Gossip Column: Jamie Kerstetter Turns Vegan For a Year to Win $10,000 & Borgata Eyeing Phil Ivey’s Nevada Assets in Edge Sorting Case

Poker and prop bets seem to be entwined together of late. Just after news of Jon Pardy tattooing Kelly Minkin’s name on his body for a mere $1,000 came through, the latest prop bet victim is the ‘Queen of Poker Twitter’ Jamie Kerstetter. The Twitter-aholic has accepted a challenge to turn vegan for a year for $10,000. Can she do it? Only time will tell.

Another poker pro who found himself in a challenging situation was 10-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Phil Ivey. The poker champion’s legal troubles once again reared their ugly head when Borgata Casino won an approval from the US District Court to docket its $10 Million judgement against Ivey in Nevada.

Jamie Kerstetter Turns Vegan For a Year to Win $10,000

Prop bets are an integral part of the poker world. Where there is one, there will be the other. While Joey Ingram and Kelly Minkin are the usual suspects, even the biggest names in the game, Phil Hellmuth and Daniel Negreanu, have been known to join in on prop bets every now and then. The latest player to join the list is Jamie Kerstetter.

It all started with a simply tweet from David Tuchman who wanted to know how much money it would take for a meat eater to turn vegan for a year.

I feel a prop bet coming … if you’re a meat eater, how much money would you need to go vegan for a year? @RealKidPoker @bp22 @DougPolkPoker @DarryllFish @Liv_Boeree

— David Tuchman (@TuckonSports) February 4, 2019

He even tagged the likes of Daniel Negreanu, Bill Perkins, Doug Polk, Darryll Fish and Liv Boeree in the tweet and all of them responded with a six-figure amount. Kerstetter was the only one who responded with a reasonable $10,000 and stated she was “interested in doing it anyway and it would cover the more expensive grocery bills.”

Probably $10K – interested in doing it anyway and it would cover the more expensive grocery bills

— Jamie Kerstetter (@JamieKerstetter) February 4, 2019

Perkins jumped in and took her up on it. The terms were penned down.

I’ve gotten myself into a vegan prop bet ?

-1 year 2/6/19-2/6/20 for $10K
-blog updates at least 2x/month
-if I quit, @bp22 chooses the places I volunteer 100 hours
-1 year to complete 100 hours or I owe $10K pic.twitter.com/a5IjQQul9F

— Jamie Kerstetter (@JamieKerstetter) February 5, 2019

Perkins, for his part assured that good will come from the bet since if Kerstetter can’t hold up her end, she’ll be tasked with 100 hours of community service to work off the $10,000.

Commenting on the same, Kerstetter said, “Bill [Perkins] rules because he wants to encourage people to do the things, they feel they should be doing anyway to have a positive impact on the world. It’s cool that he’s willing to make this bet to hold me accountable and I’m sure he’ll pick some really interesting places for me to volunteer 100 hours if I fail.”

Many in the poker community reached out to Kerstetter with the resident health buffs, Daniel Negreanu and Andrew Lichtenberger, offering tips and advice, while many others suggested that $10,000 just wasn’t enough money to turn vegan for a whole year.

However, Kerstetter is prepared to finally let her love for animals win over her eating habits. “It feels bad in the back of my mind to ignore what I know is the right thing to do and just keep allowing myself to have no willpower,” she said. “Basically, I want to stop the cognitive dissonance involved with being an animal lover who cares about the environment…until I want ice cream enough.”

Kerstetter believes that this prop bet will be a stepping stone towards a major lifestyle change, irrespective of what the naysayers have to say.

“The whole purpose of the bet from my side is to see if I can go vegan in a way that doesn’t disrupt my whole life, become extremely time-consuming, bother my boyfriend, annoy my friends and have the negative effect that people love to complain about when laughing at vegans,” she said. “But this seems to be impossible since just the mention of the bet has brought out a ton of trolls complaining about vegans.”

Kerstetter has a tough road ahead of her but she is putting her chances at following through with a year of vegan living at 95%.

“I can only imagine quitting if there’s bad health effects, but I think with the right planning, this lifestyle will be healthier overall,” she said.

“I think the biggest challenges will be shopping, food prepping and cooking for just one — I’m not imposing this on my friends unless I actually learn to cook something that doesn’t suck.”

In the event things start going poorly in her mind, she has a plan for getting herself back in the right mindset.

“If I run into temptation, that five-minute dairy farm video that was making the rounds last week should be enough to get me back on track because it was really really sad and made me feel a lot of shame for not attempting this earlier.”

Kerstetter’s attempt to fulfil the vegan challenge may help bring light to an uplifting lifestyle change and for that we wish her all the best!

Borgata Eyeing Phil Ivey’s Nevada Assets in Edge Sorting Case

“Out of the frying pan and into the fire.” – This phrase seems to be aptly applicable to multiple WSOP bracelet winner Phil Ivey since his legal troubles seem to be endless and with the passage of time are only getting worse.

Ivey has been in the eye of a storm since 2012 over an edge sorting case where the Atlantic City based Borgata Casino accused the poker superstar of cheating. The matter eventually landed in court that ruled that Ivey should pay back the $10.1 Million he won through edge sorting to Borgata Casino. Ivey appealed the judgment in the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and also claimed he didn’t have the assets to pay so much in damages.

Borgata claimed that Ivey had emptied his New Jersey bank account. The casino asked the court to allow the judgment to be registered in Nevada, so that they could pursue Ivey’s holdings in the state.

It seems that the casino’s wishes have been finally granted by the US District Court and Borgata has now won the approval to docket its $10.16 million judgement against Ivey in Nevada. The implications of this judgement are huge since Borgata’s lawyers had previously found a variety of assets under Ivey’s name there, including Ivey Poker, LLC and Phil Ivey Enterprises, LLC, along with real estate holdings.

The request was approved by US District Judge Noel L. Hillman on January 29, only a day after it was submitted by Borgata’s counsel. Interestingly, lawyers for Ivey did not object or prevent the docketing motion from moving forward. Ivey was also scheduled to appear for a deposition related to the case on January 30, but it is unclear whether or not that took place.

Despite allowing the judgement to be docketed in Nevada, Ivey still appears to be resisting the casino’s efforts to collect on the $10 Million he is now supposed to pay back to Borgata.

Given the present scenario, a peaceful resolution between the two parties seems next to impossible.