Quote:
Originally Posted by NickMPK
I have no opinion of or exposure to Ebony Kenny, but those posters claiming that women “just don’t like strategy games”, or “will never make up more than 20%” of the poker field are just flat our wrong.
Women compose the majority audience of several strategy games, just not the ones that people on a poker forum like to pay attention to (e.g. mostly more casual games Candy Crush or Words with Friends).
But more directly, women did compose more than 20% of the live poker pool in the past. I was not around in the 1970s, but my impression is that during the period, the player pool in popular poker rooms was about 30% women. This is supported by media depictions of poker during this time (e.g. the movie California Split) and the recollections of the people who were active in this era (including Mason Malmuth several times on this forum). Developments in the poker community since then have actively driven women -away- from the game.
Would be good to see more hard evidence of that 30% figure, and if it is true, then was that in the days when check raising was banned? If it was, then perhaps poker was on a much lower level of skill and complexity back then, which could explain why more women were attracted to it.
Or perhaps it was when NLHE wasn't played much or at all, and the variants that were played were easier to understand.
I don't know, I guess, as you said, that Mason Malmuth would know, so would be interesting to hear what he says about it all.
My 79 year old mother plays Candy Crush, but is totally useless at Monopoly, Scrabble, any and every board game, doesn't know how to even play chess, backgammon, draughts, poker or any other strategy game. She knows how to play tic-tac-toe and would be half decent at Tetris if she tried it. I don't think playing Candy Crush and/or Words with Friends playing is a correlation to then playing or potentially playing poker too.
My mother is a sample of one, but citing casual, kill some time games, that some women play on their I Pad or phone, is hardly strong evidence that women like strategy games as much or nearly as much as men do.
Give us some some stats on Chess, Backgammon, Scrabble (part strategy / part knowledge), these are more relevant to poker.
You also need to cover the being comfortable with risk, factor, that a previous poster mentioned. He/she is correct about that IMO.
Last edited by PokerPlayingDunces; 09-16-2022 at 03:26 AM.