Liv Boeree

Olivia “Liv” Boeree was born on July 18, 1984, in Hollingbourne, Kent, England. She attended Ashford School and later earned a First Class Honours degree in Physics with Astrophysics from the University of Manchester. During her university years, she was active in heavy metal bands, playing lead guitar for Dissonance and Nemhaim, and also engaged in modeling for alternative clothing brands such as Alchemy Gothic.

Boeree’s introduction to poker came in 2005 through the reality TV show ‘Ultimatepoker.com Showdown,’ where she received coaching from professional players. This led to a notable professional poker career, highlighted by her victory in the European Poker Tour main event in Sanremo in 2010, earning her €1,250,000. She further solidified her reputation by winning a World Series of Poker bracelet in 2017 in the $10,000 Tag Team No-Limit Hold’em Championship. Throughout her career, Boeree has been a prominent figure in the poker world, being a 3x winner of the Global Poker Index European Female Player of the Year and holding the record for the highest pay-out for a woman in a poker tournament at $2,800,000 in 2024. She retired from professional poker in late 2019 but returned for a significant event in December 2024.

Beyond poker, Boeree is a science communicator and philanthropist. She co-founded Raising for Effective Giving in 2014, an organization promoting effective altruism. Her advocacy extends to farm animal welfare and concerns about artificial intelligence risks. She has shared her insights as a speaker at TEDx and TED conferences, and has appeared on television programs for Discovery Channel and Red Bull TV, discussing science and decision-making. In 2023, she received a Doctorate of Science, Honoris Causa, from the University of Hull for her contributions to STEM education.