If we could take today’s poker players and drop them into 2006 or thereabouts, Jackie Glazer would be well on her way to becoming a household name. But with the decline of televised poker and the rise of faceless internet poker players, those who might have otherwise become poker celebs have not garnered the attention they deserve. Glazer is one of those players who needs more love.
An affable Aussie, Glazer won the opening event of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe this weekend, emerging victorious in the €1,100 Ladies No-Limit Hold’em Event, the first event of its kind at WSOP Europe. It wasn’t the biggest of wins monetarily (€21,850), but it was still a bracelet, the first of Glazer’s career.
And it was about time for Glazer, as she has had more than a year of near misses. Just this past summer, she had the honor (dubious or not, depending on one’s point of view) of being the last woman standing in the WSOP Main Event, bowing out in 31st place. At the 2013 Aussie Millions in February, she placed fourth in the A$5,000 No Limit Hold’em Six Max Turbo event (though she did win a A$500 side event). Last year, she was runner-up in the $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em Event at the WSOP. Glazer’s last big win was at the 2012 Melbourne Poker Championship, where she won the A$1,000 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event, good for A$95,000 ($98,107). Then again, that came a week after a second place finish in that tournament series.
After her victory, Glazer told WSOP officials that she was nervous at the final table, that she had to win for her own psyche. “I think I’ve had so many close calls and near-misses that getting heads-up with the stack sizes being even, the gravity of if I did come in second again…I was just not sure how I would cope with it. It would definitely have taken a few days to get over,” she said.
At the same time, though, she was extremely confident that she would take it home. “I just had this feeling I was going to win it,” she told the WSOP interviewer after the match. “I said to my husband, ‘It is wrong not to have a bottle of champagne in the fridge ready to go. I’m going to go buy a bottle and put it in the fridge so it is ready when I win this bracelet.’ He was like, ‘That’s ridiculous. It’s poker. You can’t think like that, you don’t know what is going to happen.’ I said, ‘I know what is going to happen. This is going to happen.”
With foresight like that, she should probably play poker for a living.
2013 World Series of Poker Europe Ladies No-Limit Hold’em – Final Table Results
1. Jackie Glazier – €21,850
2. Maryline Valente – €13,500
3. Laurie Bismuth – €8,950
4. Celine Bastian – €6,330
5. Nathalie Odet – €4,770
6. Sherry Lindsey – €3,800
7. Gaelle Baumann – €3,200
