The Tournament Poker Edge Podcast
The Tournament Poker Edge Podcast
July 24, 2026 -- Keeping Up with Comeskey
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Clayton Fletcher (@claytoncomic) chats with one of his favorite friends in poker, the always entertaining and outspoken Caitlin Comeskey!!!
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Welcome to the Tournament Poker Edge Podcast, brought to you by Tournament PokerEdge.com. The only podcast dedicated exclusively to poker tournament strategy. Now here's your host, Clayton Fletcher.
SPEAKER_01Hello once again, everybody, and welcome to the Tournament Poker Edge Podcast. My name is Clayton Fletcher, and I am your host here in Safe Socialist New York City. Happy as ever to be bringing you yet another episode of the world's longest running poker strategy podcast. And I'm not alone. I have a returning champion coming back once again. I don't know if this is the third or fourth time that we have had uh this young lady on, but I really begged her to come back again after the summer she just had at the World Series of Poker. You know, cashing every time I turn around, uh, this lady is cashing in another tournament. I'm talking fourth place in the ladies' event, fifth place in the Stud Eight Championship, uh, 105th in the main event. I'm talking about my friend and fellow comedian, Miss Caitlin Kamaski. Caitlin, how have you been?
SPEAKER_05Oh my gosh, it's so good to be back here. You know what you're one of my favorite people in poker. It was such a joy for me to get to do that comedy show with you last NAPT and get to see you and your element, see you doing your crowd work. For the listeners that haven't seen Clayton do comedy live, you're missing out. He's such a treat, and I love being his buddy.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, I love being your buddy too. I'm actually going to Aruba next week. I'm doing uh a week of comedy in Aruba. So, I mean, I wouldn't choose to go to Aruba in July, but I'll take any chance to go to Aruba, I guess. You know, maybe next time call me in February, though. But no, I'm at Aruba, Aruba Rays Comedy Club. It's pretty much the only comedy club in Aruba, and I'll be there um all next week, the last week of July. So if you're in Aruba for any reason, come and check out a comedy show. Um, so Caitlin, what a summer you had. I mean, wow, like the ladies' event final table, the stud eight final table, uh, you know, almost cracked the top 100 of the main. So, I mean, uh, first off, congratulations on all your recent success.
SPEAKER_05Thank you so much. I mean, it was it was crazy. I really I was getting to a point where I was very disillusioned with content creation and the influencer marketing setup with the like affiliate code, like it was all just like very lame and corny to me. And when I got let go from my uh sponsorship, I just was like, why don't I just try to get better at poker? Like, what if I put my full focus on poker leading up to the summer and just see what happens? Yeah, what happens is hard work pays off. And it was really gratifying and really cool to see that the work that I put in not only in studying and learning new games, but also in my mental game and in a daily meditation practice was, I think, just as important, if not more so, in my growth over the last few months.
SPEAKER_01Wow. So uh yeah, let's go back a little bit because you know, you did have a sponsorship with a poker site. And uh, you know, I'm sure that that was something that was well, let's just say it was lucrative enough for you to uproot your entire life and move to New Jersey to do that. And I'm sure that you thought that it was going to last um, let's, is it fair to say longer than it ended up lasting? So go ahead.
SPEAKER_05So poker stars brought me on and um they wanted me to move so that I could be a streamer. One of the main things they wanted me to do was to stream, and to be able to stream legally, you need to like be in the place. I was living in Texas. So part of the job offer was um a move and I didn't really have to think about it. It was a dream come true. I had been working and grinding and content and uh doing live streams and getting my name out there, saying yes to everything, taking low-paying jobs, taking no-paying jobs, working for just buy-ins. So when I got the offer to get like a full-time gig at PokerStars as an ambassador team pro, it was such a dream come true. It felt like such a Cinderella moment. And the first half of the year was really incredible. But unfortunately, you know, there are a lot of factors I don't control. And I have I do consider the parting with poker stars amicable. They were having a lot of changes in terms of integrating fan duel and integrating the different markets. So so much of it had very little to do with me and the little comedy sketches or live streams that I'm doing. I never got any negative feedback. So at the end of the day, it wasn't amicable parting, but it did really put me at this crossword roads where I had just uprooted my life. I had just isolated myself, moved across the country, was doing mostly travel. So it gave me a little bit of an existential crisis, like, oh my God, what now? What now? Like I thought I had it made, I had my dream come true, and now it's all been undone in less than 13 months. And I I got some offers coming off of poker stars, but it was either it wasn't enough money that I felt like it was, you know, worth my time and the effort that I put into the industry, or it was, you know, a brand I don't want to work with. I'm very picky with who I want to work with. I want to work with regulated poker brands. I don't want to work for prediction markets, I don't want to work for sports betting sites, I don't want to work for slots or online casinos. And I've consistently having a platform in gambling, I've consistently been given those offers as long as I've had this platform and I've consistently turned them down because it is a conviction that I have that I don't want to promote things that could hurt my audience. I've worked really hard to build trust with my audience, and I would never want to betray that by promoting something that could hurt them. So I'm very picky about who I choose to work with. And when there wasn't an offer that made sense at that time, I was just like, let's focus on poker, you know?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, get back to the game. I mean, I can only imagine. Uh, I've never been in that position where you get this phone call that we want you to be one of the three faces of this whole website. And poker stars obviously a brand that you know has been in existence, prestige, yeah. Prestige, all the decades of you know, poker stars over the years and you know, everything that that represents, where you say, Well, now I have to move to New Jersey so that I can play on this regulated, legal, you know, fully licensed um website and everything. And then so you're kind of on cloud nine and you're doing these live streams and you're still doing the you know the comedy content that we all know and love you for. And then to have that sort of rug pulled out from under your feet or whatever, uh, it must have been just going from such a high to such a low. Just talk me through what that was like for you. Like how devastating was it exactly?
