NAME
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SARAH BILNEY
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NICKNAME
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AUSSIE SARAH
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HOME
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MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
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AGE
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36
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~ MARRIED WITH ONE CHILD ~
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I have always loved playing cards. While I was growing up my family's frequent travel and periods spent living
overseas meant that card games were among our staple entertainments. We used to play anything and
everything, from gin and hearts to a game we called ‘Oh Hell’ for its ability to frustrate any player’s best-laid
plans, and some of my earliest memories are of lively card games played around the dinner table, when
friends and family would battle it out over game after game until long past my bedtime. Years later I took to
playing cards with a close-knit group of girlfriends, meeting each week for drinks, dinner, conversation, and
fiercely competitive games of 500 which always ended in the small hours of the morning. The Canberra
Ladies' Cards Club, as it came to be known, sustained us through the ups and downs of relationships, work,
and life in general for some very happy years.
Despite my enthusiasm for card games, it was not until relatively recently that I turned my attention to poker.
The catalyst was meeting my husband Michael, a bookmaker and long-time poker player from Louisiana. We
met in Canberra in 2000, and our very first conversation was about poker, when Michael told me about a game
I'd never heard of called Texas Holdem. I was intrigued, and soon plucked up the courage to play in my first ring
game. I had some success and went on to try my hand at a few small tournaments, but while I managed to
play a little every now and then, between my work in the Australian Government and other commitments I didn't
have much time for poker.
It was not until Michael and I moved to London in 2003 that I started to play more regularly, with the flexibility of
my new life as a student (I studied for a Masters in International Relations at the London School of Economics
during 2004/5) and the convenience of a nearby card room making poker hard to resist. In between classes
and writing papers I would head down to the Victoria Casino poker room for a game of Pot Limit Holdem,
honing my skills at the shark-infested tables, enjoying a chat about politics, and ~ when the cards went my way
~ taking home a few extra quid. Weekly student games hosted by the LSE Poker Society, of which I was the first
(and at the time, only) female member, also provided a welcome break from study.
The experience I gained in London would prove invaluable when I took my game to the World Series of Poker in
2004 and 2005, as both times I managed to win myself a seat in the Championship event via the satellites
held just prior to the event. Unfortunately in 2004 luck was not on my side, and I failed to make it past the first
day. However things were different when I tried my luck the following year ~ I managed to outlast most of the
record field of 5619 players to finish in 63rd place as the second-highest placed woman, taking home nearly
US$150,000 for my efforts! The fact that I slotted my win in between sitting exams and writing my Masters
dissertation somehow made the experience all the more surreal.
My success in Las Vegas gave me the confidence to play high stakes tournaments more regularly, and I've
since played major events in Paris, London, Barcelona, Dublin, Melbourne, and New Zealand, as well as
returning to Las Vegas where I made a further four cashes at the 2006 World Series. Now that I'm back in
Australia I mainly play locally, but still manage the occasional international tournament when family
responsibilities allow.
