Lately I’ve been seeing some online poker tournaments that are specifically designed for women. This has me wondering exactly how an online poker site can pull off a ladies only tournament. After all, it seems like poker organizations have enough trouble keeping guys out of live tourneys so how in the world is an online room going to stop men from playing?
Well after taking a look for myself at Carbon Poker, which is one of the places offering ladies only tourneys, it does appear as if they have some sort of way to keep men out of the tournaments. I tried to enter a couple of women’s only tournaments and it said the entry was restricted upon trying to register. I’m not exactly sure how they detect that I’m a man (from the name I guess), but the software certainly did its job in keeping me out of the tournament.
Now this isn’t to say that men will always be prevented from entering ladies only tournaments. And it seems very likely that plenty of men will be trying to enter women’s only tourneys in the future because of the stereotype that ladies can’t play poker. But for now, I think women have a legitimate way to play poker by themselves at the online rooms offering ladies only tournaments.
I saw that there’s even a Women’s Poker League at PokerStars where the ladies compete in online tournaments to see who will win cash prizes at the end of the month and year. Hopefully these women’s tournaments and leagues will keep going strong so that more females will be attracted to the game. Eventually, I think the women who play in these events will become comfortable enough to start playing in the men’s tournaments too.
