Lee Davy sits down with the PartyPoker Team Pro, Jamie Kerstetter, to talk about her lightning start to this year’s series; her planned half marathon and much more.
I am in the Monster Stack event and I am surrounded by PartyPoker Pros. I have Scott Baumstein to my right, who for some strange reason has just been given two crates of beer? I have the newly wed Kara Scott, to my left, who keeps running over to the rail to give her new hubby some hugs and kisses, and I have the apple of New Jersey, Jamie Kerstetter, sitting behind me.
Baumstein has his booze; Scott has her man…so I think I will ask Kerstetter to keep me company during the break.
Jamie Kerstetter started the World Series of Poker (WSOP) like a house on fire.
“I started out 3/3 which is everybody’s dream, especially after last year when I went 0/12 and was wandering around here looking kind of hopeless. I made a good run in the first $1k and cashed for $10k, so I free rolled the first part of my summer, but then I bubbled two, which is unfortunate, but I still have that glow about me.”
I notice that Kerstetter uses social media to sell pieces of her action. I wondered if this was a regular thing for her?
“It’s something I do for big buy-ins because I would need to have a bankroll for like a million bucks to play 30-$1/$1.5k’s. If it were just one tournament I could play it on my own, but the variance will kill you over time if you don’t sell pieces. So many people go broke taking shots.”
Isn’t it a lot of hassle chasing people for money owed, and then settling debts?
“I feel very lucky. I have friends who remind me that I am very fortunate to be able to sell pieces at the drop of a hat. If I wanted to play the $3k tomorrow I could sell it on Facebook and Twitter and I have enough people who have faith in me. The hassle of chasing people, to get the money, is more than worth it to enable me to play in the number of events I want to play in.”
The Monster Stack event is getting close to 8,000 runners now. What is the general public trying to say to the WSOP?
“That they want good structures. They want a little more play for the money they are paying. People love the Turbo as well, so perhaps in the future for every Turbo you should have one of these? It will even out over time, it’s not as if they are losing out on rake. I think it’s important, every once in a while, to give players something that they value.”
And Kerstetter will be one of the headline acts in the upcoming PartyPoker sponsored WPT500 at the Aria Resort & Casino.
“That tournament is going to awesome. I am really excited about it. It gives people who tried to satellite into the $10k, and didn’t make it, the chance to play for a relatively small buy-in for a potential $200,000 first prize. The Aria is also an amazing card room, and the food is also amazing.”
The last time we spoke to Kerstetter she was going to start training for a half marathon in Vegas. How did that go?
“I trained for two months, got myself up to running 6-7 miles at a time, then the Wednesday before I strained my quad. We had no subs so I played through it and got injured so I couldn’t run in the half marathon unfortunately.”
And as a huge football fan what does she think about the World Cup? Is she a little disappointed that the two clash?
“I think it’s really cool. It’s great to see a lot of Europeans who care, and I can find endless people to watch the games with. Americans just don’t care enough. But it’s a good thing that the US is doing so well; perhaps more Americans will get into it now. As soon as we get good at something we start to care.”
