Among the many eight nominees for the Ladies in Poker Corridor of Fame is Jamie Kerstetter, whose twenty-year profession in poker has seen her attempt her hand at nearly every little thing.
Initially a web-based money recreation grinder and now an skilled poker commentator, Kerstetter additionally works as Advertising and marketing Supervisor for WPT Gold however confirmed this 12 months she nonetheless has the poker abilities when required, coming inside touching distance of a maiden WSOP bracelet.
PokerNews spoke with Kerstetter about her nomination and her involvement in organizing girls’s poker Meet Up Video games and initiatives, how thrilled she was to be nominated, and acknowledged the contributions of the opposite nominees.
WiPHOF Nomination
Kerstetter is nominated alongside seven different girls, all of whom she says she respects and admires.
“It is a win-win scenario,” mentioned Kerstetter. “I would like to get in, but when I do not then these are the sorts of individuals I would wish to lose to.”
In an unique interview, Kerstetter informed PokerNews that she has been grappling with the truth that her poker profession now spans twenty years, beginning initially as a poker participant, working as a commentator and ambassador, and now as working as a advertising supervisor for WPT Gold.
“Again after I was a web-based professional, I by no means would have thought I would be beginning girls’s initiatives or being this concerned within the poker group. I all the time thought I would be on my laptop computer someplace simply attempting to win cash.”
Nonetheless, Kerstetter says she began to essentially advocate for poker after the life-changing occasions of Black Friday and, in her phrases, cobble collectively a profession in poker.
“I believed to myself: time to get inventive! I attempted every little thing: I performed dwell money, I moved to Mexico and grinded on-line once more for eighteen months. Acquired homesick actually unhealthy and got here again.
“I used to be a poker ambassador. I additionally began teaching girls, encouraging extra girls to get into poker. Even now, I would do ten extra issues in poker. This profession might develop into something, I simply flow with this job. It is such an attention-grabbing trade.”
One of many issues Kerstetter is greatest recognized for is her profession as a poker commentator, which began by likelihood over a decade in the past. On the time, Kerstetter was sponsored by PartyPoker New Jersey and was requested to commentate in Venice alongside veteran commentator Jessie Might.
“If the carrot wasn’t dangled to get to go to Venice, I’d by no means have began doing commentary”
“I would by no means even been overseas! I used to be scared of public talking, but it surely was an enormous alternative. If the carrot wasn’t dangled to get to go to Venice, I’d by no means have began doing commentary as a result of I used to be so terrified of it.
“However as soon as I did it, I used to be like ‘That wasn’t so unhealthy,’ and I simply stored doing it after that.”
A number of years of commentating totally free or for “very low cash” adopted, however Kerstetter says she continued to do it as a way to enhance her commentating abilities. And it paid off. In 2018, Kerstetter joined veteran WSOP broadcasters Norman Chad and Lon McEachern for protection of the WSOP Most important Occasion, one thing Kersetter says was a profession pinnacle.
“I mentioned sure to each commentary job till I acquired provided the perfect commentary job ever.”
Her “Rambling” Profession
By her personal admission, Kerstetter says she’s tried her hand at nearly every little thing in poker, from commentary to ambassadorship, in addition to enjoying each dwell and on-line. She says it is the truth that she hasn’t let herself get pigeon-holed into something that offers her probably the most satisfaction.
“I’ve had a really rambling profession,” she mentioned. “I used to be a two-sport athlete in faculty as a result of I could not select between soccer and monitor. And consequently, I’ve tried plenty of issues in poker!”
Kerstetter says that by having her foot within the door of all of those areas, she will get to take pleasure in every of them much more.
“First, I began enjoying poker. Then, after I began commentating, I did not go tremendous laborious as a result of I nonetheless wished to play and work with WPT on different issues.”
“Now I am throwing myself into lots with this advertising function, which is nice. There are plenty of girls’s initiatives as effectively — the corporate has extra girls in prime positions than any poker firm I can see. However I nonetheless wanna go and play poker and do commentary. It is good to know if something ever imploded, I might simply return and grind $5-$10!”
Meet-Up Video games
One other staple of Kerstetter’s advocacy for poker is within the type of Meet Up Video games, an initiative she’s spearheaded for over three years.
“I’ve all the time been in a male-dominated subject,” she says. “I used to be one of many solely feminine attorneys at my first regulation agency, and even with that have and that perspective in the direction of male-dominated fields, poker was nonetheless intimidating.”
Kerstetter spoke a few feeling of not belonging when first getting into a poker site, one thing she nonetheless feels at present when visiting new venues.
“While you first begin out, individuals take a look at you humorous, and you do not know the place to enroll or get chips. That was troublesome, and I nonetheless keep in mind that.”
Jamie Kerstetter’s WPT Girls Meet Up Sport at Wynn a Smashing Success
She says that the sensation of not belonging is the primary purpose why she began women’ meetup video games.
“It has been superior. The primary one was at MGM Grand, and I would organized for us to have some tables. They agreed, after which I referred to as the day earlier than and mentioned I had 163 names. In order that was all their tables. They closed your entire poker site for us.”
Since then, occasions have been held on the Venetian and the Wynn for girls to really feel like they can play in an setting that’s pleasant and welcoming, and that helps educate girls poker gamers on how dwell poker video games work, within the hope that it makes it much less intimidating and scary.
Essential Mass of Ladies
By means of the efforts and advocacy of individuals like Kerstetter, she believes that poker is near reaching a “essential mass” of feminine poker gamers.
“It is actually superior to see. I have been enjoying ceaselessly, and now you are sitting in 10ks with a number of different girls at your desk. Otherwise you’re enjoying $5-$10 with different girls — and these are good gamers. I feel we’re attending to the purpose the place there is a essential mass of ladies in a poker site at anyone time.”
Kerstetter praises the work of Kathy Liebert (pictured), who was inducted into the Ladies in Poker Corridor of Fame in 2010 and has been instrumental in serving to girls’s poker.
“There have been so many individuals who’ve labored on this, all of the efforts over the past couple of a long time, together with by individuals like Kathy Liebert. She’s a staple of this. Simply not giving a fuck! She’s displaying up, and is like ‘You possibly can say no matter you wish to me, I am right here to play.’
“There are plenty of girls that trailblazer for us the place it is gotten higher and higher.”
Voting is open for the Ladies in Poker Corridor of Fame Class of 2024 till midnight PST on October 30, 2024
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