American poker player Elena Stover talks to BLUFF Europe on how ladies like to be treated at the poker tables, and Marsha Wolak launches an online poker-training site catering for women.
Do you know how to treat a lady at the poker table?
If you don’t then I suggest you check out Elena Stover’s BLUFF Europe article on the very subject, and if you do, then check it out anyway because you are probably deluded.
Men don’t really know too much about women.
If they did, we wouldn’t have a billion-dollar industry designed to teach men in the art of communication and understanding of the female of the species.
It’s easy to assume that men are divided into two camps. Those that try very hard to treat women in the right way, and those that couldn’t care less. But Elena Stover makes a very good point when she says, “It occurred to me that some male poker players may legitimately not know what to do when they find themselves with a woman in their midst, and that might account for some of their more uncouth behavior.”
We do have a core group of young players who only meet females once an hour when their mothers bring them some food during their five-minute poker break.
So this advice is for you guys.
Don’t call women by pet names. Honey, sweetheart, darling, babe and treacle are all off the menu. I am guilty as charged with this one. It’s become a part of my vocabulary.
A few days ago, I sneaked my son into a 15-rated movie. As the young lady let us through I said, “Thanks babe.”
“Dad, what on earth did you call her babe for? She looked about 16?”
I couldn’t answer him. I really couldn’t. I have no idea why those words came out of my mouth. I won’t be alone.
They don’t want to be asked if they have a boyfriend. Stover believes that the question is a personal one about her love life and it should be stricken from the record. She believes that she’s there to play poker and not to speed date.
Another piece of advice is not to flirt with the women at the table. She does use the word ‘excessively’ but men being men, they really won’t know the difference between the two. And don’t show them too much attention when they make a good play. Treat them in exactly the same way that you would treat a man.
Stover believes asking to buy her a drink would make her feel uncomfortable but I just think it’s a way to weed out the dicks, especially as the drinks will probably be free.
Macho posturing is not just an elaborate feather-waving dance that will piss women off. It pisses men off as well. It’s uncomfortable, awkward and sickly, so cut it out.
Other ways to deepen your knowledge of the opposite sex are to read anything that John Gray puts out into the world of Kindle, and a personal favorite of mine is a book called Woman an Intimate Geography by Natalie Angier.
Online Poker Training for Women
World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet holder, Marsha Wolak, has created what I think is the first online poker-training site dedicated to women. The welcome sign does contain a caveat that men are welcome also but the site is definitely intended for females.
The sites mission statement is to, ‘empower women to excel in poker by sharing our passion, skill and knowledge of the game in a comfortable and affordable online platform to help achieve their short and long term poker goals.’
The site currently has two full-time coaches with WSOPC ring winner Natasha Barbour joining Wolak, and the WSOP bracelet winner Ronnie Bardah has also recently joined the site to do some work as a guest pro. Bardah is a member of Team Ivey.
The site is called Femme Fatale Poker Training and if you are female and looking for a man free zone (Ronnie Bardah apart) from which to learn more tricks of the trade, then get over there and check it out.
