Liv Boeree

British bombshell Liv Boeree is many things. She’s a tomboy who grew up climbing trees and riding horses in the UK. She’s an accomplished guitarist with a passion for Metallica and other hard rock. She’s extremely bright, having studied both physics and astrophysics in college. And, she even spent some time gracing the small screen as a reality-TV contestant.

But as of April, Boeree could add a new line to her long list of accomplishments, after etching her name in poker history by taking down the main event in San Remo, Italy, and becoming a European Poker Tour champion.

Boeree was born and grew up in the rural area of Maidstone, UK, and spent most of her days playing sports and staying away from the typical things that other little girls obsessed over. She even went so far as to describe herself as socially awkward in those days, before she discovered her love for rock music at the age of 15.

Her burgeoning good looks and talent on the guitar didn’t stop her from excelling in the classroom, where she was a straight-A student at the University of Manchester. After graduation, she weighed her options but felt that a career as a research scientist wasn’t for her, and instead applied to be a contestant on the UltimatePoker Showdown, despite having no idea how to play the game.

A Career in Poker?

Boeree picked up the game as quickly as she could before filming began, but wound up making a straight on a four-diamond board, not realizing that the flush possibility was out there. With the show behind her, she returned to London to take a job as a mathematician at an advertising agency.

Despite her new job, she still kept going back to poker. At night, she frequented the local cardrooms and even got her first taste of success when she beat out 125 players in a €5 rebuy tournament at the London Gutshot Poker Club.

Boeree’s rapidly increasing knowledge of the game and her model good looks made her a target for Gutshot TV as a TV presenter for both the EPT and World Series of Poker. It wasn’t long before she was winning satellites to bigger events, and she eventually turned pro in December of 2007.

She immediately began to see positive results, and even made two final tables at the Five-Star World Poker Classic at Bellagio. She then went on to win the 2008 Ladbrokes European Ladies Championship a short time later. It was this success that landed her a gig as a UB pro, where she works to promote the site that first gave her a chance back in 2005.

The Big Win in Italy

After slowly but steadily making her mark in the poker world, Boeree smashed everyone’s expectations with a win in the biggest European Poker Tour event in history. The 25-year-old known as “The Iron Maiden” navigated her way through a record field of 1,240 players to capture the first-place prize of €1,250,000.

Boeree used her icy stare to make her opponents uncomfortable, and found herself heads up with one of the world’s best online players in Jakob “mendieta19” Carlsson. With advice from her friends and loved ones, she wasn’t afraid to play back at the aggressive Swede, and when the dust settled, she was holding the trophy.

Card Player recently caught up with Boeree to talk about her big win, future plans, and promoting poker.

Rebecca McAdam: How were you feeling about your game before this event?

Liv Boeree: I was very happy with my game. I’ve been doing a lot of work the last few months, on all sorts of different aspects, and I definitely feel that my game is at the best it’s ever been.

RM: Did you have many people trying to give you advice?

LB: I had some great support on hand, as the Bingers were sweating me. I lost a really big pot and they came up to me and said, “Don’t worry about it, it’s a roller coaster. Just because you lost, it doesn’t mean the tournament’s over; just chill and wait for a good spot and get it back.” So, that was really useful.

And I had Shaun Deeb and Allie Prescott on the phone; they were back in Vegas. I’m dating Allie, and Shaun’s his flatmate. Those two are great poker teachers, and they both have a lot of experience. So, it was good having them on hand for advice, particularly when we got shorthanded. They said, “If you get heads up and it’s against Jakob [Carlsson], give us a call, because we have some tips on how to play against him.”

RM: What kind of image do you think you had at the table?

LB: I think I had a tight-aggressive image, which is a good image for me to utilize. I remember early on in the tournament, at the start of day two, I was getting no cards whatsoever — nothing. So, I tried to use my tight image. I just said, “Screw it; I’m going to open from under the gun, and they’re really going to have to have something to play back at me.” It turned out that they had aces and I had 7-2, but I won (laughing).

RM: You have a lot of respect for Carlsson. What intimidated you about him?

LB: He’s got a lot more experience than I have playing shorthanded, and also going deep in these big tournaments. He’s pretty legendary online; he’s a heads-up specialist, so he was the one guy I didn’t want to be heads up with.

RM: The pressure must have been immense going to the final table; how did you cope?

