Xuan Liu - the First Woman to Make a PCA Final Table - Signs with 888poker

@Xuan Liu  (she pronounces her name 'shu-on') is a Chinese-born Canadian poker player who made poker history in 2012 as the first woman to make the final table at one of the most prestigious and toughest EPT stops - Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure. Her family immigrated to Toronto, Canada when she was five and had already learned to play all sorts of games of skill and chance. Poker was not among them though and Xuan developed a taste for it as a student at Waterloo University (social development studies and political science) when she realized her studies were not likely to give her the kind of fulfillment and lifestyle she admired and wanted for herself. 

"I was uninterested in the traditional pathway to adulthood for many reasons. I wanted to pursue adventures and environments that would nurture self-discovery, not frivolous diplomas that no longer guaranteed interesting work placements in a rapidly changing economy. My priorities shifted and focused on how I can sustain a lifestyle of freedom and inspiration rather than submissing to the standard pathway to subjective success."

"I improved rapidly after diving myself into whatever poker literature I could get my hands on, and realized there was a plethora of opportunities to make money not just while playing but also in poker as a business." In fact, Xuan's first 'business venture' was a $1/2 home game she hosted (and raked) on campus. 

"In 2010 I was doing well playing small stakes online and incorporated a trip to Macau while visiting family in China. I final tabled two tournaments on my 4-day trip and was given the blessing to focus on poker by my parents. The clincher? If I didn’t achieve an outstanding break-through result in one year I must give up my Bohemian lifestyle and pursue more traditional career paths.

In late 2010 I took my first trip to Europe, chopped an Italian Poker Tour side event, and had two more half a million dollar tournament cashes within months of each other at European Poker Tour San Remo Season 7 and PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Season 8. My family has just about accepted me as a poker player."

Well, Xuan has certainly earned the right to stick with her 'Bohemian lifestyle' and the poker world has gained a bright young talent thanks to this deal with her family, as evidenced by the breakdown below of her $1,391,872 in live tournament earnings since 2007 :)

"All this publicity is nice, but it’s also making me anxious to win something soon. Yes, my lifetime ROI is still pretty sweet and the actual main focus when doing these interviews for me is to draw awareness to the game, but I’d rather take a confidence boost in the form of a final table any day."

So that's exactly what we wish for her and hope she'll share the news of the 'boost' on RankingHero :)