SPEAKER_05I mean, it was definitely a heartbreak, and it was a slow one too. So, like the first half of the year, I was getting positive feedback. I was getting the sentiments from my bosses and everything that I would be renewed. You know, I was starting to relax about it. I was starting to, you know, I was getting to travel to Europe, I was getting to do commentary, and they asked a lot of work of me, and I said yes to everything. I did commentary, I did live streams, I did online commentary, I traveled, I did American livestops, I did European livestops, like I truly, truly left it all out on the court. And about halfway through when the management changes started to happen and the new company started to come in, and they're looking more at spreadsheets than they are, and it's people that don't work in our industry, it's people that don't really know who Caitlin is, but they might know who Jason Kuhn is and they may know who Maria Konakova with a best-selling book or Jen Shahadi, who also has a name in chess. And when you look at my numbers on paper, I've never purchased an organic engagement, I've never bought comments, likes, views, anything. So sometimes if you just look at my numbers on a sheet of paper isolated and you're not in our industry and you don't know about the GPI awards or, you know, the sketches that I've done that are viral within our community, then you're not gonna know who I am. And it's gonna be like the easiest first cut to make. So I don't blame them at all. Um, and I don't have any bad blood with them. But yeah, it was a definite heartbreak. It was a real roller coaster to go on. And the three, four months leading up to them finally putting it in writing, no, we don't want to renew you, it was really stressful because I saw the writing on the wall and I thought like likely they weren't going to be renewing me. So every time I went into work, every time I clocked in, it was it was a lot of stress and it was a lot of anxiety. And I knew it was gonna happen and I was trying to perform. And you know, you kid yourself that if like you do everything perfect for three months straight and you get you hit all your quotas, you get a couple of viral hits, you know, you kid yourself into thinking that maybe I'll they'll see my value. But at the end of the day, there was nothing that I was going to do within my little niche community on paper that was gonna change that because I did have a viral video right before they let me go. I did the the video that um when all the controversy came out about the girl that did sort of the strip tease dance on the poker table, and there was a lot of conversation. So I did a video about that, and that was my most popular video I'd done in two years, and I thought, oh, well, maybe this will sit. But at the end of the day, you know, you're a line on a spreadsheet, and it's you just have to make your peace with that. Like it was such a gift. I was so lucky to get the opportunity in the first place, and it would have been cool if it was longer than 13 months, but that was the time I had with them, and it was cool to put on a patch and it was sad to put it away, but you know, we're we're guaranteed nothing in this life, and you just got to keep it moving sometimes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, for sure. And and you know, you are a great example of resilience to just be able to kind of get back up, and you know, of course, it was a a blow maybe to your ego, but certainly because it's public, you know, it's a very public job.
SPEAKER_05So when you lose the very public job, it's very public, and there definitely was a little embarrassment or shame around like wow, I have to make an announcement that I lost my job, and everyone's gonna know that sucks.
SPEAKER_01Right, and everyone's gonna know, and some people are going to celebrate your uh misfortune as issue. Yeah, we always have we always have haters, but you know, to me, one of the highlights of you know your tenure, if you will, was that last summer you and Mr. Stapleton and I had a chance to do commentary together of the main event, which was really fun. We had a parallel feed. There was the poker go feed back then, but we also had our own poker stars feed where I think we kind of had a lot more fun than they were having over there.
