French Press' is the name of my favourite coffee shop in the world (tied with Red Roaster in Brighton). I also thought it was a clever play on words to wear my favourite 'French Press' t-shirt during a photoshoot for WPT Magazine in Paris last month (geddit, I'm a member of the press and we were in France). I'm also sitting in said coffee shop this very minute and someone just delivered my copy of WPT Magazine, hot off the presses. Synchronicity.

All that to say, I'm in a magazine and I'm stoked!! I'd like to be all cool about it in a 'yeah, whatever man, no big deal' type of way, but I can't help myself. These things are exciting. I am air high-fiving ALL of y'all right now!

The magazine has just come out but the cover photo was released a little while ago and I thought it was interesting how many people commented on the 'Party Girl' headline. Quite a few people got in touch with me through social media to say that they didn't think it was a good representation of me. The truth is though, I work for Party Poker, so 'Party Girl' is kind of given in terms of nicknames. My friends pretty much all laughed when they saw the title after I posted the cover on twitter last week. Too put it simply, I'm not exactly known for partying. I'm the one who is always saying 'nope, I can't go out' and extolling the virtues of fluffy slippers and early nights. I think Oskar Garcia, an AP Reporter said it in my favourite way on twitter:

oskargarcia Oskar Garcia "@karaotr Maybe their definition of partying is getting to sleep at a reasonable hour after a day of working on various projects. :)"

Not that there's anything wrong with partying. Some of my best friends are partiers.

Jon Young, the editor of WPT Magazine wrote a really cool feature article to go along with the cover and I need to say a big thank you to him because it was totally flattering and just so gratifying to read. Tell me that you think I'm 'likeable and professional' and I will purr like a cat - best compliments ever, imo.

It's interesting to see how different media outlets spin things in different ways. I was in Ireland last month doing some interviews and press work and I ended up in Ireland's Sunday World newspaper. Reading that article was strange because even when they were quoting me, I just couldn't imagine myself saying the words as they were written. I think it's difficult for non-poker media to write accurately about poker (that seems like an obvious thing to say but it bears saying) so this may have been a big part of our communication disconnect.

They quoted me remarking,

"There are lots of us girls now kickin' ass in poker. I will admit that we are not on a par with the boys but we are getting there."

For a lot of the people reading this quote, they won't realise that we actually had an extensive, analytical discussion on why the number of women in live poker is so much smaller than the number of men. People reading this might think I'm saying that women don't PLAY as well as men. Let me be clear; there is NO way that I would suggest that. In fact, when I initially read the Sunday World article I was convinced that the next knock on my door would be someone coming to revoke my 'feminist card.'

And on a similar note, Congratulations to Linda Johnson on her induction into the Poker Hall of Fame. It is well-deserved recognition for decades of work promoting the game we all love. I certainly won't be telling her (or Vanessa Selbst or Jennifer Harman or DMoonGirl etc) that they're not 'on par' with men!