World Poker Tour

JJ Liu “JJ“

Birthplace
Taipei, Taiwan

Hometown
Palo Alto and Las Vegas

Birthday
April 10

Total Winnings
$1,052,023

Joanne Jishing Liu – JJ for short – was born and raised in Taiwan. She graduated from Ming Chuan College and moved to the United States in 1985. She went on to earn her masters degree in computer science at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois. From there, she secureed a job as a computer software engineer for Palo Alto, California's Loral Space Systems, which specialized in communication satellites.

While her childhood consisted of playing various Chinese card games, she wouldn’t become familiar with poker until the 1990s in the U.S. In 1996, JJ visited the poker room at the Bay 101 Casino in San Jose, California, which was the first time she was exposed to Texas Hold’em. She immediately put her intelligence to work figuring out the game, and months later, she played in her first World Series of Poker event. She finished fourth in the $3000 Limit Hold’em tournament, collecting more than $32,000.

Her first victory was in January of 2007 at the Four Queens Poker Classic, and in 2002 and 2003 she found herself at two more WSOP final tables.

JJ made her first World Poker Tour final table in November of 2005 in the $15,000 buy-in Five Diamond main event and finished fourth for more than $362,000. And in August of 2006, she won the WPT Ladies Night invitational tournament to claim her first WPT title. Staying consistent with her performance and ever-improving skills at the tables, she made a serious run at a WPT title at the March 2007 Bay 101 Shooting Stars event. Battling a rough pregnancy during the night of the final table, she played through pain and great discomfort to make it to heads-up action against none other than Ted Forrest. Though she ultimately lost the battle and was rushed to the hospital upon the tournament’s conclusion, she was proud of becoming the highest finishing woman ever on the World Poker Tour. She won $600,000 for that finish and is the only woman to have made over $1 million on the WPT circuit alone. With a healthy baby, a happy marriage to fellow pro Dan Alspach, and a prestigious poker resume, she is on her way to setting more records and continuing to impress poker players and fans everywhere.