Why Don’t More Women Play Poker? Leading Poker Ladies Unite for Change
Robbie Strazynski
Rock Star
Silver Level
Damn, that's some serious research you did there - kudos!
Well, you certainly have a good point. I suppose the wsop itself could indeed make it more of a priority to report on Ladies Events and spread the word via their social channels... the rest of the poker media could then latch on, etc.
I'm going to reach out to Nolan Dalla and Jessica Welman of the WSOP Media team and tell them about this thread to see what they have to say. Maybe they'll even comment here?
Regards,
Robbie
rifflemao
Pugs Not Drugs
Silver Level
I have a spreadsheet...
Thanks for reaching out to them. I sent an email to WSOP but I'm not sure if it will get to the right person. To be fair, the links I included show that they've historically made a strong effort to report on the LE's, but it would be cool to see them continue the effort. :top:
S3mper
Poker Not Checkers
Loyaler
They need to get the word out more widespread media and not on poker channels such as ESPN. I mean its widespread but more men are watching that then women, they need some commercials on more women type shows
Robbie Strazynski
Rock Star
Silver Level
I have a spreadsheet...
Thanks for reaching out to them. I sent an email to WSOP but I'm not sure if it will get to the right person. To be fair, the links I included show that they've historically made a strong effort to report on the LE's, but it would be cool to see them continue the effort. :top:
No probs...let's see what they say.
Robbie Strazynski
Rock Star
Silver Level
Okay, so here's the emailed response from Jessica Welman, who manages the WSOP.com site from the media end.
She was kind enough to allow me to copy/paste it here directly:
Hi Robbie,
I did see how much buzz your article seems to be generating. I enjoyed it myself and am always glad when someone brings up gender issues in the poker world.
I’m also more than impressed that someone did that much research on our blog content. To be honest, we just don’t have the staffers to cover the non-ring events at the Circuit, especially the Ladies Event, which more often than not, coincides with the Main Event of that stop. Much like the Seniors Event, we don’t consider these ring events because we don’t want to give out Circuit points to ring events that limit who can play. So, when it comes time to delegate how much our one staffer on site at Circuits writes about an event, these tournaments just tend to not get more than a mention or two in the blog. I certainly wish we had the ability to do so, but the timing of the schedule during the Main, when the Blog generally gets a little neglected, just makes it too complicated.
This is actually a problem we’ve run into during the summer—we haven’t been able to have the Ladies event on the feature stream with Tuchman so far. The problem is that we can’t justify putting that event on the feature table when other events, like the One Drop High Roller, are taking place at the same time. As a female, I obviously would love for us to include them in the stream, but I don’t think it necessarily helps the women in poker cause to pre-empt something with a large buy-in or field size for an event with a smaller buy-in and smaller field size just because it is the Ladies Event, you know?
We do try to denote when women succeed on the Circuit and at the WSOP though. Last year, there was an unprecedented level of success and participation from women on the Circuit, followed by Circuit reg Loni Harwood’s bracelet win. I personally did a lot of writing trying to draw attention to her performance and the performance of women overall at the WSOP, but sometimes we are limited by the amount of data we have at our disposal.
Hope that gives you a little insight, but if you guys have any other questions, happy to answer them.
Jessica
She was kind enough to allow me to copy/paste it here directly:
Hi Robbie,
I did see how much buzz your article seems to be generating. I enjoyed it myself and am always glad when someone brings up gender issues in the poker world.
I’m also more than impressed that someone did that much research on our blog content. To be honest, we just don’t have the staffers to cover the non-ring events at the Circuit, especially the Ladies Event, which more often than not, coincides with the Main Event of that stop. Much like the Seniors Event, we don’t consider these ring events because we don’t want to give out Circuit points to ring events that limit who can play. So, when it comes time to delegate how much our one staffer on site at Circuits writes about an event, these tournaments just tend to not get more than a mention or two in the blog. I certainly wish we had the ability to do so, but the timing of the schedule during the Main, when the Blog generally gets a little neglected, just makes it too complicated.
This is actually a problem we’ve run into during the summer—we haven’t been able to have the Ladies event on the feature stream with Tuchman so far. The problem is that we can’t justify putting that event on the feature table when other events, like the One Drop High Roller, are taking place at the same time. As a female, I obviously would love for us to include them in the stream, but I don’t think it necessarily helps the women in poker cause to pre-empt something with a large buy-in or field size for an event with a smaller buy-in and smaller field size just because it is the Ladies Event, you know?
We do try to denote when women succeed on the Circuit and at the WSOP though. Last year, there was an unprecedented level of success and participation from women on the Circuit, followed by Circuit reg Loni Harwood’s bracelet win. I personally did a lot of writing trying to draw attention to her performance and the performance of women overall at the WSOP, but sometimes we are limited by the amount of data we have at our disposal.
