When Alex Loveless was 14, her mom took her to a bar poker event in Virginia called the East Coast Poker League. It was her first contact with a game that has now taken her all over the world, both as a player and a content creator.
She now manages a full schedule of content creation and tournament play that leaves very little room in her schedule for anything else. The wild and unpredictable year will culminate in Las Vegas, where Loveless will participate in ClubWPTGold's $5M Invitational Million Freeroll in December.
Loveless, who joined the PokerOrg team just this month, sat down to talk about her path from the bar leagues to the heart of the game she loves — and her thoughts on the strategy required for such a unique freeroll.
A fork in the road
After the early days in Virginia, Loveless moved to Memphis and found a bar league called the River Rat Rounders.
"I was playing there and I absolutely loved the game. I loved strategy-based games. And I did all right. Obviously you can't play for real money at bar leagues. But I did all right."
Loveless played off and on through high school and college until she crossed paths once again with the bar poker scene. "One of the bars that I was bartending at actually started hosting the River Rat Rounders game. So I went and started going back more frequently."
Soon she was hooked on studying, and she played in her first tournament, a RunGood Poker Series event. That led to job contacts within the industry and opportunities to create content with PokerOrg. Eventually, Loveless faced a decision — continue in her job as a Business Services Coordinator, where she had just been hired full time, or quit to pursue her poker dreams.
'I have to go chase my dream'
"I took the last two days of my PTO to fly out to Chicago to Grand Victoria to do a training activity (with Tiffany Michelle and PokerOrg). I came back and put my one-week notice in. I felt bad – my boss at the time had not hired a permanent employee in six years. I had to — after just a few months — be like, 'Hey, I'm so sorry, but I have to go chase my dream. I really like you, I like our company, but this is not what I want to spend the rest of my life doing'."
What came next was a whirlwind of work and play that has taken her across the Atlantic several times to places like Barcelona and Cyprus. She is currently on her way back — this time to London, where she will participate in the PokerStars Women's Winter Festival this weekend. It's all right in her wheelhouse.
"My favorite part of doing social media is getting to connect with players. So getting to talk with them, hear their stories, find interesting things that maybe they don't even acknowledge about themselves or their play or whatever. I fell in love with it, and from there I haven't looked back."
Deep run leads to freeroll opportunity
After this weekend's Women's Winter Festival in London, Loveless will head back to the States to prepare for December's World Poker Tour freeroll. It's another opportunity that sprung from getting out there and meeting people — and being pretty good at poker.
"I made a run in my first bracelet event (the 2024 Women's Championship). I took 34th out of like 1200 and something. And I ended up playing with Jamie (Kerstetter) and meeting her."
Her chance meeting with Kerstetter led to an opportunity to take a seat in the freeroll, where she will have a chance to win the top prize of $1,000,000. So, what's her strategy for such a unique event?
"Here's the deal, this is what I'm thinking. Anyone can sign up. So you don't even have to have a poker background or know what's going on in poker or strategy to be able to play. That being said, I'm going to do what I normally do and decide who knows what they're doing."
Loveless also knows quite a few people in the poker world now. "It'll be easier for me to spot people I recognize. But basically, I'm going to analyze the way people play. Like, are they being super passive? What hands are going to showdown that they're showing? Stuff like that. Very basic strategy stuff to pick and decide my decisions and pick when to attack.
"The beginning levels will play tighter. I'll give myself some room to analyze everyone. And then, yeah, we'll go from there. I don't want to give away too many secrets."
Photos courtesy of PokerStars/Matthew Berglund/Danny Maxwell
The ClubWPT Gold $5,000,000 Invitational freeroll is a three-day event that starts on December 13 as part of the 2024 WPT World Championship festival. The World Championship starts on December 14 and PokerOrg will be there to bring you all the action as it happens. And hopefully news of a trophy and $1M for Alex Loveless. Check out the full festival schedule.
If you're interested in finding a job in poker, check out Ask The Org where we answer the question: How do people get started working in the poker industry?
