J. J. Liu

Joanne Jishung Liu , mother of two teen age children, and a baby, known as J.J. Liu by her friends and fans, is a professional poker player. Liu was born and raised in Taiwan. After college, she moved to the U.S. to pursue a master’s degree in computer science, graduating from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois. Liu went to work for Space Systems/Loral in Palo Alto, California, one of the world’s top designers and builders of communication satellites.

Because she grew up in Taiwan, Liu was well versed in Chinese gambling games from an early age. However, she had never played Texas Hold ‘em until she entered a tournament at the Bay 101 Casino in San Jose in 1996. Only a few months later, she played in her first World Series of Poker (WSOP) event (a limit Texas Hold ‘Em event) and finished fourth, earning her $32,565. She would go on to finish in the money in more than 40 major tournaments around the world, including nine more cash finishes at the WSOP — including two final tables, and five cashes in World Poker Tour (WPT) open events. Her lifetime poker tournament earnings of over $1.5 million puts her 4th on the all-time list among women, behind Kathy Liebert, Annie Duke, and Jennifer Harman (as of March 2007).

In March 2005, Liu finished first place at a preliminary event of the 2005 World Poker Challenge in Reno, taking home $90,000. In December of that year, Liu took fourth place at the WPT Bellagio Five Diamond World Poker Classic, earning more than $360,000. As a result of her impressive performances, she was the highest-ranked woman in CardPlayer Magazine’s 2005 Player of the Year competition.

In August 2006, Liu won a tournament on television for the first time in her career at the WPT Ladies Night IV event held at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles, where she defeated Kelli Griggs in the heads-up match after having to make a difficult call in the final hand with just one pair of sevens with a king kicker. Three months later, Liu became the first and only woman to finish “in the money” at the inaugural Asian Poker Tour (APT) televised event in Singapore.

Liu achieved the biggest payday of her career when she collected $600,000 for finishing second at the 2007 WPT Bay 101 Shooting Stars event at Bay 101 Casino. This was the highest finish for a female player in any WPT event. Playing with considerable physical pain for most of the television final table, she chose to endure by staying at the table to finish the longest television final table in the five-year history of the WPT before she was eliminated by Ted Forrest after a heads-up match that lasted over two hours.

Liu is sponsored by Full Tilt Poker. She credits her success in poker to reading Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. She is well known for her eccentric fashion sense. In addition to playing poker, Liu is also an accomplished pianist.