Hey Poker Fam,

Apple's making AirPods with built-in cameras and they're going into advanced testing. Imagine sitting at a Poker table wearing those. Tiny lenses scanning your hole cards, the board, the stacks, your opponents' faces. It's coming whether we're ready for it or not.

This isn't just a tech story. This is about what Poker becomes when surveillance gets that small. When anyone can wear a camera and nobody can see it.

But there's also good stuff happening this week. Better dealer accountability. Real talk about psychology. Women proving they belong everywhere. Shiina going for her third Ladies Event win. That's the direction we need to keep pushing.

This is a week about innovation, accountability, and the future of the game.

Apple's making AirPods with built-in cameras and they're in advanced testing. Bloomberg confirmed it. Think about what that means for a Poker table. You sit down wearing these tiny earbuds. Nobody can see the cameras. But they're recording everything: your hole cards, the board, the stacks, every player at the table. Every tell. Every reaction.

WSOP Europe already banned phones at the table. Venetian Poker just enacted the same rule. But here's the problem: AirPods were fine at both places. Not phones. Just earbuds. Nobody thinks twice about them. Until now.

Imagine the damage. Imagine someone recording your entire session and selling it. Imagine a scammer wearing these and streaming to a partner at home. This is the new frontier of Poker cheating and the casinos aren't ready for it yet.

The question my husband asked on X is the real one: do we ban the tech, or do we let it win? Because it's coming. We need to decide now what we're going to do about it.

Source: X / Bloomberg

The WSOP just made a move that should have happened years ago. They launched an in-app dealer rating system where players can give feedback on dealers directly from the WSOP LIVE app. You can rate them. Your feedback goes straight to the WSOP.

Why does this matter? Because dealers run the table. A good dealer keeps the game flowing, makes calls consistently, and makes you feel respected. A bad dealer? They create tension, slow things down, make mistakes that cost players money. This system holds dealers accountable and rewards the good ones.

It's accountability. It's players finally having a voice about the people running their games.

Source: Poker News Daily

Performance psychologist Alan Longo has been saying this for years, but it's worth hearing again: overconfidence is a barrier to improvement at the Poker table. You think you're better than you are. You stop studying. You stop adjusting. You think you already know the answer.

The thing about Poker is that the game keeps evolving. What worked last year might not work this year. Overconfidence is what keeps you playing last year's game.

The antidote? Stay humble. Stay curious. Keep learning even when you're winning.

Source: Poker.org

Shiina Okamoto won the WSOP Ladies Event two years in a row. Now she's back for the 2026 series and Heidi May, the 2017 Ladies Champion, is backing her to win again.

That's not hype. That's a professional's assessment. When someone like Heidi is saying "Shiina's going to win again," she's seen what Shiina can do. She knows the level of Poker required to win that tournament twice.

If Shiina takes it down again, that's a legacy moment in women's Poker.

Source: Poker News

Annette Obrestad is back at the WSOP after more than a decade away from this specific series. Former WSOP Europe champion. Still one of the best female players in the world. And she's fired up about a specific event she hasn't been able to play in a long time.

That's the kind of energy you want at the table. Someone who's hungry. Someone who's been away and came back ready.

Source: Poker.org

I've been in this game for many years. Being a woman in Poker has given me advantages and challenges that I didn't see coming when I started. And I want to talk about it not just for women reading this, but for men too. Because understanding what women face at the table helps everyone play better Poker.

Poker has always been marketed as a man's game. Movies show guys smoking cigars and playing for thousands. That's the stereotype we grew up with. But here's the reality: about 95% of Poker players are still men. That tells you something about who feels welcome at the table.

Historically, women were told to be passive. Submissive. Poker is aggressive. That's a conflict. Women didn't get the right to vote until 1920. We weren't supposed to have voices. And that conditioning didn't just disappear. It's still there in how people perceive women at the table. Is she serious? Is she just here because her boyfriend brought her? Is she actually good?

Here's another fact: women are more drawn to games with higher luck and lower risk. Men prefer higher risk, lower luck. That's a psychological difference that affects which games people choose. A lot of modern Poker players came from online games in the 2000s, and back then only 38% of online gamers were women. By 2019 that jumped to 46%. More women are getting into gaming, which means more women in Poker down the line.

The hardest part about being a successful woman in Poker? The stereotypes. I've been on livestreams with other amazing female players—Samantha Abernathy, Kelly Minkin, Jamie Kerstetter, Cate Hall, Natasha Mercier, Jessica Dawley—and the YouTube comments were brutal. People saying we play too tight. People saying we're only at the table because of our boyfriends. People questioning whether we deserve to be there.

Here's what I know: most women Poker pros are not staked by their significant others. We grind. We study. We win on our own. That's the real story that doesn't make it to the comments section.

The Poker landscape is changing. Women are proving they belong at every table, in every event, for every prize. But that only happens when women show up confident and when men respect the competition.

Free Poker Training → https://lexygavinmather.com/free-Poker-training/

I call a min-raise with 96cc in the big blind and flop two pair on A♠️-6♦️-9♠️, then decide to open shove against multiple opponents—you're going to want to see what happens when I get called!

YouTube Channel → https://www.youtube.com/@LexyGavinPoker

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A player made a bet that was misinterpreted as an all-in on the Asian Poker Tour. The confusion caused drama at the table and changed the course of the hand. It's a reminder that communication matters. Say your bet clearly. Make sure everyone understands what you're putting in. Poker moves fast but it shouldn't move so fast that people are confused about the stakes.

Source: Poker News Daily

Daniel Negreanu told a story about a wild scam from his early days at the Bicycle Club. A player oversold their action in a tournament—basically promised more of the winnings to multiple people than they actually had to give. They pocketed the difference as guaranteed profit. It's ruthless. It's clever. And it's exactly the kind of thing that should make you careful who you trust with your action.

Source: Poker News

Penn State is taking responsible gambling seriously. They launched a new course focused on helping people understand gambling's risks and how to gamble responsibly. Education matters. Whether you're a casual player or grinding tournaments, understanding the psychology of gambling protects you.

Source: Card Player

What's the biggest misconception people have about women in Poker? Or what's the biggest obstacle you've seen women face at the table? Reply to this email—I read each one of them!

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Talk soon,
Lexy Gavin-Mather