Women Poker Player Profiles – Jennifer Harman
Jennifer Harman is a professional poker player who can often be found playing the highest stakes games at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. It’s because of her dedication to the game and her past record of achievements that she’s being featured in today’s “Women Poker Player Profiles.”
Jennifer Harman came to the game of poker early on – her dad taught her the game when she was only 8 years old, and she turned pro when she was just 21. In fact, it’s rumored that before she turned pro, her dad would often call her in when he was losing at his home games and that she’d win back all the money he’d lost. Today, she’s known as a 5′ 2″, 100 pound dynamo and a great all-around poker player.
When she made the leap to professional player, Jennifer was quick to make a name for herself. In 2000, she won the World Series of Poker deuce-to-seven event, even though it was the first time she’d ever played the game! Her remarkable series of wins also includes the 2002 World Series of Poker $5,000 Buy-in Limit Hold’em Event and winning $1.7 million in a single pot. At the time she won, this was the largest amount ever won in a single poker hand.
Jennifer’s success also led to her being profiled in the book, “The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King,” a text which ” Traces the events of the 2001 Bellagio Hotel and Casino poker game, a competition involving a twenty-million-dollar stake, in an account that describes the strategies employed by game newcomer Andy Beal and his challenge to some of the world’s top players,” according to Amazon.com. Her expertise has also been cited in the Poker SuperSystem 2 guide, for which she wrote the Limit Hold’em chapter.
Jennifer’s fans are also eager to support their favorite female poker player, calling her “…the best female poker player out there” and “the real deal.” When asked by interviewers from homepokergames.com how she feels about being a woman in a sport so dominated by men, Jennifer responded, “It probably helps me to be a woman. In general, most men don’t think women can play. So, what often happens is that they try to run over me. They bluff their money off to me. I guess they see me as a meek little girl and think that I’m easily bluffed. I’m not.â€
Today, Jennifer focuses most of her attention on cash games, although she is working to improve her tournament play and cites winning a no-limit title at the World Series of Poker as a goal. She’s also dedicated herself to learning all the different games of poker, saying “I still learn something new every day. I enjoy the challenge of playing with the best. It’s a constant learning experience. I make mistakes, but as long as I learn something from those mistakes, they can actually be good for me.” When she’s not at the table, she enjoys spending time with her husband, Marco Traniello, and playing with her dogs.