American Pie to Poker: Shannon Elizabeth biography

Cynics may label the addition a desperate attempt to glamorize poker, regardless of skill, but Elizabeth is a breath of fresh air in a game dominated by males. Although she lives in the shadow of Jen Harman, Annette Obrestad and Annie Duke in terms of poker playing ability, Elizabeth has proved her metal.

Shannon defeated multiple bracelet winners Barry Greenstein, Humberto Brenes and Jeff Madsen on route to the semi-finals of NBC's 2007 National Heads-Up Poker Championship, where she succumbed to eventual winner Paul Wasicka.

Elizabeth Shannon, whose athletic frame initially led her to consider tennis as a career, hit the headlines when she starred as gorgeous Czech exchange student Nadia in teenage comedy American Pie. The confident Elizabeth achieved cult status when she stripped in front of nervy teenager Jim Levenstein in the famous 'webcam' scene, and followed up her film success by posing for Playboy magazine.

Shannon's other film forays include Scary Movie and Love Actually, but at 36, she is now focusing on poker. She retained her perfect, pin-up girl image by appearing on the cover of Maxim magazine in 2008.

Elizabeth, who is an exotic mix of Syrian, English and German, made her mark on the 2006 WSOP by making three money finishes. Her biggest coup was the $2,262 she earned for finishing 33rd in a $1.5k NLH event. Shannon's $125k, 3rd place finish in the 2007 NBC Heads-Up Championship proved she could match her pretty face with a poker face.

Shannon's other poker ventures include honouring her Lebanese origin by playing for Team Lebanon at the World Team Poker championship, alongside the likes of Freddy Deeb.

Elizabeth recently signed for the Merge network's biggest network Carbon Poker, where she greets players with a seductive 'come and join me at the tables' message on the website. With its soft low stakes games, US customers and snazzy software, Carbon is a poker room on the ascent. Currently ranked just outside the top 10 in terms of cash game traffic, Carbon hopes Shannon's arrival will signal a new dawn. Players are treated to regular Shannon Elizabeth bounty online tournaments.

Shannon faces stiff competition from the likes of Vanessa Rousso, Erica Schoenberg and Liv Boeree as poker's premium glamour girl, but she has managed her promotional career well so far. Along with fellow Hollywood star Don Cheadle, Elizabeth is a keen philanthropist, and finished second in the 2010 Ante up for Africa event for $75k.

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Carbon Poker is a great online poker room as there are more casual players and less poker pros than at the major rooms. This is the benefit of having some traffic, but not too much.

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