SPEAKER_05You know, well, no, because we were commentating when Blaz was playing, when he was playing on a feature table, right? And then he was like kind of getting a little big big for his britches, and he was pointing out who the fish he thought were at the table. It was it was not the best look for Blaz, but I guess that's his his character or whatever. And then he got his aces cracked like within 10 minutes of this of this display of bravado.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, if only it would always go down that way. The person that's being the loudest and most obnoxious just loses. That would be perfect, but that's that's not really life. So I have so much I wanted to uh talk with you about, but very important because you know, um, this website or this podcast, I should say, is uh sponsored by Jocka Coaching. You know, so we have videos that we can watch and learn about poker and you know learn from you know great poker minds about how to handle this, that, and the other. I know there are a million different ways to get from where you were to where you are now. Um we have Jocka Coaching, and my listeners can get seven days free. Uh jocca.poker slash TPE is the code so that you can you know get that for free. But talk us through how you you said you decided to rededicate yourself to poker. So does that mean you got yourself a coach, or did you just start working with solvers more, or how did you go about improving your game?
SPEAKER_05I didn't do any private coaching this go round. So when I first entered poker, I had someone who like slid into my DMs and was like, I've been watching you on live stream and I can help you. And FYI, especially if you're a woman in a poker, no coach should ever be coming to you. Like, that's a red flag that I think if I was my third or fourth year in poker, I would have clapped it. But anyway, I had a really negative, I obviously ended up having a negative experience with the person that solicited me uh for coaching. So I was really reticent to go down that route again. I don't, there's so many other modalities of training that I really feel like unless you have one, just like have money to set on fire, or two, like really feel like you need more structure in your training. There's so much stuff you can do. So what I did was I decided I wanted to study mixed games and get into mixed games. One of the first people that noticed and encouraged me getting into mixed games was Tim Duckworth, who they call the Kemish of PGT. And he's from Australia. He plays footy. He's a really great guy, really sweet friend of mine. And he recommended or he bought for me uh the Otmer book. Otmer O-T-H-M-E-R wrote a book on Stud, Stud High. And it's older now, but it's got like a lot of infographics. It talks about how the equities change from street to street, different um fundamental concepts of stud high. So that's kind of where I started with my training. Um, I also got Dylan Lynn's book, Mastering Mixed Games. That one I always put a little um footnote on that. That one was written in 2019. So there are a few things he says, especially about like three betting from the big blind, that maybe we've decided to play differently in limit. And it's more of a cash game mentality, but there the fundamentals in that book are correct. And then um finally I capped it off with Alex Livingston's poker coaching course. He released this beautiful course with over like, I think there's like 40, 50 hours of content in it, and right now it's selling for I want to say 299, which is just an absolute steal. Eventually the price will go up, but right now it's low. So get in there if you want. But um he does all the horse games. He does the stud games, the horse games, and the draw games. So do seven single draw, do seven triple draw, badoogee, and I think Badey is in there. And then there's um, of course, the horse games. So limit hold them, 08, and all the studs. And it's it's incredible. He he does a little bit of work with stud flop draw, which is sort of the solver that exists in mixed games right now, but more so he talks about his own personal experiences, what population tendencies are and the fundamentals of the game. So I can't recommend that coach enough, Alex Livingston. And then another thing that I did was Chris Vitch, um, who works very closely with Alex Livingston quite often. They collaborate in coaching um endeavors. So they did a couple of live um seminars where they go over old PPC or super high rollerball hands that I participated in. It's like a Zoom class, um, very affordable. So keep your eye on those. They call it the Mixed Minds seminar. So if you want, uh look at their YouTube or whatever and find an email address and tell them you want to get involved in that group. But it's a group chat and we discuss hands and stuff. And uh by the way, I think I'm totally odd man out on over there. I think I'm the only girl that's active and I'm way too friendly. But if anybody from that chat wants to be friendlier with me, I will totally return your energy. My boy Danny, my boy Danny and I, Danny Sprung. We're uh we're we're uh the friendly buddies in that one. But yeah, so that was sort of the the studying I used. And oh, and I want to mention Chrisovich also has a really good YouTube channel called Death Donkey Poker. Um, he has like really short, digestible, like five to 10 minute videos, and um, he'll tell you what game he's gonna get into, and he really dives into the stud flop draw and he gets into the weeds with these different concepts. Um, some of like a big blind defense from in limit hold'em is one of my favorite videos that he's done. Like just the amount you get to check raise from the big blind and limit hold'em is incredible. So, anyway, take a look at that. Uh, but those are the sort of the study materials I use. I've taken a look at Hold'em before. I'll drill my ICM and my pre-flop in GTO Wizard. And um, I've listened to a lot of pads on pads courses in Run at Once. I think that's sort of the Bible on No Limit Hold'em MTT poker right now. Um, BBZ poker also has a really good fundamental course if you're just getting started with no limit hold'em. Um, Ape Styles' course is my favorite one on there. But yeah, those are like the study materials I use, but I would say I like also equally invested myself in journaling, daily meditations, and I listened to Neville Goddard. Have you ever heard of Neville Goddard? Yes, sure. Yeah, so he does like a lot of manifestation work. He was around in the same time as like C.S. Lewis with this like spirituality was coming in like early 20th century England. But uh he he does these sleep meditations that I just put on when I'm going to bed, and those do the work for me.
