Thithi "Mimi" Tran (born July 5, 1960) is a

Vietnamese-American Vietnamese Americans ( vi, Người Mỹ gốc Việt, lit=Viet-origin American people) are Americans of Vietnamese ancestry. They make up about half of all overseas Vietnamese and are the fourth-largest Asian American ethnic group after Chinese ...

professional poker player.

Biography

Tran was born in

Nha Trang Nha Trang ( or ; ) is a coastal city and capital of Khánh Hòa Province, on the South Central Coast of Vietnam. It is bounded on the north by Ninh Hoà town, on the south by Cam Ranh city and on the west by Diên Khánh District. The city ha ...

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

. After moving to the United States in 1982, Tran found work in the

electronics The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...

industry in

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Coun ...

. She began playing poker in 1989, after an auto accident left her disabled and unable to continue working in her field. Tran has finished in the money in multiple

World Series of Poker The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a series of poker tournaments held annually in Paradise, Nevada and, since 2004, sponsored by Caesars Entertainment. It dates its origins to 1970, when Benny Binion invited seven of the best-known poker p ...

(WSOP) tournaments, including two second-place finishes, a third-place finish and a fourth-place finish. A high-stakes specialist, Tran is perhaps best known as

Barry Greenstein Barry Greenstein (born December 30, 1954, in Chicago, Illinois) is an American professional poker player. He has won a number of major events, including three at the World Series of Poker and two on the World Poker Tour. Greenstein donates his ...

's ex-girlfriend. Greenstein not only taught her how to play poker, but also convinced her to compete in tournaments; until the mid-to-late 1990s she had been exclusively a side-game player. (Initially, Greenstein himself also played exclusively in side-games; he used to donate his tournament winnings to charity.) In exchange for Greenstein teaching Tran how to play poker, she taught him how to speak

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia ** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam. * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overse ...

. The two have an ongoing debate about who is the better teacher; Greenstein says he is the better teacher and Tran says that is only because she is the better student. As of 2008, her total live tournament winnings exceed $1,400,000. Her 17 cashes at the WSOP account for $408,304 of those winnings. She also features highly in the list of most successful female poker players in terms of tournament earnings. Tran has two children and lives in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. At the inaugural

National Heads-Up Poker Championship The National Heads-Up Poker Championship was an annual poker tournament held in the United States and produced by the NBC television network.

, Tran was the only female to make the money in a field that included

Annie Duke Anne LaBarr Duke (née Lederer; born September 13, 1965) is an American former professional poker player and author in cognitive-behavioral decision science and decision education. She holds a World Series of Poker (WSOP) gold bracelet from 2004 ...

Jennifer Harman Jennifer C. Harman (born November 29, 1964) is an American professional poker player. She has won two World Series of Poker bracelets in open events, one of only four women to have done so. Career Harman won her first World Series of Poker bra ...

Kathy Liebert Kathleen H. Liebert (born October 1, 1967 in Tennessee) is an American professional poker player. Poker Liebert started her professional poker career as a prop player in Colorado. She would later go on to enter tournaments and she won the ...

, Cyndy Violette and

Evelyn Ng Evelyn Ng (born September 14, 1975 in Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian professional poker player. She lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Early life Ng began her gaming career playing pool for money at age 14. By age 17, she had expanded into de ...

. All three of her opponents were WSOP Main Event champions: she defeated

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...

champion

Tom McEvoy Thomas K. McEvoy (born November 14, 1944, in Grand Rapids, Michigan) is a professional poker player, author and member of the Poker Hall of Fame, 2013 inductee. He is best known for winning the 1983 World Series of Poker Main Event. Early life ...

and 2003 champion

Chris Moneymaker Christopher Bryan Moneymaker (born November 21, 1975) is an American poker player who won the Main Event at the 2003 World Series of Poker (WSOP). His 2003 win is said to have revolutionized poker because he was the first person to become a wo ...

before being eliminated in the semi-finals by

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

champion Chris Ferguson. She received $25,000 prize money.

Notes

External links

Hendon Mob tournament results
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tran, Mimi 1960 births American poker players Vietnamese poker players Vietnamese emigrants to the United States Living people Female poker players