Gay Poker Pro Jason Somerville Laments Lack Of Openess In Game

US pro Jason Somerville is one of the most talented young players in the game today. Only last year, the 26 year-old won a WSOP bracelet at the $1k NL Event for $493,091, subsequently taking his live tournament earnings to $1,724,261.
Somerville is also a prolific online player with $2,166,312 in winnings under the screen name “JCarver.”
Now, however, he can add the title of ‘first openly gay male professional poker pro’ to his already impressive poker resume, after coming out of the closet via his blog post on Valentine’s Day. In a post entitled ‘Not a Problem,’ Jason wrote:
“I always knew I wasn’t straight…After a lot of struggling and a lot of anxiety, I eventually came out to one of my close friends when I was 22. That same year, the second and third people I came out to were my parents..”
In his blog post, Jason “JCarver” Somerville then applauds the general diversity and openness of the poker community, before identifying a current failing, namely the perceived stigma associated with being labelled gay, which he describes as “archaic.”
Somerville subsequently explains that the attention “very straight” players such as Daniel Negreanu and Tom Dwan received from gossip forums was unwarranted, and that he hadn’t even “met a single gay professional poker player” apart from Vanessa Selbst.
Congratulations to Jason Somerville on his frank admission, and we wish him continued poker success for the future. In the meantime, following his blog post, Jason has been receiving an outpouring of support from the poker community, with just a few comments listed below:
Vanessa Selbst: “Great blog and thanks a lot for sharing! Being “that gay poker player” ain’t such a bad fate anyways.”
Grayson Physioc: “Well written @JasonSomerville, fwiw you are prob the best gay poker player in the world.”
Scott Seiver: ” Congratulations on taking this step and being able to get it all written down.”