Women in poker...

What's with photo ads like this??? Who does this entice???

With the ladies WSOP event just having finished, there are several posts on various forums about ladies events and men playing in ladies events etc., so I decided this would be the subject of my next blog.

Okay, I don't play in women's events, I don't even particularly like playing with women in general so that said, why (all generalizations but)....

• Women suck at poker (this would be good as far as beating them but...).
• Women are way too nice and drive me nuts saying "nice hand", "good game" etc. (not that a little politeness is a bad thing but women go way overboard with it).
• Women talk too much at the poker table, especially about how their aces and kings always get cracked.
• Women want to chop in tournaments way too early and way too often and the part of this that kills me is when someone bust on the bubble and the women want to each chip in from their winnings to cover the bubble girl's buy in. You bust on the bubble you don't deserve your buy in back, if you can't afford the buy in don't play.

Now I don't believe for one single minute that women are not as capable as men of being good and even great poker players (many women are proving it) . It's just that unfortunately most of them never get close. Why do I believe this is so....

Women who want to play in women only events should be free to do so but I wish more women felt comfortable playing in open events. There is nothing about women that makes them bad except their attitudes and the age old things that have been drummed into their heads and this kind of crap is why women, in general, aren't as good as men at poker. They have been taught all of their lives to take a back seat to men and don't let them know how smart they are. They've been taught to sit back and look pretty. They've been taught that being nice and well thought of is more important that winning - well f#%k that crap I want to win, you men don't like being beaten by a woman, well too bad!

I recently read another person's blog about women's poker events and I totally agree with what is said. I have no problem with groups like the High Heels Poker Tour and LIPS but, like it says in the linked blog, I believe women in poker would be better served if these groups went about getting women interested in poker in a different way. I like the idea of picking an open event and encouraging as many women as possible to turn out to play in that event instead of having a separate ladies event thus keeping up the segregation of women in poker. That said if some women prefer to play in a gender specific event then they should be able to.

Nothing recently made me any madder than the scheduling of the ladies tournament during the main event at one WSOP satellite event back in the fall. What kind of message does this send out? Okay we've scheduled and event for you little ladies to play in while your husbands and boyfriends, the 'real' poker players, play in the main event, give me a break!

Ladies put aside what you've been taught and get out there and play with the big boys. Big boys times are changing get used to it!