Kelly Minkin has once again made her presence felt at the World Series of Poker Main Event for the second time in four years. She definitely is not someone who stays under the shadow and her exploits in the field of poker has made her stand out even more among her contemporary. During the 2018 World Series of Poker Main Event, Minkin became the last woman standing and this happens to be her second time of being in this position within the last four years.
In this article, we will explore Kelly’s early life, early poker career, current status in the field of poker, and of course, Kelly Minkin net worth. Let us go right into the life of the poker pro.
Early Life of Kelly Minkin
Famous for her deftness at the felt table, Minkin seems to have a lot going for her. The Arizona native was not someone who sits still for a long period of time. While growing up, she spent most of her childhood days moving from one activity to the other, striving to make headway in whatever she puts her hands to. She proceeded to the college with her go-getter attitude and she really made a great impact in her class.
As a young girl, she had the mind of going to medical school to become a medical doctor, which was not really out of place. She is brilliant, disciplined, and focused; so no one could have doubted that she would fulfill her dream of being a medical practitioner. However, on a whim, she went ahead to sit for LSAT where she had a great score that was enough to land her in law school. Well, one began to wonder, medical school to law school? Well, that is Kelly Minkin for you.
After her result was released, she moved to law school and did exceptionally well while in school. After she passed the bar, she got a job with a law firm where she took up the role of medical malpractice attorney. In a way, she found herself dealing with the medical practitioners but instead of being an active participant in the field itself, she took up the role of a watchdog for people in the medical field.
Although her job was quite demanding, Kelly Minkin still found a way to play poker. She is passionate about poker and has been playing the game since she was a young girl. In 2013, she made her debut into the world of poker at the World Poker Tour final table. In 2015, she participated at the World Series of Poker Main Event and made it to the last woman standing at the table. As at 2015, Kelly Minkin net worth was valued at $750,000 USD in live tournament winnings which is actually not so bad for a busy legal practitioner playing part time poker.
Kelly was born in the city of Waukesha, Wisconsin and she grew up in Milwaukee. When she became eight years old, she moved to Phoenix with mom, dad, and two brothers, Donny and Ronnie. It is essential to mention that Kelly’s mom is a real estate agent while her dad is a property manager. Growing up, Minkin was a tomboy who did everything any boy her age would do. She was very much involved in sports. She played volleyball, basketball, softball, and also ran track. At some point, she ventured into water skiing. She got involved in painting and also played piano. She was a very active child and was not lacking in activities to keep her busy.
After college, she proceeded to the University of Arizona where she enrolled for dual majors in Molecular and Cellular Biology. She was a very serious student who never attended school parties, even though her school is famous for being a popular party school. According to her, she only attended one frat party all through her days as an undergraduate student in the school. She was reported to have hated the party because she wasn’t into partying at all. This doesn’t mean she is an introvert. As a matter of fact, Kelly Minkin loves having her friends around, especially for game night.
Her initial intention was to become a doctor but she moved to law school as soon as she completed her undergraduate studies. Minkin was reported to have said all her life; she had wanted to become a surgeon so she put in her efforts to get good grades in order to get admitted into medical school. She kept procrastinating and had so much anxiety preparing for the MCAT, so she kept putting the exam off.
Sometimes later, a friend informed her about LSAT and the fact that it is more like IQ test that is based on reading comprehension and logic, so she went ahead to take the exam for the fun of it. When the result came out, she did quite well and was considered for admission into different law schools.
At this point, she changed her goal and course, and enrolled at the Arizona Summit Law School that was close to her. She didn’t really plan to conclude her studies at the Law School and just wanted to give it a try. She thought she would quit if she didn’t like the school and go back to take the MCAT exam before proceeding to the medical school. Interestingly, she fell in love with the course and the school and she stayed till the end of the studies. She got her Juris Doctorate degree from the Arizona Summit Law School in the year 2014 and started practicing in a law firm as a medical malpractice defense attorney. She also bagged a bachelor’s degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology from University of Arizona.
