Why aren't women more successful in poker?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jacki Burkhart
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A shocking amount of sexism in this thread (veiled and unveiled)... And I am male, for the record.

It's pretty obvious that there are far far fewer female players than male players. Thus, you will also see far less female top players. Of course, one can easily dig a little deeper, and come up with all sorts of societal reasons as well. Obviously men are brought up to be more competitive and aggressive, as well as encouraged to pursue math-oriented interests. These are all qualities that would be helpful in poker.

That said, I still think that it's largely a numbers game. There seems to be an increasing female interest in the sciences and math, maybe this will translate to more good female poker players in the future.
 
I beg to disagree.

Men = Women at poker.

Even though men have more strategies/tactics than women, women know how to convert those disadvantages to their advantage.
 
Stupid post. Where is the study which shows women is no good at poker? google Vicky coren. Why woman rarely wins? because there are more sticks than holes!
 
Less playing is the answer. If you were to average field by taking amount woman in a tournament to were the placed vs same for the men the average might surprise you.
 
nsinalis11 said:
Womens can do nothing right and if they do a men helped them.
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This is sad and hilarious at the same time.:shakehand Trolls be trollin
 
Its simple. Women are more emotional creatures compared to men and we all know that that does not bode well in poker. Im guessing some cry and unable to handle bad beats and tilt all the way. Awaiting gender discrimination comments..
 
Women are as successful in poker as men are, it just seems like women are less succesful because there are much more men that play poker, making the possibility to win for a woman lesser
 
Scientifically:

Women are more emotional thinkers, hence more emotional plays.

Men are more logical thinkers, therefore they make they make more analytical and less emotional plays.
 
starting_at_the_bottom said:
To answer the original question. Its because they cannot use pee bottles, thus keep getting folded out when nature calls, thus losing money ergo poorer results.
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FINALLY! a serious answer.

gotta run to costco to stock up on some depends....
 
hackmeplz said:
Back to the original topic though, I was actually reading some studies the other day on male/female proficiency in math. In general the average did not particularly favor one gender or the other, contrary to popular belief, but the variance in men was higher. This is one reason why the heavy majority of math geniuses are men, and it's the same reason why the heavy majority of people with learning disabilities are men. If you then compound that with the sheer amount of men who play compared with women, it's not surprising at all that you don't particularly see many women who are world-class, but in the middling ranks you still see plenty of competent women, probably around proportional with how many play. Similarly I can't think of a single whale who's been female. Part of this also may have to do with the gender pay gap, and someone with a ton of extra cash to blow being more likely to be male, but I don't know.
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those are both really good points!

A2345Razz said:
Selbst is a tremendous NLH donkament player; lets not conflate that with being one of the best POKER PLAYERS in the world- those are two entirely different things.
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DONKAMENT player? really? $25,000 mixed match is a donkament? you've got one guy complaining she's overrated because all her buy ins are so high her wins aren't "worth" as much...then you've got THIS guy saying she plays donkaments....

ya can't win.

bredaman7 said:
Stupid post. Where is the study which shows women is no good at poker? google Vicky coren. Why woman rarely wins? because there are more sticks than holes!
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I love the spirit and simplicity of this post. YOU, good sir, are a gentleman and a scholar....and a stick.

nsinalis11 said:
Womens can do nothing right and if they do a men helped them.
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excellent point! My husband is actually typing this for me since I cannot EVER seem to nothing right!

Rain92 said:
Its simple. Women are more emotional creatures compared to men and we all know that that does not bode well in poker. Im guessing some cry and unable to handle bad beats and tilt all the way. Awaiting gender discrimination comments..
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while on average women may be more emotional creatures, you do realize there are A LOT more emotions than just sadness and crying, right? crying over a bad beat is just laughable. I've never seen any woman in a poker room crying....not a dealer, not a player, not a ****tail waitress...never seen a chick cry in a poker room.

I have seen this guy cry at the poker table though:
 
I think that's relative. Poker was believed to be a men's game, most people keep thinking that . I don't like playing with women much (I know it sounds stupi, i'm a girl) but they often play too loose and lie in a way that it's obvious so at the end Ive seen them losing.
 
Not sure that is true

I'm not sure that is true. Do you have any stats on that.

mange1234
 
The simple answer is a lot of them suck and can't play for shit. I can only name two women who come to mind when I think of good solid female players, Selbst + Anette Obrestad ( think I got that right). I think in general though it's just because not a lot of females play therefore it seems there not as successful when that probably isn't the case.
 
