This is a story about re-entries, chops and a poker player who hopes her luck is changing.

Ebony Kenney, 27, prevailed in the main event of the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Summer Open Poker Series June 22. Here's the story.

Kenney, who lives in Estero, near Fort Myers, had played poker full-time for two or three years, including some World Series circuit events, but took a break for about eight months after a long losing streak.

"I enjoy poker so much, but just hit a bad slump," she said. "I couldn't win a race."

A single mother of two, she recently earned her real estate agent's license, and came to the Hard Rock with three friends to play in the tournament, which has two opening days. She used to player there some, especially in $500 single-table tournaments before more players switched to cash games.

She got knocked out on the first day of the main event. But the tournament allows those knocked out on the first day to re-enter on the second day, something most tournaments don't allow. (It's written in state gambling rules, but the Seminoles don't have to comply with the Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering.)

"I had not heard of tournaments doing that before, but I said 'What the heck,'" she said.

So she surived her second "Day One," and was in 49th place out of 50.

"But then I just hung on, and caught a couple of hands," she said.

She was among the two top chip leaders when the field narrowed to about seven. They agreed to divide the pot -- a "chop" in poker parlance -- with Kenney and one other player getting a little bit more. (She took home $54,230 in the tournament, which had 182 entries/counting some people twice. Entry fee was $1,100.)

To determine the trophy-winner, the choppers each drew a card, and Kenney and the other leader were allowed to draw two, to more fairly weight the chop.

She got the ace of hearts, and a king of hearts kicker.

And the trophy.

Now she's in Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker. She busted out of a $1,500 event on Monday but hopes to play in the main event this weekend. She's cobbling together a backer or two to cover part of the $10,000 entry -- common practice in the poker world.

The "other" poker that goes on during WSOP can be just as lucrative, players note, and that's part of Kenney's plan. She's playing the $300 tournaments that aren't associated with the WSOP, and perhaps that will also help bankroll her.

"I'm in Vegas, and playing poker," she says. "You never know what can happen."