Karina Jett can hold ’em in poker

The bad-beat stories went on and on at the dinner table, and young Karina Jett did her best to change the subject.

But nothing worked.

“I used to say to my parents, ‘Oh, my god, you guys have no life, just talking about poker. Can we talk about something else?’ ” Jett recalled. “Now, they listen to my bad-beat stories.”

Jett is one of the most recognizable women in poker and half of one of the game’s best-known power couples. Today, the 39-year-old Las Vegas resident will participate in the $1,000 buy-in Ladies No-Limit Hold ’em Championship during the World Series of Poker at the Rio Convention Center.

“I just never envisioned myself being a poker player,” Jett said. “Sometimes in life you think you’re going to go one way and you just totally take a different (path). I don’t think my parents thought their daughter would turn into a professional poker player. That’s not the route they wanted for me. But my whole family was in the poker room, so what do you expect?”

Jett was born in Vietnam and moved to Las Vegas in 1977 when her father, a colonel in the Air Force and an avid card player, was transferred to Nellis Air Force Base. Jett’s mother also played frequently — “she was just a degenerate poker player,” Jett said jokingly — and would drop off her daughter at the arcade while she was in the casinos.

Jett graduated from Bishop Gorman High and often met her mom at the casino for dinner. But Jett said she grew tired of always waiting for her to finish playing and started jumping into $1-$5 stud games to pass the time.

By the time she was 20, Jett was a regular at The Mirage poker room and eventually dropped out of UNLV. After a few years, Jett said she was making more money playing poker than she was at her regular job and decided to play full time.

“I really liked traveling, and I knew that poker could afford me traveling,” Jett said. “That was before (Chris) Moneymaker and stuff like that, so it wasn’t the cool thing to do. Back then, poker players were just scumbags. Now, we’re like celebrities.”

Jett met her husband, Chip Jett, a highly regarded professional player, at a tournament in Tunica, Miss., in 2001, and they were married six weeks later. By 2003, Jett had made a name for herself on the tournament scene and became a regular on TV networks’ coverage of poker. She and her husband also were included in the WSOP video game.

Jett, who was once voted “most photogenic” in the Miss World Nevada Pageant, has cashed 10 times at the WSOP for more than $251,000. The cash-game specialist has reached the final table of the Ladies Event three times, including a second-place finish in 2011 when she was eight months pregnant.

“I’ve been like the Phil Mickelson of ladies events,” Jett said, referring to the pro golfer.

Jett’s mom, Yen Mikelis, also is scheduled to play in this year’s Ladies Event, which is one of the few live tournaments Jett plays. Following the federal government’s crackdown of online poker in 2011, Jett shifted her focus away from poker and has used her connections locally and in the poker community to become a successful realtor.

Still, the mother of three said she never will be far from the game. Jett hosts a charity tournament at the Golden Nugget to benefit Autism Speaks and also sits on the board of the Women in Poker Hall of Fame.

“For me, my family comes first and then other stuff is kind of behind,” Jett said. “Poker will always be part of my life, it’s just not going to be my life.”

Contact reporter David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidSchoenLVRJ.