Think Like a Poker Player

Liv first caught the poker bug when she was picked to take part in a reality poker TV show in the UK back in 2005. Soon after she became a regular host on various poker coverage shows, and it wasn’t long before she was making waves at the table herself. Liv’s first major live cash came when she won the European Ladies Championship in 2008 for $42,000, followed by a string of other impressive money finishes at events around the world. Highlights included an impressive run at the 2009 Five Star World Poker Classic in Las Vegas, where she final tabled two side tournaments and made a top 40 finish in the $25,000 WPT Championship Main Event.

Then came the moment that would change Liv’s life forever, and make the poker world give her the credit her game deserves. Liv travelled to Italy to play at the European Poker Tour (EPT) Season 6 Sanremo event in 2010 – a tournament that proved to be one of the biggest ever, with a packed field of 1,240 runners. After days of intense action, Liv found herself on the final table, and duly went on to crush the remaining players to take the title and a massive seven figure payday, confirming Liv’s status as one of the finest players the UK has ever produced.

Liv Boeree is a science communicator and games specialist. Now, she’s a former professional poker player who has won multiple championship titles on the international poker circuit, and was the #1 ranked female player in 2016. Previously, she studied astrophysics and became fascinated with applying scientific thinking to everyday life. This introduced her to effective altruism: a philosophical movement that uses evidence and reason to identify and mitigate the world’s most pressing problems. In 2014, she co-founded Raising for Effective Giving, a non-profit that fund raises for the most globally impactful charities and research organizations.