european poker tour woman

10 Of The Best Female Poker Players In The World 2024

Who are the best poker players in the world? The list below reveals 10 of the best women in the game , alongside details of some of their biggest victories and professional accomplishments .

Looking for more? Check out our  poker player profiles , as well as our list of the  best male poker players .

Vanessa Selbst, New York, $11m+

Twitter –  @VanessaSelbst

With winnings that comfortably put her on top of the all-time female winners’ list, Vanessa Selbst’s position at the top of our list is likely to be assured for some time.

Her record boasts over a dozen high-profile tournament victories including multiple  WSOP  bracelets, as well as wins in European Poker Tour, North American Poker Tour and World Poker Tour events. She is also the only woman so far to have topped the Global Poker Index, a worldwide ranking of poker players.

Selbst retired from poker in 2018 to pursue a career in law, but her accomplishments in poker will surely take some beating.

What her winnings could buy

Spend the rest of her life  sailing the world  on a luxury cruise.

THREE OF HER BIGGEST TOURNAMENT WINS

September 2, 2010 – Cannes

€8,500 No Limit Hold’em – Partouche Poker Tour Main Event

January 12, 2013 – Bahamas

$25,500 No Limit Hold’em High Roller – PokerStars Caribbean Adventure

June 27, 2015 – Las Vegas

$100,000 No Limit Hold’em – Super High Roller Celebrity Shootout

Kathy Liebert, Nashville, $6.8m+

Twitter –  @Pokerkat

Liebert has been a regular presence at the WSOP tables since the 1990s, with her first WSOP final table coming back in 1997.

A bracelet winner in 2004, she has also amassed dozens of tournament victories in Las Vegas and throughout California, while her biggest win to date was a $1,000,000 first prize at the PartyPoker Million Cruise in 2002.

In addition to her successes at the WSOP, Liebert also has winnings of almost $2m in WPT events. She was inducted into the Women in Poker Hall of Fame in 2010.

A  $32,000 car  in every country  in the world.

March 17, 2002 – Caribbean

$8,000 Limit Hold’em, PartyPoker Million Cruise

March 16, 2009 – San Jose

$10,000 No Limit Hold’em, WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star

September 19, 2005 – Atlantic City

$10,000 No Limit Hold’em Championship Event, WPT Borgata Poker Open

Kristen Bicknell, Ontario, $6m+

Twitter –  @krissyb24poker

Canada’s Bicknell has been busy on the tables since discovering poker at college, rising to become the number 1 ranked female for live tournaments in 2017. Extensive experience in online games gave her the bankroll and the knowledge to challenge the best in the world in live tournament play, and her live results include multiple WSOP bracelet wins.

A former sponsored pro for PartyPoker, Bicknell has also appeared on numerous televised poker games including ‘Poker After Dark’, and has won the Global Poker Index Female Player of the Year award on multiple occasions.

Enter the  WSOP Main Event  every year for 560 years.

November 9, 2019 – Las Vegas

$25,000 No Limit Hold’em, Poker Masters

January 6, 2019 – Bahamas

$25,000 No Limit Hold’em, PokerStars Caribbean Adventure

June 27, 2016 – Las Vegas

$1,500 No Limit Hold’em Bounty Event, WSOP

Maria Ho, Los Angeles, $4.5m+

Twitter –  @MariaHo

Ho has been a part of the professional poker scene since her breakthrough at the 2007 WSOP where, as the last woman standing, she finished 38th for a score of $237, 865.

Since then, she has become a successful tournament regular, clocking up multiple cashes at the WSOP (including eight in-the-money performances at the 2014 World Series) as well as a WPT title in her native LA. When not playing high stakes games, this Taiwan-born pro also lends her skills to various poker broadcasts as a commentator.

Stay at Vegas’ 5*  Bellagio Hotel every night  for 50 years.

June 2, 2011 – Las Vegas

$5,000 No Limit Hold’em, WSOP

April 12, 2019 – Hollywood, Florida

$3,500 No Limit Hold’em, World Poker Tour

March 5, 2019 – Los Angeles

$25,000 No Limit Hold’em, Commerce High Roller

Annie Duke, Oregon, $4m+

Twitter –  @AnnieDuke

Duke may have retired from the world of high stakes poker, but the former leading female money winner at the WSOP still casts a long shadow, with tournament winnings that see her take 4th place on this list despite not playing for a decade or more.

Duke was encouraged to take up poker by her brother, WSOP bracelet-winner Howard Lederer, and has since coached others in the finer points of the game – notably including actors Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.

She’s made multiple WSOP final tables, with her bracelet win coming in 2004’s $2,000 Omaha Hi-Lo event.

A  Mercedes-Benz  for herself and 126 of her closest friends.

September 1, 2004 – Las Vegas

No Limit Hold’em Tournament of Champions, WSOP

March 5, 2010 – Las Vegas

$20,000 No Limit Hold’em, NBC National Heads-Up Championship

November 13, 2004 – Mashantucket

$10,200 No Limit Hold’em, World Poker Tour Finals

Annette Obrestad, Norway, $3.9m+

Twitter –  @Annette_15

The Norwegian phenom hit the ground running with a poker career that allegedly started online at the age of 15, claiming that she never once made a deposit but rather managed to build a professional bankroll via freerolls.

Aged 18, and finally able to play poker legally, Obrestad travelled to the UK to play the inaugural World Series of Poker Europe. Winning the Main Event the day before her 19th birthday gave Obrestad the record as the youngest ever bracelet winner.

She has recently enjoyed a different kind of success, creating popular makeup and beauty content on Youtube and Instagram.

600 Cartier  watches.

September 10, 2007 – London

£10,000 No Limit Hold’em, WSOP Europe

October 30, 2007 – Dublin

€8,000 No Limit Hold’em, European Poker Tour

March 21, 2011 – Las Vegas

$5,170 No Limit Hold’em, Wynn Classic

Liv Boeree, Kent, $3.8m+

Twitter –  @Liv_Boeree

England’s Boeree, known affectionately as the ‘Iron Maiden’, got her start in poker thanks to the help of former WSOP champion Phil Hellmuth . The coaching she received from Hellmuth as part of a reality show gave her the knowledge and passion to pursue a career which has encompassed notable wins on the European Poker Tour and the WSOP.

Boeree’s focus has shifted in recent years to content creation and public speaking, but her accomplishments as a poker player cannot be ignored, and with career tourney winnings of more than $3m she is fully deserving of a place on our list.

Over 7,500   tickets to  Coachella.

April 15, 2010 – Sanremo

€5,300 No Limit Hold’em, European Poker Tour Main Event

August 25, 2015 – Barcelona

€25,500 No Limit Hold’em High Roller, European Poker Tour (3rd place)

August 24, 2017 – Las Vegas

$25,000 No Limit Hold’em, Poker After Dark Season VIII

Vanessa Rousso, New York, $3.5m+

Twitter –  @VanessaRousso

French-American Rousso turned pro in 2005, and despite a career that’s taken in significant diversions into DJing, music production and reality TV (she was a contestant on season 17 of ‘Big Brother’), her tournament winnings are still sizable enough for her to take 8th place on our list.

While she hasn’t yet won a bracelet event, Rousso’s results at the WSOP have been positive, with cashes recorded every year from 2005 to 2016. In 2017 Rousso announced a break from poker to concentrate on music projects.

Fly to  space 14  times.

