Jessica Dawley - 888 Poker Ambassador in Poker Night in America

While covering the Poker Night in America filming at SugarHouse Casino in Philadelphia, I had the pleasure of meeting Jessica Dawley. Jessica was a participant in the Ladies Night II, a cash poker  game of female players. Jessica's road to professional poker is unique.

Following her departure from the military, Dawley returned to life as a regular civilian and graduated from the University of Louisville with degrees in marketing and management. After completing her studies, Dawley was now ready to pursue her dream of becoming a professional poker player. She sold her house, packed her bags, and set off for Las Vegas. With a total bankroll of $3,400, it was sink or swim for Dawley. She managed to build her bankroll up to $10,000 within a few months of grinding cash games at The Wynn. After a sixth-place finish in 2009 Southern Poker Championship event where she won nearly $13,000, Dawley had run her bankroll up over $20,000. Then in 2010, Jessica made a deep run in the Aussie Millions Main Event, finishing 17th for $70,000. She also added a couple World Series of Poker cashes later that summer.In 2011, Dawley packed up her bags again and relocated to Palm Beach, Florida to be closer to her family and the beach. She can now be found grinding regularly at Palm Beach Kennel Club, where she is widely respected as a cash game player.

I follow Jessica on Twitter and she agreed to sit down for a series of questions.

Jessica at SugarHouse Casino in Philly

1).What was your opinion of the Ladies Night II at SugarHouse Casino?

"I had never been there before and was not sure what to expect. I was blown away by the service. The event was well run. It was comparable to some of the events that I have played in Las Vegas in terms of organization. The staff was impeccable.  This is my 3rd Ladies Only game. I played in one as a charity event and I was also in Ladies Night I at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Florida."

2). How long have you bee playing in major events?
"I have been playing major events since 2006. I moved to Vegas with the dream of making it to the level of a professional poker player. That dream came true in 2013 when 888 started sponsoring me."

888 Poker is a sponsor of Poker Night in America

3). What was your best win so far?
"In 2010, I won 70,000 in the Australia Aussie Millions. That was nice!"

4). Who is your toughest opponent and why?
"My toughest opponent is a "fish". A fish is tough to read. They don't know what they have so how can you know what they have?"

5). Give two tips/strategies for a female that may want to start playing poker but is intimidated?

"I would play online to get comfortable with the game. I would suggest playing on 888 Poker for

low stakes. You can get your feet wet without anyone yelling at you. I would also suggest that you don't move up too quickly. Don't get ahead of yourself. Look at cash games first and then tournaments. Tournaments are a huge investment while a cash game is steady income. You must make the final table to make real money."

6). How did you perfect your game?

"Practice makes perfect. I never read books about the game. Since I was in the Air Force as an intelligence analyst, I am more analytical than I am mathematical. I played at least  50 to 60 per

week. I dedicated myself to poker as a job and not a hobby. You can't have it both ways. I do subscribe to the implied odds theory." 

Implied odds are an extension of  pot odds that help you decide whether or not a drawing hand is worth calling in the face of a raise. Essentially, the implied odds of a hand tell you how much you expect to win after you make your draw.

If you expect to win a lot more money from your opponent after you make your draw, you have good implied odds.

If you anticipate that you will not be able to get any more money out of your opponent on future rounds, then you have little or no implied odds.

7) Best place to eat is____?
"Nobu 57 in New York. It's a chain restaurant but the one in New York City is fancier than the others."

8). Best place to play is ____?
"Melbourne Australia is the best place to play. The people are friendly. The weather is gorgeous and the climate is beautiful."

9). What do you do when you are not playing?
"I am big on shopping. I also enjoy going to the beach."

10). Compare a Ladies only game to one of both genders?

"Ladies only games are not as serious. You can actually have fun and enjoy the camaraderie with women. Guys tend to be much more serious and not as receptive. The more events like this the better. More women will want to get involved. At this time,the poker community caters to men."

11).What is your next tournament?
"I am headed to Las Vegas on 5/27 to play in WSOP at the Rio. The buy in is $565 with a 5 million dollars in prize money for the top finishers."

WSOP at Rio in Las Vegas

You can follow Jessica to see how she does in Vegas on Twitter at @JessicaDawley. More coverage of Jessica in Philly is provided by esteemed Philadelphia Daily News reporter @chuckdarrow.

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Christmas Wish List for the Gambler in You

This is my Christmas Wish List for The Gambler in you. This hypothetical list is for the person that loves gaming entertainment and would get ecstatic about any of these wishes.

In Theatres Now!

My top ten:

10). You win a spot on "So You want to be a Millionaire" and the categories selected that day are subjects that you have unlimited knowledge about. $$$.

9).You are a blackjack player and the count is in your favor. Only people playing are you and the dealer.  

Blackjack

8).You just met a comedian and he is at the start of his career. You help him. Then you reconnect 30 years later. See Steve Harvey for how it turns out.

7). You bought stock in a start up name Google at the very beginning and income average 50 a pay for the 1st three years. Google trades at the market price of $516.35.

