Radiologist & Ladies Champion Lara Eisenberg Making a Run in Maryland
As a radiologist, Dr. Lara Eisenberg is used to examining patients and reading medical reports. But Eisenberg is doing a different kind of reading this weekend as she picks up tells on opponents and accumulates chips in the $600 Kickoff Event at the PokerStars 2024 Maryland State Poker Championship.
Eisenberg, who in her spare time is a serious poker enthusiast nearly seven figures in Hendon Mob earnings, bagged third in chips in yesterday's starting flight and will likely enter Day 2 of the $300,000 guaranteed event with a top-ten stack.
“It’s been a great event," she told PokerNews after bagging on Friday night. "They always run amazing tournaments here. The table’s been fun. I was at the same table all day and we’ve had a great time.”
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From Lab to Lab
When she isn't in the lab at Maryland's Northridge Hospital Medical Center, Eisenberg is likely grinding a tournament at Live! Casino & Hotel Maryland or in an online MTT.
“I play as often as I can," Eisenberg said. "I have a full-time job, but the tournaments that they run here are great, and so I’d say I probably play every couple of months. I’d play more if I was retired. Maybe soon.”
“I play quite a bit, so I play online and study a lot. So I’m probably still putting in a few days a month of playing, it’s just not always live.”
Eisenberg's hours in the poker lab paid off exponentially in 2021 when she took down the WSOP Ladies NLHE Championship for $115,694 and her first bracelet, defeating a final table that included Women in Poker Hall of Famer JJ Liu, PokerStars content creator Marle Spragg and 2023 GPI Female Player of the Year Cherish Andrews.
A little over a year later, she finished runner-up to Stephen Song in the WPT Prime Championship at Wynn Las Vegas for $481,500. Notably, that victory propelled Song to win GPI Player of the Year at the eleventh hour.
"(Those two runs) felt really great," said Eisenberg. "It felt really validating to have a second big win after the first, that was in an open event. So that felt really great.”
While she can clearly compete against the Vegas pros, Eisenberg is most comfortable playing here in her home state.
"Around here it’s all friends and people that you know and see here all the time, which is really cool."
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Hear More from Eisenberg
Want to hear more from the accomplished poker player and medical professional?
PokerNews had a chance to pick Eisenberg's brain in 2022, discussing everything from how poker can combat dementia to whether women are wired or socialized to play poker in the same way as men.
“Poker didn’t come up in my world, poker comes up in guy’s world," she told PokerNews in 2022. "A small number of women grow up in households where poker is a regular past time. And, in general, young women don't tend to play poker when they get together as often as young men do. So, the exposure element is a factor."
You can read more from that interview here.
Don't forget to follow the live updates for the currently underway $600 Kickoff Event at the 2024 Maryland State Poker Championship.