Time to explain the merits of ladies poker tournaments, and to contradict some of the criticism (see the Black Widow of Poker blog for a detailed example and some fiery comments.)

Before my thoughts, let’s hear what famous female poker players think about segregated poker tournaments.

Nay

Annie Duke “Poker is one of the few sports where a woman can compete on a totally equal footing with a man, so I don’t understand why there’s a ladies only tournament.”

Vicky Koren “I don’t think I will play the Ladies’ Event again. A special women’s competition sends out the wrong message, as if we’re admitting we need some kind of help. I want to get better at poker and take my chances in an open field. Of course I want to win a tournament one day, but I don’t want it to be a handicapped one. I want to win a real one.”- From For Richer, For Poorer: A Love Affair With Poker

Tiffany Michelle : “If we’re sitting here and talking about equality, and wanting to play with the boys, then obviously it’s not fair to have a ladies only event…I mean, I would be pissed off if they ever did a men-only event, so how in the world can we sit here and do this?” –From cardplayer.com

Kathy Liebert- “Ladies events are usually weaker fields.” (In response to my tweet to her asking why she plays in ladies tournaments. Interestingly Kathy is considered by many to be the best female tournament poker player, but she is not sponsored. See an interesting article about this here..)

Annette Obstread : “I haven’t played in any (women’s tournaments). They’re just haven’t been any – I can’t play in Vegas. I guess one day I will play one in Vegas – I think the field will be really soft. It’s a good chance to win a bracelet! (laughs) It wouldn’t be as good as winning a normal event, but it’s still money, it’s still good.”- Poker Player Interview

Mixed, Mostly Positive

Vanessa Rousso- I don’t often play in ladies events because they usually have a fast structure and I gamble a bit too much in the beginning. But I plan to play the PCA (the Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure, which she ended up winning) which has a great structure so I’m excited about that. Paraphrased from a pokercast interview, January 4, 2010

Evelyn Ng: “Even though there is no apparent gender bias inherent in poker tournaments, there is no doubt that women-only events have a totally different feel than open events… it was so wonderful that almost 1,200 women came out to play this year’s Ladies Championship (2008). Many of them were playing their first poker tournament, and perhaps, their experiences at the WSOP will be their gateway into open events in the future. For what it’s worth though, I think that the term ‘Women’s Event’ is much more appropriate than ‘Ladies Event,’” From her bodog blog.

Maria Ho: “I see the ladies events as a very good platform. Some women don’t feel comfortable playing at the same table as men. They feel more comfortable learning with other women. This just gives them the option and I don’t see a problem with that. It’s great for women, which will only be good for the game. The bad thing is that these tournaments are usually crapshoots. The structure is pretty poor. I’m not sure if they don’t feel the need to create a good structure, since we’re just females.” From a pokerpages interview.

If you haven’t guessed by the article title, I am in the Yay camp. Here are seven reasons why:

1. Women poker tournaments are NOT admitting we’re not good enough to play against men. One of the main poker skills is game selection, finding spots where you’re plus EV, accounting for the rake and expenses. You could be the second best poker player in the world, but if all you do is play the best poker player in the world, you’ll go broke eventually. Women’s fields are usually softer especially for equivalent buy-ins (not due to some inherent lack of female poker skill, but due to less exposure). Who would dare tell a man that he shouldn’t play in an event where he had a positive EV at? This line of argument would suggest a male pro who waits desperately for a spot at the table with the drunk businessman is actually admitting his inferiority? That women shouldn’t play in women’s tournaments because it’s degrading strikes me as so anti-poker it’s hard for me to believe that famous poker players espouse this idea. In chess, maximizing EV is not an integral part of the game’s skill, so the argument against segregated tournaments holds up much better. I grappled with the issue in Chess Bitch and went back and forth, but in poker this argument is in a roundabout way, sexist. Women should not be told how to manage their bankrolls in a moralistic, anti-money way—this is poker, not identity politics.
2. Variety of Opposition is a Good Learning Experience: In poker, unlike in chess, it’s good to play against as wide a variety of skill levels and styles as possible. Playing in ladies events may make women more capable of generalizing on how to play against females, which could give them an advantage in mixed competitions.
3. Women who play in Ladies’ Events, Once Knocked out, often play in other events- I always see more women at open events, sit n gos and tables before and after ladies’ events. Check out this hilarious but sad video from the EPT event in Copenhagen, which as far as I know, did not hold a ladies event.

