Let me just put this out there: I worship Jennifer Harman-Traniello.
Not just because I have a thing for little blondes (because, to be fair, I have a thing for women in general). Not just because her understated, demure composure hides what is evidently a mind that is razor sharp and absolute in its matter-of-fact practicality. Not just because she’s unassuming (or was, before she became a well-known big-deal poker player after the media boom) but lethal. In fact, it’s all of those, at once, not unlike the Holy Trinity.
A signed photo of Jennifer Harman
Jennifer Harman was born and raised in Reno, Nevada. She graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno and started to play poker at the age of 8 years old. As much as I want to include a paragraph about the miracle of her immaculate conception, I can’t do that in good conscience. But clearly, she was meant to play poker. Allow me to illustrate: in 2000, she played in the No Limit Deuce-to-Seven Lowball Event and faced a final table with gaming greats like Lyle Berman and Steve Zolotow, both of which were tapped by Doyle Brunson to write a section in the long awaited Super System II (neither wrote on Deuce-to-Seven, specifically).
She defeated the formidable field and collected a bracelet apparently through sheer intuition and force of will, because the sum of her experience with the game came by way of a five-minute orientation from her friend, Howard Lederer before it began.
In 2002, Harman took down her second bracelet in the $5k Limit Hod’em Event, a game she didn’t need much tutoring to learn to win. In fact, Doyle Brunson tapped Harman to update the section on Limit Hold’em in Super System II. With this win, she became the only woman to hold two bracelets in open WSOP events. As of 2009, her total tournament earnings exceed $2.2 Million.
But she doesn’t stop at tournaments. Even though she is the only regular female player in the “Big Game” high-stakes cash game at the Bellagio, she is also an active participant in “The Corporation,” the consortium of poker players who combine bankrolls to play against banker Andy Beal in heads up Hold’em in limits up to $100,000/$200,000.
As a formality, Full Tilt Poker snatched her up to represent them in Team Full Tilt. Not that her credibility needed boosting. Harman is often referred to as the best female poker player in the world, which is a big compliment considering some of the amazing female players, but one would be foolish, ignorant, or both not to include her name on the list of the best poker players of modern times.
