A female world champ before 2018?

Author: Simon Dexter

In one of her many post-tournament interviews, former poker reporter Tiffany ‘Hot Chips’ Michelle (such a fantastic name), who won 4k for finishing 17th in the WSOP* main event, said it would be “neat to be viewed in a different way”, by which we think she meant as a poker player too. Tiffany is not exactly from the Germaine Greer school of right-on feminism, but her progress has inspired many more women to believe that they too can compete at poker.

The point is reiterated by Susan Lodge of ukpokeranalytics.com, who says: “Women’s ability to read opponents is significantly greater than men’s and the continued success of people such as Tiffany Michelle, Annie Duke and Annette Obrestad is gradually convincing females that if they apply themselves, poker is a game they should beat men at most of the time.”

There is increasing evidence to suggest that following changes introduced by the 2005 UK Gambling Act, women are significantly more comfortable taking men on at the poker table as legislation finally legalised small-stakes poker games in pubs.

As a consequence, more female poker players are turning up for regular midweek games at local pubs. “I think that once a group of females start getting together and playing poker, it encourages others to come along and have a go,” says Helen Sansom, a Bristol-based student. “Now that we’ve become more confident playing the game,” she says, “a group of us regularly play online or else head off to the pub to play as well. We’ve become much better players as a result.”

Susan Lodge predicts great things for the girls: “Before Mrs Thatcher, people used to say we would never have a female Prime Minister, but she showed that mental strength outweighed physical toughness every time, which made her the most effective occupant of Number 10 for more than 50 years. Could we have a female poker world champion? Of course we could; probably in less than a decade.”

*World Series of Poker and WSOP are trademarks of Harrah’s License Company, LLC (”Harrah’s”). Harrah’s does not sponsor or endorse, and is not associated or affiliated with Littlewoods Gaming or it’s products, services, promotions or tournaments.

Tags: poker, Women, WSOP

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 at 10:32 am and is filed under News & Promotions Blog.