Poker is socially stigmatized. For women it is more difficult to deal with social stigma. At least that would be number one on my list "why I should stop playing poker"

Over here in the UK women gamble a lot, playing bingo and slots mostly, I also remember the Candy Crush Saga craze - where otherwise responsible women effectively set fire to their hard-earned money. Women have the time and money to gamble. I don't think stigma has anything to do with it (or it would apply to all gambling), nor do I think an aversion to mathematics is a major issue. Most people don't even appreciate that there is any mathematical element to the game of poker at all! Not everyone who signs up to a poker site knows about, say, pot odds, and many don't care to learn (see 888poker.com for more details).

I agree that there is something of a gender divide whereby men enjoy strategy based games more than women. I can't find the paper, but I remember reading about gambling addiction, it was stated that women tend to prefer simpler, chance based games and prefer to play them in domestic environments. Whereas men prefer to incorporate strategy in their gambling activities.

I honestly think that poker is impenetrable to a lot of people - not purely women. IME people don't really get what poker entails, they assume it's a purely psychological game and don't quite get how that translates to online play. This may be more of an issue for women who want to dive into simple game formats, invest little attention and have a chance to get lucky. Also, with games like bingo or slots, advertisements give potential consumers set amounts that they can win. So would-be consumers have a clear incentive, sign up, get £20 free, hit a jackpot, win £1000 (for example). With poker, how and what you can win is not easily communicated and it is dependant on the individual's decisions and input. Yet the average female gambler takes exception to the burden of decision making in gambling! A partial exception would be Spin & Go tournaments, which have been marketed excellently. The format is simple and potential prizes are clearly indicated.

So if the average woman gambler stumbles upon a poker site, and wants something immediate and engaging, she'll often be disappointed. Looking at a standard poker site lobby, it's not particularly engaging and fairly complicated if you have no real clue as to what you are doing. Unibet has a simplified menu that allows recs to quickly sit down and play, without being bombarded with choice. I think this is somewhat important.

I think these factors, coupled with the limited exposure women get to poker in general, make it harder for women to get into the game online. None of this need be seen as patronising to women, I am female myself and don't fit the model described above, but many of my girlfriends do. I think accommodating gender differences in HOW women gamble (rather than getting in a muddle over if/why they might gamble less) could pave the way for interesting, new, poker game formats. Probably formats that are unbeatable and are more addictive than crack, that divert the fish from traditional, beatable formats - but hey...

Hey,

my everyday life was disrupted and I had some time to think about this topic and about being active in a forum in general. And. I realized that I am misplacing my time and energy . Nevertheless I am glad that there is a sub forum for female players

btw, Hello everybody! One more woman is here

because online poker is boring as ****.

wtffff this is bull****. Women have support groups and general encouragement to help them overcome their anxieties and fears. Men have jack ****. When my wife tells me to stop playing the baller stakes and get a 'respectable' job, that's fine. But if I tell a stuck up whore to put on some clothes in public, that's misogynistic and sexist. wtf is wrong with the world?

Because there's definitely no difference between a loving partner sharing concerns that affect her emotionally and materially and harassing some absolute random in the street!

You're an absolute genius, feminism is over, wrap it up everybody.

I would go a little farther. Men are ruder, period. A lot of guys at the poker table will say things to other guys that they would never day to a woman. For example:

I own you.
You're my bitch.
You don't have the balls to make that call (and various other references to inadaquate genitals.

Also, women don't like men talking about their looks, but again, they do it even more often to other men. I've heard references to height, size, age, grooming, you name it, along with the obligatory penis jokes.

To men, it's not even an insult, it's banter. If a guy said something about your boobs and you came right back with something about him, he would probably laugh, and you've have a new friend.

I'm guess that's part of the reason why Vanessa Rousso is talking about game theory all the time. Google her name and "game theory" and you'll see what I mean. Her nerd credentials, including blasting through both high school and college faster and more successfullly than all of her peers, are impeccable. She clearly loves to teach, and it must have occured to her that she could be an example to other women.

She's a living example to any teenage girl that you can be whatever you want to be, whether it's a Go Daddy Girl, an academic superstar, a poker nerd, any or all of those. Perhaps she should be front and center when attempting to get women into the game. And when targeting those girls (who are old enough, or nearly old enough to play online) a casual mention of winning $300,000 in a tournament (or whatever her WPT cash was) would certainly get some attention. Both sexes like money.