May 1, 2009 – Monte Carlo

€25,500 No Limit Hold’em, European Poker Tour Grand Final

December 3, 2010 – Las Vegas

$10,000 No Limit Hold’em, Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic

September 13, 2006 – Atlantic City

$5,200 No Limit Hold’em, World Poker Tour Borgata Poker Open

Joanne ‘JJ’ Liu, Taiwan, $3.5m+

Twitter –  @jjliu9065

This Taiwanese-Californian picked up poker while working as a software engineer in Silicon Valley, and has been chalking up tournament victories since the mid-1990s.

Over a decades-long professional poker career, Liu’s results include wins on the World Poker Tour, the Asia Pacific Poker Tour and at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, while her best WSOP performance to date saw her finish runner-up in a mixed Hold’em/Stud event in 2003.

Liu’s busy schedule sees her continue to record more and more tournament wins each year, so don’t be surprised to see her rise up the rankings in our top 10 list!

1,300 Super Bowl  tickets.

March 12, 2007 – San Jose

$10,000 No Limit Hold’em, World Poker Tour Bay 101 Shooting Star

December 12, 2005 – Las Vegas

$15,300 No Limit Hold’em, Five Diamond World Poker Classic

May 24, 2014 – Macau

HK$100,000 No Limit Hold’em, Asia Pacific Poker Tour High Roller

Victoria Coren Mitchell, London, $2.5m+

Twitter –  @VictoriaCoren

The UK’s Coren Mitchell may be best-known to her compatriots as a writer and broadcaster, with a string of successful television and radio credits to her name as well as numerous magazine and newspaper columns.

As a poker player, she became the first woman to win a European Poker Tour Main Event when she took down EPT London in 2006. She then became the first player to win two EPT Main Event titles when she won EPT San Remo in 2014.

1440  Macbook Pro  laptops.

September 21, 2006 – London

£3,550 No Limit Hold’em, European Poker Tour Main Event

April 14, 2014 – Sanremo

€4,900 No Limit Hold’em, European Poker Tour Main Event

March 14, 2013 – London

£10,300 No Limit Hold’em, European Poker Tour High Roller

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How Europe’s First Female Poker Champ Made History and Learned to Compete With the Guys

B ritish journalist and professional poker player Victoria Coren Mitchell made poker history for the second time in her career on Sunday, when she won the European Poker Tour and became the first person ever to win the tournament twice. The first time she broke records was with her win in 2006 when she became the first woman to take the title.

Though she might not be a household name in the U.S. — yet! — Coren Mitchell is a prolific writer, penning columns in the Observer and books such as 2011’s For Richer, For Poorer: Confessions of a Player . She’s also a part of British media royalty: her father, Alan Coren, was a legendary journalist, she’s married to comedian and U.K. television star David Mitchell and her brother, Giles Coren, is a writer for the London Times . With her latest poker victory, she’s also one of the all-time top 10 female earners in the game.

Coren Mitchell spoke to TIME about her win, learning the game and why you shouldn’t play poker with your spouse.

TIME: Victoria, hello. Congrats on your second win of the European Poker Tour!

Victoria Coren Mitchell: Oh, thank you very much.

When you won back in 2006, you became the first woman to take the title. Now you’re the first person – man or woman – to win it twice. How does it feel?

It feels incredible. I can’t really believe it. Obviously, when [I won] the first time and I was the first woman to do so, that was great too. It was a different sort of barrier to break. [This time] there were 97 EPT champions – only three of them women—all fighting to be the first one to win twice. I don’t think anyone thought it would be me who would get there – including me.

At one point during the tournament, you were in eighth place. When did you know you were going to win it?

When I knocked out the player who came third, Jordan, the American guy, I had a wave of thinking, my God, I’m going to win. We’d been playing for six days – it’s a long tournament – and at no point did I think I was going to win it. I had the lowest chips when there were 16 of us and I had the lowest chips when there were eight of us. To find myself with just one opponent when I had most of the chips, the writer in me thought, what kind of story would this be if I didn’t win it now?

I’m generally a pessimist and I try to be self-deprecating because that’s the British way, but when there were two of us, [I knew] that I was playing really well. Also, what they call Heads Up poker — where there are just two people at the table — I’m quite good at. When the play started I felt in control and I did think, I can outplay this guy. So when I won I was actually quite calm. I thought, yes, that’s what was supposed to happen. It was only the next morning when I woke up that I thought, what on Earth happened there?

In addition to being a champion poker player, you’re a busy journalist with columns in the Observer and British GQ and regular appearances on the BBC. What do you consider your primary job?

I really don’t know anymore. I don’t if I’m a writer who plays poker or a poker player who writes. I don’t know whether TV fits in at all.

I do feel incredibly lucky to be making a living at things I love doing. I never wanted poker to be a job. That’s partly because I love it and it’s fun and I didn’t want it to stop being fun and partly because, I suppose, something in me doesn’t feel right about calling poker a job . It’s not grown-up enough. But it’s a hobby that takes up an enormous amount of my time.

So when you fill out, say, customs forms when traveling you can just put “luckiest person alive” under occupation.

[ Laughs ] The problem with that is I’m really frightened of flying, so if I put “luckiest person alive” on a form before getting on a plane something terrible would happen.

You are a pessimist.

[ Laughs ] I really am!

Speaking of professions, you come from a very prominent family in British media – how did playing poker even come about?

Back in the old days, my brother [Giles Coren, writer for the London Times ], who is three years older than me, would play poker with his friends in the kitchen and I just wanted to meet boys. I was at an all-girls school and I thought if I learned how to play this game, I’d get to spend time with boys and figure out what they’re like. Then I found that I was absolutely gripped by the game.

It happens or it doesn’t with poker. My husband [David Mitchell, the British comedian and star of Peep Show and The Mitchell and Webb Look ] tried playing poker and he just found it really stressful. He didn’t enjoy it. People do or they don’t and I really did. I sat down to play cards with my brother when I was about probably 14 and I never really got up from the table.

So if your husband finds poker so stressful, I guess that means he never plays with you?

I don’t think that would be good for a marriage to play poker against each other. I mean, some people would say marriage is one long poker game against each other but I would say in the Mitchell sense, it wouldn’t be a good idea.

One final question: what’s your number one poker tip for beginners?

My number one tip is never play for an amount of money you can’t comfortably afford. That’s not just a moral thing — obviously people shouldn’t do anything they can’t afford and that doesn’t matter if it’s buying a car or a pair of shoes or getting into a poker game. But also, from a practical point of view, in poker you can’t win if you’re frightened. So you’ve got to play for an amount of money you can lose without it damaging you, because otherwise you’ll play scared and it’ll come to no good.

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Victoria Coren Mitchell - Writer, Broadcaster & Poker Player

• Tournament Results
• Poker Advice

Victoria Coren Mitchell is the first (and so far only) two-time winner of the European Poker Tour.

She has been playing poker since she was a teenager and has accrued official lifetime tournament winnings of $2m+ (see “tournament results”, above). She became the 2006 European Poker Champion after winning the London EPT, and was the first woman to win an event on the European Poker Tour. In April 2014, she won the EPT San Remo and became the first double EPT champion.

She has also won a series of Celebrity Poker Club on Challenge TV, making her possibly the only person to win both a professional and a celebrity poker competition - and definitely the only person who has had to beat Phil Ivey to win one tournament and Roger de Courcey to win another.

Victoria plays regular cash games at the Victoria Casino in London and tournaments on the international poker circuit, especially the EPT and the UK & Ireland Poker Tour.

She has also played on Late Night Poker and Premier League Poker for Channel 4, and various other televised poker games on Sky Sports, as well as presenting or commentating on various poker series and writing a weekly poker column for The Guardian newspaper.

For the full story, you might enjoy Victoria’s new memoir For Richer, For Poorer: A Love Affair With Poker , which can be found on the ‘books’ page.

