So, let’s start our travel into the world of female poker pros by checking who are the best players on the field. Sadly, my gal Rebecca isn’t one of the top 5. Or the top 10. Turns out that she is very good at writing, but not that good at poker.

However, getting to the top isn’t easy at all. Modern-day poker should be considered a sport, with tournaments taking place all across the world. Players are usually ranked by their total winnings, but only those made in official tournaments count. Becoming a recognised professional player involves enormous exposure and a lot of travel. Of course, there are online poker rooms too, but those have been getting harder and harder to find.

So, let’s check the women that have managed to make a name for themselves in a man-dominated game:

1. Vanessa Selbst There is little dispute among pros who the strongest woman to ever play poker is. Vanessa may be retired now, but for a good 12 years she was the most prominent female player in the brackets. Her winnings over an illustrious career total over $10,000,000, with two record wins of over $1,000,000 on Pokerstars and Partouche tournaments. She retired some time ago, and sadly couldn’t quite make it to the overall top 10 poker player list, which caps off at about $20,000,000.

2. Kathy Liebert The former number 1 female poker player is a highly experienced veteran who has been at finals ever since 1997. With more than two decades under her belt, Kathy is still competing and can be considered one of the veterans of the poker world. Vanessa Selbst has overtaken her, but Kathy still boasts over $6,000,000 in prize money. However, her bigger tournament successes date back towards the beginning of the 2000s; she has been going steady, but unspectacularly since then.

3. Annie Duke Annie’s profile is quite different from the previous entrants. She had a stellar half a decade where she burst onto the poker scene and recorded one of the biggest wins ever claimed by a woman. During the prestigious WSOP tournament back in 2004, she managed to pocket $2,000,000 after winning the tournament with a heavy competition – including her brother, poker pro Howard Lederer. However, she has gone off the radar since then, with her last (not too successful) appearance dating back to 2010.

4. Annette Obrestad The Norwegian Annette is one of the younger players on the poker scene and even though she is often mentioned as the ‘one with potential for the future’, she has already made quite a successful career. Her first significant win was in 2007, and since then she has been a steady player, making it through a lull of few years and coming back strong in 2017. She has earned almost $4,000,000 in prize money, and there is every chance that she will become one of the household names in the coming years, perhaps even challenging Vanessa’s legacy.

5. Liv Boeree Speaking of potential, we can’t miss the ever-popular Liv Boeree. The young starlet already sits at sixth place in the top 10 list of highest-earning female poker players; she made her big breakthrough in 2010 when she won the WSOP tournament which earned her $1,698,300. She was coached by poker legend Phil Hellmuth during a poker reality TV show, which makes her one of the most recognizable names on the poker pro scene. She has been making the most of her big chance, and the future would appear to be bright for her.

So, those are the most important female poker pro names you should know at this stage. However, Rebecca’s book is proof that there is much more to being a female poker player than doing good at tournaments. If you consider the above a list of the top ‘athletes’ in our sport, then you shouldn’t forget the countless other women who have a passion for the game and practice it rigorously out of the spotlight. My next posts will be focusing on the mentality and grit required even at the doorstep of the poker world, because that is where all of us have to begin.