Before Shana Hiatt became one of the very first poker babes in the world, she was already well known for her beauty and likeable personality.
In 1995, Shana was voted Miss Hawaiian Tropic USA and posed nude inside the pages of Playboy and on it’s cover that year.
As the sexy presenter of The World Poker Tour (her first experience with poker), Shana Hiatt quickly became known as ‘The Goddess of Poker‘. She used to be married to the brother of Vince Van Patten, James Van Patten, the co-host of the WPT TV show. Unfortunately the marriage didn’t last and they got divorced.
Shana fell in love again in 2005, the year she got married to movie producer Todd Garner. In the same year (2005) Shana Hiatt left the WPT TV show and sued the producers of the show. She needed to get a restraining order to prevent the WPT organization from forbidding her to work on rival poker shows like Poker After Dark. The WPT organization countered back by saying she signed a non-competition clause as part of her contract. Shana claimed that she had never signed the contract.
After parting with the WPT organization she signed with NBC and became the hostess of Poker After Dark and the National Heads-Up Poker Championship. Eventually she was replaced in 2008 by Marianela Pereyra when she left the show due to pregnancy.
Even though she didn’t play much poker back in her Miss Hawaii days, she definitely does now. After hosting many poker shows and interviewing the best players in the world, she couldn’t resist trying it out for herself. Shana Hiatt has become a fanatical online poker player and makes rare appearances at live poker venues.
If you think about the many hours of poker shows Shana Hiatt has hosted (and been broadcasted around the world) and the fact that she can be seen as the first poker babe in the world absolutely makes her worth mentioning in our collection of the hottest babes in poker.
Here’s a funny montage of some of Shana’s poker hosting work.
Enjoy:
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