Now that the WSOP is in the record books, we want to know what the players made of it all – the highs and lows, bad beats and good times, and the most crazy, wild, and surprising moments that happened this summer.
Victoria Livschitz is the mom of three great humans. She’s a founder of Grid Dynamics, RightOnTrek & Octopi Poker. She’s a technologist, mountaineer, philanthropist, and poker player. You can follow Victoria on X.
The big story from the WSOP has been the use of solvers on the rail of the Main Event final table. What do you make of it?
I think it’s terrible for the game. Both the actual information being accessed by some players but not others and the optics of it. The rail should be for moral support only.
The WSOP already has a rule prohibiting solvers from being used during the hands. They should take the next step and prohibit it between hands. I am a founder of a solver company, and I’d love it if all access to solvers were banned from the WSOP premises during the events altogether.
What were some of your best experiences while playing at the WSOP this year?
A few memories stand out. The first is probably walking into the Paris Purple section for a $25K 8-max NLH event at the start of the series to see Rania [Nasreddine] getting up from a chair to hug me, looking around, and then noticing six other women battling all over the place. It was totally mind-blowing. The game is changing in front of our eyes. It’s so exciting to see.
The second was finding Viktor Bloom sitting to my right at the start of Day Two of the $10K Mystery Bounty. I heard so much about that legend from my friends, yet I never thought I’d have a chance to play with him live someday. That was definitely special.
And finally, sweating Krissy’s [Kristen Foxen] amazing run in the Main Event was pure magic.
Kristen Foxen enjoyed huge support for her deep Main Event runWhat was the craziest thing you saw while you were in Vegas?
A black widow spider casually living on the roof patio of my condo. Especially when it disappeared one day from its usual spot in the middle of its web in the corner. I don’t want to think about where exactly it moved its operations to.
What would you tell the powers that be at the WSOP to do to improve the overall series?
I was disappointed by the lack of necessary skills in so many of the dealers. The players had to basically take over managing the game on a regular basis. I believe the WSOP has to invest more in training.
