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.

If you’ve been following the news on Gambling Review, you know Ricky Bauer’s position on female-only poker tournaments. I have to say that I agree with him. The idea that women need to have their own poker tournaments to be able to win seems incredibly sexist. A funny thing just happened in Atlantic City, though. A man attempted to prove us wrong.

The Borgata hotel and casino held a women’s poker tournament on Saturday. It was a no-limit Texas hold’em tournament with a $300 buy-in. As reported by Gambling911, 260 women entered the tournament, but so did one man. Guess who won? That’s right. The man, Abraham Korotki, won the tournament. In this particular tournament, the men were outnumbered 260 to 1 and the men still won. A sexist could say that proves that women need their own tournament. Others might say, though, that it was probably either a fluke or Korotki is one hell of a poker player. I know that if I had entered the tournament, there probably would have been at least 255 women at the table better than me. Gender, as far as I’m concerned, has no bearing on the ability to win at poker.

Many people are probably wondering how a man managed to enter a women’s poker tournament. Despite the intention of the tournament, it would be illegal under federal law for the casino to bar men from entering, since they would be discriminating based on gender. The second-place finisher in the tournament, Nicole Rowe, was not amused. “Competing in an all-women field was something I had been looking forward to,” Rowe said. “Why did he have to ruin it for us?”

Korotki claimed that he had no idea she or other players would feel that way. He even said that if someone had told him that they didn’t want him to play in the tournament, he would not have entered. Hey Abe, here’s one possible clue that they didn’t want you playing in the tournament: the word women’s being in the title of the tournament. It seems pretty clear to me. I’ve never heard of a white woman entering the Miss Black America pageant and then, dumbfounded, saying, “Well, I had no reason to think they didn’t want me to enter.”

Say what you want about women’s poker tournaments and whether they should exist, Korotki’s actions were an act of stupidity. He probably thought of himself as the next Jackie Robinson, boldly breaking the gender barrier by saying, yes, men can enter women’s poker tournaments and compete. Or maybe he saw beating a bunch of women as a conquest. Maybe after bravely facing down a table full of women, he stood up, placed a celebratory wreath on his head, defiantly raised his sword in the air and declared himself the conqueror. Or maybe I’m making too much out of this. Give me a break. It’s a slow news day.