When poker fans think of great women players of all-time, the name Jennifer Harman always seems to come to mind. And there’s a very good reason for that — she’s one of the absolute best to have ever played this game. But, as you’re about to learn, she’s more than just a talented poker player.
Who is Jennifer Harman?
Jennifer Harman is one of the most success female poker players of all-time. Away from the felt she’s a long-time animal rights activist, mother, and formerly the spouse to fellow poker pro Marco Traniello.
During the poker boom era — shortly after Chris Moneymaker won the 2003 WSOP Main Event — Harman appeared numerous times on popular cash game shows such as “Poker After Dark” and “High Stakes Poker.” She was one of only a few women to appear on those shows during that era, and she was also a fan favorite.
Jennifer Harman biography
Jennifer Harman was born November 29, 1964 in Reno, Nevada, the town she grew up in and where she learned to play poker. She wasn’t the first great female poker player, but she is the first to have played at the highest stakes regularly.
Harman no longer plays poker as often as she did when she was younger. But she is the only woman to regularly appear in Bobby’s Room, a high-stakes room inside the Bellagio Poker Room. The famous card room hosted the most legendary cash game of all-time, a battle between a group of top pros and Andy Beal, a billionaire investor.
The games took place in the early part of the century, and Harman was part of the team, dubbed “The Corporation,” that battled Beal for millions of dollars. The players took turns facing the billionaire heads-up and won millions of dollars over a couple years. In 2005, author Michael Craig wrote a book — The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King — which detailed the wild high-stakes games against Beal.
Saving the animals
Harman is as much a philanthropist as she is a poker player. The Las Vegas resident devotes much of her time these days to her two kids and to charities that support animal rights. She is an active supporter of the Nevada Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA).
Her influence on the Nevada SPCA has helped the non-profit organization raise millions of dollars over the years. In 2004, she took a year off from poker to have a kidney transplant. After her successful recovery, the poker pro founded her own charity, Creating Organ Donor Awareness (CODA).
Jennifer Harman poker accomplishments
Harman was one of the earliest ambassadors for the now defunct Full Tilt Poker site. She was signed on by the then-popular poker site because she was an absolute beast on the felt and one of the most popular players in the game at the time.
Harman has two World Series of Poker bracelets in open events and is one of just four women who can say that. Although she has over $2.8 million in lifetime live tournament cashes, she’s never been much of a tournament player. Her main focus has always been on high-stakes cash games, mostly mixed games instead of no-limit Texas hold’em.
Her greatest accomplishment was as a member of “The Corporation,” the group of high-stakes pros that pooled their money to compete against billionaire investor Andy Beal, who wasn’t a professional poker player. In 2015, she joined John Juanda, a fellow former Full Tilt Poker pro, in the Poker Hall of Fame.
