Xuan Liu announced earlier this month that she signed on as an ambassador for Ignition Poker, a site that has had a terrible reputation in the poker community for a number of years.
In fact, it was just a few months ago that a video surfaced online showing a massive bot farm, with all the bot computers running on the shared Bovada/Ignition Poker software. This was hardly news, as it’s been known for years that Ignition Poker and Bovada have hosted tournaments and cash games that have been riddled with bots. However, seeing the scale of the bot farm was a real eye-opener for the poker community as a whole.
In a recent interview with Poker.Org, Liu claimed that she made it a point to have it written in her contract that Ignition Poker would make a significant effort to improve.
‘A new era’
When Liu made her announcement earlier this month, she stated that she was “committed to helping drive positive change and catapult Ignition into a new era in the competitive online gaming space.”
Liu’s recent contract with WPT Global just came to an end, and she was quick to find a new suitor, claiming that the two saw eye-to-eye on several subjects.
“I was making content anyway, and what they were asking of me was in alignment with everything I was already doing,” she told Poker.Org. “Having said that, it took a lot of back and forth to make sure we were synced.”
Liu will make it a point to directly make Ignition Poker improve its place in poker, and received assurances from Ignition that they will put in the effort to better their product.
“It’s actually written into my contract that they will make a significant effort to improve things.
“I know it’s a really bad look, and it’s very easy to paint Ignition as a scapegoat. But the honest truth is, no site is perfect, and every site has issues that they are constantly battling.
“I have direct, regular contact with Ignition to make sure they’re actively working on things, and I’ve been doing some of my own detective work. I’ve hired people to play games across several different stakes to see if those problems still require major change. So far, the feedback is pretty good from everybody I’ve worked with, but it’s a continued process.
“I’m going to do the most I can, but I’m just one person. I don’t have [control over] the inner workings of the company and how it operates.”
At the moment, Ignition Poker is completely anonymous, which was meant to be a feature that benefited recreational poker players. Unfortunately, it’s become a tool that has helped robots run rampant.
“There’s going to be a tradeoff anytime that you have a unique feature that makes the player pool more accessible and friendlier for recreational players,” Liu said. “And, yeah, it does make it a little easier for bots because detection is a little harder.”
Liu’s remarkable Triton win
With $3,431,388 in career live tournament earnings, Xuan Liu is currently 17th on the women’s all-time money list. However, it was at Triton Montenegro in May of 2025 where she received the opportunity to play the $25,000 WPT Global Slam, thanks to her sponsorship deal.
Remarkably, in her first-ever Triton Poker Series event, Liu topped the 99-entry field to win a career-high $860,000. To make matters more impressive, she had to navigate a star-studded final table that included the likes of Danier Dvoress, David Peters, Kristen Foxen, and Michael Watson.
It was a long time coming for Liu, as it was her first six-figure cash in eight years. She beat her previous high score of $600,000, which came all the way back in the 2012 PCA Main Event.
