Jennifer Harman is the only female to survive in the Big Game for any length of time, period. Any other story you hear about this woman did this or that and won in Vegas high-stakes poker is simply not true. While Jennifer suffers from emotional swings brought on by hormones (which she is forced to take to prevent her body from rejecting her kidney transplant) as badly as any woman alive, she somehow overcomes it and comes out a big winner by year's end.
Jennifer's style ranges from average to loose, always on the aggressive side. She is very adept at reading her opponents while leaving them little to pick up on. She doesn't always handle losing as well as she could (I think I've literally seen steam come out of her ears), but with all that she's had to overcome in life, I'd say she does just fine. Jennifer is beyond any shadow of doubt the best female poker player alive today!
Her poker career started at the tender age of 8 when her mother dealt to her and her cousins, teaching them the basics of the game. After watching her dad play for a while in his game, he let her play his chips when she was 13. By 16, Jen graduated to casino poker. She snuck in and played stud, the same game that she had played in her home and father's game.
One day, a funny thing happened that changed the course of her poker career. Jen went for an eye exam, then to play poker. When her eyes wouldn't focus and keep up with the upcards in the stud game, she got up to quit. On her way out, she noticed a game going on at a bigger table than the regulation stud tables that she was used to. "What's that game?" she asked a floorman. This genius supervisor who wasn't able to figure out that this 5-foot-2-inch, 99-pound, 16-year-old girl was underage told her it was hold'em, and gave her a quick explanation. Jen realized that her eyes wouldn't have to keep shifting all over the table following the upcards, as the flop never moves, so she sat down to play. She was hooked. She stuck with hold'em for years and never returned to stud until the mixed games forced it back on her.
After high school, Jennifer attended the University of Nevada, Reno, and played in Reno's local cardrooms like the Peppermill and the Hilton. Looking for a change of scenery, Jen moved to L.A. and got a job tending bar. That didn't last long, however. She bumped into a poker friend from Reno in a grocery store, who told her how good the games were. When she went to the Bicycle Club a few days later, she saw that he was right and promptly quit her day job. That was her last traditional job.
When high-stakes poker started up on the East Coast, off she went in search of bigger and tougher adventures. When Atlantic City still wasn't a big enough challenge, she came back to Nevada, but this time, down south to the mecca of poker, Las Vegas.
Finally, Jen found the poker environment that she was looking for. A friend of mine named Lenny and I had just started a $50-$100 hold'em game (the first regular hold'em game in Vegas that was more than $20-$40), and she helped us keep the game going and turn it into a Vegas mainstay. Shortly thereafter the Big Game started (see my first column in the Vol. 20/No. 1 issue for the complete history of the Big Game), and the rest is pretty much history from there.
Along the way, Jen made quite a few advances for the female poker movement. As I said earlier, she is the only woman to survive in the Big Game. She is also the only female to win two bracelets in
World Series of Poker open events to date, and has made seven
WSOP final tables. Her tournament winnings total about $1.5 million. That's currently third on the all-time female money-winner list.
Jen was also the only woman ever selected to write in either of the Super System books. She also is currently the only woman chosen to speak at the Super System poker camps. Don't miss her next appearance this May!
Jennifer is involved in two charities: TRIO - an organ donor awareness charity, and ASPCA - a no-kill animal shelter. Many shelters make this claim, but turn animals over to local pounds to be euthanized after a certain amount of time. Once an animal is accepted into an ASPCA shelter, it is kept until it can be found a home.
Jennifer currently resides in Las Vegas with her husband, Marco, and my dogs. If you don't see her out and about too much nowadays, don't be worried. She and Marco just had two healthy baby boys. They are two of the most beautiful babies I have ever seen, although I may be a bit prejudiced, as I am their godfather.
