Lacey Jones has been playing poker professionally for four years but the hostess and model did not plan to become a poker player. After completing degrees in French and Political Science from the University of Arizona she intended to go to law school. She was preparing to take the L-SATS when her older sister passed away.
"It was kind of a wake up call for me," she said. "I just realized life is short. I wanted to do things that were fun, do things that I love doing and travel. So I got back into modeling, started doing more acting and playing poker with friends. Then it just kind of went from there."
In February of 2005 Jones landed a sponsorship with AbsolutePoker.net, since then she has won daily tournaments in local casinos and placed second in the Super Bowl of Poker. She has not made any finals tables at the World Series of Poker yet but knows she has in it in her to do so. "I do well in a lot of Sit-N-Goes, I play great heads up, so I have a lot of motivation to make a final table," she said. She may not be in school currently but she is learning and studying all the same.
"I feel like I'm still a student at heart when it comes to playing poker. There are so many pros that I look up to, so I watch and observe and see how they test out the field. I try to sit back and learn instead of playing in every tournament and possibly busting early," Jones said.
While Jones plans to at least play in the Main Event every year from here on out, she has not given up her goal of going to law school. 'I definatley will," she said. "I just feel like I have some more things to do. Law school is a full time commitment so I'm going to wait a little bit longer, have some more fun and then go back. I was taking college courses in high school so I've kind of always been a student."
Another project on the horizon for the already busy Jones is starting her own charity to benefit members of the Armed Forces. The charity will be unveiled towards the end of the 2009 World Series of Poker and will be akin to a USO tour involving poker. Jones' father was a pilot in the Vietnam War and she wants to give back to a group of people whom she greatly admires.
"I feel we shoud always say thank you to any military member we see," she said. Jones will be playing in about four events this year at the WSOP plus the main event. "I use my own income to buy into tournaments, I don't have a rich boyfriend or a backer and I give some of my earning to my family, so it is hard for me to justify spending the money to play in a lot of events. But I will definitely be playing in more and more as time goes on," she said.