The 50 Best Female Poker Players

best female poker players

For some time now, women have been reaching more and more places, achieving excellence in all kinds of sciences, disciplines, sports, and poker is no exception to this. But who are the best female poker players?

In 1978 it was the first time that a woman could be accepted to participate in the main event of the World Series of Poker. 

The person in charge was none other than the American Barbara Freer. It was only in 1982 that Vera Richmond, also from the United States, managed to be crowned the first female WSOP champion.

Nowadays it is much more common to see women participating (and winning) in the WSOP as well as in other poker competitions. 

Whether in professional or amateur format. Not only did the number of women participating increase, but there was also a rise in the number of nations they represent. 

It broke with the hegemony of the United States and currently, there are poker superstars from all over the world, such as Argentina, China, Great Britain, and Denmark, among others.

That is why we bring you this article covering the top 50 best female poker players.

Table of Contents

50 Best Female Poker Players

According to the Global Poker Index, and based on the total winnings of each player, the best female poker players are:

1. Vanessa Selbst πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ

WPT Winnings: $885,613

WSOP Winnings: $2,201,322

Total Winnings: $10,899,027

2. Kathy Liebert πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ

WPT Winnings: $1,947,662

WSOP Winnings: $1,210,220

Total Winnings: $6,480,178

3. Kristen Bicknell “Krissyb24” πŸ‡¨πŸ‡¦

WPT Winnings: $253,667

WSOP Winnings: $1,184,503

Total Winnings: $5,745,203

4. Maria Ho πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ

WPT Winnings: $753,184

WSOP Winnings: $1,496,157

Total Winnings: $3,974,417

5. Liv Boeree πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§

WPT Winnings: $101,769

WSOP Winnings: $367,661

Total Winnings: $3,682,480

6. Annette Obrestad πŸ‡³πŸ‡΄

WPT Winnings: $49,233

WSOP Winnings: $2,166,725

Total Winnings: $3,633,693

7.  Vanessa Rousso πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ

WPT Winnings: $786,086

WSOP Winnings: $358,894

Total Winnings: $3,551,265

8. Joanne “JJ” Liu πŸ‡ΉπŸ‡Ό

WPT Winnings: $1,192,624

WSOP Winnings: $621,503

Total Winnings: $3,458,881

9. Loni Harwood πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ

WPT Winnings: $192,355

WSOP Winnings: $1,212,783

Total Winnings: $3,412,975

10. Maria Constanza Lampropulos πŸ‡¦πŸ‡·

WPT Winnings: $107,382

WSOP Winnings: $132,563

Total Winnings: $3,288,333

11. Hui Chen “Kitty” Kuo πŸ‡ΉπŸ‡Ό

WPT Winnings: $713,467

WSOP Winnings: $264,939

Total Winnings: $2,586,871

12. Jennifer Harman πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ

WPT Winnings: $917,368

WSOP Winnings: $1,071,258

Total Winnings: $2,565,643

13. Annie Duke πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ

WPT Winnings: $240,871

WSOP Winnings: $1,163,077

Total Winnings: $2,264,678

14.  Victoria Coren Mitchell πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§

WPT Winnings: $1,437,996

WSOP Winnings: $32,573

Total Winnings: $1,957,740

15.  Xuan Liu πŸ‡¨πŸ‡¦

WPT Winnings: $20,892

WSOP Winnings: $115,559

Total Winnings: $1,842,974

16. Esther Taylor-Brady πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ

WPT Winnings: $282,318

WSOP Winnings: $1,070,526

Total Winnings: $1,806,779

17. Sandra Naujoks πŸ‡©πŸ‡ͺ

WPT Winnings: N.A.

WSOP Winnings: $107,409

Total Winnings: $1,781,489

18. Barbara Enright πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ

WPT Winnings: N.A.

WSOP Winnings: $487,847

Total Winnings: $1,675,622

19. Mimi Tran πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ

WPT Winnings: $669,969

WSOP Winnings: $423,018

Total Winnings: $1,655,539

20. Allyn Jaffrey Shulman πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ

WPT Winnings: $9,630

WSOP Winnings: $850,171

Total Winnings: $1,575,099

21. Leo Margets πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Έ

WPT Winnings: N.A.

