Liv Boeree

Olivia "Liv" Boeree was born on 18 July 1984 in Hollingbourne, Kent, England. She attended Ashford School and went on to earn a First Class Honours degree in Physics with Astrophysics from the University of Manchester. During her university years, she played lead guitar in heavy metal bands Dissonance and Nemhaim and modelled for alternative clothing brands such as Alchemy Gothic.

Boeree first encountered poker in 2005 when she was selected as one of five contestants for the reality TV show Ultimatepoker.com Showdown, which aired on Five. The show paired rookies with professional mentors; her coach was Dave "Devilfish" Ulliott, with additional instruction from Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke. This marked her first exposure to the game, and after the show she began playing small live tournaments with buy-ins ranging from £5 to £50. From 2006 onward, she worked as a journalist and TV presenter for Gutshot TV covering the World Series of Poker, and later reported on the European Poker Tour for Challenge TV and WSOP.com.

Boeree's breakthrough came in April 2010 at the European Poker Tour Sanremo Main Event. Outlasting a field of 1,240 players, she won the title and a first prize of €1,250,000 — at the time the largest poker tournament ever held on European soil. This victory made her the third woman ever to win an EPT event and catapulted her onto the global stage. Later that year, she finished runner-up in a £2,000 No-Limit Hold'em event at EPT London for more than £50,000.

At the 2017 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, Boeree won Event #2: the $10,000 Tag Team No-Limit Hold'em Championship alongside her boyfriend (later husband) Igor Kurganov, earning each $136,982. This gave her a WSOP bracelet, making her the only female player ever to hold both an EPT title and a WSOP bracelet. She has 28 WSOP money finishes, including a 314th-place run in the 2017 Main Event and a 379th in 2018. Her other notable achievements include a 1st-place finish on Poker After Dark in 2017 for $150,000, a 3rd-place result in the 2015 EPT Barcelona High Roller (€391,000), and a runner-up finish in the 2014 UKIPT Edinburgh Main Event. She also won the Ladbrokes European Ladies Championship in 2008 for $42,000.

Boeree was named Female Player of the Year at the European Poker Awards in 2014, 2015, and 2016, and received the "Europe's Leading Lady" award in 2010.

Boeree is known for a tight-aggressive style grounded in mathematical analysis. With her astrophysics background, she emphasizes probability, range construction, and position to make precise decisions. She has described poker as a "game of incomplete information" and advocates a logical, emotion-controlled approach. Her calm demeanor at the table has been a hallmark of her success in high-pressure tournaments.

In 2014, Boeree co-founded Raising for Effective Giving (REG), an organisation that promotes effective altruism by advising donors, particularly in the poker community, on high-impact charitable giving. She is also the host of the Win-Win podcast, exploring decision-making and rationality. In 2018, she delivered a TED Talk on using probability to improve everyday choices. Boeree left Team PokerStars in November 2019 to focus on her science communication and philanthropic work, effectively retiring from professional poker.

After a five-year hiatus, Boeree made a surprise return at the 2024 World Series of Poker Paradise in The Bahamas. She finished fourth in the $25,000 WSOP Super Main Event, cashing for $2,800,000 — the largest payout ever for a female poker player in a single tournament. This result pushed her total live tournament earnings past $6.6 million, placing her among the top five women in poker history. Her unique blend of academic rigor, competitive success, and commitment to rational philanthropy has cemented her legacy as one of the most influential figures in modern poker.