life, including the ever-growing group in Hollywood. Jennifer Tilly, actress and now girlfriend of poker pro Phil Laak, entered the 2005 WSOP ladies event and won more than $158,000 and a gold bracelet. Tilly confidently proclaimed: “This is better than winning an Oscar!”

Often portraying funny, dimwitted characters on the silver screen, Tilly has more than proven her natural talent as a formidable poker player. In the same year, she also won the WPT Invitational Ladies Night and has accumulated more than $500,000 in tournament winnings. She has used her celebrity and poker skills to raise money for several charities and has recently taken a hiatus from poker due to her busy acting schedule. Watch for Tilly to make a few appearances at the 2010 WSOP. She loves poker so much, it’s hard for her to stay away from the Big Dance.

Leonor Margets-Perez: 2009 was a huge year for women in poker, with all eyes trained on which woman would be the last standing in the World Series of Poker. That honor went to Leonor Margets-Perez from Barcelona, Spain. Margets-Perez was presented with the first ever 888poker.com Last Woman Standing trophy and more than $350,000. She is a new face to poker, having been exposed to tournaments only a few years prior to her 24th place finish. In only three years, she has accumulated winnings of more than $400,000 and made an impressive follow-up showing at the 2010 Aussie Millions where she took third-place money in the $2,000 No-Limit event, proving she’s not just a pretty face. Margets-Perez will certainly be a player to watch in the coming years.

Tiffany Michelle: The 2008 last woman standing in the World Series of Poker has catapulted Tiffany Michelle to super stardom, landing her a gig on CBS’s “The Amazing Race,” a sponsorship deal with Ultimate Bet, and a long list of demanding personal appearances to play, teach and promote poker. Michelle splits her time living and playing in Los Angeles and Las Vegas and traveling the world playing in the highest buy-in tournaments on the circuits. An actress since the young age of 10, she grew up in front of large crowds dancing her way into the hearts of everyone in the audience. She followed her acting career straight into a poker commentator’s position with PokerNews.com, which introduced her to the higher stakes poker world. Today, Michelle has accumulated more than $355,000 in tournament winnings, and with her 17th place finish, out of a field of 6,844, she now holds the record for a woman’s finish over a high field.

Kathy Liebert: Being the top woman poker player in the world must be a heavy burden, and Kathy Liebert has held this position for more than four years! She has been playing poker for 17 years, and in that time has amassed almost $6 million in life earnings, a 2004 WSOP Limit Shootout bracelet, the coveted title as The First Woman to Win a Million Dollars, seven WPT final tables, and 30 cashes in the WSOP. But to her, it’s still all about playing the game. “Being the first woman to reach goals and titles are great, but just winning is the most impressive and rewarding,” she says. Liebert continues to set the bar as high as possible and is always challenging her own game. She continues to read other poker pro’s books and often teaches poker boot camps and leads poker discussions. “In order to keep up with the changes occurring in poker every year, you have to be open to new strategies, plays and the choices to be flexible in your game,” she advises. Liebert lives in Las Vegas and enjoys relaxing in one of the many West Coast spas in her down time.

Annie Duke: The No. 2-ranked Annie Duke, who is fresh off a gigantic win at the 2010 NBC Head Up Tournament, lives the gifted life in poker. The sister of poker pro Howard Lederer, Annie started playing poker more than 17 years ago, and with her brother’s encouragement, has conquered some of the heaviest of hitters in poker. Duke’s longstanding relationship with sponsor UltimateBet.com has enabled her to become an ambassador of poker as well as a mentor and entrepreneur. Her passion to use poker as a tool to raise money for charity led her to partner with actor Don Cheadle for the charity “Ante Up for Africa,” which to date, has raised more than $3 million. Duke is also very generous with her support for various other charities, and rarely turns down requests to appear and help raise money when her time allows. In 2004, Duke landed her biggest win of $2 million in the first-ever WSOP Tournament of Champions. Her poker accomplishments include 38 WSOP cashes, a 2004 WSOP Bracelet in Omaha Hi-Lo Split, and lifetime earnings of more than $4.2 million. Duke spends much of her off-time raising her four children in Los Angeles and working for her production company with longtime boyfriend Joe Reitman.

