Women Rule The Poker World - Female Poker Players Continue To Rack-up Championships in 2010

Even the most ardent advocates of female poker players was unlikely to have foreseen the overwhelming success females have been having so far in 2010. With a week still remaining in April, female poker players have captured three major tournament victories, and we still have the 50-something events at the World Series of Poker yet to be played!

The first big win for women in 2010 was UB Poker pro, and Celebrity Apprentice contestant, Annie Duke capturing the NBC National Heads-Up Championship, becoming the first woman to do so -Vanessa Rousso finished 2^nd in last year’s Heads-Up Championship.

The second jewel in the crown cam via PokerStars pro, and Deuces Cracked instructor, Vanessa Selbst and her dominating performance at the North American Poker Tour Mohegan Sun event, where Selbst was amongst the top three in chips virtually wire-to-wire.

The latest triumph came on the PokerStars European Poker Tour, when another UB sponsored pro, Liv Boeree, took home the San Remo title; beating out the largest field in European history for a major poker tournament.

Compare these accomplishments with 2009, where Sandra Najouks won the EPT Dortmund event and that’s it! Kathy Liebert did have a runner-up finish in the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star event, but only a single title was won by a female poker player in the entire year of 2009 -a third of the way through 2010 females have already captured three.

Maybe 2009 was a fluke year? Well, in 2008 we also had only a single female champion in a major tournament, Vanessa Selbst, who won the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha event at the World Series of Poker. Female poker players have simply never fared well in major tournaments, but there is a legitimate reason why, and it has nothing to do with ability.

In today’s day and age, nobody questions if women have what it takes to succeed in poker, but despite this the overwhelming majority of poker players continue to be male. The huge disparity between male and female entrants is a significant part of the problem for women in the poker world. Even if they have the same skills as the men, there are just a larger percentage of men playing in the major tournaments, making it much more likely that a man will win.

Compounding this issue is that women watching poker, who might be inclined to take up the game, see very few women at the final tables, and even fewer winning events.

Finally, there is something to be said for poker being a more appealing game to men than women, but I’ll save that argument for another time!

So, for all these reasons the stereotype persists; poker is a man’s game, just look at who is always winning! Hopefully the performances of Duke, Selbst, and Boeree will be a big first step in drawing more female players into the game. Personally, I’m a fan of any group entering the poker market; as we all know, more players = more bad players!