WSOP Winnings: $946,461

Total Winnings: $1,477,775

22. Lucille Cailly πŸ‡«πŸ‡·

WPT Winnings: $12,693

WSOP Winnings: $7,711

Total Winnings: $1,475,781

23. Nadya Magnus πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ

WPT Winnings: $276,900

WSOP Winnings: $38,861

Total Winnings: $1,317,759

24. Jessica Dawley πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ

WPT Winnings: $82,013

WSOP Winnings: $286,975

Total Winnings: $1,143,824

25. Clonie Gowan πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ

WPT Winnings: $196,909

WSOP Winnings: $96,308

Total Winnings: $1,133,827

26. Vanessa Kade πŸ‡¨πŸ‡¦

WPT Winnings: $21,045

WSOP Winnings: $103,580

Total Winnings: $1,005,279

27. La Sengphet πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ

WPT Winnings: $8,211

WSOP Winnings: $42,238

Total Winnings: $900,113

28. Cherish Andrews πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ

WPT Winnings: $70,049

WSOP Winnings: $534,984

Total Winnings: $868,453

29. Nancy “Trouble” Birnbaum πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ

WPT Winnings: $69,929

WSOP Winnings: $28,988

Total Winnings: $845,236

30. Kyna England πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ

WPT Winnings: $448,755

WSOP Winnings: $6,337

Total Winnings: $798,719

31. Katie Lindsay πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ

WPT Winnings: $16,685

WSOP Winnings: $110,490

Total Winnings: $781,662

32. Carol Fuchs πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ

WPT Winnings: N.A.

WSOP Winnings: $401,143

Total Winnings: $711,157

33. Louise Francoeur πŸ‡¨πŸ‡¦

WPT Winnings: $51,164

WSOP Winnings: $92,370

Total Winnings: $599,287

34. Gloria Jackson πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ

WPT Winnings: $25,713

WSOP Winnings: N.A.

Total Winnings: $546,687

35. Alexis Gavin πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ

WPT Winnings: $46,855

WSOP Winnings: $154,015

Total Winnings: $513,762

36. Judith Bielan πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ

WPT Winnings: N.A.

WSOP Winnings: $36,464

Total Winnings: $401,300

37. Jessica Vierling πŸ‡©πŸ‡ͺ

WPT Winnings: N.A.

WSOP Winnings: $17,929

Total Winnings:  $336,829

38. Lisa Pickell πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ

WPT Winnings: N.A.

WSOP Winnings: $23,772

Total Winnings: $324,215

39. Angelina Rich πŸ‡¦πŸ‡Ί

WPT Winnings: $17,371

WSOP Winnings: $48,297

Total Winnings: $308,401

40. Valerie Novak πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ

WPT Winnings: $14,009

WSOP Winnings: $12,512

Total Winnings: $297,527

41. Elanit Hasas πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ

WPT Winnings: N.A

WSOP Winnings: $13,999

Total Winnings: $256,426

42. Camille Brown πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ

WPT Winnings: $10,460

WSOP Winnings: $37,213

Total Winnings: $209,534

43. Christina Gollins πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ

WPT Winnings: N.A.

WSOP Winnings: $7,419

Total Winnings: $201,337

44. Christina Read πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ

WPT Winnings: N.A.

WSOP Winnings: $22,594

Total Winnings: $180,094

45. Carla Gonzalez πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ

WPT Winnings: N.A.

WSOP Winnings: N.A.

Total Winnings: $142,769

46. Kristen Nyman πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ

WPT Winnings: N.A

WSOP Winnings: N.A

Total Winnings: $131,730

47. Yulia Lisichkina πŸ‡·πŸ‡Ί

WPT Winnings: $6,300

WSOP Winnings: $42,855

Total Winnings: $128,898

48. Marle Cordeiro πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ

WPT Winnings: $16,200

WSOP Winnings: $70,126

Total Winnings: $119,913

49. Jessica Cai πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ

WPT Winnings: $7,465

WSOP Winnings: $39,860

Total Winnings: $119,519

50. Sonia-Veronika Shashikhina πŸ‡·πŸ‡Ί

WPT Winnings: N.A.

