– General Information –
Jennifer Harman is an American professional poker player. She was born on November 29th, 1964 in Reno, Nevada.
She’s one of the 4 women in poker history to have won at least 2 open – meaning discounting the female-only Ladies Events – WSOP bracelets. She was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2015.
Harman was featured regularly on NBC’s classic poker TV show Poker After Dark. Also, she likes to play the highest stakes live cash games in the world in the Bellagio’s famous Bobby’s Room.
Unfortunately, her career was somewhat hindered by her serious health problems – she had two kidney transplants.
– Key Career Dates –
- c. 1980: She starts playing live poker in her local land casinos. At the time, she was below the legal gambling age.
- 2000: She wins her first WSOP gold bracelet.
- 2001: She takes on billionaire banker Andy Beal as part of “The Corporation”, a line-up of famous poker pros playing a series of super high stakes heads-up matches against the challenger, Beal.
- 2005: She comes in 2nd in a $10K WSOP Circuit event in Las Vegas for $383,840. That is her biggest single live tournament cash to date.
- 2007: She appears on the first season of Poker After Dark, NBC’s classic poker TV show.
- 2015: She gets inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame.
– Jennifer Harman’s Career –
→ Beginnings ←
According to an exclusive interview she gave to our site somuchpoker.com, Harman started playing poker in live casinos before she reached the legal gambling age, at 16. She recalls she sneaked in casinos in Las Vegas to play. Given the fact that her home state is Nevada, the gambling capital of the world, it’s not surprising that poker has been a part of her life from early on.
Harman earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Nevada. However, she chose not to pursue a career in that field, rather to play poker for a living.
→ Live Tournaments ←
Jennifer Harman’s Hendon page shows $2.765 million in live tournament earnings. That respectable sum is a product of results from the past 25 years – 89 individual ITM finishes over the course of a quarter of a century.
Her first recorded cash is an 8th place finish in a $500 tournament at the Four Queens Hotel & Casino in Vegas. She won $3,052 for that, in January 1994.
The first time she made a live cash for over $100,000 was at the 2000 World Series of Poker.
In December 2004, she came in 4th in a $15,000 World Poker Tour event for $299,492. At the final table, she was faced with the eventual winner and her close personal friend, Daniel Negreanu. In March 2008, he finished 3rd in the $10K Bay 101 Shooting Stars championship for $330,000.
Harman made the biggest live cash of her career in March 2005. She was playing a $10K WSOP Circuit event at the Rio. Out of the 222 players that entered, she finished 2nd, winning $383,840.
→ World Series Of Poker ←
Jennifer Harman is one of 4 female players to have won at least 2 WSOP events, discounting the gender segregated Ladies Events. The other three are Vanessa Selbst (with 3 bracelets), Kristen Bicknell (3 bracelets, 1 from the Ladies Event), and Loni Harwood (2 bracelets).
Harman won her first bracelet in the $5,000 No Limit 2-to-7 Draw event in 2000 for $146,250. According to the poker legend, it was her first time playing that game and she had only received a 5-minute lesson on it from infamous Full Tilt boss Howard Lederer right before the tournament.
She confirmed the legend in our interview, saying:
“I won the bracelet when I didn’t know the game [2-7 Triple Draw] beforehand. Howard basically gave me a sheet to study, with what hands to play in what positions. But No Limit Deuce is a draw game, so you don’t see any cards; it’s basically a feel game. You feel your opponent, and when you know how to play—you know the hands and the positions and know a little bit about the game—it becomes a feel game, and I’m good at that. And you need a little luck too! A little luck always helps to win a tournament!”
Her second bracelet is from the 2002 World Series. She won the $5,000 Limit Hold’em championship and pocketed $212,440.
On top of her victories, she took 3rd place in the $10,000 7-Card Stud Hi-Lo 8-or-Better event for $173,159 in 2010.
Overall, Harman has cashed in WSOP events 37 times for a combined $1,008,443.
Starting day 2 with this guy at my table. What do you think? Should I beat his tushi? @wsop #NLdeuce pic.twitter.com/9lvTjLjyZy
— Jennifer Harman (@REALJenHarman) June 5, 2019
→ Live Cash Games ←
Jennifer Harman was part of one of the most legendary stories in poker history. It was “The Corporation” taking on billionaire banker Andy Beal in heads-up cash games with stakes as high as $100,000/$200,000 blinds!
In 2001, the founder of Beal Bank, Andy Beal, came by the Bellagio to play some high stakes Limit Hold’em. The pros in the room quickly noticed the new amateur willing to wager huge amounts of cash and tried to befriend him. Eventually, Todd Brunson was able to get Beal to play him heads-up, but lost around $100,000.
News of the upset spread among the sharks of Vegas, who tried everything to keep their new fish on a winning streak at the cash tables of the Bellagio. Andy Beal, however, had another idea.
Fearing collusion, he proposed he plays every pro in a heads-up match. That is when “The Corporation” was created.
The Corporation was a line-up 16 professional poker players. It included, among others, Doyle Brunson and his son Todd, Phil Ivey, Gus Hansen, and the hero of our story, Jennifer Harman. The 16 pros pooled together $10 million to take on their challenger in a series of heads-up Limit Hold’em cash game matches.
This epic battle lasted over 3 years. The stakes were initially $10,000/$20,000. However, the parties kept agreeing to increase it, so it eventually grew as high as $100,000/$200,000.
For a long time, Andy Beal was in the lead. At some point, The Corporation even completely busted their $10 million bankroll.
However, they managed to come back. The poker pros pooled another bankroll and demanded a re-match.
Phil Ivey was the one doing most of the heavylifting for his team. However, Jennifer Harman did her part too. Eventually, The Corporation won back the initially lost $10 million and earned an additional $6.5 million to go with it.
That was the end of Andy Beal’s crazy run against the poker pros. Shortly after, Beal announced he wasn’t planning on playing poker again.
Jennifer Harman takes part in less unique cash games as well. She regularly plays in the world’s most famous high stakes cash game room, Bobby’s Room at the Bellagio. She usually plays on stakes ranging from “just” $200/$400 all the way up to $1,500/$3,000.
She also appeared on some of the classic poker TV shows, such as NBC’s Poker After Dark or The Game Show Network’s High Stakes Poker.
There, she battled some of the best known pros of the game in high stakes cash games in front of the cameras.
→ Online Poker ←
Harman played on the now defunct poker site Full Tilt under the screen name “Jennifer Harman”. She mostly played the mixed game H.O.R.S.E. at high stakes cash tables. However, according to data available online, she is down $97,000 in a 6,200-hand sample.
→ Scandals ←
Nude photo for the ESPN Body Issue
In the 2009 ESPN Body Issue, Harman agreed to take photos nude with 3 other poker pros: Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu and Scotty Nguyen.
It is tradition for ESPN Magazine to feature top athletes naked once a year in their Body Issue. Harman and her three friends took part in this tradition – they’re pictured sitting around a poker table with cards and chips in front of them, nude.
– Jennifer Harman on Social Media –
Twitter: https://twitter.com/REALJenHarman/ 82,100 followers
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