SPEAKER_01Well, it wasn't just about trying to improve your poker game. Although it sounds like from a poker standpoint, you really did focus on digging in deeper into these mixed games. Stuff that probably I would guess at least 80% of my listeners have never even tried. Because many people only play no limit hold of. So talk about why it's important for a player to be more complete and to learn the other games as well.
SPEAKER_05Well, I was talking to Kristen Foxon, who's not a super close friend of mine, but we're acquaintances, um, on one of the smoke breaks. And and I was like, hey, if you want, because I noticed she had like a few, she was getting into mixed games, she's complimenting me, and I was like, Hey, if you ever want to trade like no limit coaching for mixed coaching, I would be happy. And she entertained the idea. She didn't herself immediately. So maybe that'll be in our future. But we were both talking about how we think mixed games are about to explode. Alex Foxon and Chance have both been focusing really hard on mixed games. And I think what that's gonna come out of is just everyone's getting so good at no limit hold'em. There's so much information that is accessible about no limit hold'em, more people playing it. And because we're not getting as many new players in, the average player is getting older, right? And we see that with like the average age of the final table this year, too, isn't it like 38? Like it just keeps crawling up. So I think because everyone just continues to improve at hold'em, people are gonna like want to return to what it's like to play at a poker table where half the people don't know really know what they're doing. And the only place that that is happening is like mix and Omaha tournaments. So I think that they're gonna, we're gonna continue to see a migration of the existent, existing no limit player pool headed into mixed games just because people are gonna get frustrated with how good everybody is at hold'em.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I mean, the average hold'em player is so much better now than he or she was even two or three years ago.
SPEAKER_05I mean, just yeah, I'd say most people are playing pretty close to correct pre-flop in terms of like their ranges and stuff, and the big mistakes you're gonna see are gonna be on like flop and turn sizings. Right. But uh uh like most people are pretty solid pre-flop these days. Most people know how to wait for their hands to play like a solid 15 to 25 percent of hands in their opening ranges and yeah, just grinding out that equate.
SPEAKER_01It's not that hard to figure out.
SPEAKER_05No, it's memorizing its flashcards, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Uh yeah, pre-flop strategy is pretty hard to learn. It's just the post-flop where things can get a little more hairy. So I have so many things I wanted to ask you about. I want to make sure um that we get into your success in the ladies' event. I have a couple of questions about the ladies' event. First off, I want to know kind of your thoughts on ladies' events in general. I know that some female professional players don't like to play them, they don't like the idea that we have these segregated events. So that's my first question. Um, what factors into your decision to decide to enter uh a ladies' event like the one at the WSOP?
SPEAKER_05I think women's events are very important in poker. I understand that there are a lot of women that don't. I'd say most of the women that talk out against ladies' events or say that maybe we don't need them or whatever, those are going to be the class of women that have already outgrown them, right? So ladies' events are something that you outgrow because ladies' events exist primarily because women need to experience playing with all other women. Because what that does is that creates networking opportunities that don't happen in open events for us, right? Because more often than not, when we make up less than 10% of the player pool, we're never going to be playing with other women. It's going to be harder to find people to study with, to travel with, to save costs with, to grow with in the game. So that's why we see so many women dropping off because they always feel othered, they always feel whatever. So what these ladies' events do is they one, create that networking opportunity, create the space for women who are beginners that maybe are more intimidated by an open casino environment that they can come and have sort of this bridge opportunity to be around women that are going to be accepting and lovely to them. Um, and then also it creates opportunities. Like when women are new to poker, it's gonna be really hard to get that first like success, like running deep in a tournament. So, what women's events provide are an opportunity for women to get early success and to have a final take. To have a winner's photo, a final table photo, like something to get excited about that keeps you in the game. Um, so that's sort of like the beginner growth aspect of it. And like, even me, that was my biggest score. Me, like four or five years into my career, the women's event was what gave me the springboard and the energy that like propelled me through the rest of the summer. So, like in the early stages of your career, these women's events are very important for confidence building, for networking. So when women speak out and they're like, I don't know if women's events should exist. And it's like when it's someone like Kristen Foxon, who I love, respect, that's my Michael Jordan, that's my goat. But it's like when she says, I don't know that women's events need to exist anymore, it's because she doesn't need them anymore, right? You know, she's she's already made it through that success in her career. And she's at the stage of her career where she's like, I want to be one of the best players. I don't, I'm tired of having the addendum on my name, best female player. So she's at a different stage in her career. So when she says these things, it's like, yeah, absolutely, she's right. There it like there is no male advantage for uh being better at poker. So we don't need women's events and a sense of for fairness, but they do serve another purpose, like I just said in my run-on.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, no, I got you. And so maybe like for someone like Kristen, it's hard for her to put herself in the shoes of a brand new uh female player who might be incredible.
