The Greatest Female Poker Players of All Time

It's not Kathy Liebert. It's not Annie Duke. It's not even Jennifer Harman. It's not even one singular person. No, it's actually a group of women. Women you don't know. You may have heard of some of them, others you may not be able to pronounce their names. Both women you've never seen before and women you probably see at the grocery store every day. Your grandma might even be one.

The greatest female players of all time are the ones that played poker before we did. Hell, they played poker before most people did. They didn't start playing because that's what everybody in the dorm was doing. They did it to make ends meat. They did it when it was illegal. They're probably in their 70's - at least - and some may even be pushing 100! They played during the Depression, and they broke down the walls for us to play now.

The stories are great. In the height of the Depression, one woman was in her early 20's, and her husband had been sent off to the war. She had two children at home and had just lost her job at a metal factory. Needing money, she did clothing alterations for the wealthy nearby, but that still didn't pay the bills. Then she decided she knew what she had to do.

Putting on her husbands clothes, cutting her hair, and putting soot on her face, she went down to the local grocery, that became a billiard hall/poker hall at night. She had watched her husband play a dozen times, and he had even taught her a little. When they were home at night, before the war, they had played together infinite times - and she often won! As a female, it was illegal for her to play, but that's why she was coming in as a man. She needed the money - she would win.

And win, she did. Coming around just enough to be a challange, and not a burden, or annoyance, she went to the pool hall and cleaned up everytime. She'd lose enough - ON PURPOSE - so as to keep the egos of the men playing at bay, but yes, she always walked away a winner. And, they never realized that the young man playing was really a mother of two with a husband in the war!

This woman, who broke the law not only to feed her family, but to play the game, is definitely on the list of Greatest Female Poker Players of All Time. I'd encourage you the next time you're at a table with an older female to find out her story. Odds are, it's because of her that you're even there.