For two different depictions of a woman pulling out all the stops to make a guy shove with the worst hand - and that woman ageing seven years in between - watch:

Last hand of EPT London 2006

For a description of the Victoria Casino (read by Victoria), click here .

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The Top 20 Female Poker Players of All Time

Gone are the days when poker was strictly “for the guys.” The ladies have arrived, and these female poker players are amazing!

Take, for example, Barbara Enright. Enright was the first woman inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame, in 2007, right alongside “Poker Brat” Phil Hellmuth. Impressively, Enright is the only woman to have made a World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event final table, ultimately finishing in fifth place . Enright was also the first woman to win three WSOP bracelets, and only Linda Johnson (2011) and Jennifer Harman (2015) have managed to win that many since.

In every poker room and in every major poker event you can see the changing tide. Many more women have taken up the game since the poker boom of the 2000’s during which time poker became more accessible both online and live.

Not only are more women playing poker, the best of them rival the best male players. In fact, for the first time in a dozen years, two women, France’s Gaelle Baumann and Norway’s Elisabeth Hille, cracked the top-20 in the WSOP Main Event. Baumann finished on the bubble in 10th place, while Hille finished just behind in 11th. Unsurprisingly, their prowess and WSOP success led to huge sponsorship deals.

And let’s not forget female celebrities like Jennifer Tilly, Shannon Elizabeth, and Mimi Rogers, who are very public about their enthusiasm for poker and are skillful players in their own right.

More tournaments, more success, and more money . Let’s take a look at the top female poker players according to the all-time money list.

Note: Level-up your poker strategy with the 10 Laws of Live Poker . This free guide reveals powerful tactics that are extremely effective in live cash games. Plus, mental game tips that will help you stay cool and confident even when you're running bad. Get the 10 Laws for free now!

Top female poker players honorable mentions

First, a shout out to 11th through 20th places:

20. Allyn Jaffrey Shulman (USA)—$1.47 million

19. Esther Taylor-Brady (USA)—$1.51 million

18. Lucille Cailly (France)—$1.55 million

17. Barbara Enright (USA)—$1.6 million

Enright after winning the Women in Poker Hall of Fame celebration tournament.

16. Mimi Tran (USA)—$1.62 million

15. Clonie Gowan (USA)—$1.64 million

14. Maria Constanza Lampropulos (Argentina)—$1.71 million

13. Sandra Naujoks (Germany)—$1.79 million

12. Xuan Liu (Canada)—$1.95 million

11. Maria Ho (USA)—$2.43 million

And now, the top ten female poker players of all time

Drum roll, please. According to the Hendon Mob , here are the top ten female poker players of all time based on tournament winnings.

10. Victoria Coren Mitchell (UK)—$2.47 million

Mitchell was the first player to win two European Poker Tour (EPT) Main Event titles (2006 London and 2014 Sanremo.)  She was also the first to win a televised professional event (EPT London 2006) and a televised celebrity event ( Celebrity Poker Club) .

In addition to writing poker columns and providing commentary for several British poker series, Mitchell plays a few tournaments each year, and makes most of her income in cash games.

Watch Mitchell win her unprecedented second EPT title:

9. Loni Harwood (USA)—$2.5 million

Harwood playing heads-up for a WSOP bracelet. (Photo via Pokernews )

Harwood is one of the most consistently successful grinders on the tournament circuit. She has won two WSOP bracelets (2012 and 2013), both in No Limit Hold’em events.

Harwood has also made five WSOP final tables, was in the money 14 times, and has had money finishes in both the WPT and EPT.

8. Jennifer Harman (USA)—$2.74 million

Jennifer Harman is one of the most well known and successful female poker stars in history . In addition to her two WSOP bracelets, Harman boasts a whopping 12 WSOP final table appearances and 32 money finishes, as well as two WPT final tables and 14 money finishes.

Harman was a regular on Poker After Dark and High Stakes Poker , and she is the only woman to regularly play at the Bellagio’s high stakes cash game known as the “Big Game.”  As previously mentioned, Harman was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2015.

Having undergone two kidney transplants, Harman is very active on the charity circuit. She founded the non-profit Creating Organ Donation Awareness (CODA), and hosts various charity poker events with proceeds going to the National Kidney Foundation.

Here’s a hand that showcases Harman’s tenacity.

 7. Joanne Liu (Taiwan)—$3.1 million

Joanne ‘JJ’ Liu came to the United States in 1985 to attend college. One day in 1996, Liu ventured into San Jose’s Bay 101 Casino and took up a new and soon-to-be-very-lucrative hobby.

In 2004, Liu quit her job to pursue poker full time, and has since proven herself as one of the most exceptional professional female poker players . Among Liu’s accomplishments are ten WSOP and five WPT cashes, a win at the 2006 WPT Ladies Night IV, a 2nd place finish in the 2007 WPT Bay 101 Shooting Stars tournament. She is also the only woman to finish in the money at the Asian Poker Tour’s (APT) inaugural event.

6. Vanessa Rousso (USA)—$3.56 million

Nicknamed “Pokerness” and “Lady Maverick,” Rousso’s impressive poker career includes 17 WSOP money finishes, two WPT final tables, and numerous appearances on Poker After Dark . Rousso has also been voted among the sexiest poker players in the world, and has several major endorsement deals, including GoDaddy and PokerStars. An avid student of game theory, Rousso has also written for American Poker Player .

Rousso has also accomplished two things very few people have: placing 3rd on the TV game show Big Brother and she got Tony G. to shut up for once after beating him in a hand . Who else has those bragging rights? Take a look , and try not to laugh too hard.

5. Liv Boeree (UK)—$3.57 million

Another of the most famous female poker players today is Liv Boeree, who got her start when she appeared on Ultimatepoker.com Showdown in 2005. Adding to her success, Boeree was coached by Annie Duke, Phil Hellmuth, and Dave Ulliott.

Boeree was both a player and an on-screen reporter at the WSOP, EPT, and WSOP Europe. She is the only female poker player with a WSOP bracelet and  an EPT championship. Boeree also won the European Poker Awards’ Female Player of the Year in 2014, 2015, and 2016, based on her Global Poker Index points during those years. 

Watch an ecstatic Boeree launch her career by winning €1.25 million at the 2010 EPT San Remo: 

4. Annette Obrestad (Norway)—$3.93 million

This Scandinavian poker prodigy began her online poker career at the tender age of 15 under the name “Annette_15”. During 2005 and 2006, she won nearly $1 million on PokerStars, UltimateBet, and Full Tilt . She was once ranked best in the world on PocketFives .

One day before her 19 th birthday, Obrestad won the inaugural World Series of Poker Europe Main Event for an impressive £1 million. Since then she has won a WSOP bracelet, made ten money finishes, and made a European Poker Tour (EPT) final table.

3. Annie Duke (USA)—$4.27 million

Annie Duke, a.k.a. the “Duchess of Poker,” has had quite a career. ( Poker runs in Annie’s blood, apparently–many know her as Howard Lederer’s younger sister. )

Her first run at major tournaments was at the 1994 WSOP, where she managed three excellent showings, including a 14th, 5th, and 26th in the Main Event. Afterward, she and her husband moved to Las Vegas to continue her poker career.

In addition to a 2004 WSOP bracelet, Annie won the WSOP Tournament of Champions and the 2010 National Heads-Up Poker Championship as well as being able to boast 38 WSOP and four WPT money finishes. For some time Duke was the leading money winner among women in WSOP history until Vanessa Selbst came along to claim that title.

