This week, PokerStars announced the dates for the 2023 World Championship of Online Poker, set to take place on September 10 to October 4. As one of the largest yearly online poker tournaments, the WCOOP has contributed greatly to the growth of online poker.
In this bracket of popular casino games, poker has also received quite a makeover. Higher stakes and larger payouts are offered by operators like Ignition online poker with exciting bonuses, and the games are also faster which many players prefer. Moreover, the growth of innovative technologies made this industry a developing frontline of the gaming field: Of course, the conversation is about cryptocurrencies and other innovations.
Amid all these developments, women’s-only poker events have been held in recent years to encourage women to join online poker. In last year’s WCOOP, the first women’s-only event at this tournament was held, the $530 Women’s World Championship. The winner was ‘Sjlot’, also known as Charlotte Van Brabander. Other women’s-exclusive events followed at the WCOOP, showing that more women are becoming big fixtures in online poker.
Ahead of this year’s WCOOP, here are 5 women in online poker who changed the game.
Annette Obrestad ‘anette_15’
Anette Obrestad started her career in poker online by winning free roll tournaments. The Norwegian poker player, known as anette_15, won the World Series Poker Europe in 2007 and $1 million in prize money.
In one sit-and-go online tournament, she played she alleged she won by barely looking at her cards and stressed the importance of strategy in the game. After her win in the WSOP European event, she began to elevate her online poker career and traveled to take part in various online tournaments where she was sponsored by online poker sites.
She eventually retired from the poker online poker community but continued her online endeavors. The 34-year-old runs a YouTube channel called ‘Anette’s Makeup Corner’ where she posts makeup tutorials.
Vanessa Kade ‘Niffer’
Vanessa Kade won big at the PokerStars 15th Anniversary Sunday Million, taking home $1.5 million. Her career winnings stem mainly from live tournaments. The Canadian native amassed a following on YouTube streaming her poker games under the username ‘Niffer’.
She recently placed 4th and acquired $527,481 in the 2022 Wynn Main Millions Event. Her live career earnings are estimated to be somewhere around the $1 million mark.
Maria Lampropulos
Maria Lampropulos is one of the higher earners on our list and a legend among online female poker players. Lampropulos proves that women from underrepresented countries and backgrounds can go far in the online poker world. Lampropulos has won $3 million in her career so far and shows no signs of slowing down.
The Buenos Arias beauty has bagged herself the third spot on Argentina’s All-Time Money List thanks to her winnings with online and live poker companies. Lampropulos is a frequent contender in No Limit Hold’Em tournaments.
Poker player Ivan Luca is Lampropulos’ boyfriend and he taught her to play poker. She credits him for her success. Her biggest win was in the 2018 Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure Main event where she won $1 million.
Kristen Bicknell
Canadian-born Kristen Bicknell is a force to be reckoned with in the poker world, having earned over $5 million in her career so far. For three years, she won the Female Global Poker Index Player of the Year from 2017 to 2019.
She is not traditionally an online poker player, having been a high-roller at the World Series of Poker many times. She has won three WSOP bracelets, her first being in 2013 in the Ladies Event in the Ladies No-Limit Hold’em Championship winning $173,922. With the pandemic in full swing in 2020, the WSOP she played online. This did not dampen her success, as she won another WSOP bracelet, once again in a No-Limit Hold’em event!
Previously having been sponsored by a major poker company, she was especially well-versed in the Texas Hold Em’ Variant, No Limit Hold’em. Her lowkey events were also promising as she played earlier on in her career in smaller buy-in tournaments. She has referred to herself as ‘The Ultimate Grinder’ because of the many hands she has played in her online career. She is married to Alex Foxen, also a professional poker player who focuses on high-rolling live poker.
Vanessa Rousso ‘Lady Maverick’
Vanessa Rousso’s online poker career was more prominent back in the 2000s, but she remains an online poker queen. She was a part of a poker team for nine years from 2006 until 2015. Lady Maverick as she called herself, became her online moniker for online tournaments.
Notably, she placed third and was given $700,000 in the 2007 WCOOP tournament. Her live earnings are approximately around $3.5 million! Her signature and very 200s-inspired look were her glamorous sunglasses, cap, and big headphones. She was a spokesperson in favor of regulating online gambling after a visit to the United States Congress in 2007.
A strategic player, there isn’t a game in which Rousso specializes, even though she held a poker guidance camp in 2009 concerning poker strategy. The camp was called “Big Slick Boot Camp”.
Rousso has been heavily endorsed throughout her online poker career, having had big poker sites and teams as sponsors during her tournaments. She has not been playing much since the late 2010s and now has three children with her wife.
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