Ana Marquez
Ana Marquez is a professional poker player originally from Spain but living already for a decade in the United States of America. She is active in the poker industry for more than 15 years, as well as in online poker as in live poker, and has meant a lot for the poker community in its whole.
Not only by being an excellent example of a professional poker player, but also by being ambassador for various market leading poker sites such as PokerStars, 888poker and currently Americas Card Room. Ana Marquez can definitely be added to the dictionary as a result when searching for ‘poker’, as she is breathing and dreaming this popular card game day and night.
Super/System
Already from a young age she moved to the United States to go study at the university of Washington D.C. During her studies she took a break for her thesis, but they were not letting her take a break of a semester. Instead, she had to take a full year off. She wasn’t certain in which direction she had to go for her career and just by coincident she came in touch with poker meanwhile. As we all know, poker is well-known at universities and playing poker with friends at home games is very common, so did Ana find out.
She told us that her friends explained her that poker wasn’t all just about gambling, but mainly a skill game. Which we all agree to of course. Once she had offered a friend to stake him in a $1/$2 game in Atlantic City, but only if she could sit right behind him at the tables so that she could learn the game and to experience the game from a different perspective, in a casino at a real money poker game table. It didn’t end well eventually in terms of the result, and it took about 13 hours of play, but she did put an experience in her backpack.
Time went fast for her with poker, but she started off really well by reading and studying the book of the legendary Doyle Brunson called ‘Super/System’. She got to know all about (push/fold) ranges and tried to give her game a steady dynamic so that she would be ready for the real work. First off, she started to play freerolls on Absolute Poker for about two to three months, after she felt confident enough to put some money on the line. This she did by playing live cash games. She mentioned; ‘’When I ran my first $100 up to $500, I thought like oehh that’s so cool.’’ Another six months later, it’s where she first deposited cash on PokerStars, still one of the leading poker sites in the world.
Being back-to-back Spanish poker player of the year
Live poker results started coming for Ana Marquez back in 2008, in the country where she resided, United States of America. She was already active at online cash games and online poker tournaments, but also live by competing in private home games. She said to us; ‘’When I really started travelling for poker it went crazy. I was playing poker 24/7. When I busted a live tournament, I instantly continued the grind online.’’
Amazingly, soon followed by an incredible score during the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $10,000 Main Event where she finished eventually 10th, just one place shy of the final table. But one place above Mr. Chris Moneymaker, now a fellow team-member of her current role as ACR Ambassador. Not only was her reward of $155,000 a true boost for her bankroll, but she also played herself into the picture of PokerStars. Shortly after that she made her biggest online score of $250,000 during the $1K Monday Million. After that she never looked back and build up a steady bankroll for herself. Not only did she managed to get exposure for Spanish poker, but she also managed to get a sponsorship deal with the giant of online poker called PokerStars.
Until that time, she barely played live and had her focus on the online grind. But once she got her ambassadorship, live poker became a must in terms of tournaments. Live poker she was already combining at this time as she played live cash games as well as online. In 2012 and 2013 she accomplished a unique achievement by winning back-to-back the Player of the Year award in Spain. A trophy which is difficult to win, let alone back-to-back.
Personal life – Family is top priority
For many poker professionals such as Ana Marquez it is very demanding to be travelling all over the world. It has become mandatory to find ways of keeping yourself healthy and in good shape, physically but also mentally. She said, ‘’Everything I do outside poker is all based on becoming a better poker player. Think about working out, meditation, yoga, listening to every single podcast about performance, reading. All the travelling is quite toxic, and when getting older it is becoming more of a struggle, because of this I try to keep myself in the best shape possible.’’
Besides taking care of herself and to remained focused on poker, she has another big factor which keeps her on the right path. Family is everything to her and whenever she can go back to Spain, she is with her family. Family is top priority to her and will always remain like that. Friends also play a main role in her life, whenever she has the opportunity, she meets up with her friends for lunch and enjoys spending time with them.
Like many people from the south of Europe, she adores the sun, the beach, and the sea. I guess it helps a lot as well when travelling across the world for her poker career. Whenever the sun arises, she wants to go out and for a walk.
Why do we think she deserves a spot in our Women in Poker Series?
- Ana Marquez is already active in the poker industry for more than a decade. She is a true example for all new upcoming male- and female players, due to her commitment and drive she is showing day-by-day, dedicated to her profession.
