One of a number of famous poker players who have also participated on the popular reality TV show Survivor, Anna Khait, is a person of varied interests and occupations. Over the years, life has taken Anna from her native Russia (the Soviet Union at the time) to New York City and into the world of poker, acting, and reality TV.
Unlike many professionals whose only claim to fame comes from the game, Khait has been in the public eye for multiple reasons, with some of the more recent ones less than stellar for her reputation.
Currently 37 years old, Anna continues to build her life and career, although she has stepped away from the tables at this time, seemingly taking more interest in other fields, both professionally and personally. This is the story of her road to poker stardom, her success on television, and the interesting, often controversial life she has led thus far.
Anna Khait Career Highlights
- Born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in 1988
- Moved to New York City and graduated from college
- Started playing poker in her early 20s
- Had some success playing live and online cash games
- Competed on “Survivor 32” in 2015
- Acted in “Worthless” in 2018
- Turned to religion and preaching in recent years
- Works as a real estate agent
Anna's Early Life and Career
Anna Khait was born on September 17, 1988, in Saint Petersburg, Soviet Union. During her childhood, the Soviet Union fell apart, and she became a citizen of Russia. She was born into a successful family, with her father being a businessman who traveled the world and was able to provide her and her two sisters with everything they needed.
When she finished elementary education, her family moved away from Russia and settled in New York City, where she attended high school and eventually graduated from Hunter College.
Her early years after finishing school were dedicated to poker, the game she discovered around the age of 21. By 23 years old, she had her first live cash and started playing more actively before joining Survivor in 2016 and dabbling in acting in 2018. Over the years, she has had some success playing both live and online, with reports suggesting she fared much better in cash games, as tournaments were only mildly successful for her. Overall speaking, it is safe to say that Anna is not a person dedicated to just one passion and is constantly looking for new paths in life.
Anna Khait’s Professional Poker Career
While it is not completely clear when Anna Khait first started playing poker, it would seem that her first games came during her college years, around 2010.
In 2013, Anna cashed her first live tournament in Atlantic City, winning $2,998 for her 6th place finish at the Borgata Spring Poker Open.
Image courtesy of https://fallpokeropen.blog.theborgata.com/
That same year, Anna Khait went deep in a $560 Borgata Poker Open event but ended up busting in 110th place to win $3,035. In 2014, Khait repeated her successes, cashing several smaller buy-in events in Atlantic City, but was still not able to close the deal and win a major tournament.
Her first and only WSOP cash came in 2016 when she was part of a team that came 115th in the $1,000 Tag Team event. To this date, her tracked profile shows she has managed to win $12,811 in live tournaments, which does not put her anywhere close to the poker elite.
To this date, Khait has managed to win $12,811 in live poker tournaments, which does not put her anywhere close to the poker elite.
Yet, she has had further success playing online at New Jersey poker sites, as well as in live cash games she frequently played for many years. If you're interested in playing online poker yourself, you can check out our list of the best online poker sites with soft games, fast payouts, and verified platforms.
While the exact numbers for the cash games are not a thing of public record, Anna and those close to her have often talked about her success in this area of the game. Since 2016, Khait has been less involved with poker and more interested in pursuing other areas of her life, including her acting, politics, and religion.
Anna Khait on Survivor
In spring 2015, Anna Khait traveled to Cambodia to be part of Survivor 32, a season of the popular reality TV show that featured a number of other popular poker players such as Jean Robert Bellande and Garrett Adelstein.
The 32nd season of the show was another issue of the Brains vs. Beauty vs. Brawn version of the show, with Khait joining the “beauty” tribe called Gondol. Before entering Survivor, Khait also competed at the World Games in Jamundi, Colombia, where she played frontball.
She loved the country and decided to help the population of the city through a scholarship program for the local children.
Entering the show with great expectations, she believed herself to be the right mix of skills, beauty, and personality to be the sole survivor. Yet, this did not quite pan out for her, as she was eliminated 13th out of 18 when she banked on the wrong guys to support her and ended up getting the boot. In truth, she did well during the early episodes and was one of the more liked contestants in her tribe, but ended up getting split from her group during a Tribe Switch. She later talked about her experience on the show and said she loved every moment of it, apart from the annoying mosquitos that made life a nightmare.
Acting Cameo and Hollywood Ambitions
From her early youth, Anna Khait had some interest in acting and TV, which only grew over the years and finally came to fruition in 2015 when she appeared on reality television. Her beauty certainly helped with getting recognized, but it was a mix of talents, skills, and personality that ended up winning her a place on the show.
After getting eliminated, she was not done with her career as a celebrity and wanted to try her hand at actual acting. It is not clear how many auditions she had to go through, but eventually, she was given the part of Jennifer Harley in the 2018 movie “Worthless”. The movie was rated just 3.2/10 on IMDB and generally not very well accepted by the audience, which is perhaps a part of why she hasn’t had further acting cameos since then.
Anna Khait’s Net Worth
Talking about the net worth of poker players can be difficult, even when they are actively playing and highly decorated, but it becomes even more difficult with players whose primary income source is unclear.
Image courtesy of pokerphotoarchive.com (Joe Giron)
For the most part, her poker winnings came from cash games, which are completely untracked, making it impossible to verify how well she did there. Looking at her tournament results and the average stakes she played, it would be difficult to imagine her making a sustainable living purely from poker during those years.
Yet, her appearances on TV and her relative success in other ventures have probably brought her some steady income. Recent social media posts show her buying expensive vehicles and living a comfortable lifestyle. At this time, a conservative assessment would place Anna Khait's net worth in the $1 million to $2 million range, excluding any generational wealth she may have from her family.
Where is Anna Khait Today? Preaching and Politics
This brings us to the present day, where her life has taken a significant new turn, taking her from the casino floor to becoming a church preacher and a real estate agent.
She now spends her days working as a real estate agent for an agency called Compass while also traveling the country and sharing her religious experiences with anyone who will listen. She professes her love for Jesus Christ and her Christian beliefs on her social media, often sharing her own preaching, videos, and other religious materials.
Anna has also become quite political in recent years, sharing numerous controversial political posts on her Twitter account. During the presidential elections, she was a vocal supporter of Donald Trump and actively participated in the political discourse surrounding the results. Furthermore, she has been a supporter of a lenient stance on coronavirus suppression, fighting mask mandates and other anti-COVID measures. While she posts some personal photos on her Instagram, the majority of her public presence today is deeply intertwined with her religious and political views
The FBI Spying Allegations
In May 2021, information came out that Anna Khait was implicated in a plot against the FBI, along with a group of agents who were part of something called Project Veritas.
It was disclosed that this project was allegedly designed to spy on the FBI, the State Department, and other federal agencies in an effort to diminish the integrity of individuals perceived as political opponents. Reports suggested she was supposedly part of a group of women who would take federal employees on dates and then try to secretly record them making incriminating comments.
According to the allegations, she and the other women involved had code names and were operating out of a rented house specifically for this purpose. She immediately denied these allegations after they surfaced and promised to sue the publications that printed them. However, her strong conservative political ties gave the story significant traction in the media, although no formal criminal charges were ever filed against her in this specific case.
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