Poker Powher was established in 2019 with the goal to empower more women to take up playing poker. The global poker market whether live poker or online poker is dominated by men and there has been a cry from different stakeholders to get more women involved in poker for the last few years.
Female poker players have said in the past that they feel discriminated against at the poker tables as their male counterparts often make sexist remarks and are not very welcoming at the poker table.
Poker Powher wanted to help women overcome these challenges and has signed a number of top ambassadors to help promote the mission. Some of these ambassadors include Maria Konnikova, Jennifer Shahade and Xuan Liu.
Powher Changed To Power
The name Poker Powher was deliberately chosen to show the poker community that the focus and push for the organization would be on the ‘her’ part as their goal was to get more women to play poker and feel comfortable doing so. However, the organization decided to quietly change its name from Powher to Power.
Erin Lydon, GM for Poker Power said that the organization decided that it was the right time for them to change the name from Powher to Power as they wanted to be inclusive of all women even though who did not identify themselves as females but wanted to be called by other pronouns.
With a name like Powher, one might feel discriminated and think that it was only the female gender that Poker Powher was looking out for. The name change will make it clear that women who want to be referred to by different pronouns would also get the same amount of attention and help and don’t need to be identified by ‘her’.
Mission Will Not Change    
Lydon said that while the organization changed its name to be more all-inclusive of different genders, their mission will not change. The mission of Poker Power is to educate women on poker and teach them to play and enjoy the game in a safe and inclusive manner.
The organization teamed up with the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University to launch a course that combined business and poker. This six-week course saw 99 women enroll and learn a combination of business lessons, poker theory and enjoy some free-to-play poker lessons to get the practical aspect of the game down.
During the pandemic when things were in lockdown mode, Poker Power offered a virtual learning model that allowed women to continue their education online. The course turned out to be a great success and based on the response, Kellogg has decided to bring it back again in 2022. However, this time around it will be part of the Executive MBA program on offer. Poker Power has a number of new initiatives planned in the coming months as it looks to reach out to and impact even more women.
Lydon said that by the end of 2021, Poker Power should have helped more than 10,000 women. Poker Power has made an impact in just about every state across the country but has also reached out and made a difference in 20 countries around the world.
First Poker Establishment To Adopt Gender Inclusion
Poker Power has now become the first prominent poker organization to openly make changes to cater to the sensitivities of individuals who want to be called by different pronouns. While the issue of different pronouns for different people can create quite a controversy, Poker Power was up for the challenge and has set a new trend for the global poker industry.