Bluff Magazine, a leading poker publication, has had only 3 covers featuring female poker players since their first issue in 2004, and Jennifer Harmon and Jennifer Tilly were the first two. Both are respectable choices for sure, but they are also women who are fairly attractive, Tilly being known for making wearing revealing shirts at the table. However, both have won titles and Harmon is certainly one of the better female players in poker. However, last November, Bluff contributed to what I feel is becoming a disturbing trend in the poker world, catapulting young, attractive, female poker players into the forefront of the media simply because of their appearance, regardless of their skills at the table.
Websites such as pokerbabes.com and babesinpoker.com are becoming increasingly popular, and recently an article at pokerlistings.com titled "Poker Babes Good For The Game" touted the advantages of having attractive women at the poker table, claiming that this would inspire other women to play.
Then, about halfway through the article this sentence appeared: "These women have the game, too, as well as the looks at the table." As if their poker skill were somehow secondary to their looks. "She's pretty, and she can actually play! Wow- what a surprise!" (Note the sarcasm)
I agree with Vanessa Russo when she says that it's refreshing to see actual female players in poker ads rather than models, but I don't think that this means they have to be as attractive as Russo. I think normal looking female players are just as inspiring to regular women, if not more so.
Back to Bluff. Here is their November 2008 cover:
http://www.bluffmagazine.com/...
The women on this cover, titled "The Rise of Two Poker Princesses," are none other than Lacey Jones and Christina Lindley! Never heard of them? That's because collectively they have won a whopping 0 titles. Now, I have no problem with Bluff doing a feature article on 2 "up and coming female poker players" but I do wonder why they chose these 2 players.... Hmmmm... Could it be because they look good in their underwear?
If Bluff really wanted to do a feature on an up and coming female player, why not Annette Obrestad. Obrestad won the first European World Series of Poker at 18 in 2007, making her the youngest person (male of female) to ever win a WSOP braclet. She is widely regarded as a poker savant and owns the record for highest single-event payout to a female player ($2.01 million). The reason she is not on the cover is that Obrestad is not as "sexy" as these girls- she is heavier and brunette.
Some other female players never to grace the cover of Bluff include:
- Annie Duke (who I have a bias toward) who is arguably the best female tournament player and won the 1st WSOP Tournament of Champions, perhaps the hardest game ever assembled, that included Phil Hellmuth, Howard Lederer (her big brother), Johnny Chan, Greg Raymer, Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, T. J. Cloutier, and David "Chip" Reese. Annie won $2,000,000 in this one tournament. This was the most money ever awarded to a female player in one tournament until Obrestad won the WSOP Europe. Annie holds the most "in the money" finishes at the WSOP of any female player, has a WSOP braclet, and her live winnings are over $3.5
million.
- Mimi Tran who has 17 WSOP cashes including two second-place finishes, a third-place finish and a fourth-place finish
- Tiffany Williamson whose 15th place finish in the 2005 WSOP was the highest female finish since Annie Duke's 10th place in 2000
- Kathy Liebert who was the first woman ever to win a tournament with a first prize of $1,000,000.
I will end on a final note that I think my poker idol, Annie Duke, would want. Annie insists that female-only games are insulting as are titles such as "best woman player to ever..." She feels that her accomplishments as a poker player should not include a qualifier about her gender, and I agree. Her Tournament of Champions win proves that she is one of the best players in poker, woman or not.
I do think it is important for women in the game to get exposure for their skills, given that poker has historically been a male-dominated past time, and not just their skills as "women players" but as "poker players". My reason for listing the women above and their skills as "female players" is to indicate that a magazine who wants to run a feature on a female player has many accomplished players to choose from. I just think the exposure should be based on skills and not appearance. Talented players who are overlooked by magazines because they don't look like models are, to me, far more inspiring than women who are pretty but haven't really won anything.
Step up Bluff- we want to see Annette and Annie!