With over $764,000 in tournament winnings, there is no doubt that Liz Lieu is a fearsome tournament player. Having had her first taste of Chinese poker at the age of 13, she went on to discover Limit Hold’em at the age of 18 before taking a job as a poker dealer. Armed with first-hand knowledge of the game and psychology of players as a result of her dealing stint, it wasn’t long before she moved to Vegas and turned pro.
The Vietnam-born Poker Diva speaks to Baller in an exclusive interview on how she earned her nickname, the Asian poker scene, and her philanthropic efforts. “I was sitting in a cash game,” she recalls, “and they were discussing nicknames. Finally, somebody said ‘Diva’. I said ‘Why “Diva”?’, and they said it was because they’d never seen me wear an outfit twice, and I have to admit, it’s true.”
At the urging of close friend and poker pro John Phan, Liz made the transition from a limit cash player to No Limit Hold’em tournament scene back in 2005. “It’s tough because poker is a male-dominated game, so of course men don’t think us women can play as well,” she says of her experience in the circuit. “It’s tough for women, especially when we start getting onto the circuit and all that stuff; travelling and playing tournaments, we take a lot of crap – until we can prove our ability, then that pretty much shuts people up.” That, she did – in 2005, she beat 2,300 other players to find herself at the final table of the $1,500 WSOP NLHE event, squaring off against four WSOP bracelet winners in the form of Allen Cunningham, Dave ‘Devilfish’ Ulliot, An Tran and Scott Fischman.
Turning her thoughts to the Asian poker scene, Liz firmly believes that there is huge potential for the game to grow in the region. “Asians are big on gambling. It’s in our blood,” she says, recalling her time in Vietnam watching as the locals gambled on cockfights and soccer games. “I was just in a movie, and we’re hoping that this movie will help (create awareness),” she said of the movie Poker King, in which she was invited to make a cameo appearance.
A committed philanthropist, Liz has been donating 20 percent of her winnings to charity since her first tournament victory. “I don’t just believe in (just) writing a cheque, what I do is go out to Asia, probably three times a year and I do hands-on charity. It’s very fulfilling.”
Hinting at future endeavours, she expresses her interest in fashion – “I’ve always loved fashion, and I’ve actually dabbled in it; I worked with a fashion designer about two and a half years ago to try and get my own clothing brand. So perhaps the time will come when I have to slow things down a bit, I’ll have to make a choice between poker and fashion, but for now, it’s poker.”
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