Jennifer Harman Biography
Jennifer Harman was born in Reno, Nevada on the 29th of November, 1964. From an early age Jennifer was a strong poker player often taking over for her father at his home games from as young as eight years old. Harman would often win back her father’s money and more from his friends. However, after playing such a vital role in Harman’s early poker days her father was completely against her playing poker as a professional and refused to talk to her for a few years after hearing the news. At age 16 Harman needed more competition than her father’s home games could provide, so she found herself a fake ID and made her way to the local Reno casinos. At first she lost more often than she won, but lucky for her she stuck with it and was able to turn poker into a very lucrative career.
After graduating high school, Jennifer studied biology at a local University and worked as a cocktail waitress on the side. When she graduated from University, instead of finding a job in her field, she opted to move to LA and bartend at a hotel. She only lasted five days before the allure of Los Angeles’ Bicycle Casino got her to try playing poker full time. Harman would win lots of money and proceed to go broke many times and needed a few loans from friends to get her back in the game.
Throughout the 1990’s Harman continued to play cash games, but also decided to try her luck in some tournaments. She faired pretty well and was making decent cash playing poker, but it was the year 2000 that really put her on the poker map. After a quick tutorial from Howard Lederer, Harman entered the no limit 2-7 lowball event at the World Series of Poker and proceeded to win her first bracelet. She won another two years later and now has two gold bracelets and over $2M in career tourney winnings.
Jennifer Harman is considered the best female player to ever play the game and it is very hard to dispute this statement. Harman plays with the best men in poker, regularly sitting down in the back room of the Bellagio for the big game. Harman has accumulated so much respect from the legend of poker himself, Doyle Brunson, that he asked her to write a chapter in his second book “Doyle Brunson’s Super System 2”.
Harman hasn’t had it easy through life as all of her success may lead you to believe. She has had to endure two kidney transplants and with her newfound fame Harman founded CODA. This new organization stands for Creating Organ Donation Awareness. Jennifer Harman is a full member of Team Full Tilt and even though she doesn’t play much online poker you can find her at the tables on occasion.
