Will queens ever have a place among kings at poker tables?
No one expects women to ever make up 50 percent of the players in poker rooms. Heres what some women players say. Players compete in the $350 buy-in Ladies International Poker Series (LIPS) championship within the Grandview Lounge at the South Point on Saturday, June 26, 2021, in Las Vegas. (L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Left_Eye_Images  Linda Johnson, Poker Hall of Fame inductee, plays in $175 No-Limit Hold'em Ladies tournament during 2021 Nevada State Ladies Poker Championship at South Point in Las Vegas, Thursday, April 15, 2021. (Chitose Suzuki / Las Vegas Review-Journal) @chitosephoto  Women play in $175 No-Limit Hold'em Ladies tournament during 2021 Nevada State Ladies Poker Championship at South Point in Las Vegas, Thursday, April 15, 2021. (Chitose Suzuki / Las Vegas Review-Journal) @chitosephoto  Linda Johnson, Poker Hall of Fame inductee, plays in $175 No-Limit Hold'em Ladies tournament during 2021 Nevada State Ladies Poker Championship at South Point in Las Vegas, Thursday, April 15, 2021. (Chitose Suzuki / Las Vegas Review-Journal) @chitosephoto  Linda Johnson, co-host of 2021 Nevada State Ladies Poker Championship, right, speaks before $175 No-Limit Hold'em Ladies tournament at South Point in Las Vegas, Thursday, April 15, 2021, as Lupe Soto, founder and CEO of Ladies International Poker Series, LIPS, left, looks on. (Chitose Suzuki / Las Vegas Review-Journal) @chitosephoto  Linda Johnson, co-host of 2021 Nevada State Ladies Poker Championship, right, speaks before $175 No-Limit Hold'em Ladies tournament at South Point in Las Vegas, Thursday, April 15, 2021. (Chitose Suzuki / Las Vegas Review-Journal) @chitosephoto  Women play in $175 No-Limit Hold'em Ladies tournament during 2021 Nevada State Ladies Poker Championship at South Point in Las Vegas, Thursday, April 15, 2021. (Chitose Suzuki / Las Vegas Review-Journal) @chitosephoto  Jan Fisher of Las Vegas, co-host of 2021 Nevada State Ladies Poker Championship, checks cards during $175 No-Limit Hold'em Ladies tournament at South Point in Las Vegas, Thursday, April 15, 2021. (Chitose Suzuki / Las Vegas Review-Journal) @chitosephoto  Women play in $175 No-Limit Hold'em Ladies tournament during 2021 Nevada State Ladies Poker Championship at South Point in Las Vegas, Thursday, April 15, 2021. (Chitose Suzuki / Las Vegas Review-Journal) @chitosephoto  Linda Johnson, Poker Hall of Fame inductee, plays in $175 No-Limit Hold'em Ladies tournament during 2021 Nevada State Ladies Poker Championship at South Point in Las Vegas, Thursday, April 15, 2021. (Chitose Suzuki / Las Vegas Review-Journal) @chitosephoto  Women play in $175 No-Limit Hold'em Ladies tournament during 2021 Nevada State Ladies Poker Championship at South Point in Las Vegas, Thursday, April 15, 2021. (Chitose Suzuki / Las Vegas Review-Journal) @chitosephoto  Pam Kocsis of Fresno, Calif., left, and Bay Haught of Chappell Hill, Texas, right, play in $175 No-Limit Hold'em Ladies tournament during 2021 Nevada State Ladies Poker Championship at South Point in Las Vegas, Thursday, April 15, 2021. (Chitose Suzuki / Las Vegas Review-Journal) @chitosephoto  A dealer handles chips in $175 No-Limit Hold'em Ladies tournament during 2021 Nevada State Ladies Poker Championship at South Point in Las Vegas, Thursday, April 15, 2021. (Chitose Suzuki / Las Vegas Review-Journal) @chitosephoto  Chips are seen on a poker table as women play in $175 No-Limit Hold'em Ladies tournament during 2021 Nevada State Ladies Poker Championship at South Point in Las Vegas, Thursday, April 15, 2021. (Chitose Suzuki / Las Vegas Review-Journal) @chitosephoto  Linda Johnson, Poker Hall of Fame inductee, plays in $175 No-Limit Hold'em Ladies tournament during 2021 Nevada State Ladies Poker Championship at South Point in Las Vegas, Thursday, April 15, 2021. (Chitose Suzuki / Las Vegas Review-Journal) @chitosephoto  Jennifer Harman plays in a World Poker Tour event in an undated photo. (World Poker Tour)  Jennifer Harman, right, plays in a World Poker Tour event with Kara Scott in an undated photo. (World Poker Tour)  Barbara Enright plays in a World Poker Tour event at the Aria in an undated photo. (World Poker Tour)  Players compete in the $350 buy-in Ladies International Poker Series (LIPS) championship within the Grandview Lounge at the South Point on Saturday, June 26, 2021, in Las Vegas. (L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Left_Eye_Images  Players Julie Herbert , left, and Vera Murillo talk in between hands as they compete in the $350 buy-in Ladies International Poker Series (LIPS) championship within the Grandview Lounge at the South Point on Saturday, June 26, 2021, in Las Vegas. (L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Left_Eye_Images  Ladies International Poker Series (LIPS) founder Lupe Soto tosses free merchandise to players during the $350 buy-in championship within the Grandview Lounge at the South Point on Saturday, June 26, 2021, in Las Vegas. (L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Left_Eye_Images  Players Patty Pfeil, left, and Liz