Off to play in the WSOP

I leave today to go to Vegas to play in the Ladies No Limit Hold Em event on Sunday. Yes, a ladies event. I am very excited! I know, I know, yes, I would rather play with the boys, but I'm going to play with the Ladies, drama and all and I'll give you a few of my reasons. First, it will be a smaller field, and since it's my first WSOP I think playing in a smaller field will make me feel a bit more at ease. Second, I had committed to play the event last year but I became ill with whopping cough and could not play. I am a person of my word. Third, it is a world class event for Ladies only and I believe ladies only poker events will soon fade so I have to play to show my support.

I know many people of both genders believe it is discriminatory to have ladies only poker events and some are quite vocal about their opinion. However, despite how I may personally feel about Ladies only events I do believe there is a need for them for several reasons. Poker has long been considered a "gentleman's game" and been a game that men almost exclusively played. As a result most poker rooms do not "embrace" women at their no limit and high stakes games and therefore many women are too intimidate to attempt to play in a room dominated by men, at a table full of men. A large majority of men feel women should play only the low limit structured games like 2/4 or 3/6 limit. Time and time again when I sit down at a No Limit table at least one man, most often two, will quickly tell me that I am at the wrong table, that I am sitting at a NO LIMIT table and not a limit table even when I am holding a rack of red chips.

A lot of women find it extremely uncomfortable to be the only woman sitting at the table and likewise for many men, a woman sitting at their table makes them uncomfortable. The ladies only events allow women to ease into the poker rooms and become comfortable enough to venture in when there isn't a Ladies only event. I have heard many women throughout the country say they will only go into poker rooms when accompanied by one or more women because poker rooms are so intimidating. Believe it or not, very few women will venture into a poker room alone to play or so they claim. Apparently just as women go to the ladies room in pair’s, women only will venture into poker rooms in at least pairs. I can identify with this to a degree as for many years I wanted to learn to play poker. I would sit at the snack bar beside the poker room at the Horsehoe in Tunica so I could peer into the poker room window and would watch men play for hours. I often asked my husband to teach me to play poker and he would just laugh. I would have never walked into a poker room alone. It wasn't until Natalie and her fiancé, Hoyt Corkins walked me into the poker room at GoldStrike Casino that I ever played poker. I had read a couple of books about poker, including Doyle Brunson's Super System and had watched poker on TV long before the rabbit cam or the WPT with intense fascination. I knew the basic fundamentals of the game, but had not played. Once I stepped into the poker room, I left the craps table, 3 card poker table, back jack table and 21 plus 3 games behind. Poker was and remains my passion but it took that first step, of someone going into the poker room with me, introducing me to the brush and getting me on the wait list for a game to get me started, to ease the intimidation and glares from all then men with that look, "oh,my another woman". So yes, I can identify with these women, even though I venture without hesitation into poker rooms alone now. Keep in mind it was only 3 years ago that the Ladies events were limit and now the Ladies events are no limit. So obviously, the Ladies want to play no limit, so move over fellas, here we come, and yes, we know it’ a NO LIMIT table! lol