LB: Yeah, it was weird, because on days four, five, and six, I was really nervous. I couldn’t eat anything, and it progressively got worse; by the final table, I was a jittery mess. I can remember waking up and being like, “Oh, God, really? Is this happening? Wow!” I couldn’t eat, I had butterflies, and so on, but once I actually sat down at the table and got a couple of hands going, I settled down and was actually amazed at how calm I was. We hadn’t even played any hands heads up, and they said it was the dinner break, and I was like, “Come on! Let’s just get this done.” Fortunately, everyone around me was very supportive.

RM: Did you find that you had to hide your nerves at all, or any tells, at such a vital moment of your poker career?

LB: I don’t think that I did. My tactic was that if I was unsure about what to do, just to take my time. I would say that my biggest weakness up until then was that I would just rush decisions. That’s obviously not the smart way to play. It might have been frustrating for my opponents when I spent like a minute on each street, but I’m glad that I did that, because it gave me time to just watch them and think, and really go through all of the different options and make sure that what I was doing was correct. That was my way of dealing with it — taking my time and watching my opponents closely. Everyone kept saying, “You’re staring at them.” Well, yep, I guess I was, but if it added another layer of pressure, that’s always a good thing. If they found my stare a little bit unsettling, that’s great!

RM: Do you feel like this has confirmed your status as a pro?

LB: I think it has definitely helped. It’s difficult for girls in poker; we get branded like, “Oh, they got a deal only because of the way they look.” I’m not saying that I didn’t get my first original deal because of the way … well, you know, it definitely wasn’t because of my poker prowess or skill, because I didn’t have any stats at the time. They wanted a girl who was keen on poker, wanted to play, and looked good on camera, so that’s why they sponsored me, and I’m not going to deny that. But when I moved over to UltimateBet, they said, “The reason you’re moving over is that you’re starting to have results, we see how serious you take the game, we see how hard you’re working, and we’d like to recognize and reward that, and invite you onto the Pro team,” which was a real honor.

I’ve been working really hard since then, and it’s been nice to be able to prove to those who believed in me that I can do it, and to stick my middle finger up to those who always try to shoot me down in flames. I know that I’ve got a lot more to continue working on, but I just hope that this is the start of many successes.

RM: Would you be the type to be really hungry for your second title, to show that it was not a one-time thing?

LB: 100 percent. That’s all I can think about — where’s my next one? I’ve got the confidence to know that I can do it, and it’s also taught me where the weaknesses are in my game. I know that I need a lot of practice heads up, shorthanded, and so on. It’s all a big learning curve.

RM: Are you going to change the games that you play now, with your new bankroll?

LB: Yeah, I’m learning some of the mixed games. I now know how to play H.O.R.S.E., and I really love playing PLO [pot-limit Omaha] eight-or-better. I’m definitely going to work on those games, and you might see me in some of the smaller events at the Series. In regard to my bankroll, I’m still going to be really careful; if I ever have the opportunity to satellite into an event, I’ll always take it. I’m really good at satellites; they’re probably my specialty. I got into a satellite for the high-roller event in Monte Carlo, and won my seat. I’m not going to just buy into these big tournaments because I have a much bigger bankroll now.

RM: You’ve been all over the TV and the newspapers since your win. Do you feel a responsibility now to be a strong spokesperson for the game in the mainstream media?

LB: Yes. That’s why I don’t use too much poker lingo; I have to simplify it and try to explain what it is that I do and how it works, because if I do it that way, it might get more people interested. Similarly, I’ve also got to show some form of social responsibility. I don’t want to be responsible for university dropouts and student loans. I want to try to get across that some of us think about bankroll management, and that it’s important to be aware of what your means are, your limitations, and that if you want to start playing poker as a hobby, set aside a portion of what you have, so that you won’t be too affected if you lose, and try to study the game and learn.

The other thing I try to get across is that I am grateful for my education and that I completed all of my education. I didn’t discover poker until I was finished with the university, but even if I had, I know that I still would have gotten my degree, because no matter whether you end up using your degree or not, it’s so important to have. It’s something to fall back on, and particularly in studying science, it really trained me to perform well under pressure in exams. You could think of poker as an exam, as you have to make quick decisions under pressure.

RM: What is your stance on the fact that you are a winning female player?