Huey talk in between hands as they compete in the $350 buy-in Ladies International Poker Series (LIPS) championship within the Grandview Lounge at the South Point on Saturday, June 26, 2021, in Las Vegas. (L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Left_Eye_Images  Player Sylvia Sly Sanchez looks at a competitor for her play as she competes in the $350 buy-in Ladies International Poker Series (LIPS) championship within the Grandview Lounge at the South Point on Saturday, June 26, 2021, in Las Vegas. (L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Left_Eye_Images  (From left) Players Tonya, Baltazar, Susie Braman and Wattana Cruz talk as they compete in the $350 buy-in Ladies International Poker Series (LIPS) championship within the Grandview Lounge at the South Point on Saturday, June 26, 2021, in Las Vegas. (L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Left_Eye_Images  A lucky charm dog sits atop a hand as players compete in the $350 buy-in Ladies International Poker Series (LIPS) championship within the Grandview Lounge at the South Point on Saturday, June 26, 2021, in Las Vegas. (L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Left_Eye_Images  Players Wattana Cruz, right, and Susie Braman share laugh in between hands as they compete in the $350 buy-in Ladies International Poker Series (LIPS) championship within the Grandview Lounge at the South Point on Saturday, June 26, 2021, in Las Vegas. (L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Left_Eye_Images  Player Jessica Welman looks with concern as she competes in the $350 buy-in Ladies International Poker Series (LIPS) championship within the Grandview Lounge at the South Point on Saturday, June 26, 2021, in Las Vegas. (L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Left_Eye_Images  Poker is a mans world, and that was never clearer to Linda Johnson than at the World Series of Poker a couple of years ago. The Poker Hall of Fame member went outside while her event was on a break, and Johnson said she saw two men fighting, another vomiting and another urinating against a wall. She said she turned to her friend Jan Fisher and said, This is why they have ladies events.  Walk into a poker room and youll see men of all ages, races and socioeconomic backgrounds trading bets and bluffs. But you wont see many women, perhaps one for every two tables in play. That gender gap has proved persistent despite the efforts of industry insiders, who know that opening up poker to the other half of the population is the key to fueling the games growth. As Johnson, Fisher and other womens poker advocates point out, there is no simple answer to why more women dont play poker. Perhaps they are not as naturally aggressive as men. Maybe some dont have the same amount of discretionary income to gamble with. Definitely some are turned off by what can be a boys will be boys atmosphere that sometimes verges into vulgar or even outright abusive. No one expects women to ever make up 50 percent of players in poker rooms. Interviews with the three women in the Poker Hall of Fame and other womens poker advocates try to shed light on the issue. The scope of the problem  By any measure, women make up a tiny part of the poker world. Only three women are in the Poker Hall of Fame  Johnson, Barbara Enright and Jennifer Harman. Enright remains the only woman to make the final table of the WSOP Main Event (fifth in 1995). Phil Hellmuth is the all-time leader with 15 WSOP bracelets. No woman has more than three. Bryn Kenney is the all-time leader with more than $56 million in career tournament earnings, according to the Hendon Mob Poker Database. The highest-ranking woman is Vanessa Selbst in 70th place with nearly $12 million. Most estimates place women as making up about 5 percent of the players in poker rooms. According to demographic data released by the WSOP, only 350 played in the 2019 Main Event out of 8,569 entrants (4.1 percent), and only 44 of them were age 30 or under. Queen of Corporation  An elite group of women has proven to be among the best in the world, and few poker players, men or women, have played for higher stakes than Harman. She was a founding member of the so-called Corporation of poker pros who accepted a challenge from billionaire Andy Beal for a series of heads-up matches in the early 2000s that were detailed in the book The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King.  The stakes ran to as high as $100,000-$200,000 playing Limit Holdem, with millions often changing hands in single pots. I remember having a rack of chips in my hands that was worth $10 million, Harman said. Only one Corporation player could take on Beal at a time, and often her fellow pros chose Harman. Yeah, I was frickin nervous, she said. But after you get into it and start playing, you just think of it as chips.  Harman battled for years to climb from the bottom of the poker world to the $4,000-$8,000 mixed game played in the high-stakes room at the Bellagio. She said she supports women in poker and is happy to serve as a role model, but she does not expect poker to achieve anything close to gender parity. I dont think women in general are as competitive as men are, Harman said. Men grow up playing sports and games, and its really important and encouraged. Women play more sports now, but I dont think its the same.  