EDIT: I named our cat Venessa Rousso, because she is always there when I play online, plus VR was the 2+2 pokercast female player of the year. My wife said that if we get a male cat his name will be Doyle.

I'm a call BS on this one. I have two young kids and I struggle with my free time because of this. I'm a father not a mom. I do my fair share of the child bearing because I'm a responsible parent.

I just don't understand the whole "Women have less time to play poker". Where are the DADs when the mother needs a break? They're not at work 24/7. Single moms I can see having less time to play poker, but if you're in a good marriage I don't see the excuse.

There are single dads out there too. My brother is one of them. They had what he thought was a happy marriage until she drove over a thousand miles to another state to "visit family." She hooked up with another guy and never came back. The children (three boys) were something like 6, 8 and 9 at the time.

1. Intelligence might be a small factor. Men in general aren't more intelligent than women, but women are statistically more clustered around the mean. Another way of saying that is that are more male geniuses but also more men with subnormal IQs.

Therefore, there will be more male poker/math geniuses, but also more men who are not intelligent enough to win any money over the long term.

2. I honestly think that men in general have a certain mental toughness that women don't have. No woman who is serious about poker should ever be deterred by some guy leering at her, talking about her boobs, or asking online how hot she is.

Short of physical assault, there is nothing that another player or anyone else can do or say that will deter me from my goal--winning money to take care of my family. Say anything you want about me. Call my wife a whore. I don't care. I need to ignore that stuff and stay focused at the table.

When UFC president Dana White told anyone who would listen that there would never be female fighters in his organization, Rousey told him on air and in person that she would make him change his mind. Nothing anyone said or did was going to keep her from her goal.

Poker needs more Rhonda Rouseys.

First post on forum. Sorry for spam:P. Need to post in order to send private messages??

you can post as many posts as you need to reach your PM threshold in NVG, on any topic on any thread, and you won't need to apologize

They changed the guaranteed on the Sunday $55 for Pokerstars... it was $12,500 a few weeks ago and is down to only $5000 this week So it seems the number of women is decreasing!

I can't figure out how to get money online! I'm living in Canada as a us citizen but haven't figured out how to put money into my stars Canadian account. Can anyone help me? thanks in advance for any info... Jd

I think women in general are genuinely less interested in "geeky" topics such as poker and math. Even more they are not as interested in software development, another "geeky" subject. (How many less women are programmers, for example). And they are more interested in socialising and psychology topics.

Playing online is more anti-social, more math focused, involves less psychological aspects such as reading tells or manipulating the opponent into actions, and it is more software focused than live. All in all, not female-attractive.

In live play maybe someone is looking at your boobs or making penis and sexual comments but a smart woman can use that to her advantage and trick male opponents into changing their actions by playing on their psychological side. She can also take advantage of the general profile about how women play (more nitty) against male opponents whereas online where people may not know it's a woman it won't matter.

Now if there are women who can play cold, systematic, unemotional, calculated poker, are not bored of being isolated in front of a computer for hours and hours, and are happy configuring lots of software where needed to help their game, then online may be better for them.

It might depend on what method you're using. I am an American. I was unable to use a debit card to put money on Americas Cardroom (an American facing .eu site) and my banker told me that most debit cards aren't set up for international transactions. I had to use a credit card. For what's it worth Americas Cardroom (Winning Poker Network) takes bitcoin now.

Thanks! I don't get how people moved to Canada to play since any money's sitting in the states can't be used. Maybe they open bank accounts here...

Most people trade Stars for cash/PP/BofA/Wf funds. This requires having someone you trust with Stars money, however.

It just comes down to preference. The same as why aren't more men into scrapbooking, doll housing or quilting? Poker was and will continue to be a masculine game. If women want to play that's awesome but don't expect a logical answer because there isn't one.

*facepalm*

Poker is a masculine game. Like computer programming is a maskuline profession?

Yes

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ist/?n...s-work-718061/

http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechc...ed-modern-tech

https://www.women.cs.cmu.edu/ada/Resources/Women/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_computing

http://gender.stanford.edu/news/2011...girls%E2%80%9D

It may be due to gender roles. Historically, it seemed that "tough guys" played poker, from outlaws to aggressive businessmen. In modern times, the game is still male-oriented, often played during a men's night. Its often the breadwinner that gets to play with the finances.