Erica Schoenberg is certainly a contender to be the latest glamorous female player to take the poker world by storm.
The 28-year-old was snapped up as a sponsored pro by MANSION following her $117,165 win at the Five-Star World Poker Classic in Las Vegas. It remains the biggest prize haul of her career so far, but there could well be many more in the pipeline for a player with cards in her blood.
Ohio-born Schoenberg – who came fourth at the WPT Ladies Night Out event in Los Angeles in August and trousered £3,008 at a WSOP event in June – is a former blackjack pro who grew up as a member of a gambling family. “Playing cards is what we did in our spare time,” she says. “We’d gamble on just about anything. We lived in a really small town with only three television stations so I ended up going to the race track with my dad to try to harness my affinity for numbers and cards and things like that.”
Online, she plays under the moniker “str8flushin”. Even though she is playing more and more live tournaments as part of the MANSION deal she intends pursuing the game online whenever possible.
She plays five days a week, and at least online you won’t be distracted by her looks, which she admits in tournaments gives her a “small, small edge but every little thing helps.”
Now based in Las Vegas, Schoenberg is dating French poker pro David Benyamine, who won $410,886 at the WPT event held at the Aviation Club de France in Paris in 2003, and whose total tournament winnings exceed $1 million.
Away from the tables Schoenberg is something of a fitness freak – she has competed in pro beach volleyball and is a qualified personal trainer. She’s also a fan of American bloodfest sport Ultimate Fighting. Obviously she’s a woman who likes a fight – be warned if you tackle her at the tables.
Who have we missed? Email and tell us who you want to read about
Loading ...
