Jennifer Harman is a professional poker player and a member of Team Full Tilt. She is the only woman to have consistently played in the big game in Bobby’s Room where she has played for many years against players of the calibre of Doyle Brunson, the late Chip Reese and her good friend Daniel Negreanu. She began playing poker at the age of 8 and has a record in poker that matches any player, male or female. She is married to Marco Traniello, who became a professional poker player after marrying Jennifer and with Marco they have twin boys. Other close friends within the poker community are Todd Brunson, who she dated in the late 1990’s and Daniel Negreanu, who she met through Todd staking him into a poker tournament.

Such is the respect given to Jennifer in the poker world she was asked by Doyle Brunson to write the chapter on Limit Hold’em when he was collating information for Super System 2, the sequel to his best-selling Super System book released in the 1970’s. Jennifer has gone on the record to say she was surprised at this request but was honoured to oblige. Many readers have said this particular chapter in the book is very useful and among the highlights of the poker book. Most of the high stakes professionals say that Jennifer is the best female player of all time.

Primarily a cash game player who admits to enduring swings of over $1 million in one day playing high stakes poker Jennifer has also manufactured a good reputation as a poker tournament specialist with over $2 million in live cashes in tournaments all around the world. She is the only woman to have won 2 WSOP bracelets in open events and these wins were in 2000, where she won the $5,000 No Limit Deuce-to-Seven Draw event for $146,250 and in 2002 where she won the $5,000 Limit Hold’em even for $212,440. One bizarre quirk in her poker tournament record is that Jennifer has never cashed in the main event of the WSOP.

When Andy Beal decided to challenge the entire poker playing community at stakes of $100,000 – $200,000 poker professionals were forced to pool their resources to challenge the banking king in 2006. Jennifer was part of “The Corporation” of poker players who played Andy and subsequently beat him for over $10 million. Andy has not returned to challenge the poker players since that time. Jennifer played well throughout but it was Phil Ivey who overturned a $10.6 million deficit to Beal into a $6 million overall win.

You would be wrong, however, to dismiss Jennifer as a lucky poker player who has led a charmed life. She has had more than her share of problems and has had to bounce back from numerous health difficulties including organ failure. In 2004 she was forced to take a year off from poker when she suffered from kidney failure. Her niece donated a kidney to Jennifer that saved her life and she fortunately made a full recovery. During her time off she founded Creating Organ Donation Awareness (CODA) and she is also an active fundraiser for the NSPCA. She has raised well over $1 million for charitable causes she supports.

Jennifer is involved with Full Tilt Poker but is one of the less high-profile members of the team. She continues to play high stakes cash games and according to reports, continues to be profitable in the highest stakes cash games. She regular appears on TV shows like Poker After Dark and High Stakes Poker.

By Malcolm Clarke

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