Maureen Feduniak: A Dancer-Turned-Poker-Professional
No one ever imagined that Maureen Feduniak would ever be a female professional poker player. The truth is that Maureen Feduniak herself never imagined that she would be hooked to playing professional poker. She was taking a different path until one day she had the chance to play poker. And it was the start of her life in the world of gaming.
Born in England, Maureen Feduniak always knew as a child that she would someday be a dancer, just like her mother. Her mother, who was a ballroom dancer, worked very hard so that Maureen Feduniak would eventually be able to enroll in a dancing school by the time she reached four years old. At first, her father never approved of her ambition of becoming a dancer, but due to her and her mother's insistence, her father eventually gave up objecting.
When she grew up, Maureen Feduniak started to dance professionally. Unfortunately, she had to stop dancing in order to start a family. She married Bob Feduniak in 1998.
The wedding gift that Bob gave Maureen Feduniak seemed to start her career in poker. It was a buy-in to the World Series of Poker main event. Since then, Maureen Feduniak became hooked to playing poker until she became one of the best female professional poker players in the world.
This female professional poker player started practicing poker at the Mirage casino in Las Vegas, Nevada with her husband. She eventually participated in various poker tournaments in order to improve her poker skills.
In 2003, this female professional poker player played at a tournament that was conducted at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, Nevada. In this event, she successfully defeated poker professional Howard Lederer. It was after this tournament that poker giant T. J. Cloutier offered Maureen Feduniak to be her coach to further improve her betting strategies and poker techniques.
True enough, the coaching technique of Cloutier seemed to be very effective as this female professional poker player placed first in a No Limit Hold'em event featured at the Bellagio Special Poker Events. She took home an amount of over US$43,000.
At the 2003 Festa al Lago tournament in Las Vegas, Nevada, this female professional poker player also participated in a Seven-Card Stud event and placed second.
Just like Maureen Feduniak, her husband has also turned into a professional poker player. And although she misses dancing professionally, she also knows that she cannot quit playing professional poker. She satisfies herself by taking private dancing classes.