My thoughts on the ladies event

[Annie Duke]

Hi everyone--

I wanted to post here my complete thoughts on the ladies event and why I did not play it. The quotes from ESPN on the show from me were obviously abbreviated so I thought it might be useful to post my more complete view of the topic since there seems to be some speculation on it here.

I think the ladies event is a great event. The first time I ever played a WSOP event it was the ladies event in 1993. There is no way, not being a professional player at that point, that I would have had the courage to play an open event at that point and the ladies tournament was a wonderful entre into tournament poker for me.

I think in general that tournaments can be daunting and the ladies event is a great way to get women involved in the game. And I would love to see more and more women get involved in this great game and become great players.

I haven't played a ladies event since 1993, however. Since I became a pro my view is really that poker is a game of the intellect. In games where there are physcial advantages that are clear if youa re a man I completely understand why women are separated from the men. But in a game like poker I really don't understand it. Women like Jennifer Harman, Kathy Liebert and Cindy Violette have proven that women can compete on a totally equal footing with men in poker. I feel that I can compete with the men as well.

Therefore, if I have a choice between an open event and a ladies event I will choose the open event. I wanted my first bracelet to be in an open event. I don't think people should be referred to as a female poker player or a male poker player. I think we are all just players, no qualifier.

As well, poker is my business and I felt compelled to play where the money was greater. The first prize in the Omaha event was almost 140k, in the ladies event it was 58k or so. For me, doing this as a business, that was a clear enough motivator to play in the open event.

Again, I want to be clear that I think ladies events are great. I think they are a great way to get women involved in the game and give them exposure to tournament poker. I hope that many more great women players emerge from the game and I think ladies events help this to happen.

Annie Duke

[jdl22]

Just curious which you would have competed in if when you looked at the prize and opponent pool you determined that both events offered you the same EV.

[Annie Duke]

I would have played the open event. As I said I really wanted my first bracelet to be an open event because I truly believe women and men can play on an equal footing in poker. I really wanted to win in a tournament where anyone could enter so many of the best players weren't excluded from playing because of their gender.

[jdl22]

Makes sense. You more or less said so above I just wanted to clarify because it seems to me that the Omaha event offered such a higher prize pool to make any gender based discussion a moot point on that particular decision.

[kyro]

Annie,

I completely understand your reasons for not playing in the Women's event. I think in your interviews though, you are coming across as someone who is incredibly intent on making the world see what a great woman poker player you are.

Any half-wit who remotely follows poker knows the talent you possess. Male, female, it's irrelevant. In my completely subjective opinion, if you acted a bit more humbly, I believe you would get more respect. Perhaps you're not looking for this type of respect. I know it's easy for me to sit at my computer miles away and talk about a situation of which I will never experience, but I believe my opinion is similar to the general public, and the reason people feel this way, is mainly by the interviews.

Regardless, many congratulations are in order for winning your first bracelet. It's one hell of an accomplishment. You wanted to prove you could play with the men, and I think you've put any of those fears to rest. Good luck to you in your poker future, maybe someday we'll see the first woman champion at the main event.

[1800GAMBLER]

Just curious if you think that guy in jdl's avatar is hot? What about him compared to the guy in my avatar? (that's not me btw) Please answer since we have a bet running on this answer.

Good posts in here btw sorry about Richie Rich he's just started puberty.

[ericd]

Annie,

Congratulations. It was great to see the absolute joy on your face. Those moments seem to occur so rarely in one's life. If you keep this up people will start refering to Howard as Annie's brother.

Eric

[beanie]

Is that how Howard got so good [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

[WiredPear]

See I agree. I can understand the need for the women's event say 20 years ago. But today it's just not needed anymore. It has been proven that the women can play with the men. I respect your decision and I didn't like the way ESPN set it up that "Annie won't play with the women, because she thinks she's too good for that." Since she's a professional I figured she based her decision on EV alone.

[fnurt]

[ QUOTE ]
See I agree. I can understand the need for the women's event say 20 years ago. But today it's just not needed anymore. It has been proven that the women can play with the men. I respect your decision and I didn't like the way ESPN set it up that "Annie won't play with the women, because she thinks she's too good for that." Since she's a professional I figured she based her decision on EV alone.

[/ QUOTE ]

You guys are missing the point, which I think Annie articulated very well. Of course women are more than competitive with the men, you know it, I know it, virtually all experienced players know it. But that's not who the target market is. The thing is that a women might see this event on TV and be like "oh wow, I didn't know women played poker," and get interested herself. Now she might get the same impression from seeing a woman at the final table of a regular tournament... or she might not. The women's event has more visibility.

By the same token, a woman who wants to try out tournament poker, but feels intimidated about stepping into a "men's world," might see this event as a more comfortable way to get started.

People who are cracking jokes about men's-only tournaments, or blacks-only tournaments, are off base. There are no men going "I didn't know men played poker." There are no black people going "I didn't know blacks played poker." It's a whole different situation.

There is a small possibility of this tournament reinforcing someone's stereotypes, but overall, tournaments of this type are a huge positive. More people playing the game is good for all of us.