No Male Poker Player Registered for WSOP 2013 Ladies Event
The World Series of Poker (WSOP) $1k Ladies NLHE Championship attracted a field of 954 female poker players, and for the first time in several years, no male poker player registered for the event.
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The exclusive poker tournament for ladies was launched in 1977 for the benefit of the ladies who accompanied male poker players to the event. For the first two decades of its history, it was a $100 Seven Card Stud Tournament, but was changed into a NLHE tournament in 2001. In 1992, the $100 buy-in of the event was raised to $1000 and has remained so to this date. When the WSOP released its schedule in February, players observed that the buy-in was raised to $10,000 with a 90 percent discount for female poker players.
The WSOP, which made these changes in a bid to prevent male poker players from buying into the exclusive ladies poker event, has confirmed that the no male player registered for the event this year.
Danielle Andersen, a lead character of the poker-related documentary called “Bet Raise Fold,” called it a great change. She said: “I think it’s important for women to have a safe environment where they can learn poker and just enjoy themselves. The guys who registered in the past were perhaps ruining that environment for a lot of the women.”
Although no male poker took part in the event this year, Andersen feels that the new rule will not stop men from registering for a long time. She said: “If it remains a $10k buy-in, surely a man will lose a prop bet or just want stir up controversy for no good reason.”
While lauding the WSOP for thinking of an excellent solution to the problem of men registering for the ladies-only event, Lauren Billings said that she wished the WSOP did not have to take this extreme step. She said: “I wish that players were classy enough to respect the fact that it should be exclusive. There are other bracelet events and so many more other tournaments around town that they don’t need to step the boundaries just to cause a ruckus.”
Jackie Glazier, professional poker player at Ivey Poker, who played the ladies-only event for the first time this year, said that there should be no objection to men buying into the event for $10k as female poker players will be delighted to add the extra $9k to the prize pool.
