Jamie Kerstetter became the latest addition to the partypoker commentary team in the midst of the WPT World Online Championship series.
Kerstetter debuted with the brand as part of the crew covering the WPT WOC Event #4 - $3,200 6-Max Championship. Joining Matt Savage and Tonu Dunst in the virtual booth, Kerstetter called the action as Nick Petrangelo took down the championship and a $494,550 payday.
Savage, Dunst, and Kerstetter commentated on final-day action in the $3,200 6-Max Championship, as the final table played down from seven players to Petraneglo's eventual win. The coverage streamed on the partypoker Twitch channel as Kerstetter made her debut for the brand.
The addition of Kerstetter brought one of poker's most popular commentators to the partypoker team.
Kerstetter's poker media resume
The poker media journey of Kerstetter includes commentary duties for a number of different programs. Kerstetter's resume includes stints for WPT Deepstacks, the Heartland Poker Tour, and Poker Night In America.
Kerstetter also appears on several different PokerGO programs. She made her World Series of Poker debut with PokerGO, commentating on live stream coverage of the WSOP for the subscription-based service.
Those experiences in the booth led to ESPN hiring Kerstetter for its WSOP Main Event coverage in 2018. Kerstetter debuted for ESPN by joining the legendary duo of Lon McEachern and Norman Chad in the booth for Day 1a and 1b of the 2018 WSOP Main Event.
Kerstetter returned to ESPN for the channel's 2019 WSOP Main Event coverage. In the modern era of televised poker, she is a fixture in the commentary booth for numerous different shows.
Negreanu/Kerstetter controversy
A return to the booth for the WSOP Main Event will have to wait for Kerstetter, as the 2020 edition of the series was forced to postpone due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She's persisted as one of poker's most prolific commentators in 2020, however, including duties for the GGPoker WSOP Super Circuit Online Series.
Designed to take the place of canceled WSOP International Circuit ring events, the GGPoker series ran throughout May. Kerstetter sat in on commentary for live stream coverage of some of those tournaments.
The GGPoker duties weren't all smooth sailing, however. Kerstetter contends that GGPoker Ambassador Daniel Negreanu had her removed from commentary duties for at least one event.
Kerstetter alluded to the incident with Negreanu in an episode of The Rake, a podcast hosted by Kerstetter and Marle Cordeiro. She didn't mention the specific tournament on the podcast.
Joe Stapleton, fellow commentator and friend of Kerstetter, later told Jon Sofen from Poker.org that she was removed from a GGPoker WSOP Super Circuit event at Negreanu's behest. Kerstetter mentioned an instance of Negreanu having her removed from commentary during the podcast, as part of a general criticism of Negreanu's approach to how poker is portrayed on television.
"He has hurt my career," Kerstetter said on the podcast. "I want to commentate, I enjoy commentating. He had me removed from a commentary that I was already signed up for because I speak my mind about him and I’m not going to kiss his ass."
"Recently, I've just been studying a lot," Kerstetter continued. "Well that's one thing nobody can touch. If you're good at poker, you can make money in poker."
"You might not get these jobs you want, but they can't make you sit out a tournament because you didn't kiss the right ass."
