Lauren Roberts

Californian Roberts is rather unusual in that she is one of the few female poker players who play primarily cash games and also one of the relatively few women trading in the equities and derivative markets, something she has done for the past 20 years.

Nevertheless, Roberts herself isn’t bothered by having to share both her career and passion in male-dominated spheres, stating:

“I’m very comfortable [at the poker table], I’ve spent my career with men and I’ve been in some rough environments like the Chicago Mercantile Exchange – it doesn’t really phase me.” 

Her love of poker came from her father, a physicist and poker player, and she developed her talents while studying for degrees at Carnegie Mellon University – a place well-known to poker players as the home of ‘poker programs’ such as Libratus.

Roberts graduated with a BS in Computer Science and then followed up with an MBA in Finance at the Universities Tepper School of Business, the latter seeing her enter the hedge fund markets shortly afterwards, before setting up her own capital and trading companies in 2013.

“I primarily trade my capital for a living,” she says on her impressive LinkedIn profile, “something I've done for over 20 years, using quantitative models which I've developed. The markets never fail to fascinate and drive me.”

She is hardly the first poker-playing high-flier of the business world to take this route, the well-known Talal Shakerchi and Bill Perkins two others among many who have found their financial expertise useful at the highest levels of poker.

Lauren Roberts may not be the best-known face among tournament pros and fans, but she still has a decent $ 223,046 on her Hendon Mob resume, her 7th spot in the 2015 WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic in Las Vegas worth $173,552.

Nevertheless, her decision to play the 2017 Super High Roller Bowl didn’t impress her father, Lauren telling Poker Central’s Paul Oresteen: “My dad called me and told me I was an idiot for playing this and statistically I knew I was, but here I am.” She added: “Every year it’s been my objective to play more (tournaments) as I love them. I was fortunate that my first real tournament cash came in the Five Diamond.”

“I have a passion for the game,” she told Oresteen. “I love what I do for living. As more women get better, we’re gonna see one at the final table, but statistically it’s not likely because the game is mostly full of men. There are advantages to being a woman and disadvantages so I think you just have to take what you’re given, leverage it and focus on the positive as opposed to the negative.”

Now residing in Henderson, Nevada, Lauren Roberts continues to focus on the cash games in both Vegas and her home state of California – her occasional tournament forays, however, may become more frequent if she continues her winning ways.