Famous Female Poker Players Worldwide
Did you think that professional poker is a men-only gambling activity? Well, think again. While it is true that most poker players in the world are men, some extraordinary women bring excellent skills to the table. Stay tuned to learn more about the most famous female poker players of all time.
Poker is considered a game of skills. It takes a lot of practice and in-depth understanding of the game to become a good player. The best female poker players in this article have all it takes to shake the professional poker world. Of course, there are many more top women in the game, so we have included some honorary mentions.
The 10 Best Female Poker Players of All Times
- ⭐ Vanessa Selbst with $11,906,247
- ⭐ Kathy Liebert with $6,645,745
- ⭐ Kristen Bicknell with $5,590,440
- ⭐ Maria Ho with $4,408,407
- ⭐ Annie Duke with $4,270,548
- ⭐ Anette Obrestad with $3,942,232
- ⭐ Liv Boeree with $3,861,838
- ⭐ Vanessa Rousso with $3,554,327
- ⭐ Joanne Liu with $3,529,995
- ⭐ Loni Harwood with $3,491,714
The Top Female Poker Players in Detail
Next, we will discuss every one of these exceptional women individually. When ranking the top female poker players of all time, we have used the latest information from official poker data sources. Without further ado, here are some more details regarding the best female poker players.
Vanessa Selbst
First, we have Vanessa Selbst. She was born in New York on July 9th, 1984. Selbst attended one of the Ivy League universities – Yale University – where she graduated with a law degree and a degree in political science. To this day, Vanessa Selbst remains the richest professional female poker player with a net worth of nearly $12,000,000.
Selbst has three World Series of Poker bracelets. She has won multiple tournaments, including two consecutive titles from the North American Poker Tour Mohegan Sun (2010 and 2011). They won her a total of $1,200,000. Her biggest prize, however, was the whopping $1,800,000 from the 2010 Partouche Poker Tour Cannes Championship. Today, Selbst has retired and plays only occasionally.
Kathy Liebert
Kathy Liebert is another one of the top female poker players. She was born on October 1st, 1964, in Nashville, Tennessee. Back in the day, she was a prop player in Colorado. Liebert has live tournament winnings of $6,645,745. She won a golden bracelet at the 2004 World Series of Poker tournament.
Kristen Bicknell
Next in our ranking of female poker players, we have Kristen Bicknell. She is a Canadian professional poker player born on December 29th, 1986. Bicknell has three bracelets from World Series of Poker tournaments. Her total winnings amount to $5,590,440, making her one of the best female poker players of all time.
Maria Ho
Maria Ho is a Taiwanese-American professional poker player. She has played in various live poker tournaments, including the World Series of Poker, the World Poker Tour, and more. In 2019, Ho was inducted into the Women in Poker Hall of Fame (part of the Poker Hall of Fame).
As of writing this article, her net worth is estimated at $4,408,407. Outside of her poker career, Maria Ho is a television host and commentator. Since we mentioned television, for the true poker enthusiasts, we recommend you review our selection of the best poker movies.
Annie Duke
Annie Duke is a woman of many talents. Besides being one of the best female poker players in the world, she is also a successful author. She is known by her nickname, the Duchess of Poker. Duke won a World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions in 2014 and the National Heads-Up Poker Championship in 2010. Her live tournament winnings are $4,270,548.
Anette Obrestad
Anette Obrestad is also among the well-known female poker players. She was born on September 18th, 1988, in Sandnes, Norway. She is the youngest person to ever win a WSOP bracelet at the World Series of Poker Europe in 2007. This was the day before her 19th birthday. Obrestad has won $3,942,232 in live poker tournaments.
Liv Boeree
Liv Boeree is among the best UK female poker players. She was born on 18th July 1984 in Kent, England. She graduated with honours in physics and astrophysics from the University of Manchester. Boeree became famous with her participation in the Ultimatepoker.com Showdown TV show in 2005. She went on to win at the 2008 Ladbrokes European Ladies Championships, the 2010 European Poker Tour main event in Sanremo, and more.
In 2017, Boeree won a bracelet at a World Series of Poker event. Her poker winnings are estimated at $3,861,838. In 2014, she co-founded a non-profit organisation called Raising for Effective Giving. Its purpose is to promote so-called effective altruism and advise people on what charities to support. So far, the organisation has raised over $14,000,000.
Vanessa Rousso
Vanessa Ashley Rousso was born on February 5th, 1983. She has dual citizenship – French and American and is among the female professional players since 2005. So far, she has won $3,554,327 from live tournaments. One of her biggest wins was over $700,000 from the main event of the World Championship of Online Poker, where she ranked in second place.
Joanne Liu
Joanne Jishung Liu was born on April 10th, 1965, in Taipei, Taiwan. Later, she moved to the USA, where she graduated with a master’s degree in software engineering and started working as a software engineer in Silicon Valley. Her professional poker career started in the USA, and she has won $3,529,995 in live poker tournaments.
Loni Harwood
Finally, we have Loni Harwood. She is the last one of the current best female poker players. Harwood was born in 1989 in Staten Island and later moved to Florida, where her career as a professional poker player began. So far, she has two World Series of Poker bracelets – one from 2013 and another from 2015. Loni Harwood’s poker winnings are estimated to be $3,491,714.
Honorary Mentions
These are the current top 10 female poker players worldwide based on their overall winnings and won titles. Over the years, however, there were and currently are many other excellent women poker players. They play both offline and at the best online casinos. If we had the chance, we would have mentioned all of them, but for the time being, let’s see some honorary mentions:
| ✔️ Female Poker Players | 💰 Live Tournament Winnings |
|---|---|
| Maria Constanza Lampropulos | $3,428,341 |
| Jennifer Harman | $2,765,348 |
| Kathy Lehne | $2,739,378 |
| Hui Chen Kuo | $2,705,618 |
| Victoria Coren Mitchell | $2,504,767 |
Another honorary mention that we simply cannot miss is Barbara Enright. She is the first woman to win a WSOP open event and three bracelets. Enright and other players may have already retired, but one thing is for sure – they will all go down in history as the best female poker players.
Conclusion
With degrees from Ivy League and other top universities, female poker players are no ordinary people. They have shaken and changed the poker world. Some of these women can easily be ranked among the richest gamblers worldwide. They have certainly earned their place among the top professional poker players of all time.
Frequently Asked Questions
This is the end of our article about the world’s most famous and successful female poker players. We hope the topic was as interesting for you as it was for us. If you have any outstanding questions, please look at our short FAQ section below.
