Shannon Elizabeth Biography

Perhaps best known for her starring turn in Hollywood's "American Pie" series of teen comedies, Shannon Elizabeth is beginning to make a name for herself in the poker world as well. The Texas-born actress has established her table presence in a number of celebrity tournaments, including the 4th edition of Celebrity Poker Showdown and the 1st Annual Nicky Hilton Caesar's Palace New Year's Eve Poker Tournament, in which she outlasted 91 other celebrities and poker professionals to claim first place and the largest chunk of the $120,000 prize pool.

An only child, Elizabeth was born Shannon Elizabeth Fadal on September 7, 1973 in Houston, Texas. She attended high school in Waco, Texas, where she was a cheerleader and aspired to become a professional tennis player until she landed a role in a music video being filmed in her hometown. This first taste of fame led to a modeling career, which led to acting gigs on TV shows like "Arli$$" and "Hang Time," which itself led to her breakout role as Nadia in "American Pie" in 1999. These days, Elizabeth has over 35 film and television acting credits to her name, and even lent her voice to the 2004 video game "James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing."

Elizabeth got her start in poker at a young age, playing stud and draw games with her family in Texas. It wasn't until she’d established herself in Hollywood, however, that the actress was introduced to Texas Hold'em - and she hated it. Turned off by the lack of opportunities to discard or draw new cards, Elizabeth didn't warm to the game until 2003, when she befriended poker professionals Antonio Esfandiari and Phil Laak (along with fellow actress Jennifer Tilly) and began to hone her skills under the tutelage of some of poker's best teachers.

With the Magician and the Unabomber as her guides, Elizabeth took to poker in earnest, playing in home games in Los Angeles and appearing on Celebrity Poker Showdown and in Calvin Klein's 2nd Annual Celebrity Poker Tournament, where she notched a sixth place finish. In 2005 Elizabeth entered the Main Event at the World Series of Poker, where, under the guidance of Daniel Negreanu, she survived the first day of competition and barely missed landing in the money.

Following a number of successful finishes in early 2006, including a sixth place finish at the W Las Vegas Poker Invitational, and her outright win at Nicky Hilton's Caesar's Palace New Year's Eve Poker Tournament, Elizabeth went public with an admission that she is addicted to poker. "I'm in Vegas two or three times a month these days, playing every other night sometimes," she said. "Poker has become my second career."

Shortly after her admission, Elizabeth scored her first cash in a World Series of Poker event, finishing 201st in a $1,000 No Limit Hold'em event, and followed this accomplishment up with two more cashes on the final days of the WSOP.

During the 2006 WSOP, Elizabeth competed as the newest representative of Full Tilt Poker, joining 47 professional players in whose company the actress is looking more and more at home. Underlining her commitment to the sport, Elizabeth signed a poker marketing representation agreement with Poker Royalty, the poker world's foremost player marketing and representation agency.

Elizabeth enjoys spending her free time working with Animal Avengers, the charity she founded in 2001 as a means of finding good homes for abused and abandoned animals. She also likes to snowboard and is an expert in Krav Maga, a specialized self-defense technique developed by the Israeli army that is somewhat akin to kickboxing.

She has also found a way to bring her dual careers together; in 2006 she'll star as the love interest in the Burt Reynolds movie "Deal," about an ex-gambler who returns to the World Series, where he must face his hot-shot protégé at the final table; and, in 2007, "The Grand," an improvisational poker-themed comedy featuring Jason Alexander, Woody Harrelson - and Doyle Brunson. Clearly Elizabeth is finding ways to feed her addiction and keep on top of her movie career, and given her track record there's no reason to think she'll slow down in either field.

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Shannon Elizabeth Opens Caesars Poker Room In Style

Joining the rest of the Las Vegas Strip, Caesars Palace jumped into the 21st century world of poker when it brought back a poker room for its casino in late December. Spending $12 million to add a spacious poker room and separate tournament area, it seems Caesars is sparing nothing to allow poker players to enjoy their game in style! It is a remarkable comeback for the game of poker in the legendary casino, which quit spreading poker in the late 80's.

The poker room itself is decked out with 25 television screens and eleven vintage LeRoy Neiman paintings, which had previously been kept from public view. The tournament area will come into usage especially when the 2006 World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions is played at the end of June. Since the opening of the room, daily tournaments have been running with buy-ins that start at $80 with $50 rebuys to big weekly tournaments on Fridays and Saturdays at 7PM that will run you $530 (with no rebuys). If tournaments aren't your style, then there will be ring games spread (and at all levels of action) featuring Texas and Omaha Hold 'Em as well as Seven Card Stud.

So how do you open up a poker room as grand as this? You invite the cream of the poker world, add in an A-list group of celebrities, and put on a tournament on New Year's Eve!

Las Vegas socialite Nicky Hilton decided to introduce some of her friends to the game of poker through "The Celebrity Poker Challenge", which kicked off some high dollar action in the Caesars poker room. The buy-in for the event was $2,000 (with $200 juice) and was also a bounty tournament for those who could take down the celebrities and professionals who came to play as well.

Bright and early (11AM, to be exact!), 92 runners came to the line for the tournament, including Hilton, actress and World Series champion Jennifer Tilly, actress Shannon Elizabeth and a strong outpouring of poker pros ready for battle. Phil "The Unabomber" Laak joined his lady Tilly at the tables as well as fellow pros Cyndy Violette, Chip and Karina Jett, 2004 WSOP runner-up David Williams, 2005 WSOP Tournament of Champions winner Mike Matusow and Antonio "The Magician" Esfandiari, among others.

With $2,000 bounties on each of the celebrities and poker players, there was some potential for money to be made. Nicky Hilton showed her mettle at the tables as she lasted about two hours into the event, but there was one bounty that went unclaimed. Shannon Elizabeth was able to outlast the field and take down the first place prize out of the $120,000 pool.

Elizabeth is no stranger to poker. She made a respectable run during the 2005 World Series Main Event, making it to the second day, and also is heavily into the Hollywood poker scene and the Los Angeles casino world. Could Shannon be on the verge of potentially hitting a run similar to what Jennifer Tilly had in the 2005 poker season? We'll have to wait and see on that point, but the Caesars Palace poker room is off to a fantastic start!

Tournament Results / Stats

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Shannon Elizabeth Links

• ShannonElizabeth.com ~ Shannon Elizabeth's personal homepage
• IMDB: Shannon Elizabeth ~ Earth's biggest movie database's filmogrophy of Shannon Elizabeth
• Wikipedia: Shannon Elizabeth ~ Free online encyclopedia of Shannon Elizabeth
• Shannon Elizabeth fan page ~ Shannon Elizabeth Junkie.

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Shannon Elizabeth
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7336 Santa Monica Blvd.
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Email: shannon@shannonelizabeth.com