Poker News Daily: How did you get started in poker?
Schoenberg: I came off of playing blackjack with a team. Our team disbanded and we were getting a lot of heat from the casinos. I was asked to do a poker show on GSN with Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi and David Williams and I played terribly. From there on, I decided I was determined to get better at poker.
PND: Talk about the blackjack team. Did any part of your involvement with it help groom you for the game of poker?
Schoenberg: I met the original members of the MIT Blackjack Team and they referred me to someone in Los Angeles. Aside from the ability to process a lot of information at once, which you have to do in card counting, the time I spent loitering in casinos and the late nights helped me. Poker can end up in long hours for tournaments and late nights. Blackjack helped me get used to that.
PND: Why was poker appealing to you?
Schoenberg: I couldn’t imagine sitting in an office or a cubicle for the rest of my life. It’s crazy that poker can be a career. It’s living the dream if you have a little bit of gamble in you.
PND: Talk about having David Benyamine in your life, who also excels at poker. Does having him help you fine-tune your game?
Schoenberg: Sometimes I get tired of poker because it feels like that’s all we talk about and do. For the most part, it’s 90% helpful and 10% annoying. Being able to watching him play online and hearing him talk through hands is huge for me.
PND: What makes Benyamine’s game above and beyond the rest?
Schoenberg: The way he thinks about the game is on a higher level from anyone I’ve ever watched. I really believe that and I’m not just saying it. I’ve met a lot of brilliant people in my life. He has this ridiculous gift for card games and is good at rummy, gin rummy, and backgammon. He has a mind for it.
PND: You’re a member of Team Full Tilt. Talk about what makes Full Tilt Poker a premier online poker room.
Schoenberg: I think their software is the best. Getting hand histories is much easier. It’s helpful when you’re playing to go back over hands. Full Tilt makes that simple and is the premier online poker site.
PND: Talk about being associated with members of Team Full Tilt like Phil Ivey, Howard Lederer, and Allen Cunningham.
Schoenberg: It’s such an honor to be associated with them. It’s great to have your name in the company of some of the world’s best poker players.
PND: In your eyes, what is your greatest poker accomplishment to date?
Schoenberg: Winning a $2,500 World Poker Tour preliminary event at Mandalay Bay in 2007. It was an open event, not a women’s only event, but I got heads-up with Anna Wroblewski. I have total respect for her game and she’s a great poker pro in general. My third place in a $1,500 Hold’em event at the 2007 World Series of Poker was a bit of a sick burn.
PND: What advice do you have for women looking to get into poker?
Schoenberg: Play as much as you can online before stepping foot in a casino. The minute you get into a poker room with all males, it’s going to throw off your game. Get as firm of a grasp on all of the rules and be comfortable with the game before you sit down. I think for a beginning female poker player, being in a roomful of males could be really disconcerting. You don’t want to be spastic because you’re surrounded by men.
PND: Tell us about what you do away from the game.
Schoenberg: David and I golf a ton. We love it. I’m also a huge animal lover and I do things with my dogs. I like to go at the beach and spend time outside for a healthy and clean living. I have a Golden Retriever and a Jack Russell Terrier.