I don't think ALOT of women are interested in poker. Kind of like other sports. Of all the women i know myself and my mother are the only ones who play. I have tried to get a few home games started and my female friends are like what for???
 
missjacki said:
those are both really good points!

DONKAMENT player? really? $25,000 mixed match is a donkament? you've got one guy complaining she's overrated because all her buy ins are so high her wins aren't "worth" as much...then you've got THIS guy saying she plays donkaments....

ya can't win.

I love the spirit and simplicity of this post. YOU, good sir, are a gentleman and a scholar....and a stick.


excellent point! My husband is actually typing this for me since I cannot EVER seem to nothing right!

while on average women may be more emotional creatures, you do realize there are A LOT more emotions than just sadness and crying, right? crying over a bad beat is just laughable. I've never seen any woman in a poker room crying....not a dealer, not a player, not a ****tail waitress...never seen a chick cry in a poker room.

I have seen this guy cry at the poker table though:
Matt Affleck vs. Jonathan Duhamel - YouTube
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ive never laughed so hard
 
basse said:
A shocking amount of sexism in this thread (veiled and unveiled)... And I am male, for the record.

It's pretty obvious that there are far far fewer female players than male players. Thus, you will also see far less female top players. Of course, one can easily dig a little deeper, and come up with all sorts of societal reasons as well. Obviously men are brought up to be more competitive and aggressive, as well as encouraged to pursue math-oriented interests. These are all qualities that would be helpful in poker.

That said, I still think that it's largely a numbers game. There seems to be an increasing female interest in the sciences and math, maybe this will translate to more good female poker players in the future.
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Seems like you're not even entertaining the possibility the many immutable and undeniable biological differences between the sexes have SOME role in the discrepancy between achievement.


p.s.


I use the term donkament to describe all tournaments......Vanessa Selbst is almost certainly one of the top 25 donkament players on earth; she is NOT a top 25 holdem player, no. Furthermore she probably isn't a top 100 overall player either, though she has dabbled in the mixed games from what i've seen.

It is what it is....she is an amazing player at probably what is the most popular form of poker right now, congrats.

It is well known that the distribution patters of intelligence are actually fairly divergent between men and women; it be hard for me to buy that those phenomena play NO ROLE in disparities between men's and women's achievement at VERY HIGHLY DEMANDING fields where often the entry point IQ wise is over 130-140 points.

I would add there are almost certainly environmental factors as well.....
 
Good question. I don't think there are as many women playing as men, and that may be part of it. However, it could also have to do with playing emotionally. I could be completely wrong, and I'm just taking a guess, but I've noticed that some of the females I've played poker with tend to try really hard not to show any emotion at all (anger, frustration, disbelief, etc). This may possibly be because women are generally labeled as more emotional, and they are consciously or subconsciously playing with that label in mind (fighting against the label). That label plus being a minority at most poker tables may lead them to not being entirely comfortable in the environment. Those factors might have some affect on the way they play. I personally play better when my mind is clear of all distractions - when I'm really comfortable in my environment. After typing all of that, I'd like to add that I have been knocked out of several tournaments by women. haha
 
missjacki said:
while on average women may be more emotional creatures, you do realize there are A LOT more emotions than just sadness and crying, right? crying over a bad beat is just laughable. I've never seen any woman in a poker room crying....not a dealer, not a player, not a ****tail waitress...never seen a chick cry in a poker room.
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Have seen this actually a couples times... Most memorable was when some stupid chick started crying at $1/$2 because I shipped her preflop with JJ and she was considering laying down QQ..
 
This might be a hasty generalization and a biased superstition, but every time I get into a hand with a woman (I'd know by her username, or if it's announced in chat, etc.,) or in person, even, I swear that they either have pocket queens or some form of the queen and even if I have a decent hand, I usually fold if a queen pops up anywhere. Call me crazy. ??? lol.
 
women in poker is not enough. This applies to both online and off-line professional poker. And this is not surprising : after all, by their nature tend to save a woman more and save rather than risk a card - it is always a risk , even if it is a very strong player
It has long been demonstrated that women have somewhat different reaction rate. They slowly make decisions , less risk and more prone to displays of emotion.
 
women do not have time to deal poker, their little disposition to poker , and those who play , play at a high level , can give many guys frying
 
women likes many other things , but in poker is not enough time , and if it is to plant at this game , it will not wean
 
Happy International Women's Day to all womans, especially to those one playing poker...🙂
 
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