Erin Ness, Young Blood

  Erin Ness is a rising star among the ladies of professional poker. She started learning and playing the game when she was a child in New Jersey. While attending Georgetown University, Ness, 26, was known by classmates to get in at least three Poker games a week.   After graduating and getting a job as a photo assistant with Maxim Magazine, Ness won an in-house competition at the company and $10,000 for the buy-in to the World Series of Poker. Maxim also paid her way to the tournament. The youthful Erin Ness surprised everyone by becoming the third highest female finisher (207th place) at the 2004 WSOP Main Event. This year, she finished 46th in the highly competitive $5,000 no limit event at the WSOP.   Erin has also competed in the televised tournament “Poker Royale: Young Bloods” broadcast on the Game Show Network. She is now a member of “Team Poker Stars,” a group of players affiliated with the popular online poker site of the same name.   Although she’ll undoubtedly need a few more top-level tournaments – and some victories at those tournaments - under her belt to get widespread respect and recognition in the poker world, she’s got talent. She’s also realistic: Working full-time in the photography department at Maxim doesn’t give her a lot of time to hone her skills. She has recently been promoted to Photo Editor at Maxim, which will undoubtedly take even more time away from the card table.   Still, she was a crowd-pleaser at the 2005 WSOP for her good-looks and endearing personality. Ness says she gets requests for autographs and a lot of fan mail. If she stays with it, works on her game, and wins a few more tournaments, she may have to change her address because her mailbox will be flooded with fan mail.  But better yet, she’ll probably silence a few Poker-faced cynics.