My screename is meant to be a joke about men making screenames that sound like they are attractive women (which was going on a lot way back when I made this screename), which is why I used the "jenny" part-- which is not part of my real name, and then added the math reference.

And about the Grindettes-- we're a group of four women that support women in poker in various ways, and it's a group I'm very proud to be a part of. I hope we're not subtle about our support of women in poker.

If you listen to the 2+2 Pokercast, you will find that the move of the $9Milly was because of International Women's Day. What you won't like is that it was moved because International Women's Day is big in Eastern Europe and means, in theory, less people would be able to play online poker that day.

It's got nothing to do with women. It's about the meeting the guarantee.
They wouldn't schedule a milestone tournament on Superbowl Sunday for the exact same reason.

What if I don't want to play at a table with _________(insert subgroup of humans) because it doesn't sound fun? Are my rights now being denied? LOL. Other than moving tables, is my only other option to write a blog post asking for moar segregated poker tournaments and promotions? I absolutely love how you used the phrase "denying their right" to make your argument. Awesome.

Wow, sickest derail I've seen in a long time.

Spot on.

I don't see how ladies events negatively impact me but I can easily see how they act as a gateway to bring more people into poker and more people playing poker unquestionably benefits me.

Both sides need to understand what this about.

These events are no different than promotions or events for other demographics(age groups, regions,etc).

Agree.

I just deleted a bunch of derailment posts about race.

So let's try and keep this on track.

Trup, there is generally only one live tournament per tournament series and very few online tournaments that are "female only." In the WSOP, there are the same amount of female only tournaments as there are dealer only/senior tournaments. Contrary to what you might think, these tournaments are a big deal to these demographics. They enjoy them immensely. They get to converse and socialize with people that are similar to themselves. Some may play more afterward, some may not. But it is undoubtedly good for the game and affects the rest of us in really no negative fashion. I just don't see a downside to marketing more to females/seniors or other groups that could increase their business by getting a tournament once in a while marketed to just their own demographic.

Promoting sexism. A+ Katie whoever the **** you are. Why can't we kick you out of tourneys but you want your own woman bull****? GTFO.

What part of any of her posts has been sexist? Why are you so aggressive?

Someone threatened to rape me in a live stream chat thread a few weeks ago. I probably average around 5 sexually harassing messages on Facebook a week. In a live poker game a drunk guy repeatedly told me in explicit terms what kind of sexual acts he'd like to perform on me while the floor stood by and did nothing. When I was announced as a sponsored player for Ultimate Poker comments were made just about everywhere that I was ONLY sponsored because I had boobs or I slept my way to the top. Etc. etc. etc. blah. blah. blah.

I typically refrain from posting in these threads because honestly, I find most keyboard warriors here are more interested in trolling than in having a productive conversation, but saying there aren't issues specific to females in poker is absurd.

I don't know much about the PokerStars tournament schedule (womp womp America!), but I do know that for a while it sounded as though they had made some fantastic changes geared towards attracting more women to the game. I'm in support of anything and everything that does this because whether you want to admit it or not, this game is a boys club and often times, women are unwelcome visitors. Us vaginal card carrying members make up 50% of the population and poker would undoubtedly benefit if more of us had the courage and desire to sit at the tables.

enough discrimination #MensSunday

No one said that there aren't issues that are probably more important to females than to males. Calm down.

There is a huge problem here, however, with females like yourself thinking that the things that you listed only happen to females, and/or that all males are not capable of inputting anything into or even understanding these things.

Men get raped and some live in fear of rape. Not nearly as many as women, but they are there. Men get harassed by the opposite sex, too. Maybe not sexually as often as women, but even that still happens more often than you would think or have everyone reading your posts believe. Men also have their accomplishments detracted from for unjust reasons, sometimes their sex.

There isn't any roaring injustice that either gender gets to claim solely as theirs. There may be issues that are more common and/or more important with one gender, but no one gets to 'call rank' on the entire other gender, just because it happens to your gender more often than the other.

Any man who wants to offer his opinion on the topic that this thread is about should feel free to do so, and not have to suffer persecution in the form of "Hey! This is ours not yours! Hands off!"

You guys attempting to make it otherwise is just so LOL; Especially considering the nature and tone of your posts, which highlight the female victims of the very same injustice that you are contributing too.

false equivalency. this response is condescending and lame.

classic.

issue a general non-response to a statement, question the person's character and move on...lame

So, when men stream a pokergame they get sexually harrassed on a regular basis? You seriously think men get sexually harassed at a livepoker-table? A relatively unknown (In the non-pokerworld) online+livepro who hasn't been getting uber exposure on nonpokerrelated media gets 5+FB-Messages abusive facebook-messages a week from females?

We are not talking about outrageous benefits itt, just 2-3 small online tourneys a week, which is like what 0.1% of all online poker tournaments? And quite obviously there is an issue with woman in the pokerworld, even if woman might not be as naturally attracted (don't even know if that is true or w/e), there is def. much more potential and interest than there is being catered too by the community. (Don't know if my point came across correct, i'm not a native speaker).

