Promoting women's poker with Daiva Byrne

On International Women's Day we chat to the Unibet Pro about the community and events she helps host to promote poker to women.

Tell us about the Unibet women’s league and Facebook group you run – for women that are interested what can they expect?

Daiva Byrne: I created a Facebook group dedicated to female poker players last year in March. We are up to 1,300 members now and we will be celebrating our one year anniversary at the end of this month, which is very exciting.

I always felt there was not enough support or recognition for women in poker and hoped that creating a close-knit informative female community online would change this. We discuss, plan and celebrate all things women in poker and motivate each other. This like-minded group allows members to build new poker friendships to both travel and hang out together at live events and play special freerolls together online. We love to celebrate each other’s successes at the tables and online and have built a great community feel to the group as a result of this.

It’s great to see these members liking each other’s posts, sharing information and I always enjoy catching up with them in person; as always thanks to all the girls helping me make the group such a success.

Allowing female lower stake players to hone their poker skills, we introduced the Unibet €1,000 Ladies League a couple of weeks ago, which has been a huge success. Running each Sunday for four weeks on Unibet Poker, players accrue points for finishing positions. These weekly game points will be combined with the top nine sharing an added €1,000 prize pool including a €500 package to one of the Unibet UK Poker Tour 2018 stops. We are hoping to run the Ladies League again in the future and incorporate that into a Battle of the Champions seat perhaps.

There is still plenty going on for the ladies though, most importantly our weekly freeroll for ladies which is the biggest online! We regularly get 500+ runners and it is the perfect environment for those new to the game to practice and improve. We also have regular competitions and giveaways exclusively for the group members only.

Unibet and especially the Head of Events - Nataly Sopacuaperu - are also championing women in poker in general, the Queen Rules initiative which has seen a new rule where the Queen is ranked higher than a King in selected tournaments is a great example of this and has seen a great deal of positive media coverage with the International Women’s Day tie in.

"Live poker can be intimidating"

Is the main motivation for these more about preventing problems caused when men outnumber women so heavily in poker, or is it just fun to have a ladies only environment?

Daiva Byrne: Probably a little bit of both. When it comes to the live poker environment, I can empathise as I know from my early experiences that it can initially feel very intimidating for a female (especially the ones at the beginner level or those used to only playing online) to enter a poker room full of men, let alone sit down at the table and play against them. Live women only events are more relaxed and they are there to create a very welcoming and friendly environment to practice your live poker skills and become more comfortable in the live arena for games against everyone.

There is usually Proscecco flowing and friendly banter going on. Female only events attract lots of regular faces too and because of this it has a nice community feel. This is especially evident at the Unibet Open and UK Tour ladies events as we get quite a few group members attending. I just love them as I usually have lots of fun and always end up acquiring new poker friends by the end of the tournament. These smaller live events give women the chance to get their hands on a trophy and have a bigger chance of relative success with smaller fields which can only build confidence for the future.

The online arena is obviously different. There is no intimidation factor on Unibet Poker (no chat box options eliminates abuse). I feel that online tournaments restricted to female players-only play a big part in encouraging more female players to the game. The sheer volume of existing poker games for all online is mind blowing so to have a tournament that is much smaller and centered around women can feel more comfortable and more appealing to some, especially newer players. Each female player will ideally make the journey from initial games online to competing with the best males and females at a level they are comfortable at in the live arena. This is something I’ll be striving for as passionately as ever in 2018.

"Many women were playing live for the first time"

Likewise what is it like in the live ladies events on the Unibet tour? Does everyone know each other?

Daiva Byrne: We had a couple of Ladies side events last year. The first one was in Brighton as part of Unibet UK Poker and the atmosphere was amazing! We had a total of 27 entries which included some local female players, Unibet UK Poker Tour regulars and the majority were the Unibet Ladies group members including some of them who were playing poker live for the first time.

I made sure everyone was introduced to each other and made to feel very welcome; it was fun to watch the girls having fun, enjoying the game and social aspect of it. There was even a cake kindly brought in by one of the Unibet Community regulars - Donna Morton - for everyone to share.

The 2nd event was in in Bucharest, as a side event for the Unibet Open and it was great to see quite a few familiar faces and meet some new Romanian female players and welcome them to the Unibet Ladies community. Both ladies events were a huge success and we are making them a regular feature for both Unibet Poker festivals in 2018.

We started 2018 with a bang and the first Unibet Open Ladies event in London last week attracted 51 entries. We had a private room at the Vic and the photographer dedicated just for that event capturing all excitement and fun. There were lots of regulars and Ladies group members and there was an amazing community feel. Well done to Brynn Kvinlaug on winning the biggest Unibet Ladies event up to date for £1400 + a trophy!

I hope that Unibet Ladies Event is going to go from strength to strength and grows into the biggest ladies event in England. The next one will be in Brighton on March 25th and I welcome all female players to come and join us.

How many of the women who play those live events would not have played live if it were not for the online community?

Daiva Byrne: To be honest quite a few. There has been at least 10% of entries in every Unibet Ladies live event so far. New players usually come through two different channels - they are either brought along by a spouse who travels to major Unibet festivals or hear about the game through the Ladies Community page online.

"Make live tournaments more inclusive"

What can the poker industry do more of to make poker more fun for women?

Daiva Byrne: I think with tournament organisers primarily ensuring that all women feel comfortable at the tables regardless of the game; one bad experience with guys berating/hitting on them and making inappropriate comments could put newcomers off for good- maybe introduce penalties for offenders- as so often miscreants suffer no comeback. The more inclusive an entire tournament or poker series feels, the more the minority of female players will enjoy it.

What can the poker industry be doing better in its marketing to sell the game better to women?

Daiva Byrne: I think celebrating some amazing successes in recent games for women can help create that ‘I can do that too’ environment in poker for women. For instance Maria Lampropulos winning 2 major titles and a $1 million+ first prize both times within a space of 12 months needs to be celebrated not only in poker industry related media but such a success should be promoted everywhere worldwide, including international TV and press.

A lot of marketing is pretty generic and understandably targeted to a male audience. Perhaps more female based adverts in environments they consume media. Shifting perceptions to the fact that the game really is inclusive once you start playing would definitely help.

Some people, including many female players, do not like having ‘ladies events’ because they feel that being a woman is not a competitive disadvantage in poker like it is in physical sport. What is your response to that?

Daiva Byrne: I agree with the statement that being a woman is not a competitive disadvantage however I believe that woman only events work for different reasons and help to achieve more recognition for women in poker and attract new players to the game.

When there is only 3-5% of female players only entering each live event statistically we will never be able to achieve the same results/success as our male counterparts. So why not have both, so we can keep on growing the game and the female community in the industry.

Thanks very much Daiva, good luck with the group and league!