Poker has been a man’s game for a long time. From the days of the old wild west to the guys nights in the basement, it’s been an escapist pastime almost exclusively pursued by the gentlemen.
The origin of poker is something that no one has quite managed to clearly define. The general consensus is that the game is a combination of those played by the Chinese, Egyptians, French and Spanish as far back as 969 A.D.
The more modern game dates from the 1800s - when the English 52-card deck was introduced and the flush and straight were added as valid hands. Poker evolved slowly until the 1970s when The World Series of Poker began, and luminaries such as Doyle Brunson and David Sklansky started writing about the subject. But it was still a man’s game, from the casinos to home games in someone’s basement.
Fast forward to the 21st century and times are changing rapidly, with hole card cameras came an almost ubiquitous position in popular television. As with the numbers of women joining the professional workforce, age old attitudes are changing in regular society, so are the numbers of women in poker, participating in the world’s favorite card game.
The Growth of Women in Poker
The WSOP started in 1977, and eight years later the first ladies-only poker championship started. It began as a 100 player 7-card Stud game, which matured into Limit and finally to No-Limit in 2006. Since that point there have been a steady field of 1,000 female poker players at the tournament each year. Not to mention participation in the other events for both men and women.
More women in poker are attending the WSOP than ever before.
2008 saw young rising star Tiffany Michelle go the deepest in the WSOP main event that any woman before, finishing 17th out of over 6,000 players.
The Women in Poker Gain a Child Poker Prodigy
In 2007, Annette Obrestad won the inaugural main event at the WSOPE (World Series of Poker Europe), winning $2.01M, the largest cash prize won by a woman in the history of poker, topping Annie Duke’s $2M win at the Tournament of Champions in 2004. In early 2008, Annette was ranked as the #50 online player in the world.
The ladies are clearly making some big moves in poker. It’s an exciting time for Pkr Grl’s everywhere, and we’ll be reporting on their progress on our blog.
Women In Poker at PkrGrl.com
We’ve created 3 categories of female poker players, based on success, age, pro status etc. At the top of the list are the Poker Queens, those who’ve been in the game from the start, playing the major tournament (WSOP, WPT) for years. The Poker Girls are the up and coming crop of talented female poker stars that are helping to shape a new level of popularity for the game amongst women. Finally, we have the Poker Celebs, who have come onto the scene in the last few years and have had some success, but have also been responsible for a further upswing in popularity - not to mention making it all a little more fun.
Poker Queens
There are a few women of considerable stature in poker today. They’ve been playing for upwards of 10-30 years, mixing it up with the best of the best from the old days.
Poker Queens
Poker Girls (or Grls)
As poker has become mainstream and the number of players grows around the world, we are seeing an emergence of truly gifted players. The big online poker companies are increasingly sponsoring the more charismatic and talented female poker players. As with everything in this life, mix in a bit of beauty and you have some real star potential.
Players like Isabelle Mercier and Vanessa Rousso are garnering large portions of TV time and are appearing in TV advertising, taking advantage of their compelling images.
Poker Girls
Poker Celebs
The WSOP is the biggest stage in world poker, and draws all of the big name players from around the world. As the cameras turn the spotlight on this ever growing phenomenon, the attention of those wealthy enough to play along as a hobby start to participate - enter the rich and famous. In recent years the tournament has seen a growing cast of familiar characters ranging from George Costanza (Jason Alexander) to Ray Ramone and of course Shannon Elizabeth and Jennifer Tilly, two of the hottest women in poker. Tilly gained a leg up by being the partner of pseudo famous player Phil “The Unabomber” Laak, but also by winning a bracelet at the 2005 WSOP, taking home $158,625 in the $1,000 Ladies’ No-Limit Texas Hold’em event.
Poker Celebs
The Men In Poker
Now, I know I’ve said that there are no men allowed here, but that’s more because we’ll be discussing poker from a female perspective. As such we will be doing some features on the sexy, interesting, or enigmatic of the male poker players. Guys like Patrik Antonius (obviously), Gus Hansen and Daniel Negreanu will get a shout out from time to time.
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