Liz Lieu the Poker Diva : Poker Player

Liz Lieu: The Poker Diva Dishes About Love, Life, and Poker

Professional poker players are a bit like celebrities in that they are in the spotlight and face a reasonable amount of public scrutiny. Not only are their tournament results analyzed, but their personal lives are the subject of blogs, forums, and gossip columns.



Specifically, female pro players are subject to more than their fair share of public chatter. While most male players are almost solely rated on their performance at the tables, women must face gossip about their hairstyles, apparel, attitudes, love lives, business ventures, friendships, even sexual orientation. It is truly a double standard, though women have never been exactly welcomed into poker rooms with open arms by the traditionally male-dominated cliques. Simply put, this is one of the many hurdles women must overcome in their quest to be seen as equals in poker.

Liz Lieu is no stranger to this aspect of poker. As her reputation as a skilled cash game player has grown over the years, not to mention her current growing popularity and tournament cashes that are causing the poker public to take notice, she understands that this kind of scrutiny comes with the territory. She also has a few things to say about it.

"I really don't have time to read the blogs and forums, but my friends tell me what people say," Lieu says. "It's crazy because these people don't know me! It's gossip, plain and simple. I mean, in a way it's flattering to know that people notice me and think I lead a much more interesting life than I really do. [Laughing] But a lot of the things that are said are just not true."

And one of those things is that Lieu nicknamed herself as the Poker Diva. "I didn't give myself that name!" she asserts. "People who knew me and knew my game did that. They thought it was fitting, and I didn't object. So it stuck around over time, and I use it on my website now."

Lieu is happy to clear the air about some rumors, though she feels that as the public gets to know her better through interviews such as this, there won't be so much speculation as time goes on.

The Beginning

Lieu was born in Vietnam, as was her older sister. Their parents came to the United States, specifically Colorado, when the girls were young to provide a better life for them. "My parents worked all the time," Lieu recalls. "They wanted us to have a nice life and be able to have all of the opportunities that other American kids had."

While Lieu was encouraged to do well in school, she didn't exactly comply. She found herself doing anything but homework, and after high school, she quickly determined that college was not going to be on her agenda.

One thing that Lieu had learned as a young teenager, though, was the game of Chinese poker. By the time she turned eighteen, she was well-versed in a number of games and discovered that she had a penchant for not only playing, but running those games for others. Instead of a conventional job, she decided to begin running a home game.

"A friend of mine from San Francisco came to Colorado wanting to start a home game because poker was getting popular at the time," Lieu reminisces. "I knew a lot of people in the area of Colorado where I grew up, and I knew who the gamblers were. [My friend] asked me to be partners with him, and I thought it was a good idea." And they instituted a sizable game in which hold'em and pai gow tiles were played.

About six months later, Lieu's father suffered a heart attack, and Lieu made an momentous decision, one that continues to motivate her to this day. "I told both of my parents to quit working," she remembers. "I was confident that my sister and I could take care of them. It's also part of our culture – to support our parents when we are able. And personally, I had been a bad enough teenager that I felt I owed them nothing less."

Lieu's decision required her to step up her game, so she decided to take her skills and her bankroll to the tables in Las Vegas. It was there that she found herself advancing her game to fairly high limits ($200-$400 and $400-$800), but she also hit a roadblock.

"I met somebody, and it turned out to be a disaster," Lieu says of the relationship that threatened her burgeoning career. "I loved him, so the break-up hurt me in a bad way. My game suffered, and I nearly went broke. Luckily, I had my best friend [John Phan] who was the only one there for me. He told me to take all of the hurt and turn it into strength. He believed in me, and eventually, I believed in myself again, too."

The key to the reconstruction of her career: discipline. Lieu credits Phan with giving her the support she needed, and with her newfound intensity and determination, she was ready to take on the world.

The Challenges

One of the traits that Lieu possesses and has employed to further her career is the ability to embrace challenge. As she rose up through the ranks of cash games, several people, including Phan, suggested that she try tournaments. Not one to shrink from an opportunity, she saw tournaments for their potential to take her career to a higher level and entered a number of events at the 2005 World Series of Poker.

The results were three cashes, including one final table – 5th place and over $168,000 in the $1500 no limit hold'em event, and 12th place and 72nd place in two other major no limit events. With such success at her first serious attempt at tournament competition, she was encouraged to continue.

Lieu then played in the 2006 L.A. Poker Classic and won first place in the $1000 limit hold'em event. The win was especially heartening, as she had promised a friend that she would donate a good portion of the prize money to a charity that benefits people who suffer with MS (multiple sclerosis).

