A few years ago Ebony Kenney went from relatively unknown small-time tournament player in Florida to one of the hottest players in a booming Florida poker market. She was in the World Poker Tour spotlight as a Season X “Ones to Watch” and found herself playing up and down the East Coast on a regular basis and eventually started travelling more and more to bigger buy-in events.

A year ago she flipped all of that on its head and moved with her 14-year-old daughter Jadyn and 11-year-old son Cade across the country to California and she has a poker tournament – or three – to thank for that.

“I think I am a Cali girl. I went a few years back during the WPT California Swing, the first time they had that, and decided to make a trip of it. Drove up and down the coast and just absolutely fell in love with the area,” said Kenney, who bagged up 82,700 on Day 1C of the Main Event.

The WPT California Swing includes events at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles, the Bay 101 Casino in San Jose, and the Thunder Valley Casino just outside of Sacramento and plays out over a three week span from late-February to mid-March.

“I just knew that I wanted to move and I made the plans,” said Kenney as she prepared for Day 2C of the 2016 WSOP Main Event. “It took a little longer than I wanted to, but finally got out, moved there right before school started for my kids.”

Having two kids, one on the verge of entering high school, meant any potential move was going to be met with resistance. Starting at a new school, having to make new friends, developing a new routine would all be challenges for the family of three and at first, her kids weren’t having it.

“My kids didn’t want to go. They were 14 and 11 at the time and my daughter was getting ready to start high school, and we made the deal that wherever we started high school, that’s where we were going to be permanently,” said Kenney. “I had to make the move or else I was going to be stuck in Florida for the next ten years. So I was like ‘trust me, you’re going to love it’ and we moved and after two weeks of being there they were both like ‘this is the best move ever’.”

The family settled on Orange County and moved in the summer of 2015. The kids aren’t the only ones happy with the decision to swap coasts. Kenney’s found new energy in California and is enjoying being able to discover new things about her new home state.

“No matter where you live in California, you’re five minutes away from something extraordinarily beautiful and the energy, the weather, everything about it is just spectacular and you know, the poker’s not so bad either,” said Kenney.

Trying to balance the life of single mom and professional poker player presents some unique challenges. Kenney says the move to California coupled with a decision to focus more on cash games than tournaments has certainly helped, but her kids have been nothing but understanding of the schedule she keeps.

“Of all the fuck ups I’ve made it my life, they are somehow, they’re just so good. They get along – my daughter (Jadyn) is 15 and she’s not a typical 15 year old. She’s honest, doesn’t talk back, straight A student,” said Kenney. “She gets the normal teenage attitude but she’s so good. And they’re super close, they get along, they like being with each other. She likes hanging out with me more than she does her friends. It’s very weird and I’m very happy.”

Cade has also taken to the California life in a big way

“Ever since he could walk and talk he’s been singing, and I mean everything, singing in the shower, taking hour long showers because he’s singing, singing while he’s using the bathroom. He’s got a spectacular voice,” said Kenney. “But he never wanted to sing in front of anyone, he would sing, but he’d never be like ‘okay, I’m going to sing for you’. He was never about it.”

Being in the entertainment capital of the world seems to have flipped the script on that though. He got himself involved in local theatre and has been going out on auditions. It’s gone so well that Kenney has been commuting between Las Vegas and Los Angeles during the Series to attend show he’s gotten roles in.

“He has totally come out of his shell. He’s part of a local theatre now. His first audition he nailed, he got one of the lead roles,” said Kenney. “I’ve gone back and forth for this Series, because I went home two weekends in a row to watch his show. He had a lead in one show and an extra in another and a second lead in another, so I’ve gone back and forth three times.”

Even with the trips back home and having her biggest fans watching from afar, Kenney has had some success in Las Vegas this summer. Most of it in the lead up to the Main Event. She outlasted 3,946 players to stone bubble the final table of the WPT500 event at Aria. The very next day she registered in the WSOP Ladies Championship and made it to the final two tables before busting out in 16th place.

“I mean, it felt good. I’m really happy with the way I’m playing. It was really great and there was a lot of pros down in the last two or three, I mean a lot and not just ‘oh pros for girls’ but like recognizable, big name pros; Vanessa Selbst, Amanda Musumeci, Mandy Baker,” said Kenney. “I was just excited to be in the mix and have a shot at a bracelet. It’s my deepest run in a WSOP event, only my second cash I think. It was so much fun, so much fun.”

Part of that fun came in a friendship she developed at the table with the eventual winner, Courtney Kennedy. The pair ended up sitting next to each other on Day 2 and hit it off right away.

“I posted on Facebook yesterday after she won: every once in a while, if you’re lucky, you meet people that you know your’e going to be life long friends with and Courtney was one of those people,” said Kenney. “Her energy is just spectacular and so contagious and we went to dinner on Day 2 and I was like ‘I’m so glad I met her’ and no matter what happened I was so happy that I met her.”