2. Kathy Liebert (USA)—$6.17 million

Kathy Liebert at the WSOP (Photo via CardPlayer )

PokerKat Kathy Liebert has made an incredible six WPT final tables, including enjoying a 3rd place finish in the 2005 Borgata Poker Open. She also won a WSOP bracelet at the 2004 $1,500 Limit Texas Hold’Em Shootout, and has an impressive 47 WSOP money finishes.

Her highest WSOP Main Event finish came in 2000, where she placed seventeenth. Liebert still plays tournaments and currently resides in Las Vegas, Nevada.

1. Vanessa Selbst (USA)—$11.85 million

At just thirty-three years young, Brooklyn-born Vanessa Selbst can easily be called the best woman poker player in the world.

Selbst ranks #1 on the female poker player money list and #41 on the all-time list. She boasts three WSOP bracelets, eight final tables, 20 money finishes, and two WPT final tables. Her highest WSOP Main Event money finish was 73rd in 2012, and she is the only woman to have won three bracelets in WSOP open events.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Selbst also holds a J.D. from Yale University–talk about an overachiever!

So, I think it’s clear, and safe to say, that poker is no longer a boy’s game.  Who are your favorite female poker players? Please comment below.

Until next time.

Read more from Upswing Poker:

• Who is Annette Obrestad? – 7 Top Poker Moments from Annette_15
• PokerGo and the Top 5 Poker Central Shows
• How Did Jungleman Daniel Cates Become So Successful?

Natalie Faulk

Natalie Faulk is a Las Vegas-based freelance writer/blogger and the author of several books. She is an avid low-stakes (for now) poker player and huge Vegas Golden Knights fan.

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Victoria Coren Mitchell makes poker history with San Remo victory

Her introduction to poker came when as a teenager she joined a game, using her pocket money as a stake, in an effort to fit in with her brother's friends.

Now Victoria Coren Mitchell has made history by becoming the first two-time winner of one of poker's most prestigious tournaments.

The writer and TV presenter took home £391,932 in cash and a watch worth more than £4,000 after overcoming the odds to win the European Poker Tour in San Remo, Italy .

"I WON! I bloody WON!!!!!!" she tweeted after a finale in which she fought back from eighth place. She added: "Sorry for that language on Easter Sunday. But I WON!!!!!! That is at least partly thanks to the amazing support, God bless everyone."

A member of the elite Team PokerStars Pro, Coren Mitchell rose from relative unknown to poker superstar in 2006 when she became the first female winner of the European Poker Tour. Her second victory, on Sunday night, takes her lifetime winnings to £1.43m and puts her in the all-time top 10 of female poker players.

Speaking from her hotel room in San Remo on Monday, Coren Mitchell said she felt "a sense of vague bafflement and joy" at the win, which she hopes will inspire millions more Britons to play the game once associated with seedy clubs and crooks.

"The big thing for me is trying to fly the flag for people who are playing poker primarily for fun and have another job. I want those people to feel they have a chance at winning," she said.

"You don't have to be a full-time professional, or a teenage maths graduate who studies videos all day long.

"It's an incredibly inclusive game, for men and women, for old or young. I've played with the blind and people in wheelchairs, we can all do it. I want women to feel encouraged and not be put off but the bigger thing is everyone should feel very welcome."

While some poker champions would celebrate their jackpot with a night on the tiles, Coren Mitchell, 41, instead went back to her hotel with her husband, the comedian David Mitchell, and ordered room service. She did, however, manage to see off a bottle of wine at the poker table.

The journalist, who writes for the Observer and presents BBC4's quiz show Only Connect, has the reputation of being one of the most popular – and respected – players on the poker circuit.

"I think I'm quite quirky in poker because there still aren't many women playing big tournaments," she said.

"I have another job and I sit at the table drinking wine and chatting. Poker's a strange game because it's face-to-face combat and we're trying to knock each other out and take each other's money but at the same time we're all friends."

Ross Jarvis, editor of PokerPlayer magazine, said Coren Mitchell's win came at a time when professional poker veterans are fighting it out with a new generation of online whizzkids, many of whom have won millions before they turn 20.

"You have players who are the best in the world who are well-known in poker, then there are so many young players who you won't have heard of until they burst on the scene. Within the hardcore, there are people as famous as Victoria but when it comes to the mainstream she's in a league of her own," Jarvis said.

Coren Mitchell, the daughter of the late Alan Coren, a broadcaster, and sister of Times journalist Giles Coren, has said she first played poker to fit in with her brother's "big, brash, confident" friends – and to double her weekly pocket money.

Howard Swains, who writes about poker, said it was difficult to think of a more popular champion. "Coren Mitchell is without question the best known poker player in the UK and her endeavours in the media – she is a journalist, television personality, film director and all-round raconteur – have endeared her to huge swaths of the mainstream," he said.

"Poker is going to enjoy an enormous uptick in popularity, clinging on the coat tails of this sensational triumph."

Winning hand

Victoria Coren Mitchell triumphed over 555 competitors to win the San Remo leg of the European Poker Tour, one of the three biggest poker tournaments in the world. The total prize pool for the week-long event was £2m, of which Coren Mitchell scooped £391,932 and four others won six-figure sums.

The European Poker Tour, launched by PokerStars.com 10 years ago in a Barcelona casino, is now a global fixture in the poker calendar alongside the World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour.

The Las Vegas-based World Series of Poker remains the grandaddy of all the tournaments, handing out £132.2m in prize money in 2012 and sponsored by the gambling monolith Caesars Entertainment.

With total winnings of £1.43m, Coren Mitchell sits ninth in the list of the all-time female poker earners – one place behind Liv Boeree, the 29-year-old TV presenter from Kent.

Coren Mitchell's second European Poker Tour victory propels her to 22nd place in England's rankings and 355th in the world rankings. The American maverick Antonio "The Magician" Esfandiari is the No 1 all-time poker earner, with total winnings of £15.6m (including a £10.9m jackpot in July 2012, the largest cash prize in the history of the game).

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The Rise of Women at the WSOP: A Look at the Female Players Making Waves

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Women at the 2023 WSOP

At last year’s summer camp, primarily focusing on the 2022 World Series of Poker and women-only tournaments in Las Vegas during “Ladies Week,” the participation of women felt substantial. People in poker were gifting seats into the WSOP Ladies Championship and some open WSOP events. When awaiting numbers from events that provided them, many of us who follow these trends expected an uptick in female participation across the board.

It did not happen.

This year, the final numbers remain to be seen. But there are positive signs.

WSOP Women’s Record

Prior to 2023, the record for the WSOP Ladies Championship was 1,286 players in 2007. There were no reentries then, so that was the exact number of women who played the $1K buy-in event.

The number fell slowly over the years. Black Friday played a role, as did the introduction of reentries. Participation dipped below 1,000 in 2012 and dipped to a low of 696 in 2018, a low not seen since prior to the poker boom. A substantial rebound began in 2019, however, pushing the number of entries to 968. The pandemic then prompted a drop to 644 in 2021, but a post-pandemic boom skyrocketed participation in 2022 to 1,074 entries.

This year, the numbers rose again. The final tally of 1,295 entries set a new all-time record and showed a 21% increase from 2022. While there is no official breakdown of the number of unique players versus reentries this year (or in any year), the overall number is positive.

Women Making Waves and Dollars

The best way to gauge the success of women at the 2023 World Series of Poker is by the WSOP’s own statistics . Even that is difficult, however, when the WSOP misgenders players. Early weeks showed Harley Brooks as the only woman with a bracelet this year, but Brooks is a male player. They fixed that error, but the latest statistics show Loren Cloninger in the top 10 women by earnings…and Cloninger is a male player as well.