Over the following months, Lieu was approached by MartinsPoker.com, an online poker site led by pro poker player and friend, Martin de Knijff. She was considering offers from several sites, so she sat down with de Knijff for a conversation about the deal. "Martin immediately showed himself to be a kind, humble, smart man in business as I had already known him to be as a friend," she explains. "We ended up talking for over two hours, and when we were done, other members of the Martins Poker team were still waiting patiently for him. That told me enough about him right then – all of his team members were so loyal to him and respected him."

Lieu signed on as part of the Martins Poker team, where she is surrounded by de Knijff, Phan, Patrik Antonius, Henry Demetriou, and Claus Nielsen - to name a few. "They are like family to me," she says. "I feel so comfortable around them, knowing that we're all on the same team."

Playing on the site regularly has been good experience for Lieu, but it was also the source of what was to be a poker battle played out on the felt for everyone to see. During an online $200-$400 game, she came up against one of the leading online players, Erik Sagstrom (Erik123), and a bad run of cards cost Lieu $34,000. Later, she learned that Sagstrom called her a fish in Swedish (his native language).

Soon after, Sagstrom ended up in conversation with de Knijff while in Las Vegas for the WPT World Championship; de Knijff said that Lieu could beat Sagstrom in a live game, Sagstrom disagreed, and Lieu wanted it played out on the felt. They decided to play three matches of $2000-$4000 limit hold'em at the Venetian, each on a different day, and each player was to buy in for $200,000 each day.

The first match on May 5 carried on for over six hours with both players exchanging the lead several times, and by midnight, the match was called with Sagstrom leading Lieu, and it would be continued later. The second match on the following day played just past two hours and was won by Lieu. With time to spare, they continued the first match, which ended up with Sagstrom as the winner. The third match, which would award someone the victor of the series, ended in a hard-fought win by Lieu - the champion and winner of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"I was psyched for the matches, but when the third day came around, I was couldn't catch any cards," Lieu confesses. "I was down to $26,000 at one point, so I went all in with A-J, and I won the hand. The cards started coming my way, I went on an incredible rush, and I won the last match to take the series! It was a great feeling!"

The Present and Future

Despite the stellar start to 2006, Lieu hasn't done as well in recent tournaments as she would have liked, especially during the this year's World Series of Poker. But throughout the summer months, her cash game expertise has persevered and kept her comfortable, to say the least.

While still traveling the tournament circuit, Lieu has many other projects in the works, many of which cannot be disclosed until contracts are finalized. But one that she can discuss, of which she is particularly proud, is her line of posters for sale on her website (www.LizLieu.net).

"I worked such long hours on this project!" Lieu says. "I wanted to make sure that I could give people the highest quality photos for the best price. I talked to so many distributors! Finally, I have posters that I'm happy to sell on my site. And I've already given some away to fans, and they seem to like them!"

There is something else on Lieu's agenda that is working its way into every aspect of her career - donating to charities. She has been touched by the generosity of other players, such as friend Barry Greenstein, and recent charity events that she has attended, like the Baby Hannum benefit for the deceased WPT photographer's fiancée and unborn child (BabyHannum.com), and the Trent Tucker event in Minnesota to which she was invited as a celebrity guest this summer (TrentTucker.org).

"When I made the donation to MS with my winnings from the L.A. Poker Classic, I did it on behalf of a friend whose mother has MS," Lieu remarks. "I got an e-mail from her the very next day, and it really touched me. I knew that I made a difference, and I want to keep doing that."

Lieu has decided to give a percentage of the sales of the posters sold on her website to charities with which she is working, as well as a percentage of her tournament wins. She also has plans to play in a number of charity poker events and make appearances as time allows.

Of course, Lieu would like to eventually meet Mr. Right, and settle down and have a family, but at this time in her life, her career is taking off in more ways than one, and she is intently focused on business and poker. "But I'm always open to meeting new people!" she quickly adds.

Final Thoughts

What else would Liz Lieu like her fans to know?

"I'm just a regular person," she says. "People make assumptions about who I am because of what I wear or how I look, but when they talk to me, they find out that I'm a normal girl who plays poker for a living."

Lieu also feels strongly about the community of women in poker. "I'm always rooting for women to do well in poker. This is a game for everyone, and I wish people wouldn't spread rumors about women arguing with each other when they don't know the whole story. Women can have disagreements without it turning into a big catfight!"

And for the parting thought, Lieu says, "My family and true friends have been so supportive, and I am so grateful for that. But I also love my fans - they e-mail me, put messages on my MySpace page, and say hi to me at casinos, and it really means a lot. I'm just really happy with my life right now."

Written by Jennifer Newell.

Printed with permission from American Poker Player Magazine.