Poker professional Amanda Musumeci is just 5-foot-1 but at a poker table, the only height that matters is the size of a player’s chip stack. And the towers of chips usually stacked in front of Amanda serve notice that she can’t be pushed around.
Philadelphia born-and-bred and with an Italian-Jewish background, Musumeci is pure East Coast.
“I went to Hebrew school as a child and then Catholic high school, so I experienced both worlds,” she said, “Matzah balls and meatballs.”
Musumeci can figure pot odds in a card game quicker than most people can recite their telephone number. She exudes confidence and isn’t afraid to take control of a poker table.
“When I first started playing poker, I tried the idiot-chick routine,” Musumeci said. “But it wasn’t me and it didn’t really work. Now, I let people know right away that I know what I’m doing. I’ll talk strategy. I’ll show a bluff early. It keeps the guys off-balance.”
Although she’s just 29, Musumeci has lived several lifetimes as a poker player.
She left college in rural Kutztown, Pennsylvania in 2007 after building her first-ever $150 deposit on an online poker website into a $3,000 bankroll in just a week.
As if a fairy godmother had come into her life, Amanda soon found herself playing poker in Australia and then living in a luxury high-rise condo near the Las Vegas Strip. For two years in Sin City, she played mainly on the Internet with money supplied by backers and honing her skills as she networked with top Vegas poker pros.
Musumeci seemed to be on the cusp of poker celebrity when an online poker website signed her to a sponsorship in 2010.
But although she turned $15 into $20,000 in a promotional challenge, she struggled in the 2010 World Series of Poker. Then came online poker’s so-called Black Friday, when the Department of Justice closed down the most popular poker websites in the country, ending Amanda’s online poker career.
“I just wanted to crawl into the fetal position in a corner,” she said.
When the shock of losing her online livelihood wore off, Amanda’s Philly toughness and resiliency came in handy.
She rallied to cash four times in the following year’s 2011 World Series of Poker. And in the famous Main Event, she finished No. 62 out of more than 6,800 players winning nearly $131,000 and attracting lots of attention from ESPN’s cameras. Her success wouldn't stop there. Now-a-days, Musumeci boasts earnings into the multi-millions, with her biggest score currently set at roughly $500,000.
No doubt this audacious east-coaster will continue to light a fire on the felts.
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