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Thousands of players are throwing down thousands of dollars in hopes of winning thousands more at the 2011 World Series of Poker, and the stakes couldn’t be any higher for Ebony Kenney.

Kenney, a single mom with two young children, was accustomed to making a living for herself and her family by playing live and online poker. Things were peaking for Kenney when she received a sponsorship from Full Tilt Poker. Unfortunately, the Department of Justice seized the three largest online poker sites the very next day, preventing her from logging on to her sponsor’s site and effectively nullifying a good portion of the contract.

Not one to give up, Kenney has now shifted her focus entirely to live poker, and she has the confidence and bankroll necessary to make a major splash at the WSOP. She plans to enter a wide variety of lower buy-in Texas Holdem events while making a few excusions into the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza, and she’s not accepting anything less than a final table appearance.

Kenney certainly has the resume to back up her confidence, as she’s won $60,000 in live tournament profits over the past 8 months, all of which came from sub-$2,200 buy-in tournaments. Her actual WSOP experience is relatively slim, with only three bracelet events to her name, but that’s something she plans to change from here on out.

Kenney also talked about her controversial choice to pursue a professional poker career instead of a traditional 9 to 5 job. She said that she’s never regretted the decision, mainly because of how professional poker allows her to spend so much more time with her children. Being a single mom, Kenney said that she’d need to work 60+ hours a week just to support her family if it wasn’t for poker. Although the sting of Black Friday is still obviously present, she’s grateful for the opportunity to continue her career on the live scene.