Quest of a Closet Poker Player

I just had a new article go up on the top women tournament players since WSOP 2006 (including that World Series). I started looking at it when I realized that one of the best women in poker, Jennifer Harman, wasn’t on that list.

I looked at the top money finishes from the beginning of WSOP 2006 through the end of WSOP 2007, excluding made-for-TV events like PokerSuperStars or whatever. Here is the money list for the top twenty-five:

Winnings June 2006-July 2007
1 ?
2 Kathy Liebert ($737,664)
3 JJ Liu ($727,828)
4 Anna Wroblewski ($705,389)
5 Mimi Tran ($629,026)
6 Vanessa Rousso ($450,992)
7 Erica Schoenberg ($415,261)
8 Kristy Gazes ($408,766)
9 Beth Shak ($334,583)
10 Mary Jones Meyer ($319,236)
11 Cyndy Violette ($287,038)
12 Katja Thater ($277,889)
13 Sally Anne Boyer ($262,077)
14 Maria Ho ($260,652)
15 Vanessa Selbst ($250,308)
16 Melissa Hayden ($213,325)
17 Jennifer Tilly ($197,128)
18 Liz Lieu ($190,698)
19 Annie Duke ($172,381)
20 Anne Heft ($166,177)
21 Shannon Elizabeth ($135,009)
22 Shawnee Barton ($128,060)
23 Sabyl Cohen ($123,699)
24 Clonie Gowen ($108,559)
25 Randi Calabro ($108,034)

Part I profiles places 7-11 (6-10, but I missed a couple people and had to make changes to the second article). Part II profiles places 2-6. This is live tourneys, leaving out new phenom Annette_15 among others. It is a controversial list, I think, as several women players are either lightning rods for criticism or significant underachievers compared to their endorsements and results. I think this list dramatically shows how difficult it is to play professionally on the tourney circuit. Each player has a bit of a story. Vanessa Selbst in 15th played few tourneys outside of the WSOP. Anna Wroblewski had a torrid first half of the year, exploding onto the poker scene in Vegas. Melissa Hayden is a long time player who can be seen frequently at WSOP events as well as elsewhere on the circuit.

These are gross winnings, and it would be interesting to see what the net winnings of this list of twenty-five would be. I’m working on a profile of the player in the top spot, a name unfamiliar to most everyone.

Sweetie has lined up a babysitter for the next twenty-four hours, so we’re headed to the W Hotel. I still have a bit of planning to do, so that’s it for now. Have a great weekend. I’ll leave you with this video if you haven’t seen it from Justine Ezarik. It shows her receiving her iPhone bill from AT&T, all 300+ pages. btw, what a cutie pie (MeanGene, what are you waiting for–she’s in Pittsburgh!).

You can also head to George Holtz’ blog, the 17 year-old who unlocked an iPhone today.  Photos and details aplenty.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 24th, 2007 at 1:41 pm and is filed under Uncategorized.