Kelly Minkin Early Poker Days
While Kelly was in school, she occasionally visited local casinos around her school with the college boyfriend. She was first introduced to poker by her dad and brothers when they held $20 USD tournaments. After some years, she started playing the game more on her own and visited the closest casino to home whenever she was bored. While in schools, she was constantly playing Limit Hold’Em just for the fun of it. At a point, her college boyfriend travelled to play basketball overseas.
Kelly started going to the casino on her own to play the game and to find a reprieve from boredom. According to her, the more she played at the casino the more she won at the table. She started increasing her stakes from $3-$6 to $4-$8. Apart from playing at the casino, she was also playing with her dad and brother at home. As she began to move up her stakes, she started developing confidence in her capability.
In the year 2013, Kelly’s dad encouraged her to participate in the $1,000 USD buy-in Arizona State Poker Championship, which she did. She finished in the second to Joe Kuether at this game and won a large $151,983 USD at the end of the game. She was pleasantly surprised about the earnings because she was more involved in cash games and never considered tournaments. After this win, she made up her mind to begin traveling the circuit to play more tournaments. It is not strange to discover her earnest passion for poker tournaments, especially when you consider her competitive nature and background.
Over and beyond the gambling aspect of poker games, Minkin loves the competition aspect of the game. She derives pleasure in playing against people more than the winnings from the game. The various winnings in live tournaments and cash games have significantly contributed to Kelly Minkin net worth up till date.
Kelly Minkin and her Law Career
Although Kelly was constantly traveling to different regional destinations on tournament circuit she has always been able to find a balance between her poker career and her career as an attorney. After successfully passing the bar, she picked up a job at a Phoenix law firm where she functions as a medical malpractice attorney at Wittekind and Kent. Being a smart lady, she has been able to create a balance between her day job and her poker games. According to her, she loves her law career and she loves playing poker.
When she plays poker, she enjoys the exhilaration and adrenaline rush that comes with the game and the potential winning and when she experiences the lows that are bound to come with variance; she has the consistency and stability that get back to her job. And when the job is becoming quite monotonous, she can always go back to the exciting and exhilarating poker games. For her, having both her law career and poker makes her appreciate both careers.
Her firm is quite liberal with the number of hours and days she has to work in a week. With this flexibility of working hours, she is able to schedule her poker trips to enable her continue playing. Minkin believes that her poker experience and skills sometimes come handy when she has to deal with her job, even in simple matters like negotiating settlements for her clients. For Minkin, the number of hours in a day is not enough for her to accomplish all she wants to and she would have preferred if she could have more hours in a day.
Poker has greatly helped Kelly to develop her confidence and heightens her sense of achievement and accomplishment. She also recognizes that poker can be quite self-service. She believes that her law career is more rewarding than what poker can offer because it is beyond earning money. Being an attorney enables her to help people who ordinarily cannot help themselves, and for her, this feeling is something she can never find with poker.
Kelly Minkin Tournament Success
In the January of 2015, Kelly participated in the $500 preliminary event at the L.A Poker Classic and she won a total of $54,630 USD. In February of the same year, she earned the biggest score in her young career when she placed 3rd at the $3,500 buy-in World Poker Tour Lucky Hearts Poker Open Championship. At this event, she made a winning of $262,912 USD. All these earnings counted towards Kelly Minkin net worth today.
According to Kelly, she plays poker by adjusting to her environments. She is an aggressive player naturally and she loves to be the player who is applying pressure at the table. She said sometimes, she feels she has to hold back a little in order to respond to the activities going on around the table, even if it is a bit passive.
In the summer of 2015, Minkin became the last woman standing at the World Series of Poker Main Event and made a winning of $211,821 USD. She finished at the 29th place at the event. Kelly reportedly said she was very disappointed at the turn of event because she had high expectations. She mentioned that she actually felt sick and wanted to cry. However, with every ESPN camera bearing down her face, she had to control her emotion.
