With partypoker being one big, happy family, we like to take time each week to introduce you to either a member of our team, or one of our valued customers. This week it is Rachel Heneghan, VIP Manager for Dusk Till Dawn, who is under the spotlight.
Rachel is 23-years-young, hails from Salford, but now resides in Sheffield with her boyfriend Jonty (King Pigeon) and their devilishly cute puppy, Pablo.
After finishing university, Rachel went straight into a nine-till-five job in the pensions industry, lasting three months before deciding that the role was not for her. She then began working for Dusk Till Dawn as a marketing assistant, but that didn’t work out either.
“The travel was too much for me because I was unable to drive at the time.”
Rachel then tried her arm at running an e-cigarette business with a friend she’d met through poker, before returning to DTD where she is now employed as a VIP Manager.
“I work directly for Rob Yong in helping him manage his workload as he is super busy. I also assist on bigger projects such as the Caribbean Poker Party and work closely with our partners on satellites and online Day 1s.”
The role that Rachel has now is both challenging and rewarding, something she says goes hand in hand with one another.
“When it comes to big events like the Caribbean Poker Party there is A LOT that goes on behind the scenes and poker players tend to do everything at the last minute. In the weeks leading up the Punta Cana, it was absolute hell trying to ensure everything was completed in time, making sure nobody was forgotten and dealing with last-minute dramas! But when he arrived in the Caribbean, the event was incredible, if you ignore the first few days of bad weather! Seeing an event like that come together after month and months of preparation, that was definitely rewarding.”
While Rachel’s role is full time, often longer than full time hours, she does find time to play poker and is a dab hand at it. She has dozens of tournament scores to her name, but her win in a £330 no-limit hold’em eight-max event at DTD in September 2015 where she outlasted 40 opponents ranks as her favourite poker accomplishment.
“It’s not my biggest score, but there’s no feeling like winning a tournament because you just can’t be disappointed, especially when you beat someone you know heads-up, sorry Guy Taylor! I’m definitely not finished playing poker, I’ve not won a house yet!”
So who would Rachel want to play poker against if she could sit down with any five people in the world, living or otherwise?
“This is a tough one. I’ve been fortunate enough to play against some of the best players in the world already, but I would love to play against Mike Sexton, he’s just the nicest guy in the world. I’d like to play against “Tonka” too as his Twitch stream has me in stiches. Chinese Frankie, I’d love to play poker with him again as he always put a smile on my face. I’ve never played poker against Rob Yong before so that would be interesting, especially with his heads-up record, and let’s throw Tony G in there too just to make it the most talkative poker table ever; I’d be the quiet one for once!”
The next time you’re at DTD or one of the partypoker live events, keep an eye out for Rachel and say hi. You should also keep an eye out for her in case she’s being her usual clumsy self!
“I managed to bump my car after only five days of having it. I’m not very good at spatial awareness and I’m always walking into things, so I guess it was only a matter of time!”
Keep up to date with all things partypoker!
Get all the latest partypoker updates from your favourite social media outlets. You can Follow us on Twitter and Like us on Facebook