The rest of the listings appear to be correct.

It is no surprise that Kristen Foxen tops the women’s earnings list for the 2023 WSOP. She has accumulated six cashes thus far, most in larger buy-in tournaments:

• $5K NLHE/PLO (Event 6) = 7 th place for $69,683
• $5K NLHE Freezeout (Event 12) = 26 th place for $18,569
• $25K NLHE High Roller (Event 16) = 12 th place for $79,335
• $50K NLHE High Roller (Event 23) = 18 th place for $81,983
• $100K NLHE High Roller (Event 29) = 10 th place for $187,069
• $1,500 NLHE Millionaire Maker (Event 53) = $1429 th place for $2,400

These cashes put her lifetime earnings at $6,478,087. While she still trails Kathy Liebert ($6,845,729) and Vanessa Selbst ($11,906,247), Foxen has been a consistent winner for many years. She is currently leading the Global Poker Index 2023 Player of the Year race by a wide margin, on her way to possibly winning the award for a fourth time. She held the title from 2017 through 2019.

Nice run by @krissyb24poker in the WSOP $5k NLH/PLO Mixed Tournament. She finished 7th out of 568 players for a nice pocket filler of $69,683. Job well done, Congratulations! @WPAGlobal @mjbloech @flip_ladies 📸Poker News pic.twitter.com/hWcpuOIDL7 — Sherry Pluskota aka Peaches (@SherryPluskota) June 3, 2023

With the exception of the man listed in the top 10 of women’s earnings, the list is as follows through the first 75 events of the 2023 WSOP:

1. Kristen Foxen (Canada) $439,039

2. shannon fahey (usa) $269,841, 3. angelina rich (australia) $209,366, 4. sarah herzali (france) $207,720, 5. jennifer craddock/abad (usa) $193,103, 6. tamar abraham (usa) $192,167, 7. tracy nguyen (usa) $171,389, 8. jj liu (taiwan) $164,847, 9. shiina okamoto (japan) $122,838.

*The third player on the list, Angelina Rich, is shown in the WSOP list as representing the USA, but she is an Australian player.

*The eighth player, JJ Liu, is shown in this list with a United States flag, but the Hendon Mob database shows her representing Taiwan.

*The fifth player on the above list is shown as Jennifer Abad on the PokerNews results and Jennifer Craddock in the Hendon Mob database.

These people found an overnight t-shirt printing shop to get these shirts for Jennifer Abad in the Mini Main Event, currently 4-handed. pic.twitter.com/rgQ6HGiMu1 — Kevin Mathers (@Kevmath) July 4, 2023

Women Cashing Tournaments

Another way that the WSOP sorts players is by cashes during the 2023 WSOP. This includes live and online tournaments that occur during the summer series.

Loni Harwood, also known by Loni Hui since she married several years ago, sits atop that list through 75 events with 10 cashes. Her first cash was in Event 3 and her top finish thus far was at the final table of the $1,500 PLO-8 (Event 66) tournament, where she finished sixth for $44,391.

The list of top cashers thus far is:

• Loni Harwood (10)
• Cherish Andrews (8)
• Maria Ho (7)

From that point, the following players are listed with six cashes each:

• Kristen Foxen
• Angela Jordison
• Camille Brown
• Esther Taylor-Brady
• Shirin Oskooi

*There may be more players with six cashes, but the WSOP website only lists the top 10.

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European Poker Tour - EPT

The European Poker Tour (EPT) is Europe's richest and most popular poker tour. The EPT was created in 2004 by PokerStars. Over the course of its history, it has seen stops held in some of the most spectacular European destinations, such as Monte Carlo, London, Berlin, Barcelona and more.

Now into its 20th year, the tour continues to attract some of the best poker players from around the world.

Creation of the European Poker Tour

The poker boom in the early 2000s saw immense growth in televised poker such as the Late Night Poker, the Poker Million and the World Poker Tour. The European Poker Tour (EPT) was created by John Duthie , winner of the inaugural Poker Million.

EPT Season 1 (2004-05)

The very first EPT was held in Barcelona and was won by Alexander Stevic for €80,000. Stevic would go on to finish third in the inaugural season's Grand Final held at the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort for €178,000.

The Grand Final was won by the Netherlands' Rob Hollink for €635,000.

There were seven events in the inaugural season with two British and two Dutch players grabbing titles.

EPT Season 2 (2005-06)

The second season of the EPT also had seven events, with the only change being a switch from Baden to Vienna. Patrik Antonius won the new EPT Baden only two months after winning the Scandinavian Poker Championships.

Meanwhile, there were wins for both Mark Teltscher and Mads Andersen in their "home" EPTs in London and Copenhagen respectively.

EPT Season 3 (2006-07)

The first ever EPT live-reported by PokerNews took place in March 2007 in Dortmund, as Andreas Hoivold won €672,000 after defeating a field of 493 players.

EPT Dortmund was one of eight stops in Season 3 with other notables grabbing titles including Roland de Wolfe (pictured) and Gavin Griffin , both of whom would go onto achieve poker's Triple Crown (winning EPT, WPT and WSOP titles).

EPT Season 4 (2007-08)

The big names were out in force on Season 4 of the European Poker Tour, with Mike McDonald (pictured), Jason Mercier and Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier bagging titles. Grospellier won his EPT title at the inaugural PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) for a cool $2,000,000.

This season was book-ended by two other seven-figure first prizes with Sander Lylloff winning the season-opening EPT Barcelona (denying Mark Teltscher a second EPT title heads-up), and Glen Chorny winning over €2m in the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo.

EPT Season 5 (2008-09)

There was no let-up from the EPT with another 11-event schedule for the fifth season. The EPT record of 1,136 set at the PCA in Season 4 was broken not just by the same event in Season 5, but also by EPT Sanremo.

Stories from Season 5 include Will Fry winning his first major tournament at EPT Budapest, Sandra Naujoks becoming the second female EPT champion and the first champions from Portugal and Italy.

Read More: Looking Back at the European Poker Tour - The Early Years

EPT Season 6 (2009-10)

By Season 6, the EPT had grown to include 13 destinations, the most stops in its history. Many players who would go on to become EPT regulars won titles in Season 6, including Jake Cody and Liv Boeree who would enjoy successful spells as PokerStars Team Pros.

In March 2010, future WSOPE Main Event winner Kevin MacPhee won the EPT Berlin Main Event. However, the festival is notable for the tournament venue being robbed by a group of armed men in the middle of the tournament. Play was suspended for several hours and two weeks later, a suspect surrendered to German authorities .

Read More: Armed Robbery Suspends Play at EPT Berlin (2010)

EPT Season 7 (2010-11)

Season 7 of the EPT would start just like previous seasons, but by the end of the season, the poker world would be rocked by the events of Black Friday in April 2011.

Galen Hall would win the largest PCA Main Event ever for $2.3 million, defeating 1,560 players in the process. Future Triple Crown winner Robert Romanello won his EPT title in Season 7 at EPT Prague, while there were three other British champions in the shape of Toby Lewis , David Vamplew and Rupert Elder .

EPT Season 8 (2011-12)

Season 8 was the final season with 13 stops on the calendar. It was also the only time the series visited Greece for EPT Loutraki, and that Campione held an EPT festival.

Three Danes picked up EPT honours in as many festivals as Mickey Petersen , Frederik Jensen and Jannick Wrang all won EPT Main Events. This was followed by Davidi Kitai 's victory at EPT Berlin, the first by a Belgian on the European Poker Tour. This also marked the only occasion that a player has completed poker's Triple Crown by winning an EPT title. He became the fifth winner of poker's triple crown.

