I really enjoy Amanda Botfeld's writing (and her background story)...and this also relates to her previous article concerning Lisa Vanderpump being invited to the
wsop to open the series. I think this underlines an idiotic poker industry view of both promotion and women.
How about the WSOP being 'shuffle up and dealt!' by one of the top women's players in recent years, Kirsten Bicknell or Maria Lampropoulos? Now imagine for a few seconds half the fellas reading this will go Maria who?...and then you realize, Houston we have a problem - joke, not joke.
I understand why Botfeld includes the Negreanu quote, but it actually grated on me to a degree because I recall the spirit with which it was given. Negreanu was essentially saying it was a waste of time to promote to women as if it was proven and logical (DAT Poker Podcast). However, and this is relevant, Negreanu paints himself a liberal, yet his politics don't run deep and he frequently takes a chauvinistic take on things. Negreanu threw Vanessa Kade under the bus when she was enduring flak from several parties, he backed Dan Bilzerian being hired by GG and then of late seemed to think it cool to delight in the Johnny Depp Amanda Heard trial - Heard was the witch and Johnny just the forgivable bad boy. He even showed the first few days of the WSOP in a Depp T Shirt.
In fact, talking of poker players who think they are worldly wise, Matt Berkey made a similar point regarding the 'data' on promoting the game to women but at least he had Jamie Kerstetter on the show. Kerstetter pushed back and pointed out that just because poker had tried things and they did not generate the desired response, does not indicate women are simply not interested in poker. Maybe the manner of promotion was ineffectual. Further, you'd have to be a fool not to see the damage that the hiring of a Dan Bilzerian did to the industry -I would argue one deliberate chauvinistic move set the industry back years in terms of women's interest.
So I'll now repeat what I have said before.
The poker industry's approach to women needs to be long term and flexible and that means addressing the chauvinistic element found in poker in the same manner any other industry has. Not too long ago numerous industries were off limits to women for no other reason than the stupid idea women were not fit for the purpose, whether that was a jet pilot, a truck driver or a CEO. Once those barriers were breached women advanced, slowly at first but now to the point that no one questions a women running a Fortune Five Hundred company.
So the first thing that needs to be done is that women are welcomed unequivocally and before anyone gets defensive let's remind ourselves a few percent of women enter to play the WSOP main event. That speaks volumes. The biggest single tourney in the calendar year and women avoid it.
However, the same applies to Bridge and to Chess where sexism have long since been admitted with very little done to rectify those situations either. And note, no one is arguing there would be sexual parity within these games if the male condescension was dialed back. I think a certain type of man is drawn to gamble and to poker with the same equivalence not found within the female community. However, if the long terms goal was to increase women's participation to 20% to 25% of the field then the effect on tournaments and the prize pools would be profound.
Finally, I invariably mention another under-marketed segment of society for perspective where the poker industry seems rudderless and that is of marketing to seniors. By this I mean the over fifties as an entry point. Yes, you see plenty of older guys at the WSOP, but they are in the main poker veterans (amateur and pros). What you do not see is many new poker players in that age group and this is another glaringly obvious market which could be tapped, yet isn't.
There are several million guys in the US, Europe and Asia who have done well in life and indulge in expensive pastimes. They golf, they own yachts, they travel, in short they spend billions on their hobbies. It would seem easy to target these guys because they are successful and smart, ambitious and competitive. I can imagine it would both be exciting and rewarding if some dropped a gold round every month to go play poker with the chance of actually winning money and coming out 'ahead for the game'. But, I would love to see the figures of any given tourney to see how many are new players over fifty who just came to the game. I bet the neighbors first born they would only be a percent or two at best...if that.
In their case, I am sure at a quick glance it another type of image problem, where so many in the poker media pretend one and all need to be hoodie wearing, twenty something, GTO experts who have been crushing and playing millions of
hands on line to be credible.
But, increase the number of women and the seniors into the game and the entire poker eco-system would be lot wealthier and happier.
