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Women in poker[ return to main articles page ]

By: SusieQue
Published on Jun 29th, 2005
It has been awhile since I have written an article for the site. This time, I wanted to do my homework before I jumped into the subject. I have spoken to many of the male and female players that I know to get opinions on women who play poker, and the following is what I have found out from my conversations. <READMORE>

Since this is a male dominated sport, the opinions have been vast. I have heard opinions ranging from the feeling that women suck at poker to a great respect for female poker players. I have listened to people’s opinions, and now I am going to put as many of the things I have heard in this article as I can fit, but we all know I am not very long winded, so I will be brief about it.

In some cases, I have heard the usual crap that women should be doing dishes and tending to kids and not be trying to play with the boys. And we have no business playing, and we play like a girl. And I have been called a few names at the tables, none of which I care to repeat here. I have even actually been accused of being a man, because I play too well. That one cracks me up, because I never thought I was all that good at this game, but whatever! For the most part, I feel if women conduct themselves as players and not “women,” then it is possible to gain respect from the men. Some men will never respect a female player, but I think they just don't respect women in general, and it has nothing to do with poker.

As a woman, I generally hate playing at a table with another woman (at least live) and the thought of a women's tourney makes my skin crawl. I am there to play poker, not hear where everyone is from and who has kids. I could care less! Those women give us a bad name, and they are the reason we get no respect at the tables. I know that all you men love to sit at a table with a woman who has her chest falling out of her shirt. Personally, however, my opinion is that they must not be very good if distracting methods are all they have to offer. Hence why I believe we get no respect at the tables.

This is my opinion and my opinion only....but I feel one of the reasons women make decent players is patience. It's just something we have that many men don't! I am not saying all men, but most. Women are generally the patient sex; taking care of the kids and such. Patience is just a trait we have that can really work in our favor at the tables. I find it easy in important situations to wait out a good hand. Frankly I can sit there all night and wait for the right hand in the right position. I can tune out idiot chatter at a table; I did it for many years while kids were running around making noise, while meanwhile my husband was yelling for them to be quiet. Bad beats also generally don’t bother me, nor awful players, because I just tune it out and don't let it get to me. I never go off on people, I never berate a bad player, and I never educate the fish! I would like to think that women are generally good players because we have traits men don't. Now that does not fit all scenarios of course. Men are more ruthless than women, but that is not to say that some women are not ruthless. Women are more patient, but that is not to say that no men are. If we could all share a little of each other’s traits, we could make one hell of a player.

Basically the bottom line is that in a perfect world, we could all learn to respect each other’s poker abilities for what they are. We all have different styles, and different levels of patience. And regardless of our sex, we are all playing a game we love, or we would not be playing it. I will be curious to see your opinions on this subject from both the men and women of the pocketfives.com community. Good luck at the tables, and I hope this has given you one more thing to think about. Please give me your feedback, whether it is good or bad.
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