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Poker has long been considered a man's game. For this reason, some people still think that it would take a big, strong woman to break into the ranks of the world's best players. However, Jennifer Harman, one of the world's best female poker players, breaks that mold.
Standing at just over five feet tall and weighing a little more than 100 pounds, Harman certainly does not look like the type to "mix it up" with some of the toughest male poker players but her record of success in tournament play, not to mention the large bankroll she has built up over the years, show that Jennifer Harman is a poker playing force to be reckoned with, regardless of her size.
Harman started playing poker very early in life. She watched her father play as a child, and would sometimes fill in for him when she was as young as eight years old. As a little girl, Harman was more than just precocious. In fact, her father would use her when he was down in the game to pull him up even. With her skills developing this early in life, Harman quickly showed a love of the game that allowed her to consider taking up poker as a career. She supported herself as a cocktail server until she was able to gamble legally but poker has been her only source of income since she was 21 years old!
In a good year, Harman can make up to a million dollars, a comfortable living, to be sure, but not without its difficulties. When she was just starting out in poker, Harman had to take out a $50,000 loan as a stake. In 1993, it seemed like she might lose it all when she had a losing streak that just went on and on, but she eventually turned things around and was able to pay off the loan and start supporting herself with poker.
What she learned from that year is that events in her life can affect her play in that she had noted on a few occasions that she was going through personal difficulties that definitely changed the way she played the game. As a result, she emerged stronger and ready to start building her bankroll and to take on the best players at one of the highest stakes games in Las Vegas - the $3,000 to $6,000 game at the Bellagio.
Her career has been filled with a remarkable variety of achievements. Although she prefers to focus on cash games as a way to support herself and husband Marco, she also enters tournaments such as the World Series of Poker. In the year 2000, she won the deuce-to-seven, no-limit draw title despite the fact that she had never played that particular game of poker before.
Harman is now also a regular on the World Poker Tour, coming in seventh at the Borgata Poker Open in 2003. Harman does not see being a woman playing poker as a disadvantage. In many ways, she says it is better for her to be a woman because male opponents playing against her for the first time will often dismiss her skills and abilities.
A popular misconception about women is that they cannot bluff. This misconception is on that male players often hold onto right up to the point that Harman takes all of their chips! However, the men Harman has beaten over the years now realize that she is not only one of the best female players in the world but also one of the best players in the world, regardless of gender.
The Goddess Asks
Do women have an advantage over men at the poker table?
JENNIFER HARMAN