Keeping Men out of Ladies WSOP 2013
Event 51, the Ladies No-Limit Hold’em Championship will have a buyin of $10,000, but ladies entering the event will get a discounted buyin of only $1,000.
The WSOP 2013 gets underway today with Event 1: Casino Employees No-Limit Hold’em starting at 12:00 PM (Wed, May 29th) and runs until July 15, 2013 at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas.
More than 230,000 poker players are expected to participate in the 2013 World Series of Poker, and about 95 percent of the entrants will be men.
An estimated 1,000 women are expected to enter the Ladies No Limit holdem Championship this year for an estimated first place prize of about $200,000.
The full 2013 WSOP event schedule can be found here.
The World Series first started hosting a ladies’ event in 1977 to give wives and girlfriends of poker players something to do, Palansky says of tournament lore.
The gender-restricted event also helped attract more players, and these days it is seen as an opportunity for women to compete for the coveted WSOP bracelets awarded to World Series winners while avoiding the macho world of male card players. “They don’t need the World Series of Poker Ladies Event because the ladies can’t compete. They need it because of the atmosphere,” Linda Johnson was quoted as saying in a 2012 interview with pocket fives.
In the past, men had entered into the Ladies WSOP event citing anti-discrimination laws, some by mistake and others deliberately trying to seek some attention or controversy amid jeering and heckling from the ladies.
Caesars Entertainment in charge of overseeing the WSOP, legally cannot prevent men from buying in and signing to the Ladies No Limit Hold ’Em Championship.
In order to prevent men from entering the event this year, the WSOP have devised a clever legal plan in offering a $9,000 discounted entry for woman to enter the event, a 90% discount.
The new plan is based on a 2011 by the Nevada Legislature that governs gender-based marketing and promotional efforts. “It’s the law that allows women to enjoy reduced prices on drinks, food and entertainment at restaurants, nightclubs and casinos,” explained the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “Caesars lawyers took their time in researching the law and made sure it was on the books before going ahead with the new strategy”, says Palansky.
While there still may be some male entrants at this year’s WSOP ladies event, it certainly should reduce the number of men entering but of course as always, there will be a few idiots seeking attention.
Last year’s 2012 WSOP Event 51: Ladies No-Limit Hold’em Championship winner was Yen Dang, a 29 year old Vietnamese born professional poker player from Denver, winning $170,587 and her first WSOP bracelet.