- To be part of female poker communities, she has contributed to the whole, to be able to let the female community grow.
- By numerous ambassadorships she has showed her willingness to travel all across the globe to promote poker, and to attract dozens of new players to the felt. We are surprised she is not part of the big Hall of Fame yet..
- The way Ana Marquez is presenting herself in the poker industry, as well as the dedication to become a better poker player, can only be admired. Her warm personality is exactly what the poker community stands for in general.
- Countless great results in live- and online poker have shown that she is a player to watch out for. Respect needs to be earned, and she has fought hard for this. She has proven that she belongs right in the top of the charts.
‘Seen girls who are more degen than guys in poker’
As we all know, this subject is still strong in the poker community, women in poker. Ana Marquez has got her opinion about it:
Ana: ‘’Poker is a tough world for women in terms of getting accepted and integration. I still think that the majority of men think that women will be taken care off more as themselves for example, get more help, treated more dearly. It is not equal as it should be, in terms of being treated with the same amount of respect. People need to understand that poker is already a tough world by itself, and then comes this subject on top of that.
To be part of communities in poker is very important. Because let’s be honest, there are not many players who managed to reach the top all alone. Male players have such communities all over, and for women it starts to grow as well. To part of communities, I experienced myself also, all the time. During eight years I was part of the German poker community together with Nathalie Hof, who was a fellow team member of me during my time at 888poker, and whom I consider as a longtime friend. She is the founder of ‘Herzdamen Club’. I was part of a grind house, studied with them, travelled with them. All the others were guys. And that’s maybe also the problem, girls don’t have that much of similar communities yet. They need to have that believe they do not need a male player to be able to succeed.
Ladies Events are a good method to raise the popularity of women in poker, but also to build communities. It’s something we, as females in poker, really need. Still, I’m not sure about what is the best approach for all of this, it goes all the time through my mind. Beforehand, I was not able to play such events as they were out of reach for me, but lately I am playing them as well. Personally, I think it is good to play such events, but in general I just decided for myself that the best way to help the female poker community is to be a good example to anyone. To new female players, grinders, everyone. It is not impossible to reach to the top. This counts for everyone.’’
Ladies Events are starting to be there now. I guess the real big question here is – How do we push them even higher? There are way less females than males in poker obviously, so the volume is a bit of a thing.
The issue we are facing now comes from the society as a whole. There is still so much work to do outside poker in terms of equality. Of course, we are different in reality. I wouldn’t say that a female basketball team will beat a male basketball team etc, but that is a physical game. Poker is not that, it is mental, a pure skill game. So why can’t we beat men in that? I’ve seen females who are way more degen as men, and I play a lot.
Girls are still raised to be protected in general. They are being taught to be cautious, careful. Poker is a risky business for the outside world, Female population is then more at risk. I don’t think it is really a Nature thing, but a Nurture thing. I might be wrong in this, but this is how I see it.’’
Poker goals
In the past years you can see in the results of Ana Marquez a small drop compared to her previous results. Mainly COVID-19 was accountable for this. Online however, she kept her grinds steady, where she topped her online scores with a fine $270K score during SCOOP 2020 at PokerStars, finishing 5th in the $1K Main Event. In 2021 decided for herself to relocate her focus towards cash games almost completely. She mentioned; ‘’Cash Games is something I always wanted to get into. I was also a bit burned by all the long tournament grinds. After the second wave of Corona, I kept on studying cash games and playing them live- and online, I wanted to dedicate to that’’.
With her current ambassadorship with ACR, she will mainly focus on the European market as she is one of the leading female poker players of the world and originally from Europe of course. As mentioned, she will mostly focus on cash games, but some live stops she will just not miss out on. She never misses an EPT for example, and we would assume she would play more live events for sure.
She already managed to win a big live event, at the Hollywood Poker Open. But she is still suffering from a Heads-Up match for a bracelet back in 2012. She had the possibility to scoop her first ever bracelet, in PLO. She is still devastated about that moment, so let’s see if 2023 will reward her such iconic achievement!
We would like to thank Ana Marquez for her contribution to this article. She has proven to be a one-of-a-kind poker gem for the communities, and with her achievements in poker we are positive she is a perfect example of how poker can turn out by fully dedicating yourself to it.
Do you want to join Ana on her trip around the world together with Americas Card Room and follow all her poker results? Make sure to follow her social media pages:
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