Ladies Poker Association

History in The Making, The Story of JJ Liu

By Kelli Griggs

WPT Season V Bay 101 Shooting Stars, Final Table

The stage was set, the lights were bright, and we were filled with anticipation! Could this be history in the making—the night we’d finally see a female player take the coveted World Poker Tour title? Like fans at a sporting event, the crowd roared as the players came onto the stage and took their seats for the final table taping of the Season V Bay 101 Shooting Stars main event.

In what was apparently a rehearsed cheer, an audience member called out, “Who are you?” And the crowd replied, “JJ Liu,” as our hopeful “JJ”—Joanne Liu— made her way to her seat. Clearly a crowd favorite, JJ triggered a buzz among her fans before she entered the arena. She is known for her keen sense of fashion and passion for hats, so it wasn’t a big surprise to hear people talking about her wardrobe. Through the years she’s appeared in everything from a green Versace, deep-cut Jennifer Lopez-style dress to a traditional hot pink Chinese cheongsam. But tonight she appeared in a conservative classic St. John’s-style knit skirt and a glitzy black jacket that proudly displayed her Full Tilt logo. Her ensemble was topped off with a black woven straw hat.

Those of us who knew her secret realized why she was dressed a bit conservatively. JJ was, in fact, four months pregnant. Her secret, however, was revealed halfway through the taping when tournament director Matt Savage let the cat out of the bag.

“My husband Dan really loves babies,” JJ confided to me during our interview for this article, “but at 41, I felt I was too old to have anymore children. Dan really wanted a child and told me I was still his young hot chic. After great consideration, we tried in vitro fertilization last August. Sadly, we did not conceive on the first try. But it was meant to be because we were successful when we tried a second time in November. I’m so excited—we are having a little girl! I’ve been cautious with the media because of my age and the in vitro procedure. I didn’t want to tell anyone until after the amniocentesis and I knew the baby was healthy. Unfortunately, when you have a bump showing and you’re on national television, people start asking questions.”

JJ is a phenomenon making history in the world of poker. Women make up only about six percent of the total playing field in most WPT events, so the chances are few and far between for one of us making it to a final table past the field of mid- to high-hundreds. In fact, only Kathy Liebert, Mimi Tran, Maureen Feduniak, Jennifer Harman, Suzie Kim, Stacy Matuson, and JJ Liu have actually made it to a WPT main event final table. Newcomer Vanessa Rousso almost made it to the final table at the Bellagio Five-Star World Poker Classic in Season IV, but sadly went out on the TV bubble finishing in seventh place. This is JJ Liu’s second trip to the WPT final table in less than a year, which makes this article incredibly exciting for me to write.

But let me back up a bit and tell you about our girl JJ.

Joanne Jishung Liu—“ JJ” to her friends—was born April 10, 1965, in Taipei, Taiwan. Her father was an assemblyman and encouraged her, her three brothers, and her sister to strive for success in life. JJ came to the United States in 1985 to attend graduate school at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, where she earned a Master’s degree in computer science. She married and put her education to good use working at Space Systems Loral, a satellite manufacturer in Palo Alto, California. After the birth of her children—Shoshana who is 13 and Daniel, now 14—she successfully juggled her demanding career and motherhood. JJ got the poker bug on a skiing trip to Lake Tahoe where she sat in on a 2/4 No Limit Texas Hold’em (NLHE) game in 1996. After that trip she started playing regularly in San Jose at Bay 101 near her Palo Alto home. This hardworking executive and mother of two played poker at night and on weekends and her passion for the game changed her life.

Like so many of us working moms, JJ says poker made her feel alive; the energy and excitement it brought to her life ignited a passion for more. So she did what most of us do when we get a certain level of confidence in the game; she headed to Las Vegas to test her skills in “the big game,” that is, the World Series of Poker (WSOP). She bought into the $2,000 NLHE tournament open event.

“I played really deep, down to about five tables” said JJ. “I almost made the money. I was so driven to succeed that I entered the very next event, the $3000 NLHE, where I ended up taking fourth place.”

Her new passion did not come without sacrifice. Her nine-year marriage ended in 2000, but her love for the game, her career, and her kids kept her going. Sometime toward the end of the year 2004, pain from a persistent back problem and tendonitis gave JJ the excuse she needed to leave her day job finally and pursue playing poker professionally.

Everything started to click for JJ. She continued cashing in tournament after tournament, achieving an astounding 54 cashes to date totaling over 1.4 million dollars. JJ Liu is becoming a household name and—as one of the most personable female players in the industry—she is also an inspiration to female players and working moms everywhere. When I asked her if she preferred playing in mixed events or ladies events she thought for a moment and said, “I just love to play! I like them both. I think playing against women is a lot harder because we think alike and it’s difficult to bluff them off the best hand. But I have a lot of fun playing women’s events because it’s a bit more relaxing. I really enjoy the table talk we have.”

Dan and JJ Dan and JJ's Wedding Day

In 2006, JJ married her best friend and poker pro Dan Alspach. When I asked her how they met she began to laugh. “It’s such a funny story,” she said. “I played my first $10K main event at the WSOP in 1999 after winning my seat in a tournament at Bay 101. Dan was just a guy I knocked out of the main event. For the next several years, every time he saw me he’d jokingly run away screaming that I was his worst nightmare! We became great friends and a group of us would go out to eat and hang out together after tournaments we’d play on the road.” She paused and remembered, “Dan also backed me in the WSOP ladies event in 2003 where I took second place. We have so much in common: we both love the game, playing satellites, going out to eat, and having fun. Dan was a professor at UCSD and intellectually we are a good fit. Most of all, he just makes me laugh and I am truly happy.”

