Princess Love is not playing any games at the World Poker Tour (WPT) World Championship.
The reality star is one of the 3,835 players that started out in the competition—now she’s made to the final 45. On top of inching closer to winning the lucrative guaranteed cash prize, she’s already made history as the first Black woman to advance that far.
“Originally I just asked one of my cousins to teach me,” said Love. “I always wanted to learn how to play poker and chess. And I’m not a gambler by any means, but once I was introduced to it, I don’t know, I was intrigued.”
She adds: “I just did a bunch of the dailies and the Wynn tournaments to kind of prepare for the big ones,” said Love. “I’ve never done it – [this is] my first $10K event. I kind of just been like doing the smaller tournaments to get my feet wet, get comfortable. And [this run] means a lot, because I’m playing well. I’m not a pro, but I study a lot.”
Data shows that 5.0% of professional poker players are women and 95.0% of professional poker players are men. Most professional poker players are also White, making up 72.8% of the group. Only 8.9% of professional poker players are Black or African American and 7.5% of professional poker players are Hispanic or Latino, Zippia states.
For background, the first-ever WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas required a $10,400 buy-in with participating players bein joined at the table by Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey, Steve Aoki, Brad Owen, Andrew Neeme, and other surprise guests.