WSOP Winnings: $56,284

Total Winnings: $104,226

Who is the best female poker player?

The best female poker player in history is considered to be Vanessa Selbst. This is because without a doubt she had one of the most successful careers in the world of poker, even better than that of many men.

Vanessa was the only woman to reach the top 1 of the GPI Ranking (Global Poker Index) and has also managed to win more than 11 million dollars in prizes, which makes her career enviable to many. 

From 2011 to 2014 she remained in the top 40 positions in the ranking, becoming one of the most successful women in the history of poker. 

In June 2014 she obtained first place in the GPI ranking for the first time. She was able to stay there for several weeks and for several years she remained in the top positions, without leaving the top 200.

Already in 2017, her poker career began to decline, dropping positions in the ranking and currently ranks 88,000th worldwide. This is because she no longer participates in so many professional competitions, and the truth is that nobody can blame her. 

At 37 years old, she managed to make a fantastic career in the world of poker, which will be difficult for another woman or even for other men to replicate.

Vanessa is also the first and only woman to have won 3 World Series of Poker bracelets.

Her successes go beyond poker, in fact, she graduated from Yale University and got scholarships to study abroad, which also explains why she declined in poker in recent years. 

Having won so many millions of dollars in prize money by the year 2018, the player chose to prioritize her full-time job outside of the poker competitions.

Who is the number one female poker player in the world?

The number 1 female poker player in the world today is Nadya Magnus, as she sits at the top of the Global Poker Index Female Player Rankings.

Magnus is from the United States, she currently lives in Florida, so she is usually seen in every poker competition that is held in that state.  

Since 2012 she has been participating in all sorts of professional poker competitions. In fact, from that year she began to obtain high places in the GPI ranking. However, in 2015 due to some defeats, she went on to get her lowest place in the ranking, not even reaching the top 40k.

After playing rock bottom, Nadya Magnus’s career began to rise non-stop, becoming the top 1 female in 2022. In the general table she is ranked number 83 worldwide and 62 nationally, being the best female player in both cases.

Her last participation in an official poker competition was in April 2022 at the World Poker Tour that took place in the city of Hollywood, Florida, in the United States. In that competition, Nadya got the 40th position after a regular performance.

This year she got her best position to date at the 2021/22 WSOP Circuit, finishing as high as eighth. She hasn’t won a WSOP bracelet yet.

Has a woman ever won the World Poker Tour?

In 2008, the organization in charge of carrying out the WPT created the World Poker Tour Ladies, which is a series of tournaments with the same format as the WPT but in which only women can participate. 

Although this was seen with good eyes since it allows more women to participate, and become known, thus improving the world of poker, it was also criticized. The critics mainly said that this was a measure that did not work since the ideal would be for more women to participate in the regular WPT and that it even gave less importance to the world of women’s poker.

In any case, the female poker players did not oppose it, in fact, they were in favor of the creation of the WPT Ladies, so the competition continued its course.

Apart from this competition, there are women who participate every year in the WPT, and there are two women who took the top prize, managing to be crowned WPT champions. The first was Van Nguyen in 2008, while the second was Ema Zajmovic, who won a WPT open to the public. 

The one that Nguyen won only allowed the participation of those people who had an invitation, so it was an exclusive number of participants, and the best of the best faced each other. This is not to say that Ema’s victory has any less merit, as she faced a greater number of competitors, making both victories iconic for different reasons.

The future of women in poker

Day by day, more women start playing poker professionally. There are already hundreds of thousands who do it as an amateur, and many more who participate in online competitions, but the number of professional players are expected to increase.

In addition, an increase in the number of countries that these women represent is also expected. If you look at the list of the best female poker players, you will notice that many women are from the United States. 

However, more and more Asian and Latin American women are beginning to participate. Although they do not rank high in the GPI rankings, this does not mean that they are not being recognized in the world of poker. 

They are beating the most powerful men in poker in their own regions, which is no small feat.

Only time will tell how the performance of women in poker will evolve, but an increase in competitiveness can certainly be expected, and women will sweep the sport as well.

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