SPEAKER_05She's not negative about it. She's never nasty. She's like, no, I just I don't play those anymore because she's winning 25K, she's got six bracelets. She don't need she don't need a ladies' event.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, she doesn't need it. But you know, it kind of reminded me what you said earlier about this coach who called you up, like, hey, you want some coaching? You know, uh, and you come from a comedy background like I do, and you know, female comedians have this same issue, like very similar. Yeah, he's trying to give you an opportunity. He's calling up, oh, we should uh collab. You know, why don't we collab and make a comedy video together? But maybe he's got some other motivation that's you know not business related.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, so a woman's advantage in poker, right, is that they're not that many of us. And so we can climb the ranks a lot faster, right? Because people that put poker front facing, they're gonna want more women in their games. Like it's an advantage in terms of like maybe it's easier for a woman to find a sponsor, it's harder for a woman to get kicked out of a cash game for winning. Like there are advantages to being a woman in poker that people around you are, especially when you're early and you don't see it yet, they're gonna try to like get in on your advantage. So you have to look out for yourself, find people that you trust, and don't let other people make your decisions for you. When you're early in the game and you're getting new opportunities, especially as a woman, you're allowed to say no to things. The opportunities aren't going to go away. If you're not ready to play on a live stream, say no and wait until you feel more comfortable. Don't let people like in your ear uh make these decisions for you.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's great advice, of course. Uh, you know, fourth place in this year's ladies' championship, bracelet event number 68 for those keeping score at home. She won almost $68,000, coincidentally. Um, and no one is really talking about that or about who won the tournament because the the even the national media outside of poker got involved in this year's ladies' event because of a player named Aubrey, who is a trans person, that people have different viewpoints about whether this person should be allowed to participate in the ladies' tournament. Now, you were obviously very vocal about your feelings on the issue, so why don't you share those feelings with us here, if you could, and also tell us why it was so important to you to be as outspoken as you were about this controversial subject.
SPEAKER_05So Aubrey's one of my best friends. She is a sweet gal. We're both stoners, so that's how like we became really close really fast is that we spend all our breaks together. Um, Aubrey has been playing women's events for two or three years. She's never been confronted by another woman, she's never been turned away by management. In fact, our other trans woman friend, Jackie, actually won a woman's event last December. It was a smaller event. Nobody it didn't get any attention, nobody cared. None of the women that played with Jackie had a problem with it. And so the most important part to me to get involved, and I haven't been political since high school, you know, like I'm mostly a political. I obviously care about social issues and humans' rights and everyone being treated with respect. That's something I care about, but it's it's not something I like to stick my neck out for, especially in poker. But this one was different because everyone in poker has so much respect for Aubrey specifically and our friend Jackie. Um, those are the two trans women I know that are playing, right? It's just two women. It's just two women. It's not like, you know, but anyway, um, with this issue specifically, I it was day three, and Aubrey had bagged the Chip lead, and one creator had used a clip of Aubrey playing. And I could tell that both from the YouTube chat the night before, I was hearing that things were being nasty, and I could hear and I could see with my own eyes the comments under this video were really nasty. So I'm actually I'm already sat for day three or day four, whatever. I'm sorry, I'm confusing the days, but I was already sat and I just like had this conviction that I was like, nobody cares that Aubrey's here. I really don't want to let the online chatter turn into like people use this for rage bait and clickbait and like turn it into an issue when nobody in the room gives a shit. Nobody has confronted her, nobody cares, nobody's complained to management. Like the truth of the matter is that women in poker have been, I don't think tolerating is the right word, but been accepting of or not objecting to trans women participation in poker for years now. So it was important to me, more so than anything, that the general public be well aware that no one was asking Aubrey to leave. No one had a problem with Aubrey being there, of the actual participants in the event and of the people that sit down to play with Aubrey. Aubrey does not get discriminated against to her face in po in person in poker. She's earned a lot of respect. She's an online crusher, she's a nice person, she's a good girl. And I'm not a perfect advocate. You know, I grew up in Texas. Uh, I grew up listening to Rush Limbaugh with my dad and stuff. Like Aubrey's definitely told me