Watch EPT Copenhagen 2010: Where Are The Women? on PokerStars.tv

4. Women's Poker Tournaments are Exciting and Fun- Poker tournaments can get repetitive to the media/boring to the players, so the more types of events you have, the better.
5. Lack of Intimidation for Newbies- Some women may find a ladies' event more fun and comfortable, and a good excuse to come to a major event. Therefore, hosting ladies events has the potential to make poker more balanced and popular. Ladies poker events also allow for targeted promotions.
6. Structures are Often Very Good Value- Contrary to Ho and Rousso's comments above, I've often found that the structures in Ladies' events are a very good deal for the buy-in. For instance, at the Borgata, generally Ladies' tournaments feature the lowest buy-ins of the event, and yet they usually have similar structures to more expensive tournaments. Surely I wouldn't object to even more time for our money, but we have to expect that to some extent, we'll get what we pay for. The Mancession may be reducing the lingering differences between American male and female salaries. Still, it seems like women are generally less likely to risk their life savings on poker. So if the goal is to lure women to major events and balance the male:female ratio, offering prestigious and deep tournaments for less money is a good strategy.
7. Men can Play a Ladies Event If They Really Want to- In the last year, men have won two major ladies' events in Lake Tahoe and Atlantic City. The casinos call the tournaments "ladies' events" and discourage men from participating but for legal reasons, they have no actual intention to prohibit insistent men. Even in these cases, I think it's rude for a dude to play in a women's event and probably not the best way to get a date. But the option is there- when I played last month at the Borgata Winter Ladies Open, there was raucous applause after each of five men were eliminated from the competition. So, at least in Vegas and AC women's tournaments are only segregated by the cultural construct/biological fact of gender (pick your percentages.) Men are free to ignore the gender label of the tournament if they don't mind getting booed.

The arguments above run the gamut from pragmatically self-interested to philosophical, but the antipathy over ladies events is so surprising to me that I had to rant out every reason I could think of. Hope I win tomorrow so in May, I can bring you more thoughts on women's poker tournaments from one of the most expensive places on earth

5:45 PM- Tougher to liveblog in a 215 than a freeroll. Have a few more chips than I started with, 11K. I had a couple interesting hands which I’ll post when the tournament is over

6:52 PM- Got KOed–shoved with ATc and got called by AQo. Two clubs on the flop but no more.

Here is one of my most interesting hands of the event. Of course it turned out well for me, but I have some unresolved questions about the hand. I could have pushed on the river instead of the min-raise. I’m not entirely sure what the right line is on the flop either, but checking the turn feels right Feel free to vote below!

3 PM- First hand of the WBCOOP event #6. A little bummed because in most of the WBCOOP events I played so far, 4-5 players sit out which makes the game so much fun! Raise, raise, raise all the time! Looks like today we have a full table….will continue to post any interesting hands in this post. Wish me luck!

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers, so register on WBCOOP to play.

Registration code: 793376

Wish me luck!!

Well, rules are meant to be broken, and I’m really excited about editing and eventually showing this piece. Goldilocks vs. the three bears. Place your bets now.

Pokerstars is the only poker site I play on and recommend to friends, because of their generous and consistent sponsorship of the US Chess League. Pokerstars customer support is also legendary, which was emphasized to me recently when I wrote the following letter, politely complaining about mandatory spa packages and training sessions they included for satellites into the Ladies PCA Caribbean Adventure event. An excerpt of my letter:

Women, like men, play poker to get as much value as possible and I didn’t notice many similar packages in WSOP qualifiers or in the other PCA events. I think if you polled women, we’d rather have 15% more prize packages than have the way the money is spent decided for us.

So as far as I understand the package was $1100 (entry fee)+ 900(expenses)+ 1000(Hotel)+ 250(Spa)+ 250(High Heels Poker Training). I think in the future, spa packages and poker training programs that are part of ladies’ event satellites (as great as they sound) should be optional and available for cash-out if desired unless the spa package or training session are included at significant discount rates.

They responded by telling me that maybe next time (for the Monte Carlo EPT series) they would seriously consider running two types of satellites, and the kicker…what was my address, cause they wanted to send me a gift! I wonder what it will be.

Also, poker fans should read my interview with Jeff Sarwer on CLO. It got a lot of positive feedback, which cheered me up in this frigid weather. Next up for me: Covering the Liberty Bell Open for CLO, playing a few tourneys at the Borgata Winter Poker Open, and editing my latest video creation. More on all that soon! Love, Jennifer

My dad was smart enough to play in the tournament and he got to the final table, at which point it seemed everyone wanted to chop based on their stacks. I pulled out my trusty G1 and did the math for the table(each chip was worth .0121212.) Nine players were ready to chop, but the final player, a medium stack refused the deal. I can’t really blame him as I probably wouldn’t have accepted such a deal. Play resumed, dad couldn’t get his chips in in a good spot, and so it goes.

Among the photos below are a shot of a snowman at the Atlantic City train station, and me reading Jokes for All Occasions (1921/22) by the fireplace of the Chelsea Hotel lobby. Most of the jokes were more interesting insights into the time than lol funny. The racist jokes were vicious. On the other hand, most of the jokes related to gender, money, adultery, jealousy or sex were so tame by modern standards that they would never register as jokes to us. Here’s one on poker which resonates since Americans are still the butt of many jokes on our inability to absorb certain worldwide standards of measurement:

Tommy Atkins and a doughboy sat in a poker game together somewhere in France. The Britisher held a full house, the American four of a kind. I’ll raise you 2 pounds, quoth the Yankee. Tommy didn’t hesitate, “I aint exactly onto your currency but I’ll bump it up 4 tons.”

