I come to you with hat in hand to ask for help and advice. I'm a business person here in Houston. Houston has a booming poker club market, yet all the current clubs do a really crappy job of engaging the women in the poker community. I want to change all that. Short of a ladies night or free tutorials they miss the boat on trying to capture this market.

I want to change this. I want to empower Women of the poker community. I want them to be 40% or more of my player base. I want them to be involved in all aspects of operations not just dealing and serving drinks. I want some to be involved in the ownership group.

I want them to bring their unique experiences as female grinders and incorporate them into a successful business culture.

Here is the rub. Connecting with Women is a difficult proposition, short of a one on one approach. I've tried most standard approaches building a Facebook group specifically for them. Trying that on other platforms as well. This is a slow go. I've reached out to PLON for a strategic partnership. I've tried to engage successful women investors to invest for equity. I have not had one meeting with a serious women investor to date .Getting Women to engage at any level is a tough road. Even if you are trying to change the current culture (that poker is male dominated), getting women to engage at any level is very hard.

Maybe this could be attributed to issue of trust, because I am a man. I make no bones about what I'm trying do. Marketing to Women is in my own self interest (business wise ). The thing is when your trying to change something as big as the current poker landscape, you would think Women would take allies we they present themselves.

So I come to ask this forum for advice. What more can I do? What am I missing. Educate me. Give me more ideas on how to do more outreach to Women

Thanks for your Time.:

One place to start is. you might want to write up and display a highly visible code of conduct that specifically lays out a no tolerance policy for abuse relating to a person's gender, race, sexual orientation, or physical appearance. I'm talking over and above the usual (and completely ignored) generic behavior policy that is displayed somewhere near the entrance.

Every time you are called to a table, you should patiently if possible, sternly if necessary, lay out for the entire table (and every rubber necker in hearing range) that your room respects all players, and that there is no tolerance for harassment based on a person's gender (or race/whatever is happening). You can let them know that normal ****-talking is fine, but that violations due to harassment can and will get a person temp-banned. You then have to follow through with temp-bans if a player does not stop after being warned.

Your goal every time you have to give this speech is to let the entire room know that the standards in your place might be higher than what they are used to, but that you know they are all mature adults who can find the line between banter and harassment. (Even though we all know for some of them, this is not true. But getting those guys to shut up more frequently is a perfectly fine outcome.)

All of your staff should be told that there is zero tolerance for any form of harassment, and that they are to call for you/the floor immediately. Even if it is a "grey area" comment, dealers should call you and let you decide. Staff who "let things slide" will need to be warned and/or disciplined as well.

Amazing !!!! After 269 views, finally a response. First, thanks for the response,the silence was getting deafening.

You bring up some good ideas and I will definitely take them under consideration. I do think it might not be proactive enough, but we shall see.

Thanks Again sw_emigre

Honest question: what leads you to believe that there is a booming female poker scene in Houston...enough to support the majority of the room?

Maybe you aren't getting much traction because your tone is that of using the woman angle to make money. Women don't like that.

If you were a poker player yourself and there were a bunch of women in poker, in Houston, it would be fairly easy for you to understand what's going on.

All the "business" talk, you being a man, and not really asking anything specific might be rubbing people the wrong way.

2 cents.

Thank you for your views. I appreciate your time.

A couple of things. You suggested I was just a business guy and not a player. That assumption is incorrect. I play about 2 times a week in various clubs in and a round Houston. So I'm very familiar with the current poker scene in Houston.

Second, I'm not looking looking for women to support a majority of the room. I would be a fool to think that this one group would be enough to make this business venture viable. I said up to 40%.

I think you give women to little credit. They realize, because so many are in the business world, that they understand marketing, is the key to business success. For a business, any business it must make money to survive long term and I believe most women understand this.

As to not asking anything specific maybe you could read it again.I did ask what more I could do to make an outreach to that segment. "So I come to ask this forum for advice. What more can I do? What am I missing. Educate me. Give me more ideas on how to do more outreach to Women ".

Other than those few points your post was right on the mark...... yeah right

Thank you though

I assumed you didn't play poker, BECAUSE YOUR ORIGINAL POST SAID NOTHING ABOUT YOU PLAYING POKER

You are missing that this post sounds creepy.

Perhaps your motives are awesome, but they don't read that way.

Don't take my word for it, just look at the silence on this chain.

My advice is to rethink the pitch:

"Hi, I'm a poker player who is interested in opening a room that is majority run by women."

If this was the pitch, I'd start by talking to any of the women that populate the games you play in twice a week and see if it has legs.

"Haters will be Haters"

In an effort to prevent this conversation from devolving into flame war, I submit that you are right. Take the victory and walk away. I do this in hopes of getting some responses that are more productive and insightful.

Turtle, if you are irl anything like how you come across in this thread, I'd be shocked if you find success. I'm unsubbing so nntr.