that I'm not a perfect advocate. So I'm if you want to have Aubrey on the show and she can talk more specifically about like trans participation and trans women, but for me, in terms of like my involvement and why I got so heavy, it's one because just Aubrey's one of my closest friends, but two, it was because it was important to me that a bunch of, you know, political influencer grifters weren't able to like exploit my friend and use a situation that wasn't a situation to sell books or be hateful or get clicks. And there were consequences. There were definitely consequences for standing up for Aubrey for attacking um content creators very vehemently for trying to exploit her for her platform. And the consequences were like an army of incels that came after me. There was like a seven-day period at the height of my summer where I couldn't open my phone without being called fat, ugly, hideous, you know, disgusting, whatever. And I was muting accounts as fast as I found them, but it was really relentless and it was really hard. Like there, that is one of those issues that's being used in our culture to distract, you know, because trans people represent such a small percentage of the population. It's crazy, but it's what do they call it, this billboard issue or this thumbtack issue, I forgetting the term, but politicians use it to distract from actual issues and things that people should care about.
SPEAKER_01Right. And you know, my take on it was just, and and thank you, by the way, for sharing that here because you know, I don't want to stir up a whole new uh new batch of haters for you.
SPEAKER_05Honestly, you know what, they're all muted. And at this point, I've I've made peace with it because it's like when you have haters, they amplify you and they grow you, and like your haters end up being your fans. And it's something I resisted for a really long time where I would just like block or hide or whatever, and now I'm muted so I can't see it. Everybody else can, you know, go ahead, amplify me. So it's they're give it's a give and take there.
SPEAKER_01That's good. Yeah, I like that. I like that take. So in sports this week, uh, you know, Sophie Cunningham came out in the WNBA and kind of made her uh feelings known about whether trans people should be allowed to play in the WNBA. She come out against uh yes, yeah. She said that you know she rile gains with it. The way the way that she stood up for it was that she feels like Title IX is meant to prevent girls and women. And then, of course, uh the WTA, the tennis association, also said that all players are going to be tested.
SPEAKER_05And if you are tested, well, here's the thing is that we're talking about that I see a lot with just like, I mean, we're in a mental sport, so it's very much different. I think that it's really hard to believe in trans exclusion and poker unless you believe that the male intellect is superior to the female intellect. I I really do think that. But even in terms of like female sports, this anti-trans sentiment is not gonna be not gonna be doing what we think it is. It's not gonna be protecting our girls, it's gonna be exposing our girls to more harassment. It's hurting women. Like they're talking about having biological sex tests for underage girls. We're really gonna make underage girls show their genitals, and that's every girl. That's every girl that participates in sports if we go down that road. That's awful. That hurts women, that is not protecting women. And there's already been harassment and exploitation of women in sports, and people don't want us playing sports because sports makes us more confident, makes us more empowered. So it's like the patriarchy doesn't want us to play sports. So if you have to show your genitals to play sports, that's gonna exclude a lot of people from participation, or at least it should. So I would just really caution people that think they're protecting women by going to bat um for trans exclusion because at the end of the day, it will hurt women. And there are only a handful of trans kids on the planet trying to participate in youth sports, but women need to be participating in youth sports, and we shouldn't be creating these barriers to make it a traumatizing, abusive experience for them.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So the point that I was driving towards is that uh exactly what you said about poker being a mind sport. I I can I can almost understand someone having the feeling, well, it's not fair for a man to be playing tennis against women and you're gonna beat the women at tennis every time. Like I understand that point of view, and I also understand your point of view uh in terms of the testing and how you know invasive that is, of course. But when it comes to poker, I think for something like the women's poker tournament, if the women who are playing all seem to have no problem with this, then I don't see why anyone is speaking up against it. Because as you already said, there is no advantage, even if we don't agree whether Aubrey is a woman, that's fine. You know, what is a woman? Matt Walsh, right? Who cares? It doesn't matter. Even if we don't agree on that, even if we all say, okay, Aubrey's not a woman, but Aubrey is welcome. The women who are playing are welcoming Aubrey. So who are we to say no to that? But anyway, don't want to get into like a whole controversy here, but and again, I hope you invite Aubrey to come on and speak on the issue.
