Lee Davy catches up with 888Poker’s Jackie Glazier to talk about the reasons why Vegas can sometimes catch her off guard, how working on her game has been her number one focus, and why Jason Koon is such a great coach.
The Rio hallway can be a writer’s curse. A great place to find people to interview, but all too often they have just busted from a competition. You need to learn a new set of skills. It’s all about reading body language. Picking off the grimaces, and picking on the smiles.
So when I see Jackie Glazier bouncing down the hallway like Tigger, I go in for the kill. I get it completely wrong. She has just busted from a competition. But the fact that I got it wrong says volumes for the way Glazier is feeling early doors in the 46th Annual World Series of Poker (WSOP).
This is a woman on a mission. If you have been following her life on social media, Twitch or her personal VLOG, you will know that she has been putting in the work.
With over $1.3m in live tournament earnings, the large majority of which has been earned in these fabled halls, Glazier has proved year-in-year-out that she has got what it takes to mix it with the best in the business.
Why the need for all the hard work?
Let’s find out shall we?
Here we are again.
“It’s great to be back. I am so happy to be here, and really happy with my game at the moment. I’m not the biggest fan of Vegas as a city. It’s not my type of place. I find myself at a bit of a loss if I bust a tournament early, or have a day off, but this is the mecca of poker. It’s been a good stomping ground for me in the past, and I can’t complain about being here for sure.”
It will be a long summer. There will be ups and there will be downs. How do you manage the downs?
“The downs aren’t such a bad thing. I think they create the opportunity to learn. They force you to really look at your game, and sometimes face some harsh realities. In the past year I have realized that people are playing better than me, and are putting in more work in than me. The games are evolving all of the time. It’s not a part time thing anymore.
“I think I was enjoying myself a bit too much during the downtime between tournaments. I knew I needed to put a lot more work into my game, if I was going to stay competitive, and I have done that since the beginning of the year.”
You have had a lot of success in the past few years, did that lead to complacency?
“You can become a little complacent when the results come in. When that happens you don’t see any need to make any changes. When you are stuck in a rut you can look at your game and blame it on bad beats, but when you get stuck into the detail, there is a reason you don’t have a lot of chips by the time the bad beat comes knocking. When you are honest about your game, and look hard at it, you can see spots where you have not maximized your gains, or minimized your losses. So it’s not a bad thing to have a downswing for the reasons I have given.”
How do you improve your game?
‘I’ve spent a lot more time playing online. I have always been primarily a live player, but I have really increased my online volume since the start of the year. I also signed up to RunItOnce, so I watch a lot of videos and read a lot of strategy in the forums.”
What RunItOnce Coach really impresses you?
“I really like Jason Koon’s style of coaching, and I’ve had a one-to-one session with him before. I have a lot of respect for him and the way he plays. You definitely need to respect the player that you are getting coaching from.
“Not all great players make great coaches, but Jason is one of them. There are times when I will choose a video, because I am interested in the concept, but halfway through I am turning it off because the style of coaching is boring. But there are so many great videos, you just need to filter and find the best.”
Glazier is yet to cash at this year’s series, but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before that hard work, mixes with a little bit of luck, and we see the spark that will ignite her year.
