WHEN ASKED TO DESCRIBE WHAT HER day-to-day life is like, Andrea Ciliberti began at the beginning, with her process for getting out of bed in the morning. Or, more accurately, her process for not getting out of bed in the morning.

“I like my sleep,” Ciliberti told ALL IN. “So an alarm clock is nonexistent most days.”

If she wants to make it as a poker player, Ciliberti is off to a good start. Try calling any young poker pro before noon, and you’ll learn that

“early to bed, early to rise” isn’t exactly a popular credo in this world.

Ciliberti doesn’t really have designs on becoming a poker pro—her goal instead is to make it as an actress—but she is passionate about the game and plays as often as she can. Prior to moving to Los Angeles last year, that was quite often indeed. Ciliberti was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, and while she lived there, her lifestyle allowed her to play Hold ’Em four or five days a week.

She first started playing in 2004 while working at a Kansas City casino. After work, many of the casino employees would, ironically, leave the casino property to go gamble, heading to a local dive bar to play poker, and that’s where Ciliberti learned the game. She immediately got hooked, and before long, she was pulling up a chair at the tables in the casino—frequently going with the man she calls “Papa,” her grandfather.

In ’05, Ciliberti’s life changed significantly when she won the Miss Missouri USA pageant. She suddenly had a new “job,” but fortunately, it left her with very flexible schedule.

“I had certain responsibilities as Miss Missouri USA, but they were easy to do and still have time to play poker,” Ciliberti said. “Since I moved to L.A., I’ve been busier and haven’t been able to play as much. I’m not the type of person who’s willing to sit down at the table if I’m going to be rushed. I’m not going to play if I know I have to get up and leave after two hours. And unlike in Kansas City, where the casino was just like five minutes from where I lived, now I’m a little bit farther away from the nearest casino. So I’m definitely not playing as much poker as I used to.”

When she does play in L.A., the vast Commerce Casino is generally her destination.

“The first time I walked in there, when I walked down to the level where all the tables are, my jaw dropped. I was like, Oh my god, this is amazing! You’re like a kid in a candy store when you walk in that poker room. It’s huge.”

When Ciliberti sits down at the table, she has one unusual rule that governs her behavior: She doesn’t lie.

“If you tell me what cards you have, and I tell you I have you beat, then I have you beat,” she explained. “I know people lie all the time in poker, but I don’t. I tell people the truth, and for a while, they’ll pay to see my cards because they don’t believe me.”

As someone who enjoys engaging in mind games and interacting with her opponents, Ciliberti isn’t big on online poker. She tried it briefly, but found that not being able to see and talk to the other plays eliminated her edge.

Interestingly, playing the game isn’t Ciliberti’s only connection to the world of poker. She also got a job a few years back as a co-host on an episode of a web series called The Susan Thompson Show, where the webisode highlighted a charity poker tournament that was awarding a World Series of Poker Main Event seat to the winner. Ciliberti conducted interviews on the show and also dealt the final table.

As the dealer, she held the players’ fates in her hands to a certain extent. And now as an aspiring actress, she’s learning firsthand just how hard it is to have external forces controlling your destiny.

“You don’t realize the entire process of having an acting career until you’re actually doing it. It’s such a process. There are so many things you have to do. It’s a big circle. You have to get representation to get in that audition room, but you can’t get representation until you have something on your resume. And in order to get something on your resume you have to get in that room.”

A member of the Screen Actors Guild, Ciliberti is auditioning as much as possible and landing some jobs—she did an independent film called LA Nights, has done some theater work, shot a commercial, and appeared as herself on one reality show, Beauty & The Geek. She’s making progress in Hollywood, but still has a long way to go to reach her goals.

Along the way, she’s taking acting classes and working at a night club. And, of course, she’s playing poker when she can—and living like a poker player by tossing her alarm clock into the muck as often as possible.