She was 28 at this stage and she has achieved so much success in her career as an attorney and had also made some amazing winnings at poker tables. However, this loss was huge for her and although she said she was not going to beat herself for it, she actually experience some low time after the game. Up until this time, Kelly Minkin net worth has gone beyond half a million USD. It is essential to mention that she was not playing poker on full time basis because she still holds her job as an attorney. At the 2015 World Series of Poker, she cashed three different times which means she is indeed a force in the poker community.
Kelly Minkin at the 2018 World Series of Poker
Popularly called ‘the Illest’, ‘the Chillest’ and the ‘MachineGunKelly’, this young attorney turned poker pro had proved herself again at the 2018 World Series of Poker Main Event, just like she did four years ago. Her 2018 appearance at the World Series of Poker Main Event is her second deep within the last three years. She displayed her dexterity at the table and it seemed her skills have become sharper over the last few years.
Kelly started at the Day 4 event with a total of 795 chips and she proceeded with high level of focus to the end of the sixth day where she ended the day with a total of 3,459,000 left and 310 other players remaining. She progressed at the game and she was seen showing bluff on a live TV. Not long after, she made a huge call down and flop her second pair to achieve other three million.
During the Main Event of the 2018 WSOP, Kelly’s bluff hand of ace jack on the feature table attracted a lot of attention. An aggressive, active player opened the game and Kelly three bet the ace-jack suited. Her opponent flatted his four bet and Kelly flopped on a 7-8-10. The other player continued and Minkin raised it. When her opponent called, they both went down on the turn. The turn came up with a king which significantly enhanced Kelly to double-gutter. When the opponent checked, Kelly went ahead to bet and received the fold.
According to Minkin, all her game entails live read and many meta-game that is on the table. So when she made the bluff and revealed it, she knew it would later play into a dynamic game at some point later on. Interestingly, that was precisely what happened at the end of the day. Kelly found a big check call down which was against the same player with second pair later that same day. Taking cue from the different table hand background that has been presented for both players during the hand, Kelly’s opponent opt to run a big bluff on his stack, meanwhile, Minkin was busy getting her read and discovered a big river call to send the player packing. According to Kelly Minkin, it was quite simple because she will just need to adjust her play based on what is happening at the felt table.
It was at this table that Kelly got nicknamed MachineGunKelly because of her gangster call at the event. She was reported to have been very intimidating at the table. Unfortunately, her call came on the sixth day. She made it to Day 6 of the World Series of Poker Main Event and then bowed out at the evening session where she finished in the 50th position with a winning of $156,265 USD. The earnings at this event also contributed to Kelly Minkin net worth to some extent.
Although it wasn’t pleasant getting out of the game at that time, Kelly still felt gratitude for the supports given to her by her fan. Suffice to mention again that Kelly was the last woman standing at the WSOP Main Event. She and Natalie Teh were the only female representatives remaining in the field but Teh earlier bowed out of the game which left only Minkin at the table. If she had made it to the top, Kelly would have won the huge $8.8 million USD for the first place player.
Kelly reportedly confessed that at the end of the day, she couldn’t have controlled the cards, so it was not her time to win the WSOP this year but there are still many years ahead. While playing at the table during the Main Event of the 2018 WSOP, Kelly was actively supported by her family, friends, and her huge poker fans that follow her on Twitter.
She played the highest number of games at the last two days during the main feature table where she was surrounded by professionally tough players. All through her stay at the table, Kelly never backed down. Even though she got busted at the 50th place, she still felt fulfilled and happy about her play.
