Thankfully I can skip past the legitimate, but well covered, complaint that a lot of female poker players put forth, arising from an unwelcoming atmosphere at the poker tables and other variations on being made to feel uncomfortable or marginalized while playing poker.
Instead, I get to focus my attention on another perspective that is probably more insidious towards the success of women in the game and more easily dismantled too--the disdain that many male players irrationally maintain towards attractive women who market themselves as public personalities in poker.
It's an old and illogical argument that has been around for as long as I've been in the game and, I'm sure, for as long as women have been receiving attention, acclaim or money in traditionally male dominated arenas.
The argument states roughly: Women are unfairly propped up and afforded opportunities that similarly talented male peers would not have, so let's nip this reverse sexism in the buttocks and get back to discussing how scary talented we are as poker players and how much credit we deserve for that.
It's a very tired retelling of the same old, "she got there because of her looks" trope, so allow me to break that one down before proceeding: No successful woman ever achieved her status simply as a measure of her physical beauty or sex appeal.
Even if we look at industries where women are valued primarily for their physical beauty--for every hot actress or fashion model, there's another equally hot one down the street who's also smarter, more ambitious, more shrewd, harder working--and it's those attributes that undoubtedly will buoy her to success beyond mere sexiness. You might even argue those other attributes define sexiness, but let me focus here:
This week, an attractive poker player named Samantha Abernathy was photographed with Phil Hellmuth, and, what would have otherwise been a normal day in the Twitter Timeline of Phil Hellmuth's followers turned into an international incident when a hateful troll named Jeff Tims took it upon himself to call out Abernathy, saying, in effect, that any glory she was enjoying was the result of her superficial beauty.
PIC: @SamAbernathyy me and @JessicaDawley at John Sabats Hampton house. Next stop: @1OakSouthHampton #Relaxed pic.twitter.com/nYJFcTMWsu
— phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) July 25, 2015
Tims attempted to subvert his own misogynistic viewpoint by pointing out that
he too had a hot wife and they planned to raise their daughter with
values that emphasized her succeeding on the basis of skill, talent and
brains, not just good looks, tits & ass. As if any of those concepts are mutually exclusive, but again let me focus:Abernathy was rightfully triggered and defended herself efficiently, even challenging Tims to a game of Open Faced Chinese Poker, like a true poker player does. Then things got interesting when young male poker players, of the "otherwise seemingly intelligent" variety, tried to convert Tims' dismissive view into a sustainable rational argument. To quote Barry Hutter, who took it upon himself to elaborate on his complaints about women in the public poker media sphere:
"Media and the poker public in general are throwing up any good looking girl seen in a poker room on a pedestal and think it's going to be good for the game."Before I break your brain by forcing you to parse too much of Hutter's argument at once, let me just stop and explain: Yes, glorifying female poker players, regardless of their objective skill level, would be as "good for the game" as anything I can think of. Sex appeal is sorely missing in poker, and there is only one organic way to enhance that--by showcasing the women who have an interest in playing poker seriously.
Hutter continues: "Something that actually would be good for poker is one of these attractive women consistently winning and actually caring about the craft of poker."First of all, I can't name more than a few tournament pros of any gender who are "consistently winning" in a way that dismisses the accomplishments of any of our female counterparts.
Secondly, all the women I know who play cards have dedicated more passion into the "craft of poker" than I personally ever did, and the truth is also that poker is not much of a "craft" as much as it is a game where you first try to make money by any means necessary. I'm sure Hutter knows that, so I don't know why getting attention and sponsorship dollars (something that doesn't happen for players very often these days anyway) by flaunting a little booty should offend anyone.
Lastly, almost every successful poker player has relied on his or her privilege in order to succeed. Whether that privilege comes in the form of a great pair of tits that somehow (again--without savvy and ambition and intelligence on top of the tits--how exactly?) transforms into magical sponsorship dollars or in the form of having a friend or family member to loan you money when you go busto--most poker players lean on a massive fortress of privilege to build their careers.
Even the friends I have who started from nothing, who grinded hard from bottom to top and turned their small initial bankrolls into actual wealth over the years, relied in some subtle or obvious way on their natural born privilege.
For my part, I was able to capitalize on several non-poker skills in order to succeed in the poker world, and I was probably only lucky enough to get a sponsorship from 2011-2014 because I had writing and communication ability. I never truly "cared" about poker in the way Hutter seems to imply is worthy of ancillary success in poker. I am definitely not as good at poker as Hutter and also probably not as good as Samantha Abernathy.
***
More to the point--who gives a fuck? Bryan Ferry is a brilliant musician, and he put naked women on the cover of Roxy Music albums anyway, because he knew sex sells. It didn't take away from the excellence of his music or diminish the essence of his craft, and if the imagery bothered you, even better.
Poker is kinda the one game where you get to be whatever you say you are. It's what everyone has done from Jack Strauss to Daniel Negreanu, and it's obscene to discourage women from participating in that part of the fun. The flipside to "you're only getting attention in poker because you're hot" almost suggests that women can only get respect in poker for their results, and then only if they are not attractive.
Let me also point out that the most interesting personalities in the game these days are, in fact, women. Just to prop up two off the top of my head, I can't think of more engaging people in poker than Jamie Kerstetter (whom I consider a friend) or Danielle Andersen (whom I've never met). They're witty, interesting women, and they seem to love the game and have far more ambition for it than I ever will. And, yes, they're both sexy.
So while young male poker players sit around bitterly comparing their acute knowledge of game theory yet pondering their inability to relate to women (i,e. get laid), I hope that my sisters in this game don't get discouraged and continue to pursue their love for poker--tits first.