Women's Influence in Poker

One of my favorite hobbies to do is play poker, more specifically No Limit Texas Hold’em. I am an avid fan and watch as many circuit events from the World Poker Tour and World Series of Poker. One thing I have quickly come up on was the incredible amount of critical thinking and social skills it takes to play the game. You need to be thinking constantly whether that be calculating pot odds, win odds, or reading your opponent, it is definitely more complicated than the two cards sitting in front of you. Being an avid fan and from what I have learned in this class I have realized the characteristics to be a successful poker player that I just listed are qualities best found in women, rather than men. What has confused me about this is that there are drastically fewer women that play professionally than men, but also the success of those women isn’t as great as those of men. Kathy Liebert is regarded as one of the best female poker players in the world; she capitalizes on these skills I mentioned earlier, she has won nearly six million dollars in live events. Comparing her to someone of the same age, who has had the same amount of tournaments under their belt in Daniel Negreanu the comparisons isn’t fair. Daniel has won many more tournaments and a lot more money, to be precisely correct he has won over fifteen million dollars in live tournaments. So why are men beating women at their own game? Is it because in the early 1950s poker was illegal and made the people that played look like gangsters? Or are men simply underrated in their social and critical thinking skills? I hope more women are able to join the poker boom so we are able to solve this argument on a level field.