Kelly Minkin Recent Cashes
| Event/Tournaments | Year | Place | Winnings |
|---|---|---|---|
| $5,000 No Limit Hold’Em $1 Million GTD – 2018/2019 World Poker Tour | 2018 | 3rd | $146,973 |
| $3,500 No Limit Hold’Em $1.5 Million GTD – 2018/2019 World Poker Tour Maryland | 2018 | 44th | $7,910 |
| $1,500 No Limit Hold’Em $1 Million GTD – 2018 World Series of Poker | 2018 | 230th | $5,345 |
| $10,000 No Limit Hold’Em – 2018 World Series of Poker | 2018 | 50th | $156,265 |
| $888 No Limit Hold’Em Crazy Eights $888,888 – 1st Place GTD 2018 World Series of Poker | 2018 | 811th | $1,643 |
Kelly Minkin Top Cashes
| Event/Tournaments | Year | Place | Winning |
|---|---|---|---|
| $3,500 No Limit Hold’Em $3 Million GTD – 2015 World Poker Tour | 2015 | 3rd | $262,912 |
| $10,000 No Limit Hold’Em 2015 WSOP | 2015 | 29th | $211,821 |
| $10,000 No Limit Hold’Em 2018 WSOP | 2018 | 50th | $156,265 |
| Championship Event – 2013 Arizona State Poker Championship | 2013 | 2nd | $151,983 |
| $5,000 No Limit Hold’Em $1 Million GTD – 2018/2019 World Series of Poker | 2018 | 3rd | $146,973 |
Kelly Minkin Net Worth
Since she made her debut into the world of poker in the year 2013, Kelly Minkin net worth has remarkably grown steadily. Although she doesn’t play poker full time, she has still made some great earnings at poker tables that made her one of the big earners in the field. In total earnings from live tournaments, Kelly Minkin net worth is placed above $1 million USD. As a matter of fact, her total live earnings from tournaments amount to $1,294,105 USD.
Well, she has not done badly at all in the field, especially because she is not a full time poker player. Kelly works at a law firm as medical malpractice attorney and she has been able to balance her career as an attorney with her life as a professional poker player. With barely five years in the poker world, she has earned above a million USD which means she is one of the upcoming poker players to watch out for in the industry. Her best live cash is placed at $262,912 and she placed at 1,386th position on the All Time Money List.
She also placed 760th on the United States All Time Money List. Kelly holds the 14th place in the Arizona, United States All Time Money List. She placed 1,371st in the All Time Money List Best Rank. On the Global Poker Index Ranking, she ranked 405th. She also ranked 191st in the Popularity Ranking of poker players across the world. It is believed that she will attain a higher level at the pace in which she is going. So if there is anyone you should look out for in the poker world, Kelly Minkin is definitely on the list.
Personal Life of Kelly Minkin
Kelly is a personal person and there is really not much of her personal life in the public eyes. She is the only daughter of her dad and mom, who are property manager and real estate agent, respectively. It doesn’t seem like Minkin is in any kind of relationship as there is really no news of a romantic relationship involving her.
However, she has a lot of friends and she loves hanging out with them. Her recent exploit at the recent 2018 World Series of Poker Main Event has won her a lot of fans on Twitter. When asked about her opinion on players taking up poker games as a full time job, Kelly was reluctant to recommend the game to be undertaken on a full time basis.
According to her, she would not recommend that anyone takes up professional poker playing as a full time job to earn a living. When asked why she feels this way, she said the world of poker is a tough life. She is not very comfortable with the volatility that is involved in playing poker for a living because anything can happen.
Conclusion
Kelly Minkin is a young attorney turned professional poker player. Although she frequently plays at the poker table, she still maintains her job as a medical malpractice attorney. She plays poker part time and over the course of the year; Kelly Minkin net worth has exceeded the $1 million milestone. She is considered one of the professional poker players that poker enthusiasts should look out for.
Kelly has made it to last woman standing two times in four years at the World Series of Poker Main Event, in 2015 and 2018. She has also participated in various live tournaments. Although she is not yet in the league of top female professional poker players in the world, she is definitely on her way to becoming one.