Erica Schoenberg burst on the scene first as a professional blackjack player. Erica has had a varied career which includes modeling, a stint as a personal trainer, and as a pro volleyball player. Rumour has it that Erica appeared topless in Carmen Electra’s Strip Poker DVD.
Schoenberg received professional blackjack training from a member of the MIT Blackjack Team. She has gone on to compete in the World Series of Blackjack. She is also a professional poker player and placed 16th in the World Poker Tour $ 25,000 Championship - No Limit Hold’em and 69th in the World Series of Poker $ 1,500 Pot Limit Hold’em. She also appeared in the Season 4 WPT Ladies Night Event along with Jennifer Tilly and other high-profile and up-and-coming female pros. She has earned winnings in excess of $160,000 in her poker career. She also competed in the Ultimate Blackjack Tour, a televised 10 week series airing on CBS.
Schoenberg recently signed on with Full Tilt Poker along with her boyfriend David Benyamine.
Actress Jennifer Tilly’s became a household name for her memorable role in The Fabulous Baker Boys. Tilly received a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nomination for her excellent portrayal of a ditzy actress in Bullets Over Broadway (1994). In a recent television interview, Tilly stated that at this point in her career she is more interested in pursuing poker than acting.
A couple of years ago Jennifer won a WSOP gold championship bracelet in the Ladies’ No-Limit Texas Hold ‘Em event. She beat out a field of nearly 600 to take home the 150k prize. A month later she won the WPT Ladies Invitational held at the Bike in L.A. Tilly has made numerous televised poker appearance including Celebrity Poker, the GSN Poker Royale series, Fox Sports Net as well her ESPN WSOP appearance. Tilly also appeared in the third season of Poker Superstars but made an early exit.
She is currently dating poker professional Phil “Unabomber” Laak and is nicknamed “The Unabombshell” within the poker circuit.
Toronto native Evelyn Ng used to be a blackjack dealer and a poker dealer in private clubs in Toronto before she became a huge celebrity poker player in her own right. She cemented herself firmly in place as a woman poker player to be respected when she placed 2nd in the Ladies Night World Poker Tour Event.
She’s a big enough name in the industry to be included in the new Stacked video game, along with Daniel Negreanu, too. She’s known to be good friends with Negreanu, and he’s also been called her tutor or mentor as a poker player. She’s not just a poker player either; Eveyln also moonlights as a sports commentator for NBC.
Unlike many of the top pros, Evelyn prefers to play online in limit games, and rarely plays live no-limit cash games, however her no-limit play has increased in frequency and in success lately. Evelyn is a regular 30-60 online player. Evelyn is also one of the best “chip trick” players in the business, pulling off some amazing tricks. Not only that, but she’s ambidextrous too!
This 22 year old Texan is perhaps better known for her recent boob job and erratic love life than her poker skills. McNulty cashed twice in the 2006 WSOP: finishing 23rd in the $2,00 Pot Limit Holdem Tournament and finishing 56th in the Ladies No Limit Holdem Tournament. She prefers limit cash games to tournaments.
Want to know more? Check out her myspace page.
Lacey Jones is a native Texan who is making a splash in the poker world. Born with model good looks she too up poker as a child playing with her family. They would hold marathon poker games while on family vacations.
More than just a stunning beauty Lacey was also blessed with brains. Lacey is a graduate of the University of Arizona. She has a Bachelors Degree in both French and Political Science. Jones has indicated that she wants to go to Law School some day.
Lacey made her first big splash during a televised ESPN poker tournament. Originally hired as mere model eye candy she surprised everyone by her play. The guys at Absolute Poker approached Lacey about hiring her as a spokesmodel. Absolute enlisted the help of Mark Seif to mentor Lacey. With Marks help Lacey’s game has greatly improved. Don’t underestimate this sexy blonde if she ends up at your table. Their is a shark behind that pretty smile.
Vanessa Rousso is a student at the University of Miami and a professional poker player. Born in White Plains, New York, Rousso is a dual-citizen of the United States and France.
Rousso graduated early from Duke University after two and a half years with a major in economics and a minor in political science in December 2003. A poker player since she was five, Rousso began serious poker tournament play during her summer break from law school. In her first year of playing, Rousso has multiple in the money tournament finishes, including seventh place at the 2006 World Poker Tour championship event and eighth place in the 2006 World Series of Poker $5000 no limit hold ‘em shorthanded event. In September 2006 she won $285,450 at the $5000 no limit hold ‘em event at the Borgata Open.
Rousso is sponsored by the PokerStars online poker cardroom as part of their Team PokerStars.
