Kathy Liebert
Whoever came up with the age old saying "ladies first" must have been talking about Kathy Liebert. Last March in front of a nationally televised audience, Kathy Liebert claimed first prize in Poker Royale: Battle of the Sexes. Kathy beat out eleven other men and women and left the tournament $100,000 richer and with a whole lot more international recognition.
Kathy Liebert's success did not start at The Battle of The Sexes. Her winning ways can be traced back to when she became the first woman to win a poker tournament with a buy-in of $5,000 or more. Kathy had previously walked away with prize winnings of $1,000,000 in 2002. Since then, Kathy has continued to do fabulously well in major tournaments. She was the recipient of her first WSOP bracelet this past year when she was victorious at the $1,500 Hold'em Shoot Out Event at the 2004 World Series. It was there that she took home over $100,000. You won’t have to look very far to find Kathy Liebert on televised events in 2005.
Kathy holds the third highest spot of all-time amongst female participants at the World Series. Prior to becoming a card shark, Kathy, now in her mid-thirties gave up the corporate world where she was an executive. Born in Tennessee, Kathy was raised on Long Island in New York. She was a student at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York where she graduated with a degree in business and finance. After the completion of her degree she went on work as a Business Analyst for Dun & Bradstreet. But the excitement of the corporate world wasn't enough for her. After realizing that she was not all that satisfied with her job, she took the advice of her mother who encouraged Kathy to follow her dreams and pursue something in the way of a career that she loved. It was only as a consequence, her mother explained, that money would soon follow. While employed with Dun & Bradstreet, Kathy enjoyed dabbling in the stock market which eventually would provide her with the financial base she needed to enter the world of land based poker tournaments.
Unsure about what to do with herself, Kathy hopped on a plane and headed west where she made a short stop in Las Vegas and sat down at a poker table for the first time. The game of poker was not foreign to her as she had grown up watching her parents play with their friends for nickels and dimes.
Later that year, Kathy would end up in Colorado fascinated with the prospect of skiing in the Rockies. Central City and Blackhawk (small communities in the mountains) had recently legalized gambling. She decided to try out gambling and sat down at a $5 limit poker table. It was from there that Kathy’s love for the game was born. She played weekly and soon found herself as an invitee to be a "paid" player at the casinos. From there she made it her goal to vastly improve her game, through books and learning from the pros.
Kathy was convinced by a friend to try out her luck at a poker tournament. She left Colorado and headed for Las Vegas. Kathy shocked even herself finishing in second place at the first tournament she played in. It was one week later when she entered her first Texas Hold'em tournament and took home the second place prize once again. After playing poker for just one week she had won $34,000.
This marked the beginning of Kathy’s illustrious poker career. She travelled to many major tournaments that year and was the first place finisher in many of them. While building her bankroll, Kathy was able to buy homes in Las Vegas and California along with providing herself with the comfortable lifestyle that fits her intensely individualistic personality. Kathy is still to this day a fan of the stock market, which in her opinion is her safety net from the world of poker.
As one of poker's first leading women, Kathy continues to carve out a name for herself while maintaining a calm demeanour, whether she wins a great hand or takes bad beat. Her classy nature and business-like persona has served her well in the poker world and has made her one of the most likeable and well-respected players on the tour. Kathy is a role model for all women interested in becoming a successful poker player. As women become a larger and larger percentage of the poker players of our world, Kathy will always go down in history as the first female tournament poker millionaire.
Today, Kathy travels the tournament circuit playing the Caribbean Poker Classic, the World Poker Tour and the WSOP. She has been ranked time and time again as one of the top poker players in the world in consecutive years. She is ranked third on the World Series' list of top female money winners. In her spare time, she coaches actor James Woods on the art of poker.
Click here for a history of Kathy’s Poker achievements and titles.
