Jamie Kerstetter, a former tax lawyer who had migrated to Mexico to play online poker legally, has now returned to New Jersey, which recently legalized and regulated online gaming within its border.
As many as 150,000 gamblers registered accounts at New Jersey’s online gaming sites ever since they went live on November 21 last year. New Jersey gamblers have helped generate $8.4 million in revenue playing slots, blackjack, and poker for real money. Online poker has contributed around $2.89 of this figure.
Before New Jersey legalized online poker, Kerstetter used to play professional online poker at Rosarito, a tiny beach town in Mexico. She was one of several US professional online poker players who had left the country after Black Friday, the day on which the feds cracked down on PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker and forced them out of the US market. Kerstetter spent two years playing professional online poker in Mexico and then decided to return to New Jersey this November as the state has legalized online poker.
Jamie Kerstetter’s career, however, has been far from smooth. She studied law for three years at Michigan University and worked at several law firms before leaving it all for online poker.
Today, she lives in an apartment overlooking the ocean and plays online poker for real money at PartyPoker.com NJ.
Party Poker considers Kerstetter as its local hero. Jeffrey Haas, PartyPoker.com Global Poker Director, said:
We know her by reputation. She’s a consistently successful poker player.
Kerstetter began playing poker as an undergraduate and hasn’t stopped. She used to play it in order to pay off her rent even while working long hours writing trusts and wills and researching tax law. It was just a matter of time before Kerstetter decided to make poker her career. She said:
I had to defend poker a lot. At my old job, I never took heat. I was saving rich people money from their estate taxes, but I was a lawyer, so I was respected.
Jaime Kerstetter is not the only lawyer turned poker pro. Last year, Vanessa Selbst and Anthony Zinno, two former lawyers, finished as the runner-up and champion, respectively, of the WPT Borgata Poker Open. While Selbst is the world’s fifth biggest poker earner, having made $9 million playing live poker, Kerstetter occupies the 494th rank, having won $359,313.
Kerstetter’s boyfriend still plays in Mexico, although they do meet at live poker tournaments.