As of 2007, her tournament winnings exceed $675,000.
As we all know from the popular Full Tilt commercial Clonie Gowen was Miss Teen Oklahoma. What most people don’t know about the statuesque beauty is that she was a jock in high school. She played basketball on a state championship team and was of the best high jumpers in Oklahoma.
Clownie began her poker career while living in Texas. She would drive Louisiana on weekends to play poker. She found herself earning a few hundred dollars each week and decided to pursue poker more seriously.
Clownie made her mark on The World Poker Tour. She had a final table finish in 2003 at the World Poker Tour Costa Rica Classic and by winning the 2003 WPT Ladies Night Tournament. She defeated Jen Harman and Annie Duke in her WPT win.
Clonie is one of the Pros on team Full Tilt. In addition to being a top pro Clownie writes regularly for Bluff magazine. Clownie is also a board member of the U.S. Poker Association.
When not on the pro poker circuit the 32 year old Gowen can be found at home in Dallas with her two children.
Shannon Elizabeth is perhaps best known for playing Nadia in the American Pie series. Elizabeth now enjoys playing poker more than acting. Her recent play has raised her status from mere celebrity poker player to serious pro. Shannon treks to Vegas almost every week to play against the best poker competition in the world.
Shannon has been playing in the Main Event of the WSOP since 2005. She has one a few tournaments including a recent charity tournamment at the Playboy Mansion. In 2006 she had 3 cashes at the World Series of Poker.
Elizabeth’s most memorable run was earlier this year when she shocked the poker world by making iit to the semi-finals of the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship. She defeated many notable pros during the tourney including Barry Greenstein and Humberto Brenes.
Play Online Poker as a Business
Kim Birch, also known as “KB” and the “Danish Dragon”. Kim has been earning an annual six-figure income playing online no-limit Texas Hold’em. He has written a great new poker e-book entitled “Play Online Poker as a Business.”
In the book Kim explains his strategies for bankroll, how to manage money, which tournaments and game formats to play, then how to play them. He then explains how he profiles players through his unique system. I have never seen a more systematic way to size up your online opponents.
He spends a lot of time explaining the importance of position. Like the real estate mantra so much of poker is position, position, position. He also covers important topics like bluffing and reading other players’ hands, something you must become good at to make money consistently. Finally, Kim goes through the extensive hand-by-hand examples of actual play and how he’d play each type of situation, and why. This is what truly elevates Kim’s e-book above all the rest.
The “Play Online Poker as a Business” ebook is priced at $49.00 and is available through Clickbank Marketplace so you can pay by credit card, check or Paypal. Is it worth the money? If this book gives you even a small 10% edge it will pay for itself almost instantly. Give “Play Online Poker as a Business” by clicking here.
SIT-N-GO PRO
After using Jonathan Rothman’s “SIT-N-GO PRO” package, I believe it to be the best poker information available today. The package consists of Instructional Videos, a handbook, online e-zine, mp3 audio files. The handbook is well written and easy to understand. The materials on game selection alone are worth the price of the package, much less the special insights to a great poker mind at work and a story you will not want to miss. So if you are looking for some good poker lesson that you actually learn something from, this is the package for you.
You don’t have to take my word for it. Here are a couple of sample videos:
The entire “SIT-N-GO PRO” package is priced at $97.00 and is available through Clickbank Marketplace so you can pay by credit card, check or Paypal. The entire system comes with a 60 Day 100% Risk-Free Guarantee so you have nothing to lose. Give the “SIT-N-GO PRO” package a try by clicking here. Your bankroll will thank you.
Texas Holdem Secrets Exposed
Simply stated The Texas Holdem Secrets Exposed package is the most comprehensive poker system I have ever seen. The sheer amount of information is mind boggling. The package includes: Texas Holdem Secrets Exposed Ebook,
6 Audio CD’s in MP3 format, Online Instructional Videos, and 8 Bonuses.
Topics covered include table position, pre-flop strategy, when is the best time to fold post-flop, how to win when you’re the short stack and when, if ever its ok to chase for cards on the turn or river.
The entire “Texas Holdem Secrets Exposed” package is priced at $97.00 and you can pay by credit card or Paypal. Is it worth the money? If this book gives you even a small 10% edge it will pay for itself almost instantly. The entire system comes with a 30 Day 100% Risk-Free Guarantee so you have nothing to lose. Give the “Texas Holdem Secrets Exposed” package a try by clicking here. Your bankroll will thank you.
