PooffyFooffy said:
Men have had men only things for ever, and all of the sudden women decided it was not fair, sexist, blah blah blah, fought their way into them to crash them.
And then for chicks to turn around and make chick only events blows my mind.
Actually, that's not quite how it happened. In
poker news, Amy Zupko wrote:
"In 1977 the World Series of Poker, then in its eighth year, began what would become an annual tradition. On Friday, May 6th, at 12:00 PM, the first ladies-only championship poker event began, and since that date the World Series of Poker’s Ladies Event has been the largest women’s-only tournament in the world. The event has grown annually and now features a truly international field.
According to legend, the WSOP Ladies Event was started in order to give the wives and female companions of the male poker players something to do in order to bring a bigger draw to the other events that were predominately male. The WSOP has not been able to deny or support this rumor, as the records from the time were not very accurate and no complete history exists."
Moving right along, no one can argue that there is a huge disparity between the numbers of men and women who play poker. While I know of no specific study, in Chapter 45 (titled
The Biology and Eros of No-Limit Hold'em Tournaments) of his book
Cowboys Full, James McManus speculates as to why this might be so. Interestingly, he doesn't mention the fear of playing against men as a factor that has been discussed in this thread.
As for opinions about women's only tournaments, even the pros are divided. I've read that Annie Duke, for one, is strongly against them because she feels they demean women. Other women pros, like the topic of the OP Vanessa Rousso, obviously support them. Daniel Negreanu thinks they're great.
Personally, one of the reasons I love poker is that the playing field between men and women is level unlike, as has been pointed out here, other sports. I actually prefer poker in mixed company, but that's just me. I do, however, enjoy playing in women's only events too.
In an ideal world, there would be no need for such distinctions in poker. Until then, I support women's tournaments as a marvelous way to introduce women to the game and even out those numbers a little bit.
