The Top Women to Watch at the 2024 WSOP

It is true that women comprise only a small percentage of WSOP tournament fields. Statistics are tough to obtain from the WSOP – not available at all in 2023 – but the average percentage of women in any given field appears to remain between 3% and 6%. It is true that the 2023 WSOP Ladies Championship set a new record for entries with 1,295 of them, an increase of 21% from the previous year, women still represent a very low portion of open tournament fields.

With a lack of cooperation from tournament operators in providing gender data, it is nearly impossible to gauge the growth of women in poker. It is unfortunate but true.

Regardless, we can look at the women who have been making waves in tournament poker to speculate as to the ones to watch during the 2024 summer of poker, especially at the World Series of Poker.

Kristen Foxen

Kristen Bicknell was crushing poker online before she took her game live and graduated to high-stakes games. Along that path, she met fellow poker player Alex Foxen, and they’ve been traveling the poker circuits for years.

She consistently dominates the Global Poker Index Female Player of the Year race, having won the GPI POY title several times in that category, including for the 2023 year. Currently, she is second in the 2024 rankings. She won a PokerGO Tour Kickoff event and finished third in another, final tabled the Lucky Hearts Poker Open High Roller, and finished second in a PokerGO Cup event, all within the first five weeks of the year.

Foxen appears primed for another successful WSOP this summer, looking to improve on her eight WSOP cashes in 2023.

Victoria Livschitz

Many consider Victoria Livschitz as one of the players in today’s poker scene with the most potential, not just as a player but on the business side of the industry as well. She is an entrepreneur, supporter of women, and advocate for all who love the game. Not only is she an outspoken advisor for Pocket Queens, she is a co-founder of the new Octopi Poker that merges AI with other poker strategy tools to take poker to a new level.

Meanwhile, Livschitz takes her passion right to the tables and is currently leading the GPI Female Player of the Year race – and sitting in 17^th in the overall POY standings – for 2024. She is on the cusp of showing her best year’s results of her budding poker career, having just won the inaugural PokerGO Tour Texas Poker Open High Roller and final tabled another. She had five cashes at the PGT US Poker Open in April, after several PGT Kickoff final tables in January.

Livschitz is taking a few weeks to handle a health issue before the WSOP, at which time she plans to be ready to have her best WSOP yet.

Cherish Andrews

Currently third in the 2024 GPI Female Player of the Year standings, Cherish Andrews is no stranger to this list. She has emerged as one of the top players in each of the past few years. And with nearly $350K in winnings thus far in 2024, she is on the cusp of surpassing last year’s total earnings.

In March, she won an event at the Wynn Millions and finished third in another, both earning six-figure payouts. She’s had several WSOP Circuit final tables, live and online, and she recently surpassed $2.2M in lifetime tournament earnings.

Last summer in Las Vegas, Andrews locked up a number of WSOP and Venetian DeepStack Championship cashes. This year, it will surprise no one to see her at some final tables and possibly capture a title or two.

Notable Women on the Move

The rest women in the top ten of the GPI Female Player of the Year rankings all have the potential to have incredible summers, but many of them are not based in the United States and may not travel to play the Las Vegas WSOP or other summer tournaments. There are a number of other women who have had other successes in US events recently and should be on everyone’s radar.

• Nancy Birnbaum
• Kasey Mills
• Christina Gollins
• Maria Konnikova
• Jaymie Virtusio
• Kathy Chang
• Jessica Vierling
• Angela Jordison
• Cindy Spier
• Chris Read
• Caitlin Comeskey
• Farah Galfond
• Ashley Frank
• Nadya Magnus
• Loni Harwood

There are inevitably women missed on this list. The poker community – and this author – may be surprised at the successes that will change the game this summer.