Hold’em Pirate
Holdem Pirate gives you everything you need in a Poker Calculator. What it does is, while you’re playing, is give you access to you statistics on your outs, pot odds, pot equity, odds of winning, expected value, and more. And after you play you can review all of your session stats and statistics on how your oppenents play. Getting a Read on someone has never been easier.
The awesome VPIP meter that is part of the Hold’em Pirate Poker Calculator software gives you a quick snapshot of table statistics that increases the chances that you will have a profitable session. VPIP stands for Voluntarily Putting money In the Pot, and is an exact indicator of how many players see each flop. Hold’em Pirate guidelines say you should be looking for a VPIP rating of 40 or more if you prefer loose tables with weak players.
I am fairly certain that my game has improved after using Hold’em Pirate.. I do, however, recommend that when you first start using Hold’em Pirate you do so at smaller sit-n-go’s until you get used to using the VPIP meter to adjust your style. You can try out Hold’em Pirate for free by clicking here.
Liz Lieu “The Poker Diva”
Known as “The Poker Diva”, Lieu began her poker career as a limit Hold’em cash player.
She began playing tournaments at the 2005 WSOP. Remarkably she cashed in 5th place of the $1,500 no limit event taking home 168k. She also cashed in 2 other events that year. Not bad for a rookie tournament pro.
Later that year Lieu made the final table of the Bellagio’s 2005 Festa Al Lago tourney. She followed that up by making final tables at five other big tournaments on the poker circuit including the prestigious Five Diamond World Poker Classic.
Lieu scored her first tournament championship in 2006 at the Los Angeles Poker Classic held at the Commerce Casino. Lieu won the $1000 limit hold’em event. She repeated as champion of the event later in 2007.
The Poker Diva has lifetime tournament earnings of over half a million dollars.
Hot on the heels of the largest and richest World Series of Poker in history, poker fans will soon see their favorite poker stars on the big screen as well, in what will be the first film set in the exploding world of professional poker. In Spring 2007, poker fans will be able to see more than two dozen of their favorite poker icons sharing the screen with these Hollywood stars—Eric Bana (Troy), Drew Barrymore (Charlie’s Angels) and Robert Duvall (The Godfather).
Playing themselves or fictional counterparts in Lucky You—the first Hollywood film to capture the excitement and drama of the worldwide poker phenomenon—are Jack Binion, Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Hoyt Corkins, Eli Elezra, Antonio Esfandiari, Sam Farha, Maureen Feduniak, Chris Ferguson, Ted Forrest, Phil Hellmuth, Chau Giang, Barry Greenstein, Jennifer Harman, Dan Harrington, John Hennigan, Karina Jett, John Juanda, Jason Lester, Erick Lindgren, Minh Ly, Mike Matusow, Daniel Negreanu, David Oppenheim, Max Pescatori, Matt Savage, Erik Seidel, Huck Seed, Mimi Tran, Cyndy Violette, Marsha Waggoner and Robert Williamson III. Brunson, Lester and Savage also served as consultants on the film.
Directed by Academy Award winner Curtis Hanson (L.A. Confidential, 8 Mile) and based on an original screenplay by Academy Award winner Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, The Insider), Lucky You explores the story of a professional poker player (Bana) who gets a lesson in life from a struggling singer (Barrymore) as he collides with his estranged father (Duvall) in the world of high stakes poker in Las Vegas.
“With millions of people watching poker weekly on television, it was important to capture the authenticity of the game and its players,” said Hanson. “To that end, the poker tables in Lucky You are primarily populated by poker players, not actors pretending to be poker players. Our stars trained for months in order to convincingly play side by side with top poker professionals cast in fictional roles.”
The filmmakers shot for seven weeks in Las Vegas. The casinos featured in the film include the Bellagio, Binions and the Aladdin. Upon their return to Los Angeles, shooting continued on Hollywood sound stages that housed perfect replicas of Benny’s Bullpen at Binion’s (where the WSOP was played until 2004) and the Bellagio poker room (circa 2003).
After arriving at the Bellagio set, Daniel Negreanu exclaimed: “It blew me away. It was very strange and surreal. It’s like this is the exact Bellagio poker room.” The scenes depicted at the Bellagio poker room included Bana and Duvall participating in the “Big Game” with such players as Sam Farha, Barry Greenstein, Chau Giang, Minh Ly, Ted Forrest and Erick Lindgren. “One of the things that made it totally realistic,” notes Negreanu, “is the fact that it’s a lot of the real pros that actually play in that game.”
Among the many other poker scenes in the film are some extended sequences that take place at a fictional World Series of Poker (circa 2003) and feature a myriad of recognizable pros. Jason Lester, who finished fourth in the final event at the World Series of Poker in 2003, served as an on-set consultant for the film’s depiction of the WSOP. According to Lester: “This movie is getting it right. I can’t recall any movie ever really showing high stakes gambling in such an authentic manner. Having real poker players makes it more realistic and that’s so important for any kind of gambling movie.”
