Jennifer Harman - Poker Player Bio
If you saw here sitting at a poker table, you would not guess that many consider her one of the most formidable opponents in the poker world. But, no matter what the game, stakes, or structure, Jennifer Harman-Traniello probably has an edge.
Born in Reno, Nevada in 1964, Jennifer played her first hand of poker when she was 8 years old. After proving herself to be a quick learner, her father would put her in his home game to get him back to even, when he found himself stuck.
Jennifers childhood wasnt all fun and poker though as she was diagnosed with a kidney disease that require a transplant. When she was healthy enough, she got her hands on a fake I.D. and began playing regularly in the casinos around Reno as a teenager. The competition at the casinos proved to be much tougher than the opposition she met in her dads home game.
Putting her poker career on hold, Jennifer put her poker dreams on hold to study biology at the University of Nevada-Reno. To pay her bills, she took a job as a cocktail waitress at one of the casinos where she would play with her tips after her shifts were finished. She finished her degree and while most college graduates would be entering the corporate world, Harman took off for Los Angeles and became a bartender. After a few days of work, a friend directed her to the Bicycle Casino and realized that serving drinks was not the profession for her. She began treating poker as a full time job, albeit a fun one, and while it paid her bills and made her happy, her father was none too happy about the decision.
The combination of her father not speaking with her because of her profession, and getting tired of poker, drove Jennifer to head east to start her own small business in Maryland. The business turned out not to be what she had hoped and after failing financially, Harman knew what she had to do and headed back to Las Vegas to hit the tables.
She took a stake from a friend and for a couple years played Limit Hold em games anywhere from $30/$60-$75/$150. As it turned out, Las Vegas poker turned out to be a little too tough for Harman and after a losing year at $50/$100, she took out the last stake she would ever have to worry about. As a result of her poker ability, Doyle Brunson asked her to write the LHE section in his book Super System 2. She was also a member of the Corporation that played heads up LHE against Andy Beal at limits as high as $100,000/$200,000, taking millions from the self professed billionaire poker amateur.
Since then, Jennifer has won two World Series of Poker bracelets, becoming the only woman to do so in mixed events. Her first bracelet came in 2000 when she won the $5,000 buy-in No Limit Deuce to Seven championship, earning $146,250.00. Most impressive about the bracelet was the only experience Jennifer had in Deuce to Seven came from the 5 minutes of tutoring she received from Howard Lederer before the tournament started.
Overall Harman has earned nearly $2,000,000 in tournament winnings and has fared well paying in the big game at Bobbys Room. If you ask her though, her accomplishments in poker pale in comparison to her family life. Her husband Marco Traniello has also become and accomplished player since marrying Jennifer, and they have twin boys together. So dont be fooled is you see a 52 100 lb. blonde woman crouching at a poker table, her poker game is bigger than she is.
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