Candidates for the Poker Hall of Fame must meet all of the following criteria if they are players: they must have stood the test of time, gained the respect of their peers, and have played against the top players, at high stakes, and with consistent skill. Kathy Liebert — one of this year's first-time nominees for the Hall — certainly meets those criteria.
Liebert's claim to entry into this hallowed hall is her long history at the top of the game. She has $6.7 million in live tournament cashes, earned over a period of 28 years of play. In 2002 she won the first-ever limit hold'em event to have a prize pool greater than $1 million. She has a WSOP bracelet to her name, as well as three WPT Main Event final tables, and in 1998 and 2000 she ran deep in the WSOP Main Event, coming 17th both times. Liebert is also already a member of the Women in Poker Hall of Fame.
Liebert was born in 1967 in Nashville, TN. She was then raised in Long Island, NY where she got a degree in business and finance followed by a job in business and finance. When she moved to Colorado for the skiing, she found that the casino near her preferred blue, red, and black runs laid on $5-$5 limit games. She picked up the game fast and pretty soon poker's gain was business and finance's loss.
She is now a resident Las Vegan.
To win the spot on the Poker Hall of Fame's wall, Liebert will have to collect the most votes of the ten candidates. Each of the living members of the PHOF has ten votes and can split them between whichever candidates the member likes in whatever ratios they see fit.
There are sixty members, of which 32 are still living.
If she wins, Liebert will be the fourth woman to join the PHOF along with Jennifer Harman (admitted in 2015), Linda Johnson (2011), and Barbara Enright (2007).
Featured image source: WPT, used under CC license.