Julie Alspach, Dan Alspach, JJ Liu, Juliana Lee and Neil Liu

Saying that they have a lot of fun together is an understatement! When I asked her about their wedding, JJ told me that Dan loves Star Trek. “Dan is a Trekkie, so for fun we were married in the Star Trek Experience in Las Vegas. Dan dressed in Captain Kirk’s uniform and Juliana, my sister, and I dressed up as Orion princesses. Like I said, we have a lot of fun together.”

JJ made her first WPT final table appearance in Season IV at the Bellagio Five Diamond World Poker Classic in Las Vegas. Her fourth-place finish earned an invitation to the Season V WPT Ladies Night, which filmed in August 2006. JJ competed against Vanessa Rousso, Erica Schoenberg, Anahit Galajian, defending champion Jennifer Tilly and me—Kelli Griggs. JJ’s patience and experience paid off after she went heads up with me to take her first WPT championship win. JJ, of course, will be invited back to the WPT event next year to defend her title.

Now that you know more about JJ and her history, let’s go back to the Bay 101 Shooting Stars main event. With several large cashes, a new marriage, a baby on the way, and a recent WPT championship win, JJ was ready to compete in her third televised WPT event in less than a year. Her friends and family were in the stands to support her. She says she was instantly at peace when she saw her mother Kuei Chi Chang and her sister Juliana Lee arrive just moments before the taping began. JJ is very close to her sister who is a top-producing real estate agent in Palo Alto.

“Chinese families don’t always look favorably on playing cards,” JJ says. “At first my sister was worried that I was in casinos and thought I was simply gambling. She now understands my love for poker and supports me in it. But my biggest surprise was my mother. I wanted her to understand what I was doing for a living, so I taught her how to play. Dan watched her play on a cruise ship and thought she had potential, so he bought her into a few events at the WSOP. Imagine my mom last year—80 years old and not able to speak a word of English—sandwiched between Barry Shulman and Phil Helmuth at the WSOP! Well, to my surprise, she cashed in both events. She took 42/415 in event #7 and 52/1068 in event #4! This is so funny to me because she lives in a retirement community that has security cameras everywhere. She literally has to sneak in the back door when she comes in at two in the morning from playing in a long tournament. After she cashed at the WSOP, I watched my mom get interviewed and I believe it was the highlight of her life. It feels good knowing that my mom understands what I do and why I do it”

James Van Alstyne and JJ Liu

At the final table of the Bay 101 Shooting Stars main event sat poker greats like Ted Forrest, James Van Alstyne, Bill Elder, Vincent Shaw, and local favorite Amir Shayesteh. JJ had her work cut out for her. She was ready to play, but when she stepped onto the stage something inside told her something was wrong. Let’s hear what happened in JJ’s own words:

KG – What was going through your mind at the final table that night?

JJ – “I came into the event very strong and ready to play, but sometime during the first few rounds I began to fear that something might be wrong with the baby. I misplayed a few hands and I was crippled down to about 300-400K in chips. After the break, I made my way back to the table where a friend said to me, ‘It’s not over, JJ, until you say it’s over. You worked hard for this, so don’t give up. FIGHT!’ I thought about what I needed to do, I knew I needed to relax. So, I took a deep breath and I waited for cards, moved my chips in at the right time and suddenly started making a strong come back. I ended up taking the chip lead one pot at a time.”

KG – Are you and the baby okay?

JJ - “We are both doing well. Right after the final hand with Ted Forrest I went to Stanford University’s Emergency Room. I needed to make sure everything was okay. I couldn’t even stick around to be interviewed for the last shot of the show. I was released the next day on bed rest. The doctor said that the sonogram looked fine.”

Ted Forrest and JJ during a key hand of the tournament

KG – Tell us what you were thinking when you held the key hand that changed the outcome of the event.

(Key hand: After a lot of chipping away and even chip stacks for a couple of hours, the key hand of the night occurred when both players hit a huge pot for heads up. JJ Liu raised to 480K from the button and Ted Forrest called from the big blind. The flop came AK7 and both players checked. The turn came 10 and Forrest bet 300K. Liu called and the river came 2. Forrest pushed in on the river for 3.27M and after thinking for awhile Liu called. The players turned up: Ted Forrest K5 Joanne Liu QJ Forrest took the pot with the nut flush to double up. )

JJ – “I honestly thought I was trapping him when I hit my straight on the turn but I misplayed the hand. I should have pushed all in when I hit the ten. He would have folded and never bet all his chips on a flush draw. It was a mistake that really cost me the tournament.”

Ted Forrest and JJ, heads up.

(Just a few hands later both players got all in preflop and Liu had the best of it this time. Liu pushed in from the button for 1.38M and Ted Forrest called immediately from the big blind. The players turned up:
Joanne Liu KJ Ted Forrest K10 . The board came 953J9 and Liu took the pot to double back through to over 3 million in chips.)

KG - You doubled up a few hands later, what was going on inside your head?

JJ – I really wanted to win. I never gave up. I just kept playing the best I could.

Though JJ did not capture the title, she did take her short stack and fight back impressively to take second place. She also made WPT history for playing a record 262 hands over nine hours at a final table; for being the first woman ever to go heads up for the title; and for becoming the highest grossing female money winner of all time, cashing an astounding $600,000 for her second place win. When asked, “What’s next, JJ?” She simply smiled and said, “First place!”

All of us are thrilled with your success, JJ! You are the hope of every working, poker- playing mom out there. We wish you and your family a safe delivery and good thoughts for a successful future.