Not too long ago, Poker Powher in conjunction with the World College Poker organized an international online poker tournament for women on Pokerstars.net. The poker tournament, which was scheduled on March 27th, was organized to celebrate Women’s History Month in 2021.
This isn’t the first time that Poker Powher has held a free-to-play event designed to draw more female poker players into the fold. Poker Powher was formed to teach female executives how to play poker. The World College of Poker, on the other hand, is a top supplier of on-site poker education, as well as tournaments.
What we cover
While public awareness of poker has grown warmer over the last couple of years
The tournament saw 9 ladies reach the final table. As part of the prizes, Poker Powher donated a ladies-only poker night for the top participants. A vacation package to Cancun sponsored by PLOQuickPro.com was also included in the prize package. Additional prizes consisted of private poker lessons with some of the top coaches at PokerCoaching.com.
Among the best female poker players to attend this tournament included well-known pros such as Melanie Weisner and Xuan Liu, who was also the tournament’s commentator. To help the participants prepare, Poker Powher and the College hosted online webinar lessons for beginners. The online webinar was recorded and later streamed on YouTube for easy access.
PokerStars has always been a huge supporter of the growth of female poker participation. For years, the poker operator has been fostering a competitive environment for female poker players. So much so that the global card room created a female-led poker community for female poker players to not only learn from one another but also share their experiences in hopes of inspiring other women to join the female poker movement.
The initiative, which is known as Our Voices, will feature community members’ perspectives on several different issues. In turn, Poker stars will take these shared opinions and use them to develop a great product and gaming environment for female poker players. This is the first time that the international poker room has made a centralized effort to collect data that will help to create a better playing environment for female poker players around the world.
Women’s participation in poker has skyrocketed
Once considered a man’s game, female participation in professional poker has skyrocketed over the last couple of years. Classic poker games such as Texas hold’em have always been regarded as men’s games. However, a large number of professional poker players are now women ever since Norwegian 18-year-old Annette Obrestad walked away with the £1 million first prize during 2007’s World Series of Poker Main Event Europe.
While the public’s perception about women in poker has grown more tolerant over the last couple of years, many still see the sports as primarily male-oriented. Organizations like Poker Powher have been working hard to clean up this image while demonstrating poker’s ability to transform the player’s lives economically.
Today, not only has it become more socially acceptable for females to play poker, but major tournaments such as the World Series of Poker encourage women to sign up. This is in addition to hosting various women-only poker events that aim to accommodate this new eager group of poker players. The growth of women in poker has occurred both on and offline where a lot has been done to promote ladies’ involvement in the game.
As more women keep getting into the game, we can expect to see even more breakout stars and victories both on the local and the international stage. But there is still a long way to go. Even though the shift that has taken place so far has been big, the presence of female poker players is nowhere close to what the male presence is. However, we’re making baby steps to get there.
Take a close look at the high-profile poker tournaments that are thrown these days; the number of female competitors is growing by the day. Poker players like Barbara Enright, who made history by becoming the first woman inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame, in 2007, along with “Poker Brat” Phil Hellmuth, have helped set the tone for other female poker players to follow.
Other formidable female poker players that have helped to set the standard include Vanessa Selbst, the only woman ever to have held first ranking on the Global Poker Index. ‘JJ’, Joanne Liu who’s also one of the few women to be inaugurated in the Women’s Poker hall of fame. Examples of other top female poker players include Vanessa Rousso, Jennifer Harman, Victoria Coren Mitchell, Maria Ho, and more.
More operators are now stepping up in a bid to get more female players interested in the fame. Some tournaments such as World Series of Poker have even introduced lower buy-in at female-only events in the past just to get more players to sign up. Casinos are also getting in on the action and many are inviting more women to attend poker casino seminars in an effort to change the male-oriented arrogance that had existed for years.
If more women are going to feel more comfortable, the way poker is marketed also needs to change. At most TV poker events and tournaments, the commentators are typically men while the models are women. Scenes like these need to be done away with if more women are to sign up without any fear of feeling sexualized.
Final Thoughts
Unlike most other casino games, poker is anyone’s game. Even though there is always an element of luck to every win, it is mostly skill that is required. And poker skill doesn’t discriminate based on gender.
The only way to make poker less of a man’s game is to invite more women to sit at the table. With organizations like PokerPowher, it is not hard to imagine a woman as a WSOP main event champion. As long as women receive adequate support, a female WSOP Main Event Champion could just be around the corner.
