Sunday, June 13, 2010
Every year at the WSOP we see a little dust up when it comes time for the Ladies Event but this year was especially ugly…….. Many feel it is not right to have a gender biased tournament for a bracelet…..all bracelets should be for open events only. Well..if the Ladies Event goes…..then the Senior Event and the Casino Employees Event must go also.
Now…..none of these three events earn POY points but they are a tradition at the World Series and give lots of people an opportunity to play in the WSOP that would not play in it otherwise. I know people that have played in all three and would not had the experience of being part of this……some have been dealers, a couple of women who would never have played an open event, and a life-long player who played in the Senior Event last year.
All three of these events have legitimacy. ….there are well known players in each one. The competition is not all that soft…. several well known pros were in the Ladies Event this year ….some cashed but did not win….same goes for the seniors, some pros play in that also….. the competition level is there.
There is all kinds of inequities in poker……look at the high buy in events with 100-200 players that limits who can play to a select few……winners of those events get the same bracelet as the ones that beat out 4,000 to 5,000 players…. Also, in those large buy in events, many of the players cross book each other….doesn’t that put a little tinge on things???
The message here is pick your battles………there are lots of other issues in poker far more important than a Ladies Event….let them play. If a guy wants to play it in drag or not……let them do it. The ladies need to get over it……the guys should be allowed to play if they want, whether a lost prop bet, for charity or just because he wants to……. To me the real villain here is Harrah’s/WSOP for their handling of the situation when the men were registering. Their threats and harassment of those guys was totally uncalled for. I thought Shaun Deeb was so cute and appreciated his sincere youtube statement voicing his point of view.
For those of you that think that women are treated equally in the poker community. All you have to do is go to some of the forums….. Women are not respected by a large segment of the guys……you are judged by how they look, how old they are, they can’t act uppity, and poker playing abilities are never recognized as that good. I will also say that some of the women have voiced a similar opinion about other women’s play…….. yes, we can be bitchy and judgmental at times…
Again……pick your battles……. there is plenty of room for disagreement here and I respect all of the opinions…we can agree to disagree…..let’s take on something important like world peace, UIGEA or who controls the thermostat at the Rio…….
Posted by pokerhag.com at 8:48 AM