Read More: Looking Back at the European Poker Tour Part Two - Berlin Robbery and Black Friday

EPT Season 9 (2012-13)

By 2012, the EPT was beginning to focus on several core stops as part of the tour. This included Barcelona as the season-opener, Prague and the PCA straddling the turn of the year, and the Grand Final in Monte Carlo rounding out the year.

Mikalai Pobal and Dimitar Danchev won the first EPT titles for Belarus and Bulgaria respectively, while Steve O'Dwyer won the EPT Grand Final Main Event for €1.2m. This victory, along with several other major scores, puts him at the top of the EPT all-time money list with almost $12.5 million in earnings.

EPT Season 10 (2013-14)

Season 10 of the European Poker tour was a historic one, with Victoria Coren-Mitchell sensationally clinching victory at EPT Sanremo to become the first two-time EPT champion . Coren-Mitchell followed up her victory at EPT London in Season 3 with another victory, defeating Giacomo Fundaro heads-up to win €376,100.

Like in previous seasons, several EPT regulars finally got their hands on Main Event glory including Robin Ylitalo and Dominik Panka , with Sotirios Koutoupas becoming the first Greek EPT winner.

EPT Season 11 (2014-15)

Up until 2015, Spain had yet to win an EPT Main Event. That all changed with the EPT Grand Final as Adrian Mateos secured victory just two years after winning the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) Main Event at just 19 years old.

The EPT also visited Malta for the very first time, with Jean Montury securing victory. This was also the last time the EPT visited London and Deauville, which between them held 20 EPT festivals.

EPT Season 12 (2015-16)

The European Poker Tour returned to Dublin for the first time since Season 5, with young Polish phenom Dzmitry Urbanovich (pictured) clinching victory.

Future WSOP Main Event winner Hossein Ensan won EPT Prague, while former John Juanda became the second former WSOP Europe Main Event winner to taste EPT Main Event glory.

EPT Season 13 (2016)

There were just three EPT festivals held in 2016. Sebastian Malec won EPT Barcelona in sensational fashion , becoming the second Polish player to win an EPT Main Event.

Read More: Looking Back at the European Poker Tour Part Three

PokerStars Championship

In 2017, PokerStars announced it was to overhaul its live tournament schedule . As a result, the European Poker Tour was rebranded as the PokerStars Championship.

There were seven PokerStars Championship festivals:

• Monte Carlo

The PokerStars Championship was discontinued after one season, with the EPT brand returning once more .

2018 EPT Season

The EPT returned in 2018 with five stops including the first trip to Russia, with a visit to Casino Sochi. Arsenii Karmatckii became only the fourth Russian to win an EPT title, before the tour returned to stops in Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Prague.

2019 EPT Season

In 2019, the European Poker Tour was unusual, in that it held the same five stops as the previous year. This is the first time the tour had done this, and as a result it saw increased Main Event numbers in three of the five festivals.

That included the 2019 EPT Barcelona Main Event with a staggering 1,988 entries - almost as many entries as the inaugural EPT season attracted. The event was won by Sweden's Simon Brandstrom for almost €1.3 million.

Then, at EPT Prague, Mikalai Pobal became the second two-time winner on the EPT after defeating 1,154 players to win the EPT Prague Main Event.

2020 EPT Season

In 2020, there was only one live European Poker Tour festival held as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Ruslan Bogdanov took down the EPT Sochi Main Event title for $175,743 after a heads-up deal with Viktor Tkachenko .

Additionally, there were 20 tournaments held online at PokerStars as part of the inaugural EPT Online . Sweden's "WhatIfGod" won the $5,200 EPT Online Main Event for $1,019,082 after defeating Timothy Adams heads-up.

Read Full Live Updates from the EPT Online

2021 EPT Season

The only EPT held in 2021 was again in Russia. The 2021 EPT Sochi Main Event was won by Artur Martirosian for $325,316.

2022 EPT Season

Following the coronavirus pandemic's end, the EPT returned to normality, with five stops occurring throughout 2022. There were two stops in Prague, Czech Republic, and the tour returned to London, England, for the first time in eight years. The EPT also visited regular destinations, such as Monte Carlo and Barcelona.

The EPT returned with a bang, with several events breaking attendance and prize pool records throughout the year. The 2022 EPT Barcelona Main Event became the biggest of all time, with 2,294 entries recorded. Italy's Guiliano Bendinelli was the victor in that tournament and pocketed the €1,491,133 allocated for first place.

2023 EPT Season

Two brand new stops were announced as part of the 2023 EPT season, with Paris becoming the 13th different European capital to host a stop on the European Poker Tour, and popular poker destination Cyprus getting in on the action. Additionally the first PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in four years was held, with Michel Dattani emerging victorious.

There were stories aplenty as PokerStars qualifier Razvan Belea dominated in Paris and Canada's Mike Watson became only the third two-time EPT champion in history with victory in Monte Carlo, seven years after previously taking down the 2016 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) Main Event .

Another monster EPT Barcelona Main Event saw Simon Wiciak crowned champion, before PokerStars 'Dare to Stream' winner Gilles Simon became the inaugural winner of EPT Cyprus. The year was rounded out in stunning style with a memorable comeback for popular Irish player Padraig O'Neill who overcame Jon Kyte heads-up after the Norwegian had held a near unassailable chip lead.

2024 EPT Season

If the 2024 EPT season looks familiar, it's because it is. For the first time since 2019, all five stops have been retained for 2024 with the EPT returning to 2023 newbies Paris and Cyprus, while old stalwarts such as Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Prague remain on the schedule.

Did you know? You can win your way to the European Poker Tour through Power Path - click here to find out more!

EPT All-Time Money List

Stats correct as of January 1, 2024)

Top 10 Largest EPT Main Events

Top 10 ept first place payouts, european poker tour destinations.

The European Poker Tour has visited 23 destinations in 18 countries across Europe, not including the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure held in the Bahamas from 2008-19.

The destination that has hosted the most EPT festivals is Barcelona, closely followed by Monte Carlo who hosted the EPT Grand Final in every year from 2004-16 (apart from 2011 where it was held in Madrid).

• 17: Barcelona, Spain
• 15: Monte Carlo, Monaco; Prague, Czech Republic
• 12: London, United Kingdom; The Bahamas
• 9: Deauville, France
• 8: Copenhagen, Denmark
• 7: Sanremo, Italy
• 5: Dublin, Ireland
• 4: Berlin, Germany; Sochi, Russia; Warsaw, Poland
• 3: Baden, Switzerland; Dortmund, Germany; Malta; Vienna, Austria
• 2: Madrid, Spain; Salzburg, Austria; Tallinn, Estonia; Vilamoura, Portugal

Only six destinations have held just one EPT festival: Budapest, Hungary (2008); Kiev, Ukraine (2009); Loutraki, Greece (2011), Campione, Italy (2012), Cyprus (2023) and Paris, France (2023). This will of course change once Cyprus and Paris hold their second events, schedule for 2024.

European Poker Tour (EPT) Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Three players have won multiple EPT Main Even ttitles: Victoria Coren-Mitchell was the first, followed by Mikalai Pobal. In 2023, Mike Watson became the third player to have won two EPT titles.

The largest EPT Main Event was at EPT Barcelona in August 2022. Giuliano Bendinelli topped the 2,294-entry field to win €1.5m.

The biggest EPT first prize came at the EPT Grand Final, Monte Carlo in May 2009. Pieter de Korver defeated 935 players to win €2.3m.

The largest PCA Main Event was in January 2011. Galen Hall defeated 1,560 players to win $2.3m.