LB: So many guys write women off as being not as good at poker as guys. Now, if you took your average guy and your average girl and sat them down at a poker table, chances are that the guy has played poker before, whereas the girl hasn’t. But when you get a top female pro and sit her down against a top male pro, like Vanessa Selbst, who just won the NAPT [North American Poker Tour] Mohegan Sun main event, you don’t say that she’s one of the best female players in the world, you say that she’s one of the best players in the world. People really fear her. I wouldn’t put myself in the same category as Vanessa; I think she’s miles above my standard, but she’s someone I aspire to be as good as. My goal is to be listed in the top 10 players of all time, not just the top 10 female players of all time.

RM: The good thing about being a female player is that you can be a role model for budding female players.

LB: Yeah. I mean, I don’t want to be known as just a good female player, I want to be known as a good player, period. But at the same time, if the female thing helps to bring more people into the game, of course I’ll use it and market myself accordingly. What’s interesting is that some people are saying, “Oh, I don’t understand why Liv is riding this media storm so much. She’s using it just to promote herself.” Well, of course I’m using it to promote myself. I’m not going to turn down opportunities to speak on national TV about poker and my achievements; that’s ridiculous. I want to promote myself, but at the same time, I do see the bigger picture and genuinely want to promote the game as much as possible. If I can use my God-given attributes to do that, I’m going to continue to do that.

Liv Boeree’s Beautiful King-High Bluff
Here, Liv Boeree discusses a crucial hand against her EPT San Remo final-table opponent Jakob Carlsson.

With blinds of 150,000-300,000, Carlsson raised to 600,000 preflop from the button with J-10, and Boeree flat-called with K-9. The flop came J 5 4 and Boeree led out for 750,000. Carlsson made the call, and the turn was the 2. Boeree once again fired out, this time for 1,700,000, and Carlsson called once more. The A came on the river, and Boeree bet 3,500,000. Carlsson mucked. Both players were then almost even in chips.

Analysis

Rebecca McAdam: Was Carlsson raising a lot preflop?

Liv Boeree: Yeah, every time it was his button, he raised.

RM: Did you have an idea of his range at this stage?

LB: It could have been absolutely anything. The thing is, normally my K-9 is above average, so I would three-bet, and I had been three-betting a lot. I had just gotten off the phone with Shaun Deeb and Allie [Prescott] in Vegas, because we just had a break, and they said, “Liv, we want to see you flatting [flat-calling] out of the big blind with your above-average hands occasionally, and we want to see you, on a fairly dry board, weak lead into his raise, and be prepared to double-barrel and maybe even triple-barrel if you feel that he’s got something that isn’t that strong.”

That was one thing, and the other thing I was thinking about was that if he calls the first bet and calls the second bet, he’s going to be expecting me to shut down at some point, so if I was going to go through with it, I really, really had to make sure that I was going through with it. By the time that he had called the flop and the turn, it was slightly kamikaze, but I was thinking that I could put him on a range of either a middle pair like eights or nines or some kind of jack. If he had a strong jack, I think he probably would have called in the same way, but I felt like he wasn’t that strong. He seemed very unsure about calling the turn bet, so by the river, I thought, if I’m going to do this, I’m going to have to bet really big, almost full pot.

Also, the ace really helped. It was a good river for me. He could have felt that I was bluffing with ace high, although to be fair, by the turn I think he would have raised if he was thinking that. The river helped add another layer of pressure to the hand. I felt that it was unlikely for him to have ace high himself, because I think he probably would have raised the turn. I wasn’t too afraid of the ace on the river helping him. I felt that it would help me more, because if he did have something like a pair of jacks on the J-5-4 board, or a middle pair like eights, nines, or sevens, it would be even harder for him to call; so, if I fired out another big bet, it would basically be his entire tournament, and similarly, it was also a huge amount of my chips, so I would have been in really bad shape if he had called.

RM: Was the weak lead meant to make him question you and frustrate him a little?

LB: Well, yes, that was one of the main things, because it was something that he had never seen me do. It was something that would take him by surprise, because he was obviously aware that I play very tight when out of position. This was probably the first time in the tournament that I had made a weak lead.

RM: If you hadn’t been given that advice, would you have three-bet preflop?

LB: Yeah, quite possibly, and then he could have decided to four-bet shove with fold equity. I have relatively little heads-up experience compared to someone like him; if I felt like I had the best hand preflop and we were less than 40 big blinds deep each, which we were, I would most likely three-bet it if I was out of position.

RM: If he had raised you on the turn or river, would you have mucked or come back at him?

LB: If he had raised me on the turn, that would have been fairly tricky, and I think that I would have mucked. On the river, if he had come back at me, I would have sworn a lot and been very upset, because his raise would have been like an underraise, basically.