Liv Boeree has just got back to the UK after winning the EPT San Remo 2010.  I managed to catch up with her and ask her how she was feeling, what it was like and if she had any advice for other female poker players.

Em: You just took first place at the EPT San Remo 2010 for over 1.6 million and that all important bracelet.  How are you feeling right now?

Liv: It still hasn’t sunk in, I’ve just got back to England two days ago, I’m aware of all the press that it’s been getting and everything but like I’ve literally this morning had to get up at 6am to go on TV with Lorraine Kelly.   So it’s very surreal but it’s the best feeling.

Em: Winning this is a really important achievement not only because of the money and bracelet but also because you have proved once again that women can be smart, sexy and talented.  How does it feel to be an inspiration to other female players?

Liv: Its great!  I just hope I can prove to everyone and maybe people that feel like they aren’t confident enough to play or that argue that it's a men’s world or that it's intimidating to play, it's not at all, a woman, a good female poker player is just as intimidating as any man at the tables.  I’ve actually had a lot of feedback from the Italian men they were like “I’m scared to play against you in a hand, you keep staring at me and I don’t know what you’re going to do and you keep raising!” 

It’s a nice feeling to know that us girls, we can really push back and show that we’re getting achievements. Its a great year for women, we’ve had Vanessa Selbst winning the NAPT, Annie Duke won the NBC heads up, I won the EPT.  We can start calling it the year of the woman, I think damn right, we’re going to be having a great year, I intend to do a lot more this year and I’m sure we’ll see some other girls do some great things.

Em: Annie Duke gave you poker training in 2008; did she give you any specific advice on how to use being female to your advantage?

Liv: Annie’s training, I remember asking her “is there anything I can use being a woman?” and she said to me basically be aware that you’re woman and be aware that it’s an image that you can actually cultivate and use to your advantage.  She said, I’m not going to teach you how to do that, she said that’s something you’ll learn and develop by yourself.  Her lessons she gave me were all about game theory and the mathematics behind it all, approaches you should take, real like solid theory which was fantastic.  

Em: What advice would you give to other female poker players that are struggling against the stereotype of being weak and emotional? 

Liv: Some good friends of mine, who are male players have actually said to me, look Liv you need to learn to use your image better because you basically will have two things the guys will do against you, they’ll either a) see you as a weak target and just try and play back at you and push you around and think ‘oh she’s not gonna want to gamble with all her chips’ because women generally have an image that we’re less prone to really gamble and mix it up so they’re will put you into that category or b) They’re going to want you to stay around at the table because they want to flirt with you or they like having you around or they think they’ve got a chance of maybe going out on a date with you later or something. They’re actually going to be soft playing you.  So He said you’ve got to decide which category each guy falls into. Obviously there is always going to be a middle ground where there are just good players who just play against you accordingly. 

Em: You are the third woman ever to win an EPT title. How did it feel to be playing in such a male dominated field?

Liv: It’s the best feeling in the world!  Its one of the things I love about this game.  I’ve grown up loving to compete in games you can beat the boys at.  Even my degree in physics, it was a very very male dominated degree, a lot of these degrees like English and so on are mostly women but physics by far the majority was guys.  So I was used to having to compete in exams or in lab work or whatever, against the boys.  It’s something I’ve always thrived upon and really enjoyed and that was one of the things I loved about poker.  I was like; yeah I can go out and prove to these boys that girls are just as good if not better when we really put our minds to it. So yeah it’s a fantastic feeling.

Em: How do you feel about women only poker tournaments?

Liv: I’m very mixed; I have a hypocritical view on it.  I understand why they’re held, in that there are sometimes a lot of women who just play very casually and they actually see it as a good fun time with their girlfriends and as such they only want to play women’s tournaments because they don’t really necessarily have an interest in competing competitively in an open tournament.  But at the same time there is no real reason for women to have a poker tournament.  I can personally understand why a lot of people find it insulting because it’s basically saying they’re like concessions tournaments, like women are less mentally able than men so we have to give them their own tournaments where they feel like they can compete on a level playing field.  That’s not the case; obviously women are not less mentally able than men so I think that on those grounds then no they shouldn’t be.  Its a really difficult thing, I can see the plus’s and the negatives I mean, I don’t like the idea that women have women only tournaments but at the same time I like to play in them because like I said there’s often a lot more casual players in them.  So the fields are often a lot weaker.  That’s not to say that if a women really does apply herself to be a poker player and learn the game and work hard at it then the top female pros are just as good as the top male pros.

Em: Having achieved so much in the 5 short years that you’ve been playing, where do you think you will be in another 5 years time?

Liv: I hope I have a few bracelets to my name; I’d like a WPT title now as well.  I just want to continue working harder and harder.  I’m learning the mixed games; I want to become good at those. I just want to become as well rounded and as good a poker player as I can.  At the same time there are going to be other things that I’m going to be exploring, I love TV work, all sorts of things.  I can’t honestly tell you where I’ll be in five years; I will definitely still be playing poker -  that I can tell you!

Liv demonstrates a good story of girl power, we girls can play just as well if not better than the boys and Liv has proven it once again. 

Congratulations to Liv Boeree, I have absolutely no doubt that we will be hearing much more from her in the future.  A truly inspirational woman poker player!