WSOP Ladies Final Sparks Debate - Transgender Player Finishes 2nd

"Williams, a transgender woman, entered today's Day 3 tied with the chip lead. And while her table mates greeted her with friendly smiles and open arms, her deep run created a stir in some anti-transgender social media circles.

But Williams was unfazed, telling PokerNews on break that she doesn't monitor social media and that no one that she's played with has had an issue with her. And when asked why she played in the Ladies Championship, her answer was simple.

"I'm a woman, so I play in the women's event," Williams told PokerNews. "It's not like making a statement or anything. I'm just playing a tournament.""

What's with this, then? Does being biologically male give an advantage in poker? Or was it somehow making biologically female players uncomfortable in some way?

puzzlefish said:

What's with this, then? Does being biologically male give an advantage in poker? Or was it somehow making biologically female players uncomfortable in some way?

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The article didn't address your first question, and in regards to the second according to the article other players were comfortable playing with her.

What I don't like is that the article (as well as all that I read in Facebook regarding this last night) did not call a single person who was upset about her playing. Not one name mentioned anywhere I have read about it.

These assholes need to be publicly called out for their behavior.

Name em and shame em is my view - pathetic people.

and well said Ashley - "im just playing a tourney". Damn straight.

Fk the haters.

I look forward to watching the final table. This crazy hand was courageous for both players. Skye really had to earn this one.

Isn't the ladies event open to everyone, but women get a discount on the buy in?

moots said:

Isn't the ladies event open to everyone, but women get a discount on the buy in?

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Correct. For a public accommodation to discriminate based upon sex would be a violation of the Civil Rights Act. Personally I think that the higher entry fee for non-women would also qualify as discrimination based upon sex. Of course it would probably cost someone a whole lot more than $9,000 to contest it in court so that will probably never happen.

But that really has no bearing on this post because Aubrey Williams is a woman so she would just pay the $1,000 entry fee anyways. Even more importantly, why would someone want to enter an event which wasn't intended to include them to begin with?

This is the type of hot button topic that I tend to avoid as some people take things too seriously or worse than people just don't care about your opinion if you don't agree if theirs and just bash your back for not following their belief.

My theory of life is to let people live the way they want to if they're not hurting others or me could who cares. I have known a few people who have made these type of changes from boy to girl and girl to boy. I don't have to understand it I don't have to like it well what is it doing to me? Not a blanking thing. When I was a young kid a young adult people had big issues about homosexuality the comments that were made about those people were rude and people abused them left and right including a friend of mine who turned out to be gay. He would end up moving away from there because of the way people reacted when they did come out? The thing is how many times have you spent over at a friend's House of the same sex I just had a good time hanging out at night guess what if they're having sex who's gonna know unless you tell him? It doesn't matter.

After all this what am I trying to get to I don't agree with the change from one sex to another but if you're chewing it I don't care it's not me. Do I think it's fair to have boys who change over to girls suddenly being women's sports? I think this is the one big issue we could have and I would agree with because even after these changes there are muscular differences that allow the boys to girls change to have a physical advantage. In this aspect I kind of agree with people who say we shouldn't have the intermixed in the sports.

Now As for the poker experience. In this case what advantage does this person have over the other women? I can't think of any to be honest. What do the other women think overall I think that would be more important. One of the top players in the world is a female poker player. Should we only have male tournaments would that be wrong? Now frankly I know men outplay women what is it 95% to 5% play of the female variety so we don't really need mail events. I think any male who joins one of these tournaments is being a jerk about it but this isn't a person who is a typical male being a jerk trying to play in a female's event it's somebody who's made a change and is living a life as a female. I think it's up to the women of the world to make the decision of if this is good or bad not groups who have religious beliefs or transphobic beliefs but if a vast majority of the female players are OK with this and feel that this person is a female like them who cares if they're playing I don't.

Biological men should not be allowed in women's sports because of unfair physiological advantages. That's why there are separate men & women categories. In poker, however, its not a physical competition. That's why there are no men only category. There should not be any women only category either. Anyone should be able to play poker together & have a heck of a time.

YLAN said:

Biological men should not be allowed in women's sports because of unfair physiological advantages.

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You're right.

YLAN said:

Biological men should not be allowed in women's sports because of unfair physiological advantages. That's why there are separate men & women categories. In poker, however, its not a physical competition. That's why there are no men only category. There should not be any women only category either. Anyone should be able to play poker together & have a heck of a time.

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Ladies events are very much so about the vibes. This is pretty clear from the wsop coverage and what competitors say.

The WSOP has poor boundaries but at least there's one space that isnt infested with slimeballs that ruin the game for everyone.

Zorba said:

You're right.

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Is that last photo you Zorba ?

Zorba said:

You're right.

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Oh my, I would date all four before that "sexy" guy...

Ont. Fck all transfobic and homophobic persons (a@@holes)...

Zorba said:

You're right.

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Fantastic cherrypicking.

Males on average are stronger and faster than females.


However, females are WAAAAY better than males at ultra endurance and even sports competitions are likely underselling because very few would want to compete in a competition of carrying 30 lbs 2000km.


From an evolutionary standpoint this makes sense, one male can fertilize 10 females but not vice versa so in the long run it makes more sense for females than males to be adapted for endurance and survival.

I also think this is why most established sports orgs have favored short term sports because it favors men on average. I don't think its a coincidence that the Olympics has no ultra long distance events despite running for a long time being a thing for thousands of years and was humans competitive advantage against most other animals.

It would be far far worse if it was a "funny guy" paying $10k just to have fun.

Happily this is becoming much rarer, because people are understanding that ladies tournaments are made to celebrate women in poker and encourage more women to play a game that was dominated by men.

RENEY444 said:

Is that last photo you Zorba ?

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I wish I looked like that fine specimen of an athlete.

Lodestone said:

Fantastic cherry picking.

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I thought so too.

Dejana said:

Oh my, I would date all four before that "sexy" guy...

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I would too.

YLAN said:

Anyone should be able to play poker together & have a heck of a time.

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They can. They can in every single WSOP Event except for ONE. And that one is for a reason. If you watched or listened to any of the event you'd understand just what the reasons are.

Zorba said:

I wish I looked like that fine specimen of an athlete.

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Nick and I, this is how we roll:

Hope he paid the 10k to enter. Everything else would be nuts.

Personally, I think everyone should be free to identify however they want, and nobody should be treated badly because of it.

That said, I still think biological sex is based on what you're born as. So if you're born a man, I think you're biologically still a man, even if you identify as a woman. You can absolutely identify as a woman if that's who you are, but to me that doesn't change your biological sex.

I know not everyone agrees with that, and that's fine. Everyone's entitled to their own opinion.

Because of that, I also think that if there's a discount or event that's specifically meant for biological women, then someone who was born male should pay the regular price, even if they identify as a woman. In my view, those kinds of things should be based on biological sex, not gender identity.

Poker Orifice said:

They can. They can in every single WSOP Event except for ONE. And that one is for a reason. If you watched or listened to any of the event you'd understand just what the reasons are.

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Not quite true .... there are at least two events limited by age to seniors as well .

RENEY444 said:

Not quite true .... there are at least two events limited by age to seniors as well .

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Not 'at least two'... there's two. If you're going to nitpick something stupid at least be accurate.