Being a Woman at the Poker Table

For this column, I asked a group of women the following question: Do you think being a woman at the poker table is an advantage or disadvantage, and why? Here's some food for thought from the answers I received:

Estie Peiper: Being a female poker player can be both an advantage and a disadvantage. Here are some of the advantages: A woman's instinct and intuition enable her to pick up on tells. Intuition can alert us to when we are behind in a hand, and we can usually let go of good cards in bad situations; this is often hard for our male counterparts to do. I think being built to bear and raise children makes us emotionally strong, and little things like getting aces cracked does not have nearly the same impact on a woman that it does on a man. Women can stay focused for longer periods of time than men, which means that in long tournaments, they are less likely to make mistakes by the end of the tournament.

A disadvantage is that, in general, women will always be perceived by men as the weaker sex. I do believe that in some sense, men still feel superior to most women, and that causes them to be more aggressive toward us and make plays that they would not make against a male opponent.

Cheryl Logsdon: Aside from the technical aspects of poker, which a woman can learn as well as any man, poker is a game of deception. Any weapon that one can use to befuddle or confuse opponents is invaluable. In that regard, being a female can be a very valuable weapon at the table.

Poker is a game of incomplete information. When you are faced with difficult decisions, you are left to put together the pieces of the puzzle of the current hand. Being female gives you an additional set of parameters to judge the actions of your male opponents. Some men will try to impress women and make foolish bluffs; some will soft-play and hope for an after-game drink. Some men are resentful that women are there at all, and will try to bully and bust them. Women spend their entire lives assessing the reactions of the people around them, and are usually quite skilled at reading those types of behavior.

There is an old saying: "It's not what you've got, it's how you use it." At home, I am your average wife and mom -- hard-working, multitasking, nurturing, and honest. At the poker table, I am whatever it takes to get your chips. I can be a weak and passive trapping machine, a flirtatious blonde, charming the chips off your stack, or a manipulative and sarcastic challenge, staring you in the eye. I do have it, and I will use it.

Janice Goodman: Of course, as is the case with everything in poker, this depends on the table. With many men, the sex of their opponents makes absolutely no difference. With some men, I find that I am playing against egos that seem to discount me because I'm a woman. When this happens, these men take aim at the big target on my forehead. I like it when that happens; I tighten up and wait for just the right hand to play to show my stuff. I love that moment at the table when all of the men realize that I'm a real player. Once I have outplayed one of my key male opponents, I usually get respect, which enables me to steal more pots than normal.

Tana Washington: There are definite advantages of being a woman at the poker table. There are men who think that if a woman plays a hand, it must be a great hand, because women are not aggressive enough to make a play. Others think they can run you out of the pot with a big enough bet. This works to a woman's advantage. Times are changing, though, and women are gaining more respect at the table.

Thanks for the answers, ladies. Personally, I believe that women players have an advantage, though not as much as in prior years. Today, with so many aggressive, winning female players, men have come to realize that women really can play, and many men have stopped treating women differently than men at the table.

Change of subject: The 2009 poker cruise schedule has been posted on my website at www.cardplayercruises.com. We have a new itinerary to Asia that includes stops in Shanghai, Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong, and Singapore, so check us out!

Now, let's play poker.

Linda is available to host seminars, tournaments, corporate nights, and other poker-related events. You can contact her through her website at www.cardplayercruises.com.