However, the women who have the thick skin to navigate the poker room environment will find success, Harman said. When I started playing poker, nothing fazed me, and still nothing ever does, she said.  Women have a more intuitive side than men, and that makes their reads (at the table) better.  Family and child care responsibilities can also fall more on women, and Harman said she has always had to juggle late nights in the poker room while taking care of her two sons. Ill sometimes ask them, Cant they start school at 3 in the afternoon? she said jokingly. Not good old boys room  While the cream of the crop such as Harman and current standout Kristen Bicknell will probably always succeed no matter the obstacles, making poker rooms a friendlier place will bring more women into the game, some advocates say. One way to give women a gentle start in the game is through women-only tournaments, like those that the Ladies International Poker Series puts on. Johnson and Fisher often serve as LIPS hosts, and they said its easy to see why some women would find those events more pleasant. Quite often in a tournament I might be the only woman at the table in an open event, Johnson said, or maybe theres one other, and the conversation   Ugh, its tough, Fisher interjected.  is directed at a lot of things that dont interest women, Johnson continued. Like (breasts), Fisher said. LIPS founder Lupe Soto is also the president of the Womens Poker Association, which is pushing poker rooms to make a pledge of zero tolerance toward abuse. It isnt a good old boys room anymore, she said. We believe that everybody has to set a certain standard, and it means zero abuse. I dont care if this is your regular person who puts down lots of money in your room. If you dont check that person, theyre going to offend nine people that wont come back.  The groups social media slogan is Raise It Up  raise the fun and raise the respect so you can raise the number of people playing, Soto said. Harman said she once comforted a woman at the Bellagio who was berated by a man after beating him in a pot. I went to the table and yelled at the guy, Harman said.  It kind of makes me sad that it actually does affect some women.  I want women to be welcomed in the poker room and be treated fairly, but I dont want women to be patronized, she added. Warrior mentality  And a more welcoming environment will only go so far. Lena Evans, the founder of the womens group Poker League of Nations, brushes aside complaints about behavior to focus on what she believes will really set up women for success: having the money to play and the confidence in their ability to win. We dont like the victim mentality, Evans said. We like the warrior mentality.  An exhaustive survey conducted by PLON showed that an insufficient bankroll was the top reason women cited for why they didnt play more, Evans said. The free PLON private Facebook group, which has 7,100 members, is a place for women to talk about poker strategy and celebrate womens achievements on the felt. PLON has hosted some of the worlds best-known poker players, including Hellmuth and Daniel Negreanu, for strategy discussions with members on Facebook. The PLON Power Investment Group identifies promising players through the Facebook group and stakes them in tournaments, including the WSOP Main Event, and Evans also operates her own personal Founders Fund to stake players, she said. Bringing more women into poker benefits the whole industry, Evans said. Its bigger prize pools, its bigger fields. Thats the goal basically is to help us all by bringing in more players. The only way you can do it is by supporting women, and thats why we do it so fiercely.  Optimism for future  Despite their frustrations with womens current place in the game, advocates remain optimistic about the future. Perhaps women will slowly make up more of the community as society changes over time, or perhaps a woman making the final table of the WSOP Main Event for the second time will fuel a surge in participation. Enright said she is stunned that she remains the only woman to accomplish the feat, but it didnt feel significant at the time. Not at all. It didnt even cross my mind, she said. The only thing that crossed my mind was, Oh, boy, look at all this money Im going to win.  Enright finished fifth for $114,180, taking a brutal bad beat when her pocket eights lost all-in before the flop against six-three. While theyre paying me $114,000, Im upset, she said jokingly. Enright said shes confident a woman will break through at the Main Event. Participation levels are low today, but they were even worse then, she noted. Its really surprising because so many women are playing now, she said. But, you know, one day they will. They will. Its just a matter of time.  Contact Jim Barnes at jbarnes@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0277. Follow @JimBarnesLV on Twitter.