Personally, i have found that men generally fall into two categories whilst playing against a female - they either believe that you only bet w the nuts and hence fold too much, or they let their ego take over and try and take every pot off you.

i think as a woman this is great information to have against bad players however not all men fit into those two categories.

I do think that you need to have some level of randomness against those types of villians as if youre known to then then they can tell you are not what they first assume about you (as a female).

But, as i am from Australia, when (if) i play live 99% of the players of the casino are mega fish therefore it is profitable to put most of them into either of those groups.

I dont think you always need to ramp it up and play dumb but poker is all about exploiting small edges, right? So, if you think it'll be profitable to have that table image then go for it!

The only advantage I see in being female is that occasionally, guys will think I'm cute and play less aggressively and more straightforward against me, saving me money when I'm behind. Once I even had a guy to tell me stop betting because he had Aces full. Which he did in fact have at showdown.

When I sit down at the table, my first task is to show the guys I know what I'm doing. I'll ask for a seat change button, use standard bet sizes, etc and make sure to use standard terms (i.e. when I need change, I'll ask the dealer to "chop" my $5 chip, I'll say that the "button's right" after I move it)

Am I the only one who thinks that it's more of an advantage to have players at the table respect my game than to think I'm a clueless little girl? When nobody respects my game, nothing flows the way I want it to. When I raise, I get 6 callers every single time. Players are also constantly trying to bully me. In fact, by making everyone think I'm a total fish, the entire game revolves around me as the target, making it difficult to get away with anything.

I win a lot more when guys respect my game and play me the same way the play each other. I want them to know that I'm capable of making moves and bluffing so my thin value bets get paid off. I want them to know that I have a balanced pre-flop squeeze range so I'll get action from my big hands sometimes and they'll fold to my squeeze bluffs other times.

Why is it that all female pokerplayers seem to be hot? Maybe I've haven't played enough live games

I'm a guy and I just finished reading through this whole thread. Very interesting posts.

I try not to make any hard judgments about players before having a chance to see them play. I've seen women with all kinds of playing styles at the table and I don't assume anything about them when I start playing with them. That said, like most guys I do appreciate a good looking woman, and if a woman at the table is showing some skin, I'll notice that and I think I have enough self-control that it won't distract me. Although sometimes if the view is just too good I might spend too much time looking at her and not enough studying the play of all the other players. As some other posters have indicated, cleavage can really be distracting to a guy, just ask Jennifer Tilly.

All that said, when a really young guy sits down who looks too young to be in a poker room, it's difficult for me not to think he's a super-aggressive type. Sometimes I'm shocked and the kid is a newbie too afraid to make a play.

As an older guy, I know I get stereotyped too, and am trying to take advantage of that. I know I can get away with bluffs, semi-bluffs and aggressive moves because of it, so I try that.

Also, I am switching from playing low limit to No Limit, really just learning. But I play a lot in one room where the dealers and staff all know me, and know me as a limit player. So it can work both ways. Other players see everyone knows me there and are wary, I must be good. Or, the dealers start talking to me about how they're surprised to see me playing 1/2 instead of 2/4--now the players think I'm a novice at the No Limit table and may think they can take advantage.

My thoughts are that all's fair in poker. You would check-raise your own grandmother to win the most money, so why not use every advantage you can possible use?