SPEAKER_05She's she's very private and she's not online, but it's just I'm not a perfect advocate. I'm not a trans woman. I just, you know, want to take up from my friends. So I always refer people to people that are even more informed than I am on the issue. But at the end of the day, I only found one woman in poker who was willing to say publicly that she had a problem with trans participation. And we had a very respectful discussion. And I wasn't gonna come after her the way I was gonna come after the content creators that were exploiting her or exploiting Aubrey.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_05But um, I taught I talked to the woman and I don't want to say her name just in case she wants to be done with it or whatever. But I we had a public discussion and I told her how I felt about it. And, you know, she was she felt like she was sticking up for you know the boomers in her inbox that just like don't understand it and they're just kind of scared and don't know if it's fair. But at the end of the day, if there is a minority, I assure you, and I feel very confident saying publicly that it is very, very small.
SPEAKER_01Right, right. Yeah. I I wonder, I'm I'm sure there's more than one woman that has a problem with it, but I just wonder how comfortable anyone would be saying in this environment, like I have a problem with this when everyone else is being so inclusive and welcoming. I can't believe it. Yeah, and and honestly, I have an issue. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05And I came down on the content creators because I I thought they were being exploitative and they were taking advantage of my friend and feeding her to the wolves. Of course. A woman in poker who wants to stand up and be like, actually, let's have this discussion. I don't know if it's fair. I'm never gonna attack her publicly, I'm never gonna make her feel bad about the opinion. I'm gonna disagree with her and I'm gonna fight for my side. I'm gonna tell her why I think her point of view is misogynist and anti-woman, uh, more so than anti-trans. But um, at the end of the day, I just I'll take every opportunity to say if you want to have that discussion, I'm more than happy to let you say your piece on the matter. I don't, because I did get the criticism throughout this that I was being, you know, tyrannical or like people were afraid because I was bullying people. And and that's a fair criticism with like my behavior. I was very, you know, aggressively in defense of the people.
SPEAKER_01Can we say a bit vociferous about anyway? We're running out of yeah, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. I definitely want to um get to uh a hand. I know you had an interesting hand, and we just have a few minutes left, but you know, obviously this is uh such a subject that we can talk about forever. I'm a huge fan of civil discourse. I love to talk with people that I don't agree with and hear what they think, you know, and it helps me open my mind and see things from all angles. And so I encourage everyone to try to keep any conversation about any political subject as civil as humanly possible. Yeah, even though sometimes it's hard because we get fired up. As you're getting fired up now, and I get fired up watching you get fired up. It's still important that we want to be, you know, just not everyone that disagrees with us is necessarily evil, right?
SPEAKER_05No, I definitely don't think that.
SPEAKER_01No, yeah, yeah. All right, let's do a hand. What's it from? Is it from this same tournament we're talking about?
SPEAKER_05I thought it would be fun to do a hand from the ladies event that they featured me. There's a clip of it on poker news. Um, it was final two tables. So end of day three. Wow. Um, I was short. I had, I believe I started the hand with nine and a half big blinds.
SPEAKER_01Okay, that is short, yes.
SPEAKER_05And it folded to me in the small blind. So I'm in for half a big blind, nine big blinds behind. No, no, no, excuse me. I had nine and a half behind. So I started the hand with ten. Fair, okay. Excuse me. Um I limp, I call with nine eight offsuit. Okay, so we have nine eight offsuit. Is there any? Which you can fold. I think you can fold when you're that short.
SPEAKER_01Is it okay to shove?
SPEAKER_05No. No, I would not shove it. I was looking to play a pot. So this is a women's event. This is an event where I think I'm one of the more experienced players. So if I have an opportunity to like play a pot even out of position, I really like my post flop abilities. So that's why I just called this hand where maybe in another tournament I might use it as a candidate where I would either raise it and then if I get any resistance, I just fold. If I have a really sticky player in the big blind that I think is gonna like keep me honest, then I might just fold it. But in this situation, in this event, off my step depth, I played it as a call.
SPEAKER_01And we're not expecting the big blind to be uh attacking that limp a lot and raising it because of the nature of that opponent, right? Okay, great.
SPEAKER_05So I just call action back on the big blind, and she decides to make it two blinds. So she raises by one blind.
