A woman at a poker table sticks out anyway, Ebony Kenney reasons.

"So I decided to just go for it," she says. "And use that to my advantage."

Now, at age 29, with local success in hand, Kenney, of North Miami Beach, is pushing for worldwide poker recognition.

Her hook: combining the mind and the body … in this case, poker and modeling.

"There are all kinds of models who play poker," Kenney says, a reference to Playboy's Joanna Krupa and even American Pie's Shannon Elizabeth, who started off as a model. ""I think I'm the first poker player to go into modeling."

Kenney has been playing poker for about 10 years and notched several tournament wins, including a $23,878 haul from the Isle Casino & Racing in January; $20,250 at the Palm Beach Kennel Club in August, and $54,230 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in 2009.

"She has an edge because people look at her and assume she isn't a good poker player, but she should be feared and respected," says Tristan Wade of Boynton Beach, an instructor for DeepStacks University, a poker instruction company.

Adds Wade, who has won almost $2 million himself: "I've seen her be able to make people hand her chips in a variety of ways most other players aren't capable of doing."

Now, whenever she sits down to play, almost everybody knows who she is. She's the woman with the platinum hair and green eyes — who'll likely take your chips.

About 10 months ago, she became a blonde by choice, and well, life got interesting. Her look kept prompting photographers to ask if she was Amber Rose, a model and former Kanye West paramour.

"I found the whole thing funny, because growing up I was more like one of those troll dolls, with a massive nose, hair that went everywhere and really dark skin," says Kenney, who is biracial. "But after I changed my hair, the modeling fell into my lap. I don't think I look better than everyone else, but I do look different."

So far, she has been profiled in poker magazines, appeared in the video "Rap Song" by T-Pain and has more than 2,000 followers on Facebook. She also has done shoots on South Beach; you can see some of those photos at EbonyKenney.com.

Kenney grew up in Fort Myers and started playing poker while tagging along with her boyfriend to a regular game. She moved to South Florida about two years ago, under encouragement from fellow player Steve Karp, who now also manages her, seeing the potential for a poker player to cross over into non-poker culture.

Kenney will play in some of the 57 events at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas this summer, and success there could catapult her, says Matt Waldron, a senior writer with WPT Poker Magazine.

"If she even makes a couple of final tables in Las Vegas, she's a lock to become a media darling," Waldron says.

Kenney, a single mother of two, says acquaintances have asked her if poker is the right lifestyle choice for her.

"Whenever you lose, people say, 'You shouldn't be gambling.' But when you win people say, 'Teach me how to play,' " she says. "That's the stigma of being a poker player, and it's worse being a female poker player, and it's even worse being a single mom.

"But overall, I look around and I really see everything going on in the world and how truly lucky I am."

Reprinted with permission from the Sun Sentinel

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