Famous Women Poker Player Profile: Lucy Rokach
Although past articles in this series have focused on US-based female pokers, it’s time to swim across the pond and take a look at some of Europe’s top women. Lucienne (Lucy) Rokach – one of these top-notch women, is an English poker player from Stoke-on-Trent whose notable achievements include earning over $1.9 million in total poker winnings.
Lucy Rokach was born in Cairo, Egypt in 1949 and moved to England in 1956. Unlike many female players who have been playing since they were old enough to deal cards, Lucy Rokach was a car dealer and a history teacher before she started playing poker at the age of 38. Within a year, she was broke. Instead of heading back to sell cars, she remortgaged her home and borrowed more money. It didn’t take long for the gamble to pay off – and for Lucy’s talent for making smart bets to become well known.
Lucy is now considered to be one of the top female players in all of Europe. Her tournament wins started long before poker began its current rise in popularity. In her first win – at the Rubicon Club at Wolverhampton – Lucy took home 5,000 British pounds. Later, in the early 1990’s, she gained notoriety by taking first at the Festival of Poker in the 25 pound Pot-Limit Omaha tournament.
Since that win, Lucy has won loads of money playing in numerous tournaments all over the world. She made it to the final table twice at the World Series of Poker Pot-Limit Hold’em in both 1995 and 1996. In addition, she made money at two of the Main Events in 1996 and 2004.
Lucy’s first big win came in 1999, when she won the Grand Prix De Paris. Although this tournament wasn’t on the World Poker Tour at the time, it is now a main event in the torunament. In 2002, she won the Irish Winter Tournament and then won the same title again in 2003. In 2006, she won the Midland Masters. Later that year, she was honored with a European Poker Lifetime Achievement Award to commemorate her success in the game.
But despite her numerous accolades, Lucy Rokach still continues to win today. She has picked up more than $1.9 million dollars in tournament winnings throughout her career, and now works as a commentator for the Poker Channel. She has also worked with Roy Brindley and Gary Jones on Late Night Poker and contributed a column for Card Player Magazine that demonstrates her candidness about the difficulties that affect many of today’s players.
However, winnings or not, Lucy Rokach is probably best described in Barry Greenstein’s book Ace on the River as “the best no limit holdem player in the world.” It is clear that her long history and influence within the professional poker world will be an inspiration for many female poker players for years to come. After all, if Lucy can leave a successful job, lose all her money within a year and still come out on top, what is there that could possibly hold others back?