The biggest PCA first prize came in January 2009. Poorya Nazari defeated 1,347 players to win $3,000,000

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Boatman the Goatman at EPT Paris

Who created the european poker tour.

The European Poker Tour, also known as the EPT, was created by John Duthie and was first held in 2004. The first event took place in Barcelona and was won by Alexander Stevic for €80,000

How much does it cost to play in the EPT?

European Poker Tour Main events are typically priced at €5,300, however the tournament schedules include a wide variety of tournaments with buy-ins as low as €330.

Who was the first female winner of an EPT main event?

Victoria Coren-Mitchell was the first woman to win an EPT main event, claiming the title at the Vic in London during season 3 of the tour. She also was the first player to win two EPT titles, after she secured the EPT Sanremo main event seven years later.

Madonna Is Only Woman to Achieve This Boxscore Feat as The Celebration Tour Wraps

Madonna played the final shows of The Celebration Tour, closing her six-month trek with $225.4 million and 1.1 million tickets sold over 80 shows, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore.

The Celebration Tour is Madonna's sixth trek to gross more than $100 million. The only other acts to achieve this are the Eagles , The Rolling Stones , Bruce Springsteen and U2 , making her the sole woman in this elite group.

The Queen of Pop first announced The Celebration Tour in January 2023, with a planned start date in July of last year. But a medical emergency delayed the North American leg by five months, instead starting in Europe in October. There, she played 27 shows in 10 countries, finishing with $77.5 million and 429,000 tickets.

By year's end, Madonna played three shows in Brooklyn and two in Washington, D.C., before resuming the North American leg with 42 more shows from January through April. In the U.S. and Canada, she earned $133.1 million and sold 616,000 tickets, sending the tour's total figures beyond $200 million and 1 million tickets.

Finally, Madonna went to Latin America for the first time since 2016, as part of the Rebel Heart Tour. Five shows at Mexico City's Palacio de los Deportes grossed $14.8 million and sold 82,400 tickets.

In all, The Celebration Tour's $225 million finish marks Madonna's highest-grossing tour in over a decade. While in Europe, it surpassed her theater experiment on the Madame X Tour ($51.5 million in 2019-20). And during her North American leg, she partied past the Rebel Heart Tour's $169.8 million from 2015-16.

Madonna's recent high dates back to 2012's MDNA Tour, which grossed $305.2 million and sold 2.2 million tickets. That trek played many of the same American arenas as The Celebration Tour, but took her to Europe's outsized outdoor stadiums, plus a lengthier stadium run throughout Latin America. Her biggest tour ever was the one before that, earning $407.7 million from 3.5 million tickets on the Sticky & Sweet Tour (2008-09).

The apples-to-apples improvement over the Rebel Heart Tour – Madonna's most recent all-arena run – combines an uptick in ticket prices ($162.42 –> $199.93) with a 12% increase in average per-show attendance count (12,750 –> 14,274).

That average attendance is missing an obvious asterisk. After playing her final show in Mexico City, Madonna staged a free concert at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, marking her first stop in the city since a Dec. 2, 2012, performance on the MDNA Tour. The show's gargantuan success does not factor into her official Boxscore results because it was a free event, but it's plenty worth noting that she drew 1.6 million people – roughly 40% more than the combined attendance of her entire tour. According to concert promoter Live Nation, it's the largest audience ever for a stand-alone concert by any artist in history.

The Celebration Tour pushes Madonna's reported career total to $1.6 billion and – without accounting for the Brazil show – 12.8 million tickets.

More from Billboard

• Madonna Wraps Celebration Tour With Record-Setting Free Concert in Rio de Janeiro

Fans are following Taylor Swift to Europe after finding Eras Tour tickets less costly there

Thousands of Taylor Swift fans are following her across the pond after missing out on her U.S. concert tour last year or being put off by marked-up ticket prices

LONDON -- Thousands of ride-or-die Taylor Swift fans who missed out on her U.S. concert tour last year or didn't want to buy exorbitantly priced tickets to see her again found an out-of-the-way solution: Fly to Europe.

The pop star is scheduled to kick off the 18-city Europe leg of her record-setting Eras Tour in Paris on Thursday, and planeloads of Swifties plan to follow Miss Americana across the pond in the coming weeks. The arena where Swift is appearing said Americans bought 20% of the tickets for her four sold-out shows. Stockholm, the tour's next stop, expects about 10,000 concertgoers from the U.S.

A concert might sound like an odd raison d’etre for visiting a foreign country, especially when fans can watch the Eras Tour from home via the documentary now streaming on Disney+. Yet online travel company Expedia says continent-hopping by Swift’s devotees is part of a larger trend it dubbed “tour tourism” while observing a pattern that emerged during Beyoncé's Renaissance world tour.

Some North American fans who plan to fly overseas for the Eras Tour said they justified the expense after noticing that tighter restrictions on ticket fees and resales in Europe made seeing Swift perform abroad no more costly — and potentially cheaper — than catching her closer to home.

“They said, ’Wait a minute, I can either spend $1,500 to go see my favorite artist in Miami, or I can take that $1,500 and buy a concert ticket, a round-trip plane ticket, and three nights in a hotel room,” Melanie Fish, an Expedia spokesperson and travel expert, said.

That was the experience of Jennifer Warren, 43, who lives in St. Catharines, a city in the Niagara region of Ontario. She and her 11-year-old son love Swift but had no luck scoring what she considered as decently priced tickets in the U.S. Undeterred, Warren and her husband decided to plan a European vacation around wherever she managed to get seats. It turned out to be Hamburg, Germany.

“You get out, you get to see the world, and you get to see your favorite artist or performer at the same time, so there are a lot of wins to it,” said Warren, who works as the director of research and innovation for a mutual insurance company.

The three VIP tickets she secured close to the stage — “I would call it brute-force dumb luck” — cost 600 euros ($646) each. Swift subsequently announced six November tour dates in Toronto, within driving distance of Warren's home. "Absolute nose-bleed seats" already are going for 3,000 Canadian dollars ($2,194) on secondary resale sites like Viagogo, Warren said.

Travel and entertainment analysts have spoken of a pent-up consumer demand for “experiences” over material objects since the coronavirus pandemic. Some think the willingness of music lovers to broaden their fandom horizons is part of the same mass cultural correction.

“It does seem like it’s more than a structural shift, maybe a personality transformation we all went through,” said Natalia Lechmanova, the chief Europe economist for the Mastercard Economics Institute.

As Swift hopscotches across Europe, Lechmanova expects restaurants and hotels to see the same boost that Mastercard observed within a 2.5-mile (4-kilometer) radius of concert venues in the U.S. cities she visited in 2023. The U.S. dollar's strong value against the euro may also increase retail spending on apparel, memorabilia, beauty products and supplies for the friendship bracelets fans exchange as part of the Eras Tour experience, the economist said.

Former college roommates Lizzy Hale, 34, who lives in Los Angeles, and Mitch Goulding, 33, who lives in Austin, Texas, already had tickets to see the Eras Tour in L.A. last summer when they decided to try to get ones for Paris, London or Edinburgh, Scotland, too. They saw a Europe concert trip as a makeup for travel plans they had in May 2020 to celebrate Goulding’s birthday but had to cancel due to the pandemic.

Goulding managed to secure VIP tickets for one of Swift's three Stockholm shows. He, Hale and two other friends scheduled a 10-day trip that also includes time in Amsterdam and Copenhagen.

“As people who enjoy traveling and enjoy music, if you can find an opportunity to combine the two, it's really special,” Hale said.

