Kathy Liebert began playing poker as a prop player—a player who gets paid by casinos to start poker games or keep them going. It wasn’t long before the love of the game set in for this Las Vegas resident and soon, in 1994, she was playing full-time. Her claim-to-fame is winning first place in the Party Poker Million for—you guessed it—one million dollars. Unfortunately for her, she had made a deal with Berj Kacherian and Phil Hellmuth, the second and third place winners, and she only went home with about half the proceeds. Still, today she ranks fifth on the World Series of Poker winnings list for women.

She was born in Tennessee but grew up in Long Island, New York. She attended Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York, where she earned a BS degree in business and finance. From there, she worked at Dunn and Bradstreet as an analyst, but after a year, she high-tailed it out to California to play poker. She also loves reading poker books.

Fun Facts and Finishes

• Kathy is the first woman to win a $1 million tournament.
• In addition to the ups-and-downs of poker, she enjoys playing the ups-and-downs of the stock market.
• In 2004, Kathy won her first World Series of Poker bracelet for Limit Hold’em.