Olivia Boeree: Three years ago, Olivia Boeree literally rocked the poker world by winning her way onto the poker reality show “UltimatePoker Showdown.” After being coached by poker pro Phil Hellmuth for the show, Boeree’s interest in poker soon grew into a passion. She followed her passion into several host, commentator and reporter positions in the poker industry, all along the way fine-tuning her game. In 2008, she won the LadBrokes European Ladies Championship, and heads began to turn and notice this talented beauty. Boeree continued to play circuit events both in Europe and the United States, taking many cashes along the way. A poker title had eluded her until her most recent win at the 2010 San Remo EPT event, netting her a cool 1,250,000 Euros and a record win over the largest field in a European poker tournament of 1,240 players. Boeree joined the UltimateBet poker team last year and currently is ranked seventh on the Women’s All Time Money List with more than $1,900,000 in total winnings.

Vanessa Selbst: Vanessa Selbst has been making a lot of noise these days on the North American Poker Tour. A major win at the 2010 Mohegan Sun puts Selbst 17th on the Women’s All Time Money List with total earnings more than $1,600,000. She first caught the eye of poker players in 2006 when she came out of nowhere making a final table and cashed in seventh place in the $2,000 NL event, and then cashed again the same year in the WSOP main event. Absent from the tournament circuit the remainder of the year, she would reappear at the 2008 WSOP only to make another impressive run with cashes in four events and making three final tables. One of those final-table appearances earned her a third-place finish in the $5,000 NL Head Up Championship, and the other winning her first gold bracelet in the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha event. She made a huge impression and had everyone wondering who this young twenty-something was. Selbst had been playing poker long before she discovered there was a way to play it for big money. Of course, the explosion of poker on television, and the fact that there were many poker rooms in her surrounding area, had to be an influence on her entering the big arena. The explanation for her disappearances was soon explained, as she had been attending Yale University, completing a degree in political science. She now attends Yale Law School in pursuit of her law degree to enter into a civil rights law practice. Selbst recently announced she would be taking a year off from law school to get a full year of poker under her belt and devote more time to her growing online coaching site, DuecesCracked.com.

Jennifer Harman: Jennifer Harman has long been the sweetheart of poker. Her story is well known among longtime poker players as the only woman to play “The Big Game” at the Bellagio in Bobby’s Room. Harman’s forte obviously is her talent in cash games, but she is an excellent tournament player, too. Her cashes in the WSOP are way too long to list, but you cannot miss her two gold bracelets in No Limit Deuce to Seven Draw and Limit Hold ’em. An all around game player, Harman has proven she can sit with the best and get up a winner. In the book “The Professor, The Banker and The Suicide King,” Harman is chronicled in the legendary high-stakes game against Texas billionaire Andy Beal. As part of the Las Vegas Poker Cartel, she raked one of the largest pots ever in a private game of more than $1.7 million. A prominent face on Full Tilt Poker, Harman is one of the big frontrunners for the online site. She supports the charity most near and dear to her, The National Kidney Foundation. She’s been the recipient of two kidney transplants. Her love of animals drives her to support and raise money several times a year in support of the Las Vegas SPCA. Harman lives in Las Vegas and spends her down time with her husband Marco and her twin boys.

Shannon Elizabeth: Actress Shannon Elizabeth began playing poker when television made the card game popular. With the influx of celebrity appearances on televised poker tournaments and “Celebrity Poker Showdown” (Bravo), Elizabeth soon realized she had a clear understanding of the game as well as natural talent, so she began taking poker more seriously. Her recognizable beauty soon was catching attention of several poker pros who stepped up to help her improve her game, and she started seeing real results. Elizabeth’s current lifetime earnings stand at more than $140,000, with an impressive finish in the 2007 NBC Heads Up in third place. With poker success and a celebrity draw, it was obvious this “American Pie” starlet would get a sponsorship deal in the form of an offer from Full Tilt.

Vanessa Rousso: Vanessa Rousso has been tearing up her recent tournaments with very deep runs. She first showed up on the poker scene in 2005 in the Atlantic City casinos where she began making waves with final tables at the WSOP Circuit Events. Rousso, a true beauty, turned heads and was able to squash her opponents with eyes wide open. Following her appearances in Atlantic City, we wondered where she would turn up next. The 2005 WSOP would be her next stop and first attempt at a bracelet. While she was probably a certain underdog among the pro players, she crushed opponents all the way to the final table of the $5,000 NL Short Handed event and took a respectable eighth place and more than $61,000. Rousso now lists 11 WSOP cashes, six WPT cashes and more than $2,500,000 in lifetime earnings in just over five years, which is most impressive. As Rousso continues to pound out results, she recently took down first place in the ladies’ event at the 2010 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure and a 10th-place finish at Mohegan Sun, NAPT. Her ability to self-promote has landed her a sweet deal with online great PokerStars.com and a deal as spokesperson for GoDaddy.com.

