Kathy Liebert alias "Poker Kat"

Kathy Liebert

Professional poker player Kathleen Liebert was born on 1st of October, 1967 in Nashville, Tennessee and is one of the few women on top in the professional poker community. Kathy already showed great interest in poker when she was only 12 years old. She was fascinated by poker scenes in westerns movies like “Bonanza” and passionately sat and watched the poker games her mother organized at home. Just by watching other people play, she soon was able to keep up with the grown-ups. This created the foundation for her later career...

Childhood and career

Kathy Liebert was raised in Long Island, New York and went to Marist College in Poughkeepsie. She earned a bachelor’s degree in business and finance and started to work at Dun & Bradstreet as a business analyst. Part of the money she made she invested in the stock market where she was so successful she was able to quit her little-loved job.

Her mother had always told her to enjoy life instead of becoming financially orientated too much. Kathy at last followed her mother’s advice and started travelling after she had quit her job. On her way to the West Coast she stopped in Las Vegas, where she played poker at a casino for the first time. While she was on a skiing holiday in Colorado, Kathy got a job as a prop player for a small casino and her passion for poker burnt hotter than ever. She started reading various books by professional poker players, practised a lot and managed to constantly improve her poker skills. One day, a friend encouraged her to participate in her first tournament in Las Vegas.

Vocation: professional poker player

In this very tournament – it was Omaha Hi Lo – Kathy debuted a fantastic second. This was a massive surprise to the poker scene but came as an even bigger surprise to her. One week later Kathy took part in her first Texas Hold’em tournament and finished second again. All in all, she won $ 34,000 in her first week of tournaments and had finally worked out just what exactly she wanted to do for the rest of her life.

In 1997 Kathy finished second at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in no-limit Hold’em and in 1999 she found herself in second place once again at the Carnival of Poker Tournament in pot-limit Hold’em. In the year 2000, she celebrated her first victory at the L.A. Poker Classic, where she eliminated Laurence Konis and Hasan Habib in no-limit Hold’em. In the following years Poker Kat rushed from one major tournament to the next and gained a lot of respect from her (male) colleagues. She made several final tables (Winnin’O’ the Green Tournament, Fall Poker Tournament, Big Poker October, Ho Ho Ho Hold’em, Legends of Poker WPT Season 1, amongst others) and won the Ladies Poker Dream Weekend limit Hold’em Tournament, the ESCARGOT no-limit Hold’em and the Orleans Open Poker Tournament (no-limit Hold’em).

In March 2002, Kathy Liebert won the first PartyPoker Million Tournament after eliminating big names like Mel Judah, Chris Ferguson and Phil Hellmuth. This victory made her the first woman to walk away from a tournament with one million dollars of prize money. Unfortunately though, she had made a money deal with Berj Kacherian and Phil Hellmuth, who finished in second and third place. By the terms of this deal she had to share her winnings with Kacherian and Hellmuth, so in the end, Kathy could only take home half the prize money she had won.

Nevertheless, Kathy stayed successful. In the first season of the WPT Legends of Poker she defeated poker legends such as Huck Seed and Phil Hellmuth and finished in second place in the limit Hold’em as well as the limit Seven-Card Stud tournament. That same year she won the Peppermill Fall Poker Tournament and in 2003 she ended up winning at the Hollywood Park Poker Derby and the Winnin’o’the Green Tournament. All this was followed by a second place at the World Series of Poker and a third place at the Orleans Open as well as the WPT World Poker Finals Season 2.

In 2004, Kathy Liebert finally won her first WSOP Bracelet in Texas Hold’em. That same year she also won the 2004 Plaza Ultimate Poker Challenge Tournament and came second in the WPPA Championship of Poker. In 2005 she took part in “Poker Royale: Battle of the Sexes”, a very commercial poker tournament, which is broadcast on TV. She shared her winnings ($ 130,000) with some of the other players of the team she was part of for the tournament. Later that year she won the Caribbean Poker Classic and finished in third place at the WPT Borgata Poker Open.
In 2006 she came fifth at the World Poker Tour Finals. Visiting the PartyPoker website right now, you will benefit from your exklusive BonusBonusBonus welcome bonus.

Girl power in a man's world

One question every interviewer is bound to sooner or later ask Kathy Liebert is what it feels like being a woman in a male dominated field like poker. She believes that when she started to play poker, she was constantly underestimated by men.

“At first they thought, I didn’t know what I was doing and kept telling me which hands I should play! But that was o.k. for me; I won the money and still pretended I didn’t know what poker was all about.”

But that soon changed and “Poker Kat” finally gained reputation due to her skills and classy, confident appearance. Her male colleagues now started to be full of respect for her. The poker legend Dr. Max Stern, who defeated Kathy Liebert at the WSOP in no-limit Hold’em in 1997, said in an interview after the tournament:

“It was a great pleasure and honour to play against a lady like Kathy Liebert. Male poker players are wrong. […] Men generally underestimate women, at the poker table and elsewhere. Believe me, they are wrong – Kathy Liebert proved it.”

Kathy has won more prize money in open tournaments than any other woman before and a lot of people see her as a role model. Kathy’s winning strategy: study the game, observe what is happening at the table and try to understand, what the other players are thinking. She advises other female poker players to take advantage of the fact they are generally underestimated:

“As a woman you are underestimated [in poker], be aware of it and use it to your advantage”

By the way, for those who would like to work on their poker strategy, poker strategy programs are very useful.

Kathy Liebert loves to play aggressively. Because women tend to play more passively than most men, she advises female beginners to practice playing a more aggressive style, because she believes a poker player has more chances when playing aggressive. Kathy also emphasizes on adapting to the other players’ styles. Everybody has their own style and thinks differently of women playing poker. A lot of men believe women are afraid of risking anything.

If a woman is playing with a man like this, she can literally raise with any hand. He will believe she is holding a good hand and will fold his own regardless of its strengths. Kathy also recommends changing tactics ever so often, no matter who one’s opponents are. As a result, one’s strategies will be unpredictable to a large extent and opponents will find it hard to figure out how to adapt their own tactics.

Why does Kathy Liebert love poker so much? Because of the challenge, the opportunity to learn and the fact, that good money can be earned with it. If you want to play against Kathy Liebert right now, just download the PartyPoker software and claim your exclusive bonus. Go and find Kathy at one of PartyPoker’s numerous tables and compete against her!

As many women are afraid of becoming a part of this male dominated world, there are not many successful female poker stars. But the best amongst them are believed to be some of the best overall which proves that female poker players do not have any handicap at playing poker after all. Kathy explains this by saying “poker isn’t a game of strength, but of intelligence”. The Ladies’ International Poker Series (LIPS) was established in order to encourage women to play poker. LIPS-Tour organizes poker events for women in partner casinos like the Ocean’s 11 Casino, Harrah’s Las Vegas, Hollywood Park Casino and Peppermill Casino. Kathy Liebert, who regards herself as a pioneer of women’s poker, has also taken part in some LIPS tournaments. Nowadays, more and more women are willing to match their skills at tournaments and it seems that women’s poker may be a market niche with a promising future.

Kathy Liebert currently lives in Las Vegas, Nevada and Downey, California. Apart from playing poker, she loves to spend time at the gym and enjoys surfing the internet; she also continues to invest in the stock market.
Apart from all of that she also shares her poker knowledge with other players on her website. She tries to motivate and help people who have difficulties with certain poker techniques.

All you male players take a mental note: Even if you are not sitting at the poker table with Kathy Liebert herself, you should pay the lady all due respect – she has the blue belt in karate!

Now that sounds like a strong woman!