Born on November 29th 1964 in Reno, Nevada, Jennifer Harman has been playing poker since the age of… 8 years.
She began by watching her father at poker games, which were regular in their house, and went on to take his place whenever he would lose, managing most times to even win for him. At the age of 16 years, with a fake identification document, she frequently went to poker rooms in Reno, and by the time she graduated the University of Nevada, she had already accumulated thousands of hours of live playing. Although she graduated university with a degree in biology, she gave up a possible career in the field to poker, moved to LA and started to work as a bartender at a hotel. She gave that up only five days later to play fulltime poker at Bicycle Casino. Harman’s decision to move on to professional poker caused her relation with her father to deteriorate, a situation that continued until recently. After two years in LA she decided to give poker up and to start her own business, a bad decision but one that would bring her back on the poker track. Broke after just one year, Harman was forced to get back to the poker table. After a bad period, with an unstable game on low and medium stakes, year 1993 was a lucky one for her. She started to join major tours in the mid 90s, today being one of the most respected women in the poker industry.
TWO CONSECUTIVES AT WORLD SERIES OF POKER
A member of the Full Tilt Poker, Harman is the only woman who managed to obtain two consecutive victories at the World Series of Poker. The first came in year 2000 at the No Limit Deuce to Seven Lowbal tour, and the big prize was worth $146,250. Fate’s irony was that it was actually the first time she had played that game style. All she needed was a fast lesson with Professor Howard Lederer, also a member of Full Tilt Poker. The second WSOP bracelet came in 2002, at the Limit Holdem tour of $5,000, when she left home richer by $212,440. Her list of notable performances also includes placing second at the World Series of Poker Circuit Championship in Rio, fifth at the main event of the Professional Poker Tour, and fourth at the World Poker Tour 5 Diamond Classic Harman was also a part of the “Corporation”, a group of professional poker players who put their money and talent together in games against billionaire Andy Beal. In fact, Harman won for her team $9 million of the billionaire’s money.
CROSSROADS
Year 2004 was significant both for her career and for her private life. Harman withdrew for a while from the world of poker, for a kidney transplant, after having suffered a first such transplant in childhood. In fact, health related problems determined her to set up a non-profit organization, Creating Organ Donation Awareness (CODA), which aims to raise funds and collect info for people who need organ transplants. She is, otherwise, a frequent host of charity poker tours. In March 2009 she organized a two-day event after which $111,000 was raised for the National Kidney Federation, with the help of Curtis and Co Watches and of Dream Team Poker. At the event also took part a big number a poker celebrities. Moreover, the money she makes in tour, both live and online, also go to the Nevada Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA). While absent, Harman wrote the chapter on Hold’em from the famous book Super System II, the Bible of any serious poker candidate. After dating two poker professionals, Howard Lederer and Tod Brunson, Jennifer is now married with Marco Traniello, a former hair-stylist whom Harman is preparing for poker. Together they have two boys, twins. Jennifer can often be seen at tables with the highest limits from Casino Bellagio. She is in fact the only woman playing poker who regularly plays at the Big Game from Bellagio, one of $4,000-$8,000. Poker legend Doyle Brunson says about Harman: “Not only is she the best female poker player alive, but she is also in the elite of poker players around the world”.
ARTE VIZUALE/MEDIA
