Top 3 Samantha Abernathy Hands

She may still be outside the world’s top 3000 earners despite having over $500K in tournament winnings to her name, but Samantha Abernathy is the 11th most popular pro according to the Hendon Mob website, so what’s the poker story behind the 25-year old Atlanta native who now calls Las Vegas home?

A love of all games coupled with a ruthless streak is the short version, ideal attributes for when poker came calling only three short years ago, Abernathy instantly falling in love with the game, and turning that love into a career fairly rapidly, helped by a huge score at last year’s Aussie Millions – 3rd in the Main Event for $437,543.

One hand which got a lot of attention was the following against Mikel Habb, Abernathy saying afterwards:

“There has been some debate about whether or not this hand was a slow-roll… I can’t speak to his intentions, but I feel that it was a poor demonstration of good etiquette and sportsmanship, and that part didn’t feel great on my end in the moment.”

The river, however, delivered justice…

Of course, her undeniable physical beauty has also helped her to get noticed – and partly explains her high spot in the popularity polls – but she isn’t unaware of such things, admitting to CardPlayer magazine that she got more opportunities right away than she necessarily "deserved.”

When Poker Night in America came along, it was an aggressive Abernathy mixing it with fellow mid-stakes pros – and along the way she showed Mike Dentale that bullying tactics work both ways, bluffing him nicely in the following opening hand to take down a nice early pot.

Off the table Samantha has often had to deal with the kind of behavior which makes life rather difficult for many women coming through at the tables, but again her quick-witted feistiness shines through, as in the rather infamous Dan Bilzerian ‘BJ’ claims on Twitter (and no, we don’t have a video clip of that!)

@slaymerica Dan has done more for me than "the game" ever has and I **obv** repay him with bjs so I'd say my work here is done. Gfy

— Samantha (@SamAbernathyy) October 2, 2016

Hardly surprising then that one of her best friends in the poker world is Cate Hall, not one to shy away from calling the odd macho player names you wouldn’t repeat in front of your grandmother!

So, what better way to wrap up this little Abernathy vignette than another bluff, this time against Hall herself. Who needs enemies when you have friends like Samantha?