Kathleen H. Liebert, also known as “PokerKat”, is an American professional poker player and the first woman ever to win a tournament with a first prize of $1,000,000.
Kathleen Liebert was born on October 1st 1967 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA. During her childhood Kathleen Liebert enjoyed playing cards with her parents. She spent her early life in Long Island in New York and attended the Marist College in Poughkeepsie. Upon graduating from college Kathleen Liebert got her Bachelor’s Degree in Business and Finance. Not long after that Kathleen Liebert started working for Dun & Bradstreet . However, she was disappointed with the corporate life and decided to quit her job to dedicate her time to traveling. She moved to Colorado to do some skiing, but got interested in poker and started playing every week in Central City.
In 1991 Kathleen Liebert began working as a prop player and thus starting her career as a professional poker player. With time her skills in poker improved significantly and she decided to move to Las Vegas, where she collected more than $34,000 for finishing second in two tournaments. One of her major achievements is the first place in the Party Poker Million event in 2002, the first limit poker tournament with a $1 million prize.
Kathleen Liebert also won the 2004 World Series of Poker golden bracelet in a $1,500 limit Texas hold 'em Shootout event. Along with Cyndy Violette and Annie Duke she was one of three women to win an open event in that year's WSOP. Aside from that Kathleen Liebert has also made it to several World Poker Tour final tables, including the 2006 World Poker Finals and 2007 Poker Classic at Foxwood's Resort and Casino in Connecticut. Liebert was also considered to be the highest finishing woman on the World Poker Tour until a runner-up finish by Joanne Liu in 2007. Kathleen Liebert also participated in the series Poker Royale: Battle of the Sexes, where she got once again in first place. At the 2008 World Series of Poker in June Liebert made it to the Final Table of the $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em World Championship and placed 3rd, collecting more than $306,000.
As of year 2008, Kathleen Liebert has one World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet and over $4,500,000 in live tournament winnings, which has made her the woman with the highest earnings in poker history. Despite her bright poker career, Liebert is still involved with stock investments and has earned a blue belt in karate.