We’re hearing more and more stories of men entering and winning women’s poker tournaments. At first, it was a novelty, but it’s gotten to the point that Gambling Review needs to address the issue. Men, stop entering the women’s tournaments. After outcry, one male player even said that he wouldn’t have entered the women’s tournament if he had known he wasn’t wanted. Gee, maybe the word “women” in the title should have been a clue. Men don’t try to play in the LPGA or the WNBA, so there’s no reason why they should enter women’s poker tournaments. Let the women have them. There are plenty of other tournaments out there.

Some have said that these events prove that men are superior poker players to women. I doubt it. I think that we simply never hear about the men who enter the women’s tournaments and don’t win. There is no physical advantage that can be gained in poker, the game is a combination of strategy and luck. There is no reason that women can’t strategize as well as men, unless people are suggesting that women aren’t as intelligent.

Some are also saying that the women’s tournaments are sexist and the men are right to join them, sort of like Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in baseball. However, I don’t think any man in his right mind should care if women want to have a poker tournament of their own. After all, you can’t be a waitress at Hooters or a contestant in the Miss America pageant, either. While the tournaments can’t legally bar men from joining, common decency says for men to stay out. The other side of the argument is that women’s poker tournaments are sexist toward women. This depends on the reason for the tournament. If it is to give women a chance to win because it’s thought that they can’t compete with them men, then yes, the tournament is sexist and women need to realize that there is nothing preventing them from being as good at poker as the men. However, if the purpose is simply to give women a chance to get together and have fun playing poker, kind of as a ladies’ night, then that’s fine. Men have had poker night as a way of bonding forever. Why can’t the women do it, too? Not all women like to bond over pottery class, yoga or scrapbooking, you know. And some that do also like to play poker.

What it all comes down to is this: Men wouldn’t want women invading their men’s poker nights, so don’t invade their ladies’ tournaments.

Tags: Poker, poker tournaments, women's poker tournament

This entry was posted on Monday, December 7th, 2009 at 8:42 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.