easy dont have them in the first place. Tournaments based on gender shouldn't be a thing in the first place plus in this progressive era we live in where folks can change gender more often than underwear how do you even enforce such a thing. Do we go by assigned gender at birth? What if a legit trans person with a penis but who identifies as female wants to enter. You say no and suddenly you have the entire LGBTQ+ community on your back

I don't know why people keep bringing up trans issues in this thread; it really has nothing to do with the controversy here.

And as far as I know, there has never been a real issue in poker regarding the admission of trans people in any tournament. So why do people keep injecting unrelated political rants where they contribute nothing to the actual discussion?

But if this were to actually come up, I'd think a reasonable guideline would be to use whatever gender is listed on the person's ID.

Yes, trans posts do not belong in this thread. Subsequent posts mentioning trans (in any context) will be deleted and the poster will be temp-banned.

No, because Equal Protection jurisprudence doesn't treat racial discrimination in the same way as it treats gender discrimination.

Gender discrimination requires a much lower threshold of justification. Otherwise, why is it ok to have gender segregated bathrooms but not racially segregated bathrooms?

Also, just in terms of what is good for the game of poker: poker has a much greater problem with gender disparities than racial disparities. Poker rooms are actually one of the most racially diverse public settings into the country, while simultaneously being on the least gender diverse.

I'm not sure why people even have an issue with women-only tournaments. Like, who ****ing cares if a poker room/series thinks that having such a tournament will help to grow the game, even if they're wrong?

At least in the case of the WSOP where there's a bracelet involved and people care about number of bracelets, there's an argument to be made as to whether it's fair that both it and the dealer's tournament exist as bracelet events, but otherwise I don't know why it should matter to anyone.

No, a Blacks-only poker tournament at a public casino would be illegal.

I don't know if the example in the article you posted (a) is true; or (b) has been adjudicated by a court. But if it were true and brought to court, the school would have to provide a justification waaaayyy more compelling than any poker room could to merit upholding this sort of segregation.

I’m usually against affirmative action/incentives based on gender/age/race but I think people are really missing the point here… most females I talk to love their ladies events. They are very underrepresented in poker and often deal with a lot of verbal abuse/aggression from my experience. Trying to ruin them/argue they shouldn’t exist/create issues in them is pretty selfish and a net negative. This goes for senior events as well. They’re really not underrepresented as much but I have seen some young people be very disrespectful toward seniors so I understand they want their own event. Just let them have it ffs.

Poker doesn't have a problem with gender disparity. Nobody is stopping women from playing and you can't force people to be interested in something they're not interested in.

If women aren't interested in poker, why do so many women show up for ladies' tournaments?

The biggest thing keeping women out of poker is neither formal barriers nor lack of interest; it is a lack of a critical mass of players that would allow women to feel comfortable and welcomed into the space.

If a woman wanted to play in a typical 2/5 live game, there is a very strong probability she will be the only woman in the game. It is entirely understandable why a player in the situation would feel out of place and uneasy, and it has nothing to do with the rules of poker.

Nightclubs in Vegas (and I imagine many other places) enforce gender balance/quotas in who they let in, and no one seems particularly up in arms about this.

I wonder if something like that would be worth trying out in a poker tournament. I.e. A tournament where there had to be an equal number of men and women entrants...and thus men could only enter if they also brought an equal number of women to play. I think it might prove very popular.

so many?

what percentage of online players do you think are/were women in the heyday of online poker ?

It's absolutely lack of interest in poker as the biggest reason such a small number of women play poker.

Now does that mean if some savages at the table knew how to act at the table more women would play? Absolutely. But they'd still always be a small minority compared to men players.

There are similar circumstances in competitive gaming. Countless thousands of "anonymous" males have risen to the top 0.01% in various competitive games. You can't even voice chat in a game like League of Legends, and the most competitive and most played format is solo queue ranked. So no microphone, ever. Yet in one of the most popular competitive video games of all time, there are ~no females in the top ranks across the decade it's been out.

