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From the Las Vegas Sun-
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This is not the first time men have entered the event, but this year’s number was the highest – and some of their antics are not likely to be forgotten anytime soon, especially by female players.
“This is the most prestigious tournament for women in the world,” says Las Vegas author and poker pro Susie Isaacs, a two-time winner of the event. “This is regal for us. It’s our Olympics. Women from all over the world save up their money to play in this tournament, so to have a man take even one of your chips is horrible. Allowing men into this event is like taking a beer party into a Mass. It’s wrong and it’s not the place.”
The incident that created the most ire was a man putting a tampon atop his cards at the table. He was penalized two rounds’ worth of hands, meaning he lost some chips that two players in each hand are required to supply – known as the big and small blinds – along with the possibility of good cards that could have been used to go after opponents’ chips.
“He was there to mock women and he should have been banned from the tournament,” says Las Vegas poker pro and political consultant Nancy Todd Tyner, the 2008 World Poker Tour ladies champion. “Harrah’s missed the boat on that. Using a tampon as a card protector is offensive. A two-round penalty is nothing.”
Then there was professional player Shaun Deeb, who dressed in drag, complete with lipstick and a wig. Deeb later apologized in an Internet video clip to anyone he offended with his outfit, saying he entered the event after losing a prop bet – an often quirky side wager that is common among poker players. But he also defended his participation as a form of protest against gender-segregated events.
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That is just a small excerpt of the entire article.
Comments
What's more amazing
is that in the 21st Century, there are still gender-specific Poker Tournaments. Are the cards that much lighter for a women's poker game? Do all the face cards have just queens instead of kings or knaves? Seriously, however, the idiot who put a tampon on top of the cards should have been physically jettisoned from the arena and his monies forfeited to the pot. How insulting. I guess every venue needs their token "man."
Retaliation
If men can "get away with" entering women's tournaments, why not vice versa? Perhaps if one woman was sufficiently motivated, drop a condom on the table?
But seriously, is there any real need for gender segregation in any sport / game that doesn't involve copious quantities of physical exercise? A female once managed to get into a previously male-only golf tournament, but why shouldn't women be more accepted in golf? Table tennis? Darts? Motor racing? (There'd probably be fewer spectacular crashes for a start!)
EAFOAB Episode Summaries
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!
Erica Enders
Sliiiightly off-topic, but the mention of racing made me think of Ms. Erica Enders. She's about my age, and one of the first girls to enter professional junior division drag racing at 8 and went on to become a hell of a driver. :-D
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erica_Enders
More on-topic, I completely agree with everyone else. Male or female, that idiot should've been physically tossed out on his ass, though I also can't see the point in gender division for a card tournament (Or any competition not requiring you to be 6'6", 0% bodymass, 300lb pure muscle for that matter)
And this is the lady
Who paved the way for her. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Muldowney
Ms. Muldowney was my personal hero growing up in the 60's and early 70's.
Janice
Now that is awesome! I only
Now that is awesome! I only learned about Erica because they did a cheesy Disney Channel movie about her that spurred me to do a little more research on the actual person some years back. :-D
"Cha Cha"
[email protected] I actually saw her race back in the day. She defeated "Big Daddy" Don Garlits that day. He was my hero back then. He didn't take the loss well. I lost a hero, but I gained a heroine.
Jonelle
[email protected]
And here she is...
yep...Shirley "Cha Cha" Muldowney
She was born for all the wrong reasons but grew up for all the right ones.
Con grande amore e di affetto, Andrea Lena
Love, Andrea Lena
Men in the women's WSOP event...
This is garnering a lot of discussion amongst the "poker pros" as well. On pro, Daniel Negreanu, explains the reasoning behind keeping the event in one of his blog entries ...
http://www.fullcontactpoker.com/poker-journal.php?subaction=...
Annie Duke, however, explains her position on why she feels it should be removed from the schedule:
http://www.annieduke.com/2010/06/the-ladies-event-redux/
I will also note that the two of them don't like each other very well; if you read later blog entries by either person, that will show. However, these two entries show the two points of view rather well, in my opinion.