Maureen "Mo" Feduniak didn't dream of being a poker player while growing up outside London, as many pros do when they are young. Her dream was to be a dancer. Her mother had been a ballroom dancer, and she worked so that her daughter could take dancing lessons, starting at age 4. But her Irish, blue-collar father objected to the daughter pursuing dancing professionally, as he thought it was "rather sleazy," as Feduniak says.
Eventually, under pressure from daughter and wife, her father gave in, and she danced professionally in a chorus line for a few years, before giving it up when she started a family. She met, dated and married Bob Feduniak, who is now also a professional player. With him, she started playing low-limit at the Mirage in Las Vegas, then, to get more practice and discipline, she started playing in tournaments. In 1998, when Bob and Mo married, her wedding gift from him was a buy-in to the main event of the World Series of Poker. From then on, she was hooked, and, lest anyone think this grandmother of 5 is "dead money," think again. In a 2003 tournament at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, she beat Howard Lederer, and she has received coaching from poker star T.J. Cloutier. She has placed first in a No Limit Hold'em event in the 2003 Bellagio Special Poker Events, winning more than $43,000, and 2nd in the Seven-Card Stud event at the 2003 Festa al Lago in Vegas. The irony, of course, is that Mo gravitated toward poker, a card game once considered "sleazy," after she gave up the dancing that her father had once considered "sleazy." She now takes private dancing lessons, although Bob still doesn't dance. "I love poker," she says, "but I always missed dancing."
