When PokerStars ambassador Caitlin Comeskey talks about comedy and poker, she attracts a transparent connection between two worlds that ask for a similar factor: braveness. Talking on the PokerStars North American Poker Tour 2025, the place she served as emcee of the NAPT Comedy Night time, Comeskey mirrored on how the 2 passions overlap — and what every has taught her about fearlessness, failure, and discovering group on the desk.
“Oh man,” she mentioned, “each of these pursuits, each comedy and poker, you must be very snug with failure. You need to be prepared to humiliate your self and embarrass your self. You possibly can’t be afraid to look silly.”
I feel crucial half with being a poker ambassador is being enjoyable to play with That lesson, she defined, applies whether or not you’re standing behind a mic or sitting throughout the felt. “You need to be taught to belief your self and typically you’re going to make a giant hero name that’s humiliatingly fallacious, and it’s the identical with comedy — you’re going to inform a joke that completely flatlines. I’d say it’s helped me be extra fearless.”
Being “Enjoyable to Play With”
When the subject turned to how comedy, theater, and improv form her strategy to poker, Comeskey didn’t hesitate. “I feel crucial half with being a poker ambassador is being enjoyable to play with,” she mentioned. “My background in theater and comedy and improv has simply helped me present up higher on the desk.”
She sees persona and presence as important elements of the sport — not only for leisure worth, however for what they bring about to the participant expertise. “I’m not saying 100 instances out of 100 I’m going to be probably the most enjoyable participant you’ve ever been with,” she laughed, “however my background in comedy and theater has positively made me time, cling.”
Her self-awareness exhibits what makes her a powerful match for PokerStars. She isn’t pretending to be a statistical genius or a high-volume grinder. Her contribution is the human connection — the humor, empathy, and poise that may make even a tense desk really feel slightly lighter.
An Untapped Market
Comeskey doesn’t simply play for herself; she’s additionally vocal about why poker wants extra ladies. “It’s essential,” she mentioned. “It’s an untapped market. There are such a lot of ladies, particularly since much less ladies are having kids and fewer ladies are getting married. Which means extra ladies have disposable earnings to pursue hobbies like poker.”
If we’re going to run ladies’s occasions, then they should have ensures. That shift in life-style, she believes, creates a chance for poker to achieve a broader viewers. “I might like to see us work out the way to discover that working girl with disposable earnings and produce her into the fold — present her all of the completely different life abilities poker can train you,” she mentioned. “Danger administration, studying to be extra fearless, and networking. It’s like an enormous networking factor.”
For Comeskey, poker isn’t only a recreation — it’s sensible coaching for on a regular basis confidence. “It’s like why ladies must be taking part in golf,” she added. “To get round new faces. I might like to see extra ladies within the recreation, not simply because I’m bored with taking part in with boys all day, however as a result of it truly is a useful gizmo to working ladies.”
Shared Challenges, Totally different Experiences
Requested what challenges ladies face on the desk, Comeskey identified that a few of what will get labeled as gender-based truly overlaps with fundamental newbie struggles. “A variety of issues which can be exhausting for ladies who’re model new to poker are the identical for males who’re model new,” she mentioned. “They’re simply newbie points. Persons are going to select up on the truth that possibly you’re extra nervous on the desk or much less skilled, and so that you’re going to play extra passively, and so they’re going to assault you extra.”
However she additionally didn’t hesitate to call what’s completely different. “I do suppose that ladies most likely on common are going to face slightly bit extra harassment and grumpiness from absolutely the most depressing portion of the participant pool than males will,” she mentioned. “Getting othered, getting made to really feel uncomfortable — I positively suppose ladies expertise that extra, and it’s necessary that we speak about it so we will change it.”
Constructing Networks for Girls
Since becoming a member of the poker world, Comeskey has seen enchancment — particularly via women-led initiatives like Victoria Livschitz’s Pocket Queens group. “Certainly one of my favourite issues that’s come out in the previous few years is the Pocket Queens group that Victoria Victoria Livschitz created,” she defined. “She was very profitable in her line of labor, obtained into poker, and climbed the ranks actually rapidly. She wished to create a community and a platform that was largely free and accessible for ladies who joined her examine group and Discord.”
I didn’t know what to do, so I began barking at him like a canine, Comeskey praised the outcomes: “All these women are having wonderful outcomes, and so they get large names in poker to come back and donate their time and educate ladies,” she mentioned. “That’s an enormous drawback that ladies can have within the recreation — as a result of there are such a lot of males, it’s simpler for them to community, examine, share journey prices. While you’re the one girl on the desk, it’s tougher to seek out that entry.”
Her recommendation for event organizers is direct: “If we’re going to run ladies’s occasions, then they should have ensures.”
Content material, Creativity, and the Web’s Guidelines
Certainly one of Comeskey’s abilities is poker content material creation, however she admits that trendy media calls for could be irritating. “We’re getting extra youthful individuals who communicate Gen Z Web,” she mentioned. “My content material positively comes from a theater and comedy background and it’s focused to a really area of interest viewers. A variety of these youthful creators are very fluid with the language of the Web, the language of the algorithm.”
She admires their power, however her artistic instincts push in a special path. “In lots of methods that may be irritating for me as a result of I take myself very severely as a performer and creator. I need high quality, not amount,” she mentioned. “The present language of the Web is like, you gotta submit day-after-day, produce, produce, produce. It will probably type of really feel soulless to me.”
A Performer at Coronary heart
Comeskey is at her happiest onstage. “I really like reside performing,” she mentioned. “That’s one in all my favourite alternatives I’ve gotten working with PokerStars — they’ve Joe [Stapleton], a working touring humorist on their workforce, that places on comedy exhibits in any respect the stops. I’ve gotten to do comedy at 4 stops this yr. I obtained to headline in London. Stay efficiency — that’s my secret sauce. That’s the factor I’m actually good at.”
For Comeskey, comedy isn’t only a facet challenge — it’s a artistic pressure that retains her linked to folks and sharp in her poker ambassadorship.
Laughing By way of Rigidity
Her story a few second on the poker desk in Tunica exhibits how humor can dissolve stress, even in intimidating conditions. “It was Day 2, so it was fairly intense and I used to be actually brief,” she recalled. “This one man opened in early place, everyone folded out, however as a result of he had seen me shove a lot, he tabled his hand and mentioned, ‘I might have referred to as you.’ He stood up and pointed at me — it was actually bodily intimidating.”
“I didn’t know what to do, so I began barking at him like a canine,” she mentioned. “I’m going, ‘You bark at me, brother, I bark again louder.’ It simply totally subtle the scenario. All people laughed, and we talked about it the remainder of the week.”
That second sums up Caitlin Comeskey’s strategy to poker and life: humor, composure, and the braveness to show concern into laughter.
