Not Just for Men

It was tournament time at Bellagio. I picked up A-K in late position and raised two players who had limped in ahead of me. One player called behind me, as did one of the blinds and the limpers. I surveyed my opponents to determine how I wished to play my hand after the flop. "Boy, I sure hope a man wins this pot," I thought to myself. All four of my opponents were women. Furthermore, there were five women at the table and only four men. We men were outwomaned!



A female friend of mine once told me that beyond breast-feeding and giving birth, there's nothing a woman can do that a man can't, and there's nothing a man can do that a woman can't. We disagreed about this a bit, to say the least. There's no doubt that there are differences between the genders; according to one TV commercial, men sweat 40 percent more.



I'm sure that if we gave GI Joes and footballs to girls and Barbies and ballet lessons to boys, society would be different. And the reality is that more than 70 percent of working women toil as waitresses, nurses, teachers, and service workers. Why aren't there more female astronauts, legislators, surgeons, or even poker columnists? The average female college grad earns less than the average male high-school graduate. There are 13 women in the U.S. Senate, while demographically there ought to be more than 50.



But the world is changing – especially the poker world. Twenty years ago, it was hard to find women playing poker in games higher than the low-limit level in the poker rooms of Las Vegas. Yeah, there were a few, and some played mighty well, but it was pretty much a man's game. Now, they are check-raising us guys in droves. Cultural changes along with the growth of poker due to the Internet and TV tournament poker have changed the landscape.



Throughout my poker career, there have been some well-regarded and highly respected women players, such as Barbara Enright and Cyndy Violette. For decades, I've been butting heads with solid pros like Cindy Player and Sissy Bottoms, who are beating the Vegas middle-limit games. June Field (the founder of Card Player), Donna Harris, Phyllis Caro, Deborah Giardina, and Jan Fisher have long been fixtures on the business and management side. But they were anomalies, and always stood out in the crowd in what was a man's world. That definitely is no longer the case.



PartyPoker was largely organized by a woman, Ruth Parasol. Kelley O'Hara is part of the management team at the Bike, and Kathy Raymond at Foxwoods. And there are many, many more joining their ranks.



If you were going to make a list of the people who have hugely helped make poker what it is today, at least one woman, Linda Johnson, would be on the list. She's a powerful player in her own right, with a World Series of Poker bracelet for winning the 1997 razz event, and is the 2005 California state ladies poker champion and has won more tournaments than most men. But it's her contributions to the industry that have earned her the name "First Lady of Poker": publisher of Card Player for many years, and continues to write a column; final-table announcer for the World Poker Tour; co-founder of the Tournament Directors Association; co-founder of the World Poker Players Conference; founder of the World Poker Industry Conference; partner in one of poker's more successful business ventures, Card Player Cruises; and much more.



It wasn't that long ago that Linda and the few other women in poker were rare faces in the crowd. But every day, more women are making a mark on poker.



One place where you can see the change is in the number of entrants in ladies tournament events, of the type won by actress Jennifer Tilley. This year, the number of women entering the ladies event at the WSOP increased from 204 to 609. Just a few months ago, the Borgata Poker Open ladies tournament featured a field of 515. But it applies to more than just ladies events; you find more and more women at the big-tournament tables. Kathy Liebert, Annie Duke, and Jennifer Harman have all won open tournaments, and have pretty frequently made final-table appearances.

Tina Bergstrom and Lupe Soto have put together a series of Internet ventures aimed at women in poker, including http://www.pokerchix.com/, a content site set up as a poker club, and the Ladies International Poker Series (http://www.lipstour.com/), in association with Harrah's. They also have online leagues forming weekly at their http://www.ladiespokernight.com/ site, and are hosting a Womens Poker Conference in 2006. Tina and Lupe represent modern-day poker by women, of women, for women.



The Internet has created many opportunities for women entrepreneurs like Tina and Lupe, such as Lisa Lan's http://www.mainstreampoker.com/ and Mary McGuirk's http://www.pokerscene.com/. Lisa is also working with Internet poker in Russia, and Mary manages one of the more successful teams of prop players on the Net, providing props to various sites. There are many more like them in the business of poker, and that number is growing daily.



Many Internet poker sites have recognized the importance of women in the game, featuring women as celebrity spokespersons, such as FullTilt's Jennifer Harman, UltimateBet's Annie Duke, and Team Pokerstars' Evelyn Ng, Isabelle Mercier, and Erin Ness. You can bet the marketing whizzes behind Internet poker understand the demographic realities and change in the game.



Not only are more women playing, but they are playing better. Shirley Rosario of http://www.poker-babes.com/ recently said, "Things are changing in regard to women at the poker table. There weren't many female players when I started playing, and there was only a handful who had what it takes to be considered a strong player. In general, women tend to be less aggressive, but I see them making huge improvements in that area."



Shirley's one of the new breed of woman who has made a business of poker. "Because of the growth of poker, there are lots of opportunities out there, and many of them are not just playing at the tables," she stated. "I am fortunate that I have a successful website, do commentary for Live at the Bike, contribute articles to magazines on occasion, and have even done a poker video (Poker for Dummies With Chris Moneymaker). All of those things, combined with the hours I spend at the poker table, have enabled me to live a comfortable life. But more importantly, I am truly happy. I am one of the few people who can actually say, 'I love my job.'"



Oh, and about that A-K at Bellagio: I lost the pot. But, hey, the Y chromosome type was outnumbered 4-1 by the X chromosome types in that pot, so it wasn't an unlikely result. Look for more of that coming to your poker table soon!

Roy Cooke played winning professional poker for more than 16 years. He is a successful real estate broker/salesperson in Las Vegas. His books are available at http://www.conjelco.com/. His longtime collaborator, John Bond, is a freelance writer in South Florida.