Ray J’s wife, Princess Love, just made history during Black History Month by becoming the first Black woman to win the Celebrity Poker
Tour Invitational II in Las Vegas.On Thursday, Feb. 8, Love walked away with the $20,000 grand prize, along with a custom engraved bottle of LOUIS XIII cognac and two engraved Baccarat crystal glasses, Poker News reported. The Love and Hip-Hop star won the 73-entrant invite-only field that took place at PokerGo Studio ahead of Super Bowl LVIII.
Love beat out several public figures, including celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, Las Vegas influencer Tana Mongeau, who went out in third for $5,000, and Atlanta Falcons fullback Keith Smith, who came in second with $10,000.
Love had the support of her husband, who was seated alongside her as she competed against defending champion Qiyu “Nemo” Zhou, José Canseco, Josie Canseco, and Gordie Gronkowski. Her victory came after a rivered flush and overcoming a commanding chip lead from NFL player Laviska Shenault.
Fans celebrated her historic win on social media.
“Congrats to Princess Love for winning the Celebrity Poker Tournament ♣️😍. The 1st black woman in history to do so!! Give her her TENS 💐👏🏾,” one person wrote.
“Congrats to Princess Love for winning the Celebrity Poker Tournament. The 1st black woman in history to do so,” noted one commenter.
The married mother of two’s celebrity poker tournament win comes two months after she came in 40th place in the WPT World Championship and added $132,500 to her $270,404 live earnings. It was a successful kickoff to Love’s poker career after having a cousin teach her how to play the game just a year prior.
“Originally I just asked one of my cousins to teach me,” Love told the World Poker Tournament. “I always wanted to learn how to play poker and chess. And I’m not a gambler by any means, but once I was introduced to it, I don’t know, I was intrigued.”
Love continued, “I just did a bunch of the dailies and the Wynn tournaments to kind of prepare for the big ones. I’ve never done it – [this is] my first $10K event. I kind of just been like doing the smaller tournaments to get my feet wet, get comfortable. And [this run] means a lot, because I’m playing well. I’m not a pro, but I study a lot.”
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