Jamie Kerstetter was focused on becoming a lawyer and making a name for herself in law but her focus changed when she realized that she was good at poker. Kerstetter, who hails from New Jersey got her undergraduate degree at Rutgers University and then went on to earn a degree in law from the University of Michigan.
However, instead of entering a court room and taking cases to trial, she ended up playing poker for a living. Kerstetter turned professional in 2009 and since then has won more than $350,000 in prize money.
She won the Venetian DeepStack Extravaganza early in her career and just missed qualifying for the final table at the WPT Borgata Poker Open in 2012.
Since online poker had a number of legal restrictions in the U.S, Kerstetter moved to Mexico and has been playing a lot of online poker for the last 18 months. Towards the end of 2013, New Jersey legalized online poker and gave licenses to a number of online gambling companies. One of these companies was Party Poker who approached Kerstetter and asked her to represent them in New Jersey. She was more than happy to oblige and return to New Jersey.
In a statement, Kerstetter said
I got message from someone at PartyPoker gauging my interest in becoming involved with the site. At the time, I was playing online poker in Mexico and although I had plans to come back for some of the bigger tournament series running in Atlantic City, I had no plans to come back for good. After playing on the site and seeing the overall product, I jumped on board. Right now I act as a brand ambassador and interact with the players, helping to get them set up and answer their questions. It’s been really exciting
Kerstetter is very well aware of poker market in the U.S. and all the ramifications that Black Friday brought with it. With her background in law, she has unique insight into the market, the legal implications and does not want to be associated with any brand that would tarnish her reputation. However, she felt that Party Poker was a safe bet and had not hesitation in working together with them.
Kerstetter went on to say
PartyPoker is a trusted company that has always played by the rules. As soon as the UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) legislation was passed, the site left the U.S. market. Although that wasn’t a lot of fun at the time, people started to see the problems associated with some of the other sites like Full Tilt and Ultimate Bet that weren’t playing by the rules. So I think New Jersey players see an established product that they trust
