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Among the eight nominees for the Women in Poker Hall of Fame is Jamie Kerstetter, whose twenty-year career in poker has seen her try her hand at just about everything.
Originally an online cash game grinder and now an experienced poker commentator, Kerstetter also works as Marketing Manager for WPT Gold but showed this year she still has the poker skills when required, coming within touching distance of a maiden WSOP bracelet.
PokerNewsspoke with Kerstetter about her nomination and her involvement in organizing women's poker Meet Up Games and initiatives, how thrilled she was to be nominated, and acknowledged the contributions of the other nominees.
Kerstetter is nominated alongside seven other women, all of whom she says she respects and admires.
"It's a win-win situation," said Kerstetter. "I'd love to get in, but if I don't then these are the kinds of people I'd want to lose to."
In an exclusive interview, Kerstetter told PokerNewsthat she has been grappling with the fact that her poker career now spans two decades, starting initially as a poker player, working as a commentator and ambassador, and now as working as a marketing manager for WPT Gold.
"Back when I was an online pro, I never would have thought I'd be starting women's initiatives or being this involved in the poker community. I always thought I'd be on my laptop somewhere just trying to win money."
However, Kerstetter says she started to really advocate for poker after the life-changing events of Black Friday and, in her words, cobble together a career in poker.
"I thought to myself: time to get creative! I tried everything: I played live cash, I moved to Mexico and grinded online again for eighteen months. Got homesick really bad and came back.
"I was a poker ambassador. I also started coaching women, encouraging more women to get into poker. Even now, I might do ten more things in poker. This career could grow into anything, I just go with the flow with this job. It's such an interesting industry."
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One of the things Kerstetter is best known for is her career as a poker commentator, which started by chance over a decade ago. At the time, Kerstetter was sponsored by PartyPoker New Jersey and was asked to commentate in Venice alongside veteran commentator Jessie May.
"If the carrot wasn't dangled to get to go to Venice, I would never have started doing commentary"
"I'd never even been out of the country! I was terrified of public speaking, but it was a massive opportunity. If the carrot wasn't dangled to get to go to Venice, I would never have started doing commentary because I was so scared of it.
"But once I did it, I was like 'That wasn't so bad,' and I just kept doing it after that."
Several years of commentating for free or for "very low money" followed, but Kerstetter says she continued to do it in order to improve her commentating skills. And it paid off. In 2018, Kerstetter joined veteran WSOP broadcasters Norman Chad and Lon McEachern for coverage of the WSOP Main Event, something Kersetter says was a career pinnacle.
"I said yes to every commentary job until I got offered the best commentary job ever."
By her own admission, Kerstetter says she's tried her hand at almost everything in poker, from commentary to ambassadorship, as well as playing both live and online. She says it's the fact that she hasn't let herself get pigeon-holed into anything that gives her the most satisfaction.
"I've had a very rambling career," she said. "I was a two-sport athlete in college because I couldn't choose between soccer and track. And as a result, I've tried a lot of things in poker!"
Kerstetter says that by having her foot in the door of all of these areas, she gets to enjoy each of them a lot more.
"First, I started playing poker. Then, when I started commentating, I didn't go super hard because I still wanted to play and work with WPT on other things."
"Now I'm throwing myself into a lot with this marketing role, which is great. There are a lot of women's initiatives as well — the company has more women in top positions than any poker company I can see. But I still wanna go and play poker and do commentary. It's good to know if anything ever imploded, I could just go back and grind $5-$10!"
Another staple of Kerstetter's advocacy for poker is in the form of Meet Up Games, an initiative she's spearheaded for over three years.
"I've always been in a male-dominated field," she says. "I was one of the only female attorneys at my first law firm, and even with that experience and that attitude towards male-dominated fields, poker was still intimidating."
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Kerstetter spoke about a feeling of not belonging when first entering a poker room, something she still feels today when visiting new venues.
"When you first start out, people look at you funny, and you don't know where to sign up or get chips. That was difficult, and I still remember that."
Jamie Kerstetter's WPT Ladies Meet Up Game at Wynn a Smashing Success
She says that the feeling of not belonging is the main reason why she started ladies' meetup games.
"It's been awesome. The first one was at MGM Grand, and I'd arranged for us to have some tables. They agreed, and then I called the day before and said I had 163 names. So that was all their tables. They closed the entire poker room for us."
Since then, events have been held at the Venetian and the Wynn for women to feel like they are able to play in an environment that is friendly and welcoming, and that helps educate women poker players on how live poker games work, in the hope that it makes it less intimidating and scary.
Through the efforts and advocacy of people like Kerstetter, she believes that poker is close to reaching a "critical mass" of female poker players.
"It's really awesome to see. I've been playing forever, and now you're sitting in 10ks with multiple other women at your table. Or you're playing $5-$10 with other women — and these are good players. I think we're getting to the point where there's a critical mass of women in a poker room at any one time."
Kerstetter praises the work of Kathy Liebert (pictured), who was inducted into the Women in Poker Hall of Fame in 2010 and has been instrumental in helping women's poker.
"There have been so many people who have worked on this, all the efforts over the last couple of decades, including by people like Kathy Liebert. She's a staple of this. Just not giving a fuck! She's showing up, and is like 'You can say whatever you want to me, I'm here to play.'
"There are a lot of women that trailblazer for us where it's gotten better and better."
Voting is open for the Women in Poker Hall of Fame Class of 2024 until midnight PST on October 30, 2024
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