In Stockholm, 120,000 out-of-towners from 130 countries -- among them 10,000 from the U.S. — are expected to swarm Sweden's capital this month, Stockholm Chamber of Commerce Chief Economist Carl Bergqvist said. Stockholm is the only Scandinavian city on Swift's tour, and airlines added extra flights from nearby Denmark, Finland and Norway to bring people to the May 17-19 shows, he said.

The city's 40,000 hotel rooms are sold out even though prices skyrocketed for the tour dates, Bergqvist said. Concert visitors are expected to pump around 500 million Swedish kroner, or over $46 million, into the local economy over the course of their stays, an estimate that does not include what they paid for Swift tickets or to get to Sweden, he said.

Houston resident Caroline Matlock, 29, is making friendship bracelets and trying to learn a few words of Swedish as she prepares to see the 3 1/2-hour show in Stockholm. Also on the itinerary: visiting the Scandinavian cities of Oslo and Gothenburg.

The concert is the last night of the trip and Matlock looks forward to interacting with Swifties from other countries: “Americans tend to have a very obsessive culture, especially Taylor Swift-related, so I'm curious if the crowd will be more toned-down.”

It remains to be seen if the music tourism trend has legs as long and strong as Swift's and Beyoncé's, and if it will carry over to Billie Eilish, Usher and other artists with world tours scheduled next year. Expedia's Fish thinks other big-name artists in Europe this summer will prove that booking a foreign trip around a concert is catching on.

Kat Morga, a travel consultant based in Nashville, isn’t so sure. Morga saw Swift perform in Nashville last year and helped two clients with school-aged children book European family vacations this summer that include seeing Swift in concert. But she thinks the difficulty of navigating ticket purchases through language barriers, currency conversions, international banking regulations and the risk of cancellations will limit the appeal of regular gig getaways.

“I think this is an anomaly,” Morga said. “People aren’t typically going to build their $20,000 huge family vacation only because Taylor Swift is there. She’s the one-off. She’s special.”

Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel, whose company operates Booking.com, priceline.com, agoda.com, Kayak and OpenTable, is even less enthusiastic about concert tours as a tourism instigator. The Swift Effect causes a “little blip” when the superstar goes to smaller destinations, but for the worldwide travel industry, “one star touring around does not make a difference,” he said.

AP journalists Colleen Barry in Milan, Chisato Tanaka in Stockholm, Anne D'Innocenzio in New York, David Koenig in Dallas, Thomas Adamson in Paris and Brian Melley in London contributed reporting.

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Fans head to Europe to see Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour since tickets are cheaper

Taylor Swift NEWARK, NEW JERSEY - SEPTEMBER 12: Taylor Swift attends the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards at the Prudential Center on September 12, 2023 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images) (Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)

LONDON — Taylor Swift’s fans who couldn’t afford tickets or get tickets to her Eras Tour in the United States are heading to her tour in Europe.

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On Thursday, Swift will be kicking off her 18-city Europe part of her Eras Tour with Paris as the first stop, according to The Associated Press.

Her Paris shows will be at the La Defense Arena, Billboard reported. The arena said that Americans purchased about 20% of the tickets for their four sold-out shows, according to the AP. Stockholm is expecting around 10,000 Americans.

“They said, ‘Wait a minute, I can either spend $1,500 to go see my favorite artist in Miami, or I can take that $1,500 and buy a concert ticket, a round-trip plane ticket, and three nights in a hotel room,” Melanie Fish, an Expedia spokesperson and travel expert, said, according to the AP.

The final nine United States shows ticket prices increased since Swift dropped her latest album “The Tortured Poets Department” on April 19. The lowest price available is around $2,600, according to data from TicketIQ per Billboard.

In Europe, tickets cost $340 each, or about 87% less than in the United States, according to Billboard .

Photos: Taylor Swift through the years Here are some memorable photos of Taylor Swift through the years. (Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for MTV)

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Harry Kane’s mask slips – now we finally see how much his trophy curse means

England captain is still one of the giants of European football – trophies or not

At the Bernabeu on Wednesday night, the television cameras caught Harry Kane watching the last few moments of Bayern Munich’s late meltdown from behind one of the high-backed dugout chairs and briefly let slip the customary mask of composure.

Kane is an unusual modern footballer in that he rarely permits himself to convey a flicker of vulnerability in the difficult moments. For the hundreds of hours he has spent on a pitch, it is hard to recall much overt Kane despair beyond the occasional bout of staring into the mid-distance. Yet as the Real Madrid comeback unfolded on the pitch he slumped, pressed his forehead dolefully into the seat in front of him and could no longer watch.

Harry Kane's reaction as his Bayern team crashed out of Europe 💔 pic.twitter.com/53y8gUjAtG — Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) May 8, 2024

At 30, of course, and still without a trophy, his tale is one of the compelling stories of football. How the great English goalscorer of his generation ended up with nothing by this stage of his career is a remarkable outcome. He will doubtless win something domestically eventually at a dysfunctional Bayern, still without a manager for next season, yet – even so.

He has been the star of a Tottenham side that was the best at the club in two decades. The star of an England side that was the best the country had known in at least 30 years. Now he is the leading light in a Bayern team that has given up a dominant position in Germany for the first time in 12 years. Which all goes to show that the art of trophy winning can be hard to decipher.

On all occasions the margins were fine. Real are on the brink of six Champions League titles in 11 years in a Uefa competition the club still seeks to dismantle. They have not always been the best team in every edition they have won, but these things can gather a strange momentum.

Kane’s goalscoring has been monumental. He has developed into the dominant all-round striker that the English game has rarely produced. His eight goals and four assists in the Champions League this season once again mark him out as one of the giants of the European game . That there is not even a League Cup to show for it is indicative more of the perils of career planning than any reflection of his capabilities.

The six-year contract that Kane signed, aged 24, at Spurs before the World Cup finals in the summer of 2018 made the player a very wealthy young man and handed the club all the power. One trophy at Spurs might have been worth five to Kane elsewhere. Also, that one of the clubs outside the wealthiest Premier League elite could hold onto a player of his standing was great for the competition. But was it great for Kane?

That his career development was slower than many others in the elite meant that his first big contract was signed later in the usual career arc of a leading player. Had he signed it in 2016, then the dynamics would have been different, but all that is gone now.

What remains is the lesson of how ruthless leading players must be in the brief flourishing they have at the elite level. Kane knew in 2018 that he was to be less than a month from his 31st birthday when that contract was due to expire – at the end of June this year. He will also have known how stubborn Daniel Levy was likely to be. His move to Bayern last summer with one year left on the 2018 Spurs deal was by no means a bad option, but Kane’s situation did not afford him all the options. He was never going to be sold to a Premier League rival.

The Real defeat fell on the fifth anniversary of Spurs’ historic Amsterdam comeback in a Champions League semi-final, when Lucas Moura’s hat-trick saw them through against Ajax. That night Kane was in the midst of a rare prolonged injury absence. An ankle issue meant he had not played since April 9 and would not do so again until the final against Liverpool on June 1. Even that felt like a risk on the night and so it proved. Moura was dropped by then Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino and Kane was not Kane.

Against Real, Thomas Tuchel said he had no option in the closing stages but to substitute Kane, who was suffering from back problems. Once again, the poker-face of Kane never suggested an issue. One can only assume that it must have been bad. Kane is a master of winding down a game – from defending corners, to winning cheap free-kicks that chip away at the time.

The Bundesliga’s new leading goalscorer has some weeks of rest now before he leads England in Germany at the Euros. It is to his credit that Kane retains the fierce sense of the competitor but never loses the cheerful disposition of a man prepared to accept the game’s vicissitudes. Maybe this summer the trophy curse ends with England. It certainly is no reflection on the talent of one of English football’s great players.

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