Why are there fewer top women poker players?

Why is there more men then womern in the top poker player?

I assume that more men play then women. But there are some extremely talented female poker players that are very good and profit from the game. Vanessa Selbst comes to mind.

Like many other sports and games historically speaking, women used to be discouraged from playing (or at least encouraged less often to play). This is changing; now the poker community seems to welcome women, but they still are far from the numbers of men who play poker.

There have been many great poker players who are women (Vanessa Selbst, Vanessa Roussou, Liv Boree, Mario Ho, Carrie Lew and many more [also edit on spelling if I got any names wrong]).

It is still the fact that most poker players are men, so naturally that is why most at the top are men; interesting will be to see the ratio of men to women in the poker world in a decade or two :flowers:

Cause gambling isn’t in a Mother Nature. A mother wouldn’t gamble with the lives of there children while males in the animal world kill children.

Phoenix Wright said:

Like many other sports and games historically speaking, women used to be discouraged from playing (or at least encouraged less often to play). This is changing; now the poker community seems to welcome women, but they still are far from the numbers of men who play poker.

There have been many great poker players who are women (Vanessa Selbst, Vanessa Roussou, Liv Boree, Mario Ho, Carrie Lew and many more [also edit on spelling if I got any names wrong]).

It is still the fact that most poker players are men, so naturally that is why most at the top are men; interesting will be to see the ratio of men to women in the poker world in a decade or two :flowers:

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Haven’t looked, but any of those pro women poker players have children?

YYfourU said:

Haven’t looked, but any of those pro women poker players have children?

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I'm not too sure, but I'd imagine most don't for a different reason. Being a high stakes pro requires not only a lot of skill, but also a lot of travel and/or long hours; this is not as easy do with with a family. It is no surprise most poker players at the highest levels usually make it to the top while they are single (men or women) and if they do get married/have children, then they will usually want to spend more time with them and less time on poker (as Johnathan Little has done by posting poker content and spending time with family, rather than playing as much poker himself).

I'm not saying it is impossible (many pros are married and/or have children), but usually this isn't the case, or they are so successful at poker that they can "afford" to put in less hours at the tables compared to what they used to do.

I haven't checked much either, but I imagine most women in poker are single...but that isn't gender based because I think most men in poker are single too.

Basically, being a high stakes pro is very demanding.

Just fifty years ago the majority of women were not yet in the workplace.

Fifty percent of single women and and forty percent of married women were not yet apart of the official workforce in the 70s. To have made the gains they have done in the ensuing years is nothing short of phenomenal, particularly as few if any professions are now regarded as solely a man's domain.

The key issue faced by women regarding poker was for decades they were essentially barred from playing the game- it was completely frowned upon. It could be argued a legacy of that would be the patronizing attitude many women still face when attempting to enter the game, a matter which has been discussed on these very boards.

I'd love to say that within ten years there will be a marked increase in women playing but I am not sure of that (sadly). Last bastion syndrome. Just this wsop you had yet another manly-man insert himself into the women's tournament and Phil Helmuth go on yet another vulgar rant. As I have noted before, I think many on the periphery of poker witnessing such things, newbies let alone women, do not find the game as much of a draw as they should.

As for the animal kingdom take, I find that a stretch. Contemporary males aren't out on the plain taking down buffalo. And if they hunt that would likely be with the use of a high powered hunting rifle from a few hundred yards away. Not exactly the days of yore. Is it a thing men kill their 'step' children to insert themselves into a household? I don't think so...we now have 'stay at home dads'.

If there was a marked decrease in chauvinism I think the women's game would grow rapidly, but I think ultimately it will be gradual generational change. In the interim many women will prefer to attend their own tournaments - which by the by do show strong growth.

because there are few women professionals, and there are much more men, therefore they are not in the top

I think this is not true as there are many top players that are women. The problem is possible how you look at the top players. If your looking at the top 10 or 20 yes there all male but why? Many of these players just play everything they can and with so much volume they naturally will end up higher. Most of the lady I know believe in having a life outside other things and this is probably part of the reason you wont see them in the top ten. Its not there skill but they want a life. Another issue is to be honest, 98% if not more players and male. Just the sheer volume on male to females' player is part of the issue as well.

FYI there are 4 female players in the GPI ranked in the top 200 including the 28th best player in the world.
#28 Nadya Magnus
#130 Katie Lindsay
#150 Kyna England
#195 Kristen "Krissyb24" Bicknel

I think that if there are women playing poker, but not many, I think the truth is for several reasons, often women have more responsibilities at home and that is why you do not see many playing, when you have a family, it is a bit complicated to take this sport always, that's my opinion.

like most stats everything is open to interpretation,your ranking player by their results in tournaments ,what about the hundreds that don't touch trny's but just play cash,I,m sure their are lots of nameless faceless player's out there that are just as good or better then any of the one's mentioned,poker has such a large player pool any of the rankings are solely based on trny play,poker in my opinion is by far the hardest game in the world to say this person is the best,so my best guess is that there is a ton of excellent women player's we just don,t know them

I think because of the resistance at the effort and of course they are very discouraged, I don't understand why they are looked at differently, they should be much more encouraged to play especially in the current poker system, where there are so many tournaments

Because poker is a board game that is more suitable for men

mimietmour said:

Why is there more men then womern in the top poker player?

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Probably because more men than women play poker in general. If the number of players, women and men were the same, I think we would see a lot of women, professional players. Personally, I think that women are better players than men. Usually women are more patient and think better about their decisions.

It's harder for us, we're more emotional than men.

Because they can not reach top in almost everything. they can not spend as much time as man for example.

neagranufan19380 said:

It's harder for us, we're more emotional than men.

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That might be a description of a weak/recreational player who is playing for fun or playing on tilt.
Have you ever donated your chips to the short stack at the table? I dont think so. Also men have emotions as well and women can take the game seriously…
Although poker is a game where you have incomplete information and you need to take risk which is against human nature and men are more likely to take risks then women.
If the question is about top players i agree its more about the volumes.
As gender roles are more equal than earlier might you see more top player ladies.

volume

mimietmour said:

Why is there more men then womern in the top poker player?

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because if you look at the number of men who play poker in the world it must be 10x greater than the number of women who play poker