Sam Cohen is amidst a multitude of female poker players who has made an imprint on the poker world in 2013. Her impressive 8th place finish at the 2013 Aussie Millions at the Crown Melbourne, giving her the confidence, enjoyment and financial clout to have a real go at the profession of live tournament poker.
Here is Cohen taking a look back at that wonderful year, and also talking about her plans for the future. I started off by asking her if she was a goals orientated person?
“I don’t always seek to have a goal in front of me, and work towards it, but when I have something I want to do I work non stop to get it.” Said Cohen.
So talk us through 2013. How did the year pan out?
“When I started 2013 I didn’t even know if I was going to play poker anymore. I went to the Aussie Millions thinking it would be my last poker trip – I never thought I would be playing professionally – then I ended up getting eighth for a $126,684, so I decided to keep traveling, and playing, and fell in love with it. I have been doing well enough to not be losing a lot of money, and am surrounded by players who are really good, so I’m learning a lot.”
“Then half way through the year I realized that I was a professional poker player. It’s been great, I have been seeing the world and having a lot of fun.”
What about life outside the oval circle?
“I have always wanted to go to Graduate School, but never really got my act together, but this year, I have started to work towards getting my MBA for Marketing, and have been working towards my GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test).
“When I am at home I like to spend time a lot of time with my family, and close friends. I am a huge sports fan so I try to schedule my poker trips around the Dolphins home games so I can be home for them.”
I wondered if Cohen liked to bet on sports?
“I care enough about the outcome of the games I watch to not need it to make it exciting. I used to bet on baseball, really low stakes, and I was very good at it because you could manipulate the lines; but I don’t anymore because I am investing so much money in poker, I don’t want to invest any money in other forms of gambling except for Craps – which is my Dad’s fault.”
What was life like before the score at the Aussie Millions?
“I had never intended to get into playing poker. The only poker tournament I ever played, each year, was the WSOP Main Event with my Dad. It started out as a one-time thing, but we enjoyed it so much that we kept going back each year. Then through a really strange set of events I gave a friend of mine – Tristan Wade – $10,000 to play an event, and he did really well. I had a piece of that so we agreed to take a trip to Europe to play some poker and he won a WSOPE bracelet – now I was starting to love it. He started to teach me how to play properly and it went from there.”
And looking forward…what does 2014 have in store for Cohen?
“I am going to go to the PCA to play the Main Event, then after that I will be returning to Melbourne for the Aussie Millions. Then it’s all up in the air other than a lot of hard work towards my GMAT.”
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