It is a common enough story for a professional poker player; as a child they watched and then participated in family card games, learning at home the basic rules and strategies that would one day propel them to the heights of one of the fastest growing and newest of spectator sports. Not many, however, have had to take over a losing game from their father as a preteen- and win.
Understanding how much of an obsession poker was for Jennifer Harman as a child growing up in Reno, Nevada, gives a window into why this petite woman has become one of the most feared pro poker players of the day.On a fateful family vacation, eight-year-old Jennifer Harman watched as her parents and their friends put together a back-room poker game at the hotel they were staying in.
Keeping quiet, hoping her mother would forget that it was passed her bedtime, little Jennifer watched the chips move back and forth and the piles of cash exchange hands. From somewhere inside came a natural understanding of the hands, and she was able to tell which were winners and which were losers. From that moment on she was obsessed with learning the game, dragging immediate family and friends into a few hands every chance she could get.
The next turn in the road to poker stardom came at 13, when during one of her father's home games he called on Jennifer to take over his losing hand. She began to play his position for him and went onto win the game. Jennifer, high on success, began to tutor under a friend of her father's who played regularly at the casinos, and by the time she was 16 she managed to slip into a casino to play. It was on this fateful day she was introduced to Texas Hold'em, which has since become her favorite game.
Now living in California and married, Jennifer has grown up to become a force of nature in the game, despite her diminutive appearance. With two WSOP bracelets to call her own, picked to write the chapter on Limit Hold'em in the much-anticipated Doyle Brunson sequel SuperSystem 2, and often spotted at the Bellagio pushing chips into the biggest limit games there are, Jennifer Harman is living her dream. Her bio, a few articles she has written, and a gallery of poker life photos can be found at her official website, http://www.jenniferharman.com.