6). You bet a 10 team parlay in NFL and your 1st nine games have covered. The last game is Monday Night. You wager half of what you'll collect on the parlay ticket on the other team, guaranteeing a profit of 50% for you.

5). Dream the numbers for Powerball. You wake up that morning and play them. They come out that night.

4). You're at the WSOP and you have pocket aces. The flop has the other two. You are at the final table and the other player goes all in.

3). On the crap table and the shooter rolls for 90 minutes. You start with 64 across and you press every other time a bet hits.

Gamblers love a streak!

2). You bets sports and you wager on a team that goes on a streak. Example, Golden State in NBA basketball just won 16 in a row. You bet using the money line so the spread doesn't matter.

1). That just one of these things happens to you in your lifetime.

                                                   Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!  

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What works in 2015 Gaming?

I am seeing a shift in what works with gaming entertainment. I've watched the operation side go  from build it and they'll come to less is now more. Atlantic City is the perfect example. They are expecting an increase in revenue numbers. This is due to the remaining casinos accommodating their former competitor's customers.

October's casino numbers did not bear this out. Casino revenues were $197.7 million, down compared to $216.9 million in October 2013. The casinos cut those losses in half, however, with another $9.5 million in online gaming revenues that did not yet exist in Oct. 2013. Of the latter figure, $2M of that was from online poker.
The amount of money in play decreased and the market did not grow. There are less rooms and parking spots available.  The cost of parking and rooms will  inevitably go up. This is not the recipe for attracting conventions and long term stays at the shore.

The new rules for gambling in America are different from the late 90's and early 2000's. Two rules are in play for me. Engage your customer. Not just when he/she gambles. Interact with the entertainment information they show interest in. The second rule is brand with the taste of the customer. If the customers likes Starbucks, provide them with specials that they can obtain through you. This not only helps you, but now Starbucks gives you a play as well.  The new rules encompasses food and beverage and events targeting millennials. These are two avenues that can bring new and former customers in.

Expect a new look in Connecticut

 

Foxwoods is making a move in this direction. In 2015, they are downsizing the casino product and looking for more revenue from the non gaming side. Boyd Gaming Corp. told investors in August it planned to change out a few of the restaurants and other nongaming attractions inside several of the company’s area casinos to boost overall revenue. This week, Borgata Casino announced details.

A $13 million dollar property-wide renovation is taking place over the next several months. Improvements include a complete redesign of the Borgata Buffet, renovations to Spa Toccare, the casino floor, front desk, suites, and back-of-the-house areas.

These types of plans have been met with success along the Las Vegas Strip, but have been slow to be embraced by regional markets. In a future post, I'll provide more insight that will help you grow your market share. Some innovative ways that will work without spending your entire budget are coming. Also,learn more about online gaming and how it can shape your future entertainment experiences.

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Gaming in Pennsylvania: Where do we go from here?

The election is over. Governor-elect Tom Wolf will be sworn in January 2015. He inherits a state that is in need of cash for a myriad of problems.

Where will that money come from?  I'm a betting man so I'm looking at gambling. Not for me but for Pennsylvania. I see two potential options for 2015.

One is the gaming license that the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board is mulling over for Philadelphia. The applicants are vying for it and willing to provide tax revenue and jobs. The closing of several casinos in Atlantic City has many insiders thinking that another license may saturate the Philadelphia market. That is not the view of Casino Revolution, Market 8, Live! and Provence. It should be noted that Wynn Philadelphia and Hollywood withdrew their bids.

They all feel they can make it work without  totally cannibalizing  the 3 casinos that are presently in operation. The economic impact will primarily effect Philadelphia and not the entire Commonwealth. I'll go into detail about the viability of expanding the market in a future post. You can get updates through the process by joining the PGCB mailing list.

The second option is to explore online gaming from all aspects. Poker and Table Games come to mind. The model in New Jersey shows that there is a demand to play online. That demand is slowly manifesting toward being a 200 million dollar business within the next 18 months.

Poker alone will not bring in enough revenue to merit implementation. Nevada's online poker’s best month this year was June, when the revenue exceeded $1 million. This was largely due to the World Series of Poker. The live event prompted an influx of online players. Experts say the game would be more popular and lucrative if Nevadans could legally gamble online with pools of players from other states.

Poker Only Model

I think the online line approach is more feasible. It creates jobs, tax revenue and more importantly, levels the playing field amongst the existing casinos. New Jersey was able to get ramped up and start gaming online in less than a year. Pennsylvania could do the same thing. 

Due to a larger population and site possibilities to play, we could exceed the 200 million I quoted earlier in New Jersey in half the time. An extensive report was submitted to the Pennsylvania legislature by  Econsult  and it supports this theory. The revenue from online gaming could cure a lot of problems in the areas of social services and education.

Where do you think we should go?  Share your thoughts on gaming in Pennsylvania by following me.
Learn more about online gaming and how it can shape your future entertainment experiences.
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