Why men entering Ladies Events hurts poker
The story of Dave Hughes winning a Ladies Events has gone viral, which doesn't help anybody in poker, especially female players.
It's not uncommon for men to enter Ladies Event tournaments at poker festivals, but very rare they actually win them. So when David Hughes did just that last week, it naturally attracted some mainstream press.
A plagiarised PokerNews article on the subject was even tweeted by Donald Trump Jr. Trump, like a lot of other political accounts, incorrectly latched onto this being a 'culture war' issue when in fact it was simply the exploitation of a State anti-discrimination law.
Whenever a man enters a Ladies Event, the same tired arguments get made. Some will argue that this is a form of discrimination and that there would never be a Men-only event. This is a very short-sighted argument that completely ignores the fact that most poker tables have only men at them. If you want to play a men-only game, you probably will nine times out of ten in any card room.
Others will claim that a Ladies Event is proof that women are inferior to men at poker. Just as female sprinters could never keep up with Usain Bolt and his peers, they suggest the presence of Ladies Events is proof that women cannot compete in open events. In more recent years this debate has also morphed into a culture war issue around gender identification.
Ruining a fun night out
I have spoken to and listened to a lot of prominent female players over the years about this issue. While there is a lot of debate about the issues raised here, most women like the Ladies Event for a much simpler reason - the atmosphere.
There are not enough women-only events to be a professional player in them specifically as a format. It's nothing to do with evening playing fields or excluding men. From what I have heard over the years from women they are primarily social events, they are a rare chance to have some fun with like-minded women.
Most men like to occasionally cut loose and have a night out with 'just the Boys' and this is no different. Female poker players, most of the time, have to spend their time at tables with men talking about what men like to talk about. Even if the men in question are very much in touch with their feminine sides, that is still going to be 'dude stuff' a lot of the time. A Ladies Event is a rare chance for women to have that.
The crude analogy I would give is that one of the most pathetic things I have ever seen was a possessive boyfriend tagging along with his girlfriend to her friend's Hen Night (ie. a Bachelorette Night). There is just something weird about it, and a man playing in a Ladies Event has the same vibe-killing effect. It's not a clever political statement, it's just ruining a fun night out for a bunch of poker players who don't get to play tournaments like that very often.
Finally, from an industry perspective, it's just short-sighted. We need more new people playing poker and female players are clearly the biggest untapped market the game has. Bringing bad press to these events and ruining what is often a new player's first live poker experience does nothing to help poker.
How can we prevent men from playing Ladies Events? Let us know in the comments:
