The Best Female Poker Players in 2019

Vanessa Selbst, Jennifer Harman, and Kathy Liebert are the best female poker players in 2019. Check out what accomplishments earned them a spot on our list!

1. Vanessa Selbst, 3x WSOP winner

Vanessa Selbst with over  $11.8 million is currently known as the best female poker player in the world. She is the first and only female poker player to hold three World Series of Poker bracelets in open events.

What’s more, Vanessa Selbst is the only female poker player ever who could reach the first rank in the world on the Global Poker Index. Her greatest prize, “$1.4 million” was earned in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure high roller in January 2013. The prize made her one of the most wealthy female poker players.

She started her professional poker life by winning $100,000 at the World Series of Poker $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em event in 2006. Selbst has been a regular in many of the world’s major poker tournaments and won many cash prizes.

Vanessa Selbst’s best achievements

• Vanessa earned €1,300,000 by winning the Partouche Poker Tour Main Event.
• Her first NAPT title in 2010 where she won $750,000 cash prize.
• The Second NAPT tournament in which she defended her title and took home $450,000 in cash.
• Finished 3rd at the World Poker Tour main event in 2011 for $338,351.
• Won the WSOP in 2008 which earned her $227,933 cash prize.
• $244,259 in 2008, by winning her third World Series of Poker.

Graduation from Yale University

She graduated with a degree in political science and a law degree from Yale University in 2012. Later she started working for consulting firm McKinsey & Company. Last January Vanessa Selbst announced retirement from poker and she is planning to work as a trader for a hedge fund.

2. Jennifer Harman, 2x WSOP winner

Jennifer Harman from America is the richest female poker player in the world, worth over $15 million. She is a 55 years old professional poker player who won her first World Series of Poker bracelet in 2000 at the No Limit Lowball Event in Vegas.

She never played in a tournament before, and her only knowledge of poker was from a 5 min training session from Howard Lederer prior to the tournament. Harman won her final table in 2000 against experienced professional poker players including Steve Zolotow and Lyle Berman which amazed the audience at the event.

The first woman to hold two WSOP bracelets

In 2002, Jennifer Harman won her second bracelet at $5K Limit Texas Holdem in WSOP open events that also included Mimi Tran, Humberto Brenes, and Allen Cunningham. Harman’s success didn’t stop there. Since then, she participated in many big events and won many prizes, including:

• World Poker Tour (WPT), where she finished 4th.
• 5th place in the Professional Poker Tour (PPT).
• 2nd place in the WSOP Circuit Championship Event

Jennifer Harman is the only female poker player who regularly participated in high-stakes cash games. She played at the Bellagio where players come out to play for some of the highest stakes in the world for limits of up to $100,000/$200,000. She earned most of her wealth from playing in high stakes cash games.

Harman’s kidney failure

Harman had problems with her kidneys, inherited from her mother, who died from the same illness when Jennifer was 17. Her illness made her undergo transplantation twice: first, in her childhood and the second time in 2004. She needed to withdraw from poker for a while to recover from surgery. After the 2nd transplantation, she founded Creating Organ Donation Awareness organization (CODA) working to raise money for a good cause.

3. Kathy Liebert, 2002 WSOP winner

Kathy Liebert, is a 52-year old professional poker player from Las Vegas. She’s worth over $6 million and is one of the best female poker stars.

She is the only female poker player who won a $1 million top prize at the Party Poker Million tournament in 2002. She won the $1 million top prize while some top poker stars including Chris Ferguson, Phil Hellmuth, and Mel Judah were competing with her in the final table.

Kathy Liebert is one of the only 2 female poker players who won over $5 million in live earnings. Kathy Liebert reached the final table 6 times at World Poker Tour main event and is the highest finishing women on the WPT. She won her WSOP gold bracelet in a $1,500 Limit Texas Holdem in 2004.

Kathy Liebert’s best achievements

• In 2002: $1 million top prize at the Party Poker Million tournament
• In 2004: She won her WSOP gold bracelet in a $1,500 Limit Texas Holdem
• In 2005: Third place at the No Limit Hold’em event at the Borgata Poker Open winning $427,115.
• In 2009: her live earnings reached beyond $5 million.

The poker pioneer wants to continue and win even more

Kathy Liebert was graduated with a degree of business and finance from Marist College. She put her calculating and managing skills to good use going forward into the game of poker and to win against her opponents time and time again.

In the past 15 years, Liebert has been the most solid tournament player in the world among female poker stars. After a long career as a professional poker player, Liebert has had a number of impressive accomplishments, and she expects even more.