A couple months ago, I was lucky enough to have a portrait session with Suzy Gorman, the same Saint Louis photographer who took glamour shots of participants at the US Women’s Championship. The Gorman photos and some resultant controversy on blogs and forums, reminded me of how difficult it was for me, four years ago, to write Chapter nine in Chess Bitch, European Divas. In the chapter I profiled Antoaneta Stefanova and Alexandra Kosteniuk, two beautiful and accomplished Grandmasters (Kosteniuk became Women’s World Champion and a GM since I wrote Chess Bitch) who took opposite approaches to publicity. Stefanova is very under the radar compared to her accomplishments, while Kosteniuk with few possible exceptions (Kasparov,Carlsen) is the most popular chess player in the world.

I pointed out the pitfalls of celebrating women chessplayers as pinups: It could penalize or scare women away who don’t fit into a certain standard of beauty, or who just don’t feel like posing for glamour photos. On the other hand, emphasizing beautiful chessplayers contradicts the nerdy image of chess that persists. Also, dressing up and posing is fun for many girls and women and attacking that head-on is not my brand of feminism. At the time of writing Chess Bitch, I was ambivalent about all these issues. However, I was sure about the chapter’s conclusion, a line too perfect to cut once conceived and also a great way to test whether my friends actually read Chess Bitch: “Journalists and fans don’t go around commenting on the size of Kasparov’s cock.”

Four years later, the negatives have faded (pun intended here as well). As long as sexy publicity campaigns are high quality and optional, I approve of them more as a journalist and artist than I disapprove as a feminist. Alexandra Kosteniuk said her new book, Diary of a Chess Queen, “It was the 2001 World Championship that made me understand how important it was to work constantly with the press; and since that time I have given a lot of attention to photo shoots and my off-the-board activities. The popularity of chess during the Fischer, Karpov and Kasparov eras can be explained by the outsized personalities of those grandmasters. People who do not play chess aren’t very interested in what novelty Grandmaster N employed on move 40 of the Petroff’s Defense…”

Anna Zatonskih, 2009 US Women's Championship

During my own photo session, Bjork was playing, and I found when looking over the photos later, my favorite portraits were those that seemed to be less mimicking sexy face and more like me, or at the very least more like Bjork. For my new website theme I had to jump at the chance to be forever 29 suited. Some of the other photos are too risqué for me to post here, but I do have a new poker/chess themed twitter page and I also added two new galleries on my photos page, on roulette chess and hula chess.

On the subject of the Women’s World Champion, I’m grateful that Grandmaster Alexandra Kosteniuk decided to do her Christmas Goodwill simultaneous in Tucson. When I saw this offer on Kosteniuk’s blog, I knew that Jean and the Tucson 9queens Academy would be a wonderful venue for Kosteniuk. Look for upcoming photos and details of the event on the 9queens blog, Chess Life Online and Kosteniuk’s various websites, including twitter.

I hope everyone has a very happy holiday and if you’re looking for a place to give, please consider donating any amount to 9queens, or read Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristoff and Sheryl WuDunn for more ideas.
Love, Jennifer

I had scoped out the table composition and googled all my opponents. I knew that the short-stacked guy on my left was an aggressive pro who would try to make a lot of moves for the blinds and antes. The biggest stack at the table, with 60K (pretty much everyone else had between 25 and 32K), was Annie Duke’s husband, Joseph Reitman. Reitman is an actor and has also been playing a lot of poker since marrying Annie. I didn’t really know what being Annie’s Duke husband would mean about his play, but I was guessing tight-aggressive.

In our first hand of the level about ten minutes in, Joseph raised in early position to 3x the BB, 1500. I called on the button with tens. Flop is Q 2 3 rainbow. He checks. Baffling! I was ready to raise on a continuation bet and then give up to resistance but this check is confusing. I bet about 3K, which some of my poker friends said was awful (they like checking behind to keep pot small.) Others say it’s fine, or even good.  Turn is a 7 or a 5. He bets 5K! I reluctantly call, thinking that there’s a decent chance he’ll give up on the river, which brings a 5 or a 7. He fires out again 12K. I fold. Kind of annoying hand to lose almost a third of my stack on. My gut told me there was a 50% chance my tens were good, but my brain told me the chances had to be much lower. Unless he’s a total savage or a mind-reader.

The very next hand I get KJs on the cutoff. Middle position limps. I raise to 2K, partly because I know the guy on my left will shove with a huge range if I also limp. I don’t want to waste 500 chips in that way. Flop  is 89Q with two spades. Original limper makes it 3500. I think for a minute and shove my remaining 20K. He instacalls and turns over 99. I don’t catch. Bye to me! I had a gutshot and a flush draw, but because if the board pairs he fills up, I was just under 35% to win the hand. It was still the correct play. Against his range of hands, I have fold equity against many and then great equity against a lot of others. I’m even a slight favorite against hands like JJ or AQ. The only time I’m way way behind is against something like AT of spades.
 

How dorky, on a scale from one to ten, is it to use a pawn as a card protector? 11, one chesspoker player informed me.

Feel free to leave a comment if you can think of other chesspoker players I don’t know about. Going into day three, Michael Casella (still active 2300) and Randy Bruekner (no longer active, 2000) are still in. How can I forget Dan Harrington? He’s also still in at the end of day two, with 182K in chips. Keep the dream alive!