Similarly, Erick Lindgren described the Benny’s Bullpen set as “Unbelievable! I just feel like this movie is going be great because I see how authentic everything is.”
According to RCFox’s Poker Blog
“Full Tilt has notified winners of their satellites to the WSOP main event that they will be putting $10,000 into their accounts “so that they can complete the registration processes.” PokerStars, at last report, will still be using some sort of third party to buy-in their satellite winners.
Forget 8,000 entrants. We’re at 7,000 and sinking, as many, many of those who won seats at Full Tilt will never play in the main event. I suspect 5,000 is much more realistic, but we’ll see…”
Executives at NBC are smiling today. According a preliminary overnight report, the ratings for the first episode of the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, which aired Sunday, April 8 on NBC, were 1.7 with a 5 share, eclipsing last season’s opener of 1.4 with a 4 share. What this means is that of all televisions in the United States, whether on or off, 1.7% of them were tuned in for the show, and of those who had their sets on, 5% were watching first round coverage of this event. This translates into millions of viewers, and represents one of the highest-rated shows in the history of poker programming.
Despite stiff competition from the Masters, these extremely impressive ratings would suggest that interest in watching poker on television remains strong, and indicate that the growth in the popularity of the game may not yet have peaked. This is certainly good news for fans everywhere, and bodes well for poker shows that feature top name players to continue airing in the future.
Opening round coverage of the National Heads-Up Poker Championship continues next Sunday, April 15 at 12:00 PM EDT (3:00 PDT) with action from the Diamonds bracket. Included in next week’s coverage will be the feature table match-up between Hollywood actor Don Cheadle and poker superstar Phil Ivey.
Former world poker champion Joe Hachem has revealed concerns for his family’s security have forced him to move house.
After a series of threatening telephone calls and letters, Mr Hachem, 41, was not willing to gamble with his family’s safety and relocated them.
“We’ve just bought a house recently, more for security reasons because my address was public knowledge,” Mr Hachem said.
“You get a few phone calls, you get a letter in the mail and you think, ‘You know what, I don’t need this’.”
He admitted he had “unfortunately” experienced a number of threats since his life-changing win at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas in 2005.
Mr Hachem was speaking before the final of the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour in Monte Carlo last week - one of about eight major international poker tournaments he competes at each year.
Since winning almost $10 million in the World Series of Poker main event two years ago, life has been “a whirlwind” for the former chiropractor and mortgage broker, who now divides his time between Melbourne and Las Vegas.
He is often accompanied on his poker trips by his wife Jeannie and their four children, aged between 11 and 16.
Mr Hachem admitted to being “naive” after he won the poker world’s biggest prize, believing he would return to a normal suburban life.
“It was definitely life changing, but the funny thing is I didn’t expect it,” he said.
“I just thought I’d be world champion, get a nice endorsement and go back to my normal life. Bulls..t, there’s nothing normal about my life these days.”
Mr Hachem travels to Las Vegas next week to compete in the World Poker Tour championship event.
CEO Poker, an Executive Games company, has announced the Trump Taj Mahal will host the CEO Poker Tour, May 19-25, where players will battle over the green felt of the poker table for an exclusive Tiffany Championship bracelet, cash, trophies, prizes and bragging rights.
“We chose the Trump Taj Mahal because we wanted our players to enjoy an exclusive poker room and a host of amenities,” says William Peraza, CEO, CEOPoker and Executive Games. “Our players expect a professional atmosphere, in a casino that has experience holding exclusive poker events. The Trump Taj Mahal was a natural choice for the CEO Poker Tour brand.”
The CEO Poker Tournament at the Trump Taj Mahal is open to all players wanting to compete and network, while playing Texas Hold’em. Buy-ins start from $500-$5,000.
CEO Poker Tour players will be able to enjoy the Trump Taj Mahal, voted Best Poker Room by readers of Casino Player Magazine, and home to the United States Poker Championship.
The Trump Taj Mahal Poker Parlor is one of the largest poker rooms in Atlantic City with games that include: 7 Card Stud, Omaha and the game that has taken the nation by storm, Texas Hold’em. Players can enjoy table-side food service, free poker instructions for beginners and an exclusive high-limit section. The Taj Poker Room has been the Home of the ESPN United States Poker Championships for ten years!
A listing of the CEO Poker Tour events can be found by logging on to http://www.ceopokertour.com
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