Lock Poker has added a new star to their LockPro Elite lineup: Melanie Weisner has become the latest name to join the poker site’s team of pros, adding to an already impressive lineup that includes Chris Moorman and Matt Stout, along with many others.
Lock Poker has had a pretty good streak since Black Friday, picking up a lot of the slack after Full Tilt and Absolute Poker collapsed and PokerStars struggled momentarily. While they were forced to pull out of the US market for a few months, Lock Poker opened once more to its American customers on October 13, 2011, and they’ve held the number one spot in the United States since then. Not only has Lock Poker largely cornered the American market, which holds a large percentage of the world’s professional poker players, but they’ve improved their software design, upped the deals and specials that they offer to frequent visitors, and worked hard to hone their image by adding new professionals to their team– most recently, Melanie Weisner.
The 25 year old got her start at New York University after watching her brother doing well with poker. Considering that a poker career might be more lucrative than her current musical theatre and vocal performance degree track, Weisman focused on the game, quickly working her way up the ranks of PokerStars’ Multi Table Tournaments (MTTs). What’s unusual about Weisman, however, is that she’s not only an ace at MTTs, but she’s an expert at heads-up games as well– she’s been ranked #1 across all the ranked sites for heads-up sit-and-go players. She’s had quite the history on both Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars, but with both sites pulling out of the US market, she’s made the switch to Lock Poker. Weisman has accrued over $1.2 million dollars playing poker online. You can expect to see her some more around PokerStars, however– with her extensive travel schedule and current tournament cruising in Europe, she still has plenty of opportunities to play across sites, despite her American citizenship and new sponsorship.
Since her quick start in poker, she’s appeared on both Poker After Dark during “Idol Week,” where she came in 3rd place in a $50k buy-in winner-take-all, and Late Night Poker, where she competed in a sit-and-go with a $10k buy-in. Weisman also managed to score six money finishes in the last two years of the World Series of Poker and four so far in the 2010 and 2011 seasons of the European Poker Tour. She’s taken home over $350k from her various live tournament wins in the last year.
Lock Poker CEO Jennifer Larson had this to say about their new LockPro Elite member:
Melanie is a perfect fit for Lock. Passionate, relentless in her dedication to the game and incredibly intelligent… Players like Melanie give us the true insight into the product and player experience that we need to become the best. Partnering with our players is the true path to greatness.
As one of the fastest rising stars of poker, Weisman is also quickly climbing to the top of the women’s poker charts, a fact which is sure to please Larson, an owner/CEO operating in what is still largely a male-dominated industry. Weisman is currently ranked 43rd on the Women’s All Time Money List, and she’s ranked 83rd on the Global Poker Index.
Lock Poker has also recently added Leo Margets of Spain to the LockPro Elite team. Margets was the WSOP Main Event’s last women standing in 2008). Regardless of whether or not this woman-owned company is actively trying to create an environment where young female poker players can thrive and shine, Lock Poker is certainly developing a female roster that could hold its own against any takers.