Hope that gives you a little insight, but if you guys have any other questions, happy to answer them.
Jessica
rifflemao
Pugs Not Drugs
Silver Level
Thanks Robbie, and thanks for responding, Jessica. Staffing and tourney scheduling conflicts are understandable, and I certainly don't know all the variables that go into reporting on multiple events. But while I would not expect to see play-by-play updates on the Circuit Ladies Events, I wonder how much effort it would really take to report the winners.
Back in January, I played Event 12 at Choctaw Durant and made it to day 2 which ran next to the Main Event final table. There were hard copies of tournament results posted along the far right wall not far from the Main Event. Assuming the Ladies Event results were listed along with the others, all it would take to get them would be to snap a photo with a phone, and you'd have a report of the final table and the winner to write up on the blog. It seems a matter of deciding that the Circuit Ladies Events are newsworthy again, as they apparently have been in the past. Loni Harwood's win of the Ladies Event at Palm Beach Kennel Club was reported just over a year ago for example.
I don't want my opinion on a specific issue this season to take away from the overall great reporting however. You and the WSOP Media Team bring on a lot of excitement about the game through your writing, which helps to inspire a lot of dreams for future Circuit grinders.
Thanks for listening.
rifflemao
Pugs Not Drugs
Silver Level
So no report on the WSOPC Ladies Event pendant winner at The Lodge in Blackhawk last Sunday, even though the LE did not conflict with the Main Event of this Circuit stop, but hey...we got two reports on the hockey playoffs and a plug for the omelets at Sunday Brunch!
http://blog.wsop.com/2014/04/lets-play-hockey/
http://blog.wsop.com/2014/04/game-7-baby/
http://blog.wsop.com/2014/04/sunday-brunch/
(also non-ring events, btw)
It is what it is...
http://blog.wsop.com/2014/04/lets-play-hockey/
http://blog.wsop.com/2014/04/game-7-baby/
http://blog.wsop.com/2014/04/sunday-brunch/
(also non-ring events, btw)
It is what it is...
K
KatieStone
Rising Star
Bronze Level
When ladies see other ladies playing poker, having fun and doing well it can inspire them to have similar goals. It can also ignite a passion they never knew existed. Not covering the ladies events at the circuit stops and other places is counter-productive long term and will not bring more women to the game.
Arjonius
Legend
Silver Level
It would be great to see more women playing poker. That said, I think the deck is stacked against seeing a rapid increase. For the WSOP and any other poker business, it's ultimately about how to allocate limited resources so as to achieve the best bang for the buck with respect to its goals. Among other things, this means they won't allocate much of those resources to getting more women into the game until they decide it's a high enough priority to shift resources from other initiatives that are currently regarded as more important and/or productive.
Debi
Forum Admin
Administrator
So no report on the WSOPC Ladies Event pendant winner at The Lodge in Blackhawk last Sunday, even though the LE did not conflict with the Main Event of this Circuit stop, but hey...we got two reports on the hockey playoffs and a plug for the omelets at Sunday Brunch!
http://blog.wsop.com/2014/04/lets-play-hockey/
http://blog.wsop.com/2014/04/game-7-baby/
http://blog.wsop.com/2014/04/sunday-brunch/
(also non-ring events, btw)
That is sad ^^^
Totally agree.
Faust
Enthusiast
Silver Level
You seem to have it very clear, i have the same opinion as you.
Answering to the question of the thread, i believe that's a problem of beliefs and interests. There's still many people that think that poker is gambling, while actually it is a game of skill (or at least that's my opinion). People that think like that is not really interested in changing their beliefs because simply they don't care, until they become to get interested in poker (for some reason of life) they simply will refuse to learn/play.
What i said applies for both men and women, however men tend to spend more time gaming, and that's a strong reason.
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rifflemao
Pugs Not Drugs
Silver Level
Agreed here too. Found out the winner of the Ladies Event at WSOPC Black Hawk was Teresa Hemingway, a well-known local player with several impressive scores including 1st in the 2013 HPT Main Event at Black Hawk for $226,463. Her win in the LE along with previous accomplishments would have certainly made for an inspiring story at WSOP. What a missed opportunity to report on a great player.
At least Ante Up had it right:
Hemingway's Poker Story Is Worth Telling
rifflemao
Pugs Not Drugs
Silver Level
From a business standpoint, that's most likely a -EV proposition- a lot of expense to cover one tournament. Those of us who play circuit events at local-ish stops could get pics and information to support reporting efforts though, kind of like a CC on-location team. I could do it at Choctaw and Bossier City...after busting out of course.
Hopefully we'll see some great pics and reports from the summer tournaments that CCers are involved in.