Over the past year, it’s hard to think of a poker superstar more inspiring to the new generation of female players than Ebony Kenney. The Americas Cardroom (ACR) ambassador cashed for her biggest-ever score in 2022 when she finished fifth in the $200,000-entry Coin Rivet Invitational in Northern Cyprus, winning $1.7 million. Now a bona fide threat in any event, the poker professional spoke to us about her own inspirations and what she aspires to achieve in 2023.
You’re The Inspiration
Ebony Kenney is a huge inspiration to the new crop of ‘power poker’ female players coming though, but as she told us, her own inspirations go back generations in the game.
“It’s an honor to be called an inspiration in any capacity, but especially in the field that is my career,’ she says. “This industry is filled with such talented and powerful women. My inspirations include the women who paved the way for me to be here, like Cyndy Violette, Jen Harman, Maria Ho, and Vanessa Selbst.”
Ebony says she feels ‘lucky’ to be surrounded by women who love hard and has made lifelong friends playing poker. People she says such as ‘Camille Brown, Pamela Maldonado, Kelly Minkin, Jamie Kerstetter, Loni Harwood, Ashley Frank, Jess Richards, Quene Gabriel, Jess Cass, Larina Hajjafar, Emily Schmidt, Lyn Ji, and fellow ACR Team Pros Ana Marquez and Katie Lindsay’ are all ladies who she loves having in her life. Others such as Caitlin Comeskey, Monika Zucowicz and Nikki Green have become friends more recently and are ladies that Kenney is in full of admiration of.
Owning Her Mistakes and Successes
Ebony is not only a positive influence on young ladies around the world looking to take up the game, but as a parent. Her role as a mother clearly inspires her.
“My drive comes from two major components: my kids and other women. My two kids, Wendy and Cade, are with me at the center of everything I do, and deserve peace now, more than ever. By working hard, I am able to extend as much love and support as I can to them.”
While Kenney admits that she has made ‘countless’ mistakes as a parent, her ability to own her mistakes in life is what has driven her to improve, in all areas of her life, not just the game of poker.
“For me, it’s owning all parts of that while having grace for myself, which leads me to my other major component. As women, I feel like we have the tendency to be so hard on ourselves and try to do everything at once, and if it’s not perfect, we beat ourselves up. The fact is we will f**k up. It’s inevitable. Accepting that while also understanding that you get to grow and step out of every single box you thought you belonged in — that’s my why.”
Ebony Kenney’s poker life has been played out under a glare of publicity that has at times burned brightly directly at her. She’s had to show strength to survive the words aimed in her direction. Any negative words seem especially heartless when you consider that she almost lost her son on numerous occasions some years ago.
Ebony’s journey since then is explored in a riveting documentary from ACR entitled High Stakes: A Woman’s Seat in a $200,000 Poker Tournament, with Part 1 already available for viewers on YouTube:
“All heart? I’m so here for this and will happily take it!” as Ebony says. “It’s definitely not my analytical side that runs the decision-making the majority of the time, but it cannot be ignored. Once I started to study, I realized how terrible I was with the GTO side of things [but] how fantastic I was with live reads and tells.”
Ebony is happy to be ‘still learning, will always be learning’ but will never stop wearing her heart on her sleeve. Her emotional heart is who she is. As she says, ‘Poker is exciting for me, and I want others to feel that.’
Coining It in Cyprus
Last year, Ebony took fifth in the $200,000-entry Coin Rivet Invitational event in Northern Cyprus, winning an amazing $1.7 million. She overflows with gratitude when thinking back to that magical week in the sun.
“I’m just so grateful to Phil [Nagy] and ACR for the opportunity, the entire trip was a series of one unbelievable moment after another. However, having my kids and Camille there feels like the most impactful, making every moment even sweeter. There are truly no moments in poker I’ve felt as sweet as playing a week of high rollers, across the world, and looking up to see the three of them watching me with their love pouring out.”
After the event, poker reacted to Ebony’s success. Pick a perspective and it’s likely to have been taken by someone as everyone felt like they had an opinion on her success. Fortunately, Ebony’s mental strength – and her work on that phenomenal aspect of her character – gave her a chance to demonstrate her personal growth.
“I think there are a lot of different perceptions of me and I’m not here to prove them right or wrong. I’m trying not to get too caught up in what people think of me. It’s exhausting and can be harmful. I will say I don’t think people realized how absolutely ridiculous and nerdy I am. This documentary definitely lets the cat out of the bag though!”
Ebony is in great form heading into the World Series of Poker and has high hopes not only for own chances, but the prospects of female players across the board.