SPEAKER_01Okay. So we're getting like three and a half, four to one, something like that. All right, with nine, eight off suit. I mean, of course we're gonna call and see a flop. That's not a big enough raise, sorry.
SPEAKER_05Yep. So now there's like five big blinds in the middle. I have eight behind. So when I make the call, I pretty much have it in my head. If I flop any piece of it, we're gonna have to jam into her.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean your SPR is less than two, so yeah. I like the strategy. So it's a flop. Queen eight deuce. Okay, so we had the middle pair. So we shove, right? That was the plan. Okay.
SPEAKER_05And she snaps me off. She has the same pair with an ace kicker. She is oh no, excuse me, it's queen nine deuce. I hit the nine.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_05Um, so she had ace nine.
SPEAKER_01And you locked out and got your eight?
SPEAKER_05River, river snowman, river snowman. No, that one was the one that came into mind that I wanted to talk because they put it online, but they um only showed the run out, right? So a lot of people thought that I was the big blind, and I was playing, and this is how I played like big blind defense, and I was like, no, that was not what was going on.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So many times on a site like poker news, they really do try, but so many times, like they just don't get the whole story.
SPEAKER_05Well, I don't even know that they said anything, it was just people looking at the video as a video, so and you're just seeing kind of the end of the hand because that's when the camera started.
SPEAKER_01They don't get the whole hand for the beginning. Oh, here's Caitlin limping in from the small blind. So then they, you know, the public and the haters and everybody else, the internet trolls have to piece it together for themselves, and we always know how that's gonna work after all. But you know, congrats on hitting that eight on the river. That's awesome. Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_05You know, when it anytime you make deep runs, you gotta hit some miracle cards, you gotta get lucky every once in a while. You're not gonna win a tournament without getting lucky. And when you have a summer like I do, a lot of people are in the comments being like, She's not any better, she's sunrunning, she's sunrunning. And I'm like, I'll take it, I'll give it.
SPEAKER_01I mean, of course, luck has a role in any tournament victory or any final table you ever make. I don't care who you are. Um, but yeah, uh, it's very hard to sunrun for six weeks in the summertime. I mean, good luck with that. Yeah, you're so lucky. Uh, it has nothing to do with all that work you put in, reading all those books and studying and studying. Yeah, no, it's just luck. Yeah, let them think that, you know. I the less we care about what our haters think, the better off we'll be, I think.
SPEAKER_05Hey man, keep giving me that amplification, keep helping me with that algo. I don't even have to make content anymore.
SPEAKER_01I love it. All right, well, we do have to get going here, Caitlin. I really appreciate you coming back on. Where can people find you? What's next for you? What's going on now that the world series is over?
SPEAKER_05People can find me. I'm most active on Twitter and Instagram. My handle's the same on both. It's my full name, Caitlin Komeski. Um, I have a YouTube channel and a Twitch channel that I may eventually revive. I don't have any direct plans to at this time. Um, what's next for me is taking care of my family. I got a few months here where I need to be here uh for my family. Um my dad's in the hospital right now. So we're just giving that family love. I'm gonna be in Champions at the end of August, is the only live stop that I have firmly submitted on the books. We're gonna do a cash game with Phil Helmut where he pays us a $500 bounty out of his pocket if we're able to felt him. It's gonna be $1K cap, but we can match his stack if he doubles. So it should be just like a really fun, loose, low stakes game with Phil. And then um uh what was I gonna say? And then there's a women's event, which Phil is splashing 25k of his own money in, and he keeps teasing that there's gonna be more of a splash pot. This is the second time we've had a ladies' event where we've been like had a splash pot, so to speak. Uh the lodge did a similar event, so I'm excited to see how this is. Hopefully, we get some more money splashing in there for women. I think a lot of creators are coming into town, champions Houston, Texas. So uh if you'd like to come play with us, there's a tag team event the first day, and uh we're gonna have a lot of fun and connecting with women.
SPEAKER_01That sounds amazing, and you know, we're wishing you much continued luck and continued success. Uh, wishing your your dad uh good health and thank you, everything like that. And just mostly I just want to say thank you so much for coming here and sharing your thoughts and your feelings with us and just being back on the podcast. Thank you, appreciate you. It's always a delight. All right, so for Caitlin Kameski and for everyone here at Tournament Poker Edge, with special thanks to our sponsor once again, jocka.poker slash T V-E. I'm Clayton Fledger. Thank you so much for listening.
SPEAKER_03Welcome to hold up like they do in Texas, please. Hold up that I'm in and raise it, baby, stay with me. Like in me, too, is it play the gods with basis god, and after season hold, I'll play the one that's on the ride.