Allow me to state the obvious: there are lots of chauvinistic pigs among today's poker players. I was playing poker at this local gaming club we have in my neighborhood. The game itself was actually quite exciting. I had an excellent hand (A-K) and could already see myself scooping the jackpot when this guy sitting next to me started making obnoxious jokes about female poker players. First, I thought 'what do I care if the guy is an idiot and has no appreciation for women,' but then I started thinking about it seriously...
Throughout its impressively long history, poker has seen a long procession of amazing female poker players, especially in the recent years. With the invention of the Internet poker has become as accessible to women as it has always been to men. After their initial exposure to this exciting game, female players started honing their poker skills and eventually became worthy rivals of their male counterparts. Indeed, today's female poker players play as successfully, if not more successfully, as male ones.
Take, for example, Annie Duke. In my humble opinion, she's just amazing. It was Duke's brother top poker pro Howard Lederer who encouraged Duke to get into poker in the first place. He also trained her and taught her her first poker strategies. In 2004, Duke collected $2,000,000 in the inaugural World Series of Poker Tournaments of Champions, an exclusive winner-take-all event. In 2006, Duke has won one WSOP bracelet and currently boasts over $3.1 million in tournament play winnings. Eventually, as it often happens, the student surpassed the master. Duke has long since beaten lots of prominent poker pros, including her brother. (by the way, this info comes from onlinepokereport.com)
In fact, the list of brilliant female poker players is very long. It includes the likes of Kathy Liebert, Jennifer Harman, Barbara Enright, Jennifer Tilly, Evelyn Ng and others. All of these incredible women have earned their place among top poker pros by working very hard on their gaming abilities. They have all proved that women are as bright poker players as men! So, who has the right to ridicule them so viciously?
I guess that I got so angry with that joking buddy I had at my table because I felt that he has no right of doing what he did. That just makes him a disgusting chauvinistic pig! Luckily, his inappropriate jokes infuriated some of my other opponents as well and so after realizing that he has the wrong audience he left the game.
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