According to her website, when Liz Lieu was 13 and began playing Chinese poker with her friends she began a long-term love affair with cards. Born in Vietnam in 1974, she was shortly moved to Colorado by her parents. When she was 18, she and a friend started their own hold’em and pai gow home game. Now she plays 400-800 games and tournaments all over the world.
When Liz’s father had a heart attack she decided she was going to support her parents and moved to Vegas with her 80-160 game and a sizable bankroll. As she was successful and was moving up limits, she ran into some trouble and lost almost her entire bankroll. But, with the help of her good friend John Pham, she focused all her attention on poker and rebuilt her bankroll.
Although Liz was successful at cash games, she didn’t begin to play tournaments until 2005 when John Pham encouraged her to play in some World Series of Poker (WSOP) events. In her first 1500 dollar no limit hold’em tournament she placed 5th for over 168000 dollars. That same year she went on to cash in two more World Series events. Next, she played in the Fiesta al Laga tournament at the Bellagio where she placed fourth in the 2500 dollar no limit hold’em event. She also placed 16th in two other tournaments in the series, giving her over 80000 dollars in the week. She went on to finish in the top ten in four other events that year. Her first big tournament win was at the 2006 LA Poker Classic where she won the 1000 dollar limit hold’em event. Most recently, Liz won the 2007 LA Poker Classic 1000 dollar no limit hold’em event. In less than three years has has made over 650,000 dollars on the tournament scene, making her the 19th largest female money winner of all time.
Through Liz’s beauty and charisma she has recently earned sponsorships and magazine covers such as Maxim’s Total Poker, Women’s Poker Player, Flush, World Poker Tour and Pro Poker France. In late 2007 she signed an endorsement deal with ChiliPoker to rep the website at tournaments around the world. Since the sponsorship she made back to back final tables at the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Macau.
Nicknamed the Poker Diva, Liz is definitely a respectable member of the poker community; she always donates 20 percent of her poker winning to charity. And with 18 major cashes in the last 3 years and a gorgeous face, where can Liz Lieu go wrong? In 2006 Liz was honored by the WSOP and ESPN as a Final Table Grand Marshall. In her introduction she was referred to as the next woman to win a World Series bracelet but for now she is the next Poker Hottie of the Week.