Are Women Taking Over the World of Poker?

Poker was once considered a game for men, but this is no longer the case. Even though men continue to dominate this game, women are definitely making quick inroads onto professional levels. It may be true that women have never won in main no-limit events of Texas Hold’em; however, Annie Duke was able to beat her brother and several other legends of poker to win two million dollars at the Tournament of Champions in World Series Poker in 2005.

Considered as one of the best professional women players in poker tournaments, Jennifer Harman from Las Vegas is an animalistic and widely-feared high-stakes competitor. As a matter of fact, Daniel Negreanu, one of the top players, has once stated that Jennifer Harman was considered as one of the best players in the world by her peers. “She is deadly,” Daniel said. “A real pit bull within the body of a Chihuahua.”

For the very first time within the 35 years that the Poker World Series has been around, some women have become recognized as completely equal competitors with top male players. Jennifer Tilly, the actress who was nominated for an Academy Award for her “Bullets over Broadway” performance – the comedy by Woody Allen, surprised everybody with her cool determination and skills in playing high-stakes. Jennifer recently won the event of Ladies No-limit Hold’em event, bagging the prize money worth $158,625. There is also Cathy Liebert, who is an expert at completely confusing her opponents with quizzical expressions. Cathy also happens to be the very first woman to win a million dollars in competitions of poker tournaments. People also need to look out for a woman named Cyndy Violette. She oftentimes wins some good money, like when she came in second among more than a thousand players within a $2,000 showdown of No-limit Hold’em, winning her $295,970.

The main event of the Poker World Series in 2005 required a buy-in of $10,000 and had 2,576 entrees in total; 130 of these were female. Within this tournament, the person that ranked as number 21 in the entire field was female, as well: Suzanne Carpenter.

One great example of the speed that women are now taking to high-stakes poker tournaments is unprecedented. 600 women took part at the event of Ladies No-limit Texas Hold’em event in 2006, where Jennifer Tilly won. This is almost thrice as many women compared to the amount that played within the exact same tournament two years before that.

Women are entering high-stakes poker tournaments in amounts that are quickly increasing, showing tenacity and skills that have thrown several veteran male poker players, a lot of which believed that female players are easy to intimidate and disrupt with their strategies. At the same time, a lot of women played far too aggressively against men as their defense mechanism. Men and women are still learning how to respect each other as equals, while a lot of male high profile players start to appreciate and even publicly praise the playing skills that top women competitors have exhibited so far.