Spotlight on Karina Jett
Spotlight on Karina Jett
This popular pro has had a meteoric rise in the ranks of poker, with final table appearances in major tournaments all over the world. In both 2003 and 2004, she finished fourth at the World Series of Poker Ladies events. In 2004, Karina took second in the Ultimate Poker Challenge, and in August 2005, she placed third at the Legends of Poker in Los Angeles. Karina Jett is considered one of the world's top women cash game players.
It was hardly Karina's childhood dream to be a professional poker player. Her father, a full colonel in the U.S. armed forces, married Karina's Vietnamese mother in Saigon, and they moved to Florida when Karina was 2. Fate intervened when her father was transferred to Nellis Air Force Base near Las Vegas. Her parents were avid poker players, and they would tell their bad-beat stories at the dinner table. She tagged along to watch her mother play, the exquisite little girl soon became a favorite of casino bosses. It wasn't until she was 18 that she wandered into a $1-$5 game while she waited for her mom and found she had a natural affinity for the game.
Karina had star quality even then and dreamed of a life in show business. She was named Miss Photogenic in the Miss World Nevada pageant. She even took acting classes, which she says helped her later at the poker table, but Hollywood was not the direction her future would take. After high school graduation, Karina enrolled in a California college with a political science major, transferring to the University of Nevada in Las Vegas the next year.
When she had to leave school to help out in her mother's jewelry store and Chinese restaurant, it turned out to be a stroke of luck. Through her old casino buddies, she got a marketing job at a major hotel and played poker by night. In 1997, when her winnings started to exceed her regular paycheck, she quit and began playing full time. Karina's choosing poker as a career wasn't a shock for her parents, but she got a different reaction from the rest of the family. "They thought I was crazy of taking off to Paris, or spending months at a time in places like Foxwoods, Connecticut, or Tunica. Now they think it's cool to see me on T.V. My cousin's fiance has even taken up poker."
For the first year of her professional career, she played 7-card stud, but with Texas hold'em becoming a popular, publicized, high-stakes event, Karina wasted no time segueing into hold'em. The 5-foot, 102-pound beauty's looks proved to be both an asset and a liability. On more than one occasion, she had heated altercations at the table, but she was more than capable of standing up for herself. She had a male player barred from the Bellagio for three years when he tried to physically accost her during a game. Before long, she fine-tuned her skills and started acing male opponents with her talent.
Today, Karina says guys still try to flirt and ask for her home number. Those are the ones who don't know that she is married to Chip Jett, one of the top pros on the tournament circuit. A mutual friend introduced Chip and Karina at a poker tournament in Mississippi. After a whirlwind five-week romance, they married in true Las Vegas style at the Little White Chapel, complete with an Elvis impersonator.
The union of these two pros has become one of the most powerful alliances in the poker world. They made history at the London Open in the 2005 No-Limit Hold'em Championship when they became the first married couple to compete against each other, but they are fierce opponents when they are in play.
It can be difficult to balance being a pro and being the wife of a pro. Sometimes their schedules can be a problem, when a major decision has to be made. There are also the typical emotional swings that accompany any competitive sport. How does Karina handle it when she or Chip busts out of a big game? "I usually shake my head, say, 'Nice hand,' and then run out of the room screaming.
"Sometimes, I can see my game lose focus toward the end of the night, and I might not be playing as well. So I usually try to drink some tea and, hopefully, catch my second wind. When Chip is losing or playing badly, I never put him down. I might have had other thoughts, but I always try to be positive, because you can't let this business get to you.
Karina's childhood dreams of stardom are quickly becoming of a reality. In addition to TV appearances, celebrity events, and hosting tournaments, she played a role in the 2006 film Lucky You, with Robert Duvall and Drew Barrymore. Karina Jett's journey from Saigon to Las Vegas may well and up in Hollywood after all.