Weird premise, but I'll humor you.

If, for some reason, there was an inordinate number of skinny people in poker, I would have no complaints if a site or a cardroom held events or promotions that specifically targeted that market. Ideally, I'd rather figure out why skinny people are uncomfortable with the game and fix THOSE problems, rather than hold a "skinny people only" event.

(For that matter, that would also be my ideal solution for attracting more women to the game: find out what the aversion is, and correct those issues. But I can only suspect that poker sites and cardrooms have determined that the No. 1 reason so few women play poker is that, well, very few women play poker. So... bring 'em to the game.)

Is it fair? Is it equal? Is it treating everyone the same? No, no and no. But neither is differentiated marketing.

Melissa's odd analogy with bunnies is a fair one: if there is a group — any group — that has every reason to like a product yet isn't consuming it, the industry should and will take any reasonable measure to appeal specifically to that group.

Incidentally, anyone who has sat at a 10-handed MTT table will know that, if anything, poker discriminates against fat people rather than skinny ones.

You can disagree with points I didn't make all you want; there is just no point in quoting an especially long post of mine in order to do it.

TCOOP Main was three hours before Superbowl kickoff this year

TCOOP isn't a milestone tournament and has been on Superbowl Sunday for the past two years.

Superbowl was probably a bad example as it's too UScentric.

World Cup then.

By the way, this thread is pretty much turning into every other thread in which we debate why we should or should not have women's-only events (and I'm as guilty as anyone at painting with such a wide brush). So if I could address Katie's blog post specifically...

To hotjenny314:

I thought that was precisely the issue. I'm not saying many people DO actively celebrate it, I'm saying the PokerStars brass really did think this, which is what governed the decision.

I don't doubt any of these observations, since you definitely have paid more attention to it than me. However, perhaps PokerStars decided in the two or so years (it appears the PokerStars Women's Club launched in January 2013) that the campaign didn't work.

In other words, your second bullet point helps explain the first and third.

Also, if I can nitpick, you only posted a screen shot of the PokerStars Women news page, which yes, has become a ghost town. However, the main PokerStars Women page (https://www.pokerstars.com/poker/women/) shows promotions, social media channels (they need to fix the Facebook link though), information on live women's events, an instructional section, and bios of the female members of Team Pro, Sports Stars and Team Online.

Can't refute your point about the "lack of participation by your pros in the flagship ladies tournament." Although maybe your ire should be directed at those pros, not PokerStars.

Finally, I'll pull this quote (emphasis mine):

I bolded the word "everyone" because it suggests to me that you overestimate the response to PokerStars Women. (And yes, I get that you're being hyperbolic by saying "everyone." ) You certainly responded positively, as I'm sure did your fellow Grindettes. But that doesn't mean it had the widespread appeal necessary to keep it going as strongly as it did in early 2013.

Unlike a few others in this thread, I commend PokerStars for the effort in reaching out to more women. And perhaps they could have done more (again, you know far better than I do). Unfortunately, too few women must have responded in the years that followed. If they are pulling back the program, then it's purely a business decision. The site had every incentive to have PokerStars Women succeed, and I wish it had. But if it didn't, maybe it wasn't Stars' fault?

Even if TCOOP was a milestone tournament, does Super Bowl Sunday have that much of an effect in the post-Black Friday era, during which the vast majority of NFL fans can't play on Stars? (Genuine question: I don't know how big the SB is in Stars' primary markets.)

And yes, I know there are some good-sized handegg legions in other countries. I'm just curious to know if it's big enough to warrant canceling a milestone tournament.

Hell, I tend to watch football with a computer in front of me (I'm a live stats geek) so if I could play the TCOOP, I probably would do so while watching the game.

No doubt it's posters like you who are the reason Danielle doesn't post here much.

Every argument you make uses exteme, and therefore, unlikely cases and you get your knickers in a twist whenever anyone challenges you.
It's tiring.

In the UK, it certainly gets quite a bit of coverage.
It's pretty much the only sporting event that is shown live on both terrestrial and satellite TV over here. Sky Sports dedicated one of their channels to NFL Films and documentaries for a week in the lead up to the game.
However, it starts too late for anyone but hardcore fans to watch.
It looks like we'll have our own franchise before long.

BRAG ALERT - I won the Sunday Warmup watching the Superbowl in 2013 and then FTd the TCOOP final event last year. To me, this is a clear indicator that the field is softer on SB Sunday..

You go through this whole thread berating people for attacking you on points you aren't making, and then you do the exact same thing to Danielle.

She never said that men getting sexually assaulted isn't an issue, or that men aren't free to talk about these issues. She was simply offering a perspective on what it's like to be a high profile woman in the poker world, which like I said has some awful issues with women. And she was promoting the idea of stars introducing more women to the game. That was all she said, she didn't attack anyone or try to direct the conversation in any way. You responded with a straw man about men getting raped.