Cyndy Violette: Cyndy Violette, a 2009 Women In Poker Hall of Fame inductee, has been playing poker for more than 25 years. At first glance, you would guess her to be a youngster in the game, but truth is, Violette is one of the toughest competitors and has been grinding out a poker living with some of the biggest legends in the game. She began her poker journey dealing blackjack in Las Vegas in the ’80s. An all-around card-game expert, she moved into poker with the intentions of making a living playing cards. Violette lists more than $1,200,000 in lifetime earnings and is presently ranked 15th on the All Time Women’s List. At the 2004 WSOP, she rode a poker wave to her first gold bracelet in Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo Split and added to her total 11 final tables at the World Series of Poker. She has come so close to grabbing her next gold bracelet with two third places and a second — she surely is a huge talent in the extended playing fields today. Violette studies meditation and spiritual teachings and keeps a healthy food regiment to keep her playing level in optimum condition. She also enjoys the entrepreneur side of poker with her own line of clothing and accessories.

Other Shooting Stars on the Rise: Being a woman in poker goes far beyond just being a poker player. Many women who are successful players also find enjoyment and financial gain as entrepreneurs with their poker image. Trishelle Cannatella has enjoyed building her poker game while fronting ads and representing AbsolutePoker.com, while Evelyn Ng might have one of the longest relationships with a poker site than any other woman. Her longstanding relationship as a pro and ambassador for BoDog Poker is in its fifth year, proving steady, solid play can be rewarding. Kara Scott has parlayed her poker image into several media positions within the poker industry. And while she has a proven poker results record, she also is gainfully employed as the sidekick commentator of Gabe Kaplan for the hugely successful “High Stakes Poker Show.” Lacey Jones has a nice, tightly wrapped poker-image package, including poker results, and she spends her time as a professional model and poker commentator. A perfect example of using one’s poker success at its best, she became the MC of a live Las Vegas poker show at the Venetian.

Another female player who has stormed onto the scene is Beth Shak, who stole the show at the 2007 WSOP when the televised table she shared with Phil Hellmuth caught the eyes of players and fans. She proved she could hold her own at the table with the big boys and finished the $3,000 No Limit event in second place. Maria Ho, the 2007 WSOP Last Woman Standing and “Amazing Race” partner to Tiffany Michelle, will be making her fifth run at the WSOP this year. Ho has been a steady fixture at the Los Angeles cash tables and playing tournaments for the past four years. Good results make her a real contender among the women players to watch this year. Last year’s WSOP ladies’ champ is Lisa Hamilton. She appeared out of nowhere to overtake the ladies’ field of 1,060 players. A native Hawaiian, Hamilton has spent her poker career as a high-stakes player. After the WSOP, she traveled to the Bahamas to play in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure series and made an impressive final table in the High Rollers event, finishing fifth for more than $133,000. She has certainly earned the title of contender among the women to watch this year.

Perfect play and personal struggles are two key elements in a poker player’s career. Is gender a negative at the table or a positive? If results are a testament answer to this question, the answer would be neither. The ladies of poker who we’ve watched over the years have proven themselves as open event players and have brought the women’s market to the forefront of the poker industry. Surely the “Golden Ticket” would be for any woman to win the main event at the World Series of Poker. That fortunate winner could certainly write her own ticket for the rest of her poker career. Never say the sky is the limit, when there are footprints on the moon.

__________________________________________
By Tina Bergstrom

Tina Bergstrom has been a long time supporter of women’s poker and has participated and supported many women’s forums and even starting one of her own, LadyPokerSharks.com. Always an advocate and supporter of women’s poker, she began writing pro bono for the LipsTour to help support and launch their reporting web site for women’s poker. She is a charter member of The Women In Poker Hall of Fame and supporting member of the Poker Players Alliance. An avid blogger on the poker bloggers network, you can find Tina’s continuing articles of her poker related coverage at www.survivor01.wordpress.com.

Posted July 12th, 2010 under Features Articles, In this Issue. Tags: Absolute Poker, Annie Duke, Ante Up For Africa, Beth Shak, Cyndy Violette, Don Cheadle, Evelyn Ng, Gabe Kaplan, High Heels Poker Tour, Howard Lederer, Jennifer Harman, Jennifer Tilly, Kara Scott, Kathy Liebert, Lacey Jones, Lauren Failla, Leonor Margets-Perez, Lisa Hamilton, Maria Ho, Olivia Boeree, Phil Hellmuth, PHIL LAAK, Shannon Elizabeth, The amazing race, Tiffany Michelle, Trishelle Cannatella, ultimate bet, Vanessa Rousso, Vanessa Selbst, Women's Poker, WSOP
RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback.