Brush With Greatness: Jennifer Harman

I happened to be looking for a $1/2 limit table at Full Tilt Poker tonight. As I was looking around for a good table, Jennifer Harman, sat at an empty table. I was lucky enough to get a seat. I bought in for $50, she bought in for $40. It was a full ring game. The table filled up in about 15 seconds. At one point, there were over 70 people on the waiting list.

For those of you who don't know about her, she is considered one of the best poker players in the world. In the book, The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King, Jennifer was one of the top choices by the 'syndicate' to play Andy Beal (the banker) at the $50,000/100,000 limit game. She literally wrote the chapter on limit hold 'em in Doyle Brunson's Super System 2. She is recovering nicely from a fairly recent kidney transplant.

I have seen some of the other professional-poker-playing endorsers at this site. They would hardly ever chat or answer questions from the other players. Sometimes it seems as if they have their 'chat function' turned off. Jennifer, on the other hand tried to answer all questions. She was even answering questions from all of the observers. And, she was fending off marriage proposals. All this while playing this texas hold 'em game and another tournament ($10 7-card stud).

I will never forget the answer that she gave to one of the questions that was asked: What would you say is the main difference between a limit and a no-limit game? "Limit is more like a science. No-limit is more like an art." That pretty much sums it up for me. I tend to play more limit than no-limit.

I was in awe at the way she handled herself during the hour or so that I played with her. She is definitely one class act. I let her know this before I left the table and wished her luck this year at the poker tables.

By the way, when I left, she had $35. I had $65. Woohoo!