And this isn't even touching on the fact that, in poker and video games, there is currently a massive incentive for females (over males) to be top-level players. Sponsors and e-sports teams would spend unfathomable amounts of money competing for the first females who broke through. Having a woman on a top-level e-sports team would do wonders for the team and the game in general. Imagine being able to much more effectively market to ~50% of the worlds population. Some of the biggest contracts in LoL pay out over 1million dollars a year, not including sponsors, affiliate stuff, streaming. What would a female who is top 50 in the US or Korea command? $$$$$$$$$$$$ like you wouldn't think possible.

Yet with literally 10s of millions of dollars up for grabs, we don't see a SINGLE female breaking through. This isn't 1990. Gaming hasn't been "uncool" or even close to exclusively male in over 15 years.

None of this means females are worse or "less than" males in general. Maybe men and women are just built different? Why is that such a tough pill to swallow for some people?

Can anyone explain why heÂ’s dead money in the torny? Or was she just saying that?

Also I donÂ’t think sheÂ’s said anything overtly insulting in that video. The manÂ’s an ass hole, why shouldnÂ’t he be called out on it?

I can't imagine how stupid you have to be to think womens-only events are a bad thing

Based

I’m not saying a lot of women don’t play because men act badly around them.
I’m just syaing a lot of women don’t play because they wouldn’t be comfortable being the only woman at the table (even if only subconsciously).

so we're supposed to cater to a womans subconscious?

Whether its a thought or a reality it can be a little daunting to enter a situation where you're the only anything (gender/race/age/whatever). Sadly in poker the table talk can get a little sketch since sometimes there really aren't women in the game. It's not present in a lot of people's minds but being the only anything in a situation where you might get sexualized (inadvertently or on purpose) is not fun and we all know there's ppl out there making cringey jokes whenever girls are around. Ppl dunno how to act.

This dude also doesn't know how to act. If there was no other tournament going on and he really wanted to play one during a vacation he could explain that and the women entered would probably be like "lol ok". He could say that he was making a political statement or testing the loophole and they'd say "lol wut but ok".

If they run a tournament for women that's cool, maybe I'll check out the final table or whatever but I'm definitely not entering because you should already know some people don't want you to, and the thing wasn't made for you. Not everything has to be about you. Let one go.

He could be perfectly reasonable or have some legit grievance but he created this situation so he eats whatever comes of it. The only reason anyone is remotely trying to see his side or joke is because Ebony Kenney is a social media person and those tend to rub ppl the wrong way. Her video almost makes you feel sympathy for the guy since he doesn't really respond or react in any combative way. It's also a snippet of a situation that we're not privy to the full environment of so we dunno if he was a total ass or a quiet old man or a hustler or a regular or a tourist or whatever. Maybe he deserved even more shaming, maybe less. Ya get what ya get tho when you try to make things about you.

In her tweet with the video she referred to him as dead money and I believe in the video itself she mentions he's already rebought a couple of times. so she's pretty much saying he sucks at poker and has no chance against this field of all women.

He then goes on to win the whole thing despite (or perhaps because of) the bounties placed on him by these women, which to me is just ****ing hilarious

Ok but the vast majority of online players were still men.

Does that mean the gap can't be closed a little live? Sure. But the vast majority of the disparity is bc women by and large aren't interested in poker. As another poster said people need to accept that men and women are built differently.

Maybe he is and maybe he isn't. I don't expect a table full of Phil Iveys in some 250 dollar event.

Ebony Kenney was just mad because she was about to enter the first ever donkament to be +EV in, and this guy ruined her plans.

This thread is the nut low lol. Two annoying people making fools of themselves at a $250 buy-in event barely even warrants a thread in the first place, let alone people actually arguing about it. Then all of the people making lame jokes and looking for any excuse to circlejerk about political/social issues

Then again that kind of stuff is pretty standard for social media these days

Nope. But if a poker tour wants to add an event that does, why would you care?

Agree it's the nut low and the subject of women's tournaments exposes a lot of bad attitudes among the posters here. However, a guy with a beard who looks like santa winning a lady's event absolutely deserves a thread!!