Poker Player - Kathy Liebert
Kathy Liebert is a huge contender in a game that has been previously dominated by men. She is ranked 3rd for women on the all time money list at the world series and is currently one of the top women money earners in the history of tournament poker, but she can hold her own at any table. She has become somewhat of an ambassador for women in professional poker and her success has done much to silence those individuals who still believe that professional poker is a 'man's game'. She has said that there's no question the women players can hold their own anywhere. They are very competitive with the top male players. As if to prove this point, one of Kathy's poker accomplishments includes winning the Poker Royale: Battle of the Sexes and netting a cool $130,000 which she shared in part with her female team mates. Kathy, or PokerKat as she is affectionately known in the poker world, is a firm believer that the top women players are among the top players period.
Kathy Liebert was born on October 1st 1967 in Nashville, Tennessee. She grew up in Long Island, New York and graduated from Marist College in Ploughkeepsie, New York, with a degree in Business and Finance. She started work with global business information company, Dun & Bradstreet, as a Business Analyst but soon realised the corporate world was not for her. Following the advice of her mother, and thanks to the income she had gained from her smart investments in the stock market, she quit her job after a year and began travelling the country.
Kathy began playing poker in 1991 when, after settling for a while in Colorado, she began to work as a prop player in the local casinos (a prop player, or proposition player, is someone who is hired by the casino and is paid an hourly rate to help start games or help keep them going, basically someone to help fill an almost empty table). She played so well a friend suggested she play professional poker and so it was that in 1994 Kathy began playing tournament poker, finishing 2nd in her first tournament. She has gone on to achieve two 2nd place finishes at the WSOP, 11 cashes at the WSOP and won her first WSOP bracelet in 2004 at the 2004 Limit Hold 'em Shootout. Her biggest win came in 2002 when she won the first WPT Party Poker Million tournament where she also became the first woman to ever win a tournament with a posted prize of one million dollars. However, she was only able to keep half her winnings due to an earlier deal she had made with the 2nd and 3rd place finishers. Yet all credit still goes to Kathy for her win. Prior to this, Kathy had more 2nd place tournament finishes than any other player.
At the table she is often referred to as a ruthless player and is known for cool, incisive play and her calm and professional demeanour, maintaining this calm exterior despite winning great hands and suffering bad beats.
She hasn't forgotten her business background and still invests on the stock market which she uses as a safety net from the highs and lows of tournament poker. She has proven time and time again that she is a sharp investor with a background of working on the stock market as well as being one of the most successful poker pros around.
Kathy has so far accumulated $2.6 million and currently divides her time between Las Vegas, Nevada and Downey, California. She is the poker coach for actor James Woods and one day would love to win a Championship No Limit Tournament - until then she will not feel as if she has done everything she would like to accomplish. She claims the keys to her success have been her competitiveness and her reading poker literature as well as the many hours she has spent learning the fundamentals by playing low limits when she started out.
Kathy Liebert once said that in poker it is the skill of the player, not their sex that matters.
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