“Of course I want to make the WSOP Main Event final table, but I honestly wish any woman would make it. I don’t have this scarcity mindset of, “if not me then no one.” I’m crossing my fingers every single year for one or more of us to make it. But f**k it, why not this year? Come on ladies, let’s do this!”
Signing for Americas Cardroom
Americas Cardroom clearly have a star on their hands by putting Ebony at the heart of their pro roster. But what has the experience been like for her?
“Signing with ACR has been tremendous for me and my family in so many ways. I started working with them in March 2020, for the Triple Threat Challenge, eventually signing on as a sponsored Team Pro in Dec 2020. After so much uncertainty in my family’s lives from 2017 and beyond regarding my son’s health, followed by the pandemic that hit everyone hard, the timing for my relationship with ACR came at a time when I was able to really appreciate it.”
Sponsorship has shifted dramatically over the past decade or so, and streaming is a huge part of it, which plays to Ebony’s strengths. ACR clearly benefit hugely from the partnership too.
“To be here now feels like an absolute dream I only imagined. It’s an incredible honor to be an ambassador, and as the only black woman in all of poker to be a sponsored Team Pro, I know representation matters. Other than the phenomenal women I mentioned earlier, the people I’m most grateful to have in my corner are the members of my Twitch community. The BBA (Bad Bitch Army) is filled with people from varying walks of life, all ages, genders, races, with one thing in common: we want to spread love.”
Men in Poker “Get to Just Show Up”
Ebony cashed five times in last year’s World Series of Poker, but what did she make of its return to the iconic Las Vegas Strip?
“I was ecstatic!” she laughs. “I had my first ever Main Event cash and was thrilled to run deep in another open event.”
Ebony’s emotional and mental wellbeing are both huge areas of her life into which she has put a lot of work, and she believes that the imbalance in terms of how she is often regarded – more for her physical form – is something the poker world needs to consider.
“Men in poker get to just show up, and a lot of them look like they rolled out of bed and haven’t showered in days. I’m saying this to point out the hypocrisy. Women’s appearances are always being debated and policed, anywhere and everywhere in the world. As poker is a microcosm of the world, I think poker has something to answer for that.”
It’s not just in live media reporting that this situation is prevalent, but online, where Ebony stars on Twitch. As she describes, some of the abuse that is directed towards females is extremely concerning.
“Turn on any stream where there’s a woman present, and the chat is toxic, with most of the focus being on her physical appearance. Loving yourself, and I mean truly loving who you are as a person, is a learned skill, and can be quite difficult to learn when you have a large number of people debating on whether you are good enough to just exist based on your appearance. As someone who used to be toxic and only recently learned to love myself, I’ve been very outspoken about my mental and emotional health.”
Ebony’s passion on this subject is understandable. She’s not only a representative of a poker brand which strongly advocates for growing female player numbers, but a mother too.
“I want people, especially women, to know they’re not alone,” she tells us. “Someone can look like they have it all and still struggle. I’ve struggled a lot — still do — and I just try to keep in mind that everything is temporary. The good, the bad, all of it. By intentionally taking care of my mental health, I get to be ahead of the haters and focus on the love. Comparison is the thief of joy, and if you are loving yourself and focusing on you, it becomes a lot harder to steal that joy.”
Everyone fits into a category in life, as well as poker. Ebony is black, female and plays poker for a living; those can be statuses that some use to pigeonhole her rather than open her up for others to appreciate her skill at the felt.
Leaning on Love
Ebony Kenney isn’t just a poker phenomenon, she’s an advocate of life, and love. Her message – if there is one that can be restricted by words might be that being who you truly are and owning it are qualities that you should never compromise on. Ebony appreciates those around her who reflect that effervescence.
“For every ‘Ayyy’ that is shouted on stream, every dance move made, there are just as many thank yous and I love yous shared. We are a vulnerable, inclusive, and loving community that is truly there for each other. And, last but not least, my ACR family. It’s such a fun group of people to spend time with, experience new things with and learn from both on and off the felt.
Ebony Kenney is a completely unique, authentic human being, and she happens to be a great poker player too. Of all the players heading to Vegas this summer, few will be cheered on louder or more positively than her. She is keen to remind us that she had to turn her life around to become the person she is today.
“Everyone can show up in the world exactly as they want to and you don’t have to fit into perfectly manicured boxes. I’ve made a lot of mistakes, I perpetuated a lot of the negativity I now campaign against. But I broke away from that because I wanted better, for me, for my kids and for friends. I haven’t always run or played well, both on and off the table, but when I decided to be kinder, life became sweeter.”
Life is sweet indeed, and Ebony is on a mission to keep that sweet streak going.
