July 6, 2011, - 6:44 pm
BEST. SPORTS. STORY. EVER: Men Invade Women’s Poker Tournament
Well, poker isn’t really a sport. But it is on ESPN, so I guess it’s a pseudo-sport that doesn’t require athleticism. And that’s one of the biggest reasons you gotta love this story. Women have a separate poker tournament, but it begs the question: why? If they are as smart as men, as they claim, they should have no problem competing with men in regular poker tournaments, since poker is not a physical game but a game of reason, logic, and odds. Are they admitting they are weaker in brainpower and IQ? That’s the only conclusion you can draw here. But the best part is that because of the silly gender non-discrimination laws that feminists invented to invade every male institution, men are turning the tables on them. And I love it. Amusing to the nth, especially the men who dressed up as women and beat the women. Take that, Glorias Allred and Steinem.
I cannot find the best article on this, by Gary Mihoces of the USA Today sports section, online, so I am retyping, below, how it appeared in the print edition Tuesday (with my emphasis in bold):
Marsha Wolak of Sarasota, Fla., earned $192,344 by winning the 2011 Ladies Poker World Championship in the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. Runner-up Karina Jett of Henderson, Nev., who is eight months’ [DS: sic] pregnant, won $119,010. And a man made the final table.
Ninth-place finisher Jonathan Epstein of Tustin, Calif., was among 15 men who paid the $1,000 buy-in to join the field of 1,055 for the three-day event. He won $13,701.
The World Series of Poker prefers that only women play the tournament, which began in 1977, but it says it is prevented by law from barring men. “The Ladies event is very special to all the ladies that play in it,” tournament director Jack Effel said before the start of this summer’s WSOP. But, he added, “We can only do what the law will allow us to do.”
And the WSOP Main Event is open to men and women.
Wolak and Jett are professionals. Wolak, a former real estate investor, won the title Saturday by eliminating Jett in heads-up play. Jett, who is married to poker pro Chip Jett, finished fourth in the WSOP women’s championship in 2003 and 2004.
Wolak said in a WSOP press release that she was eliminated from the women’s event last year by a male player dressed as a woman.
“He was kind of making fun of us,” she said. “So last year was not the best experience. I thought about not coming and not playing this year because it’s not all ladies. Then I decided that it could not have gone worse than it did last year, so I figured things could only get better.”
The WSOP’s Main Event starts Thursday.
Now, some would say that the fact men didn’t win the women’s tournament is proof that women rule the roost. But it ain’t. Not even close. If the best male poker players were in the tournament, they would win. The best women’s poker players don’t need a women’s tournament. They hold their own in the mixed Main Event.
Tags: battle of the sexes, gambling, Gary Mihoces, Jonathan Epstein, Karina Jett, Ladies Poker World Championship, Las Vegas, Main Event, Marsha Wolak, men invade women's poker, men's poker, poker, poker tournament, professional poker, women's poker, Work Series of Poker Main Event, World Series of Poker, WSOP, WSOP Main Event
And they have a male director, of all things. Where is Larry Summers when we need him?
Little Al on July 6, 2011 at 7:08 pm