The latest series of The Big Game on Tour has reached its conclusion, with Loose Cannon Lily Newhouse battling it out over the course of 150 hands against tough opposition to see if she could play with some of the world’s best.
If you haven’t seen how she got on in the last episode — click here for the summary of the last episode or head to the PokerStars YouTube channel to find out.
Then come back to hear from Newhouse herself all about her Big Game on Tour experience!
Waking Up from the Big Game Dream
Newhouse told PokerNews that since recording the show last year, she has settled into a new job working as a newspaper editor and recovering from the “whirlwind” that was appearing on the classic poker show.
“It felt like a dream,” Newhouse said. “The shootout and then the auditions and then the filming — I didn’t have time to process what was happening. It took a while to come out of that.”
And then…nothing. Until the first episodes aired. Even then, Newhouse had to wait her turn as fellow Loose Cannon Nikki Limo’s episodes aired first. However, she says that ahead of her episodes she worried about cringing while watching herself talk and play.
“I’m not the biggest fan of looking at myself on a screen, as I think a lot of people are and a lot of women are. I’m pretty hard on myself, compared to my compassion for other people. So I prepped myself by saying I wasn’t going to be self-critical. I wanted to appreciate the experience and the fun of it and try to focus on that.
“I tried not to look at myself from the standpoint of what people are going to say about how I look. What are people going to say about how I played that turn? Because ultimately, what matters is putting on a good show and having fun in a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
Different Line-Up, Different Dynamic
While Limo had to contend with Lex Veldhuis and Phil Hellmuth, Newhouse’s table has been a much different affair, one that she herself enjoyed.
“We had very different levels of experience at the table,” said Newhouse. “It was a really fun line-up, different from Nikki’s just in terms of dynamic. Some of the players at Nikki’s table were just high-stakes crushers, action, nosebleeds kind of thing. And not that we didn’t have that either, but it was a very different vibe, and I think that will be fun for people to see, just those two very different energies.
“There are players who eat, sleep, and breathe poker, and then there are others who are more poker enthusiasts than players, and then there’s myself, who’s somewhere in between. I think that was a really fun dynamic, and it definitely brought up some interesting spots.”
Women in Poker
Newhouse praised former Loose Cannon Nadya Magnus, who served on the judging panel for this year’s season of The Big Game on Tour and also provided coaching to the players as they took part. Newhouse says that it was Magnus’ advocacy for women in poker that was hugely supportive as she played on the show.
“She really cares about advancing women in poker and showing us as people who take the game seriously, which is important to me as well. There’s a large percentage of women who play very recreationally so I think it’s nice to see two women square off with people in a bigger game and hopefully hold their own.
“As one of the judges, she decided which contestants got on the show, and while all of the judges told us they picked who they thought would be best for the game and best for TV, I do know that Nadya cares about representation. So I don’t know if we’d have had two female loose cannons without her.”
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