Last night what a delight – sorry

Yesterday I was a last minute guest added to Poker Advocacy with Rich Muny webcast, along with Lori Kolstad, and Stacy Matuson for a panel discussion on women in poker. We had a terrific discussion. 🙂

OnTilt Radio Podcast

It will also be on itunes shortly.

iTunes Podcast

Why Aren’t There More Women In Poker?

It is that time of year ladies. Comes around every spring. Guys start writing “Why aren’t their more women in poker?” They do extensive research into our minds without us even knowing it.

Myth #1: We care about the Royal Flush Girls.

It doesn’t bug us that WPT has the RFGs. We get that they are models. What does offend us is when girls that work hard are overshadowed by someone that they bring because of the way she looks and act like she is a poker player. If you want to use a girl to promote your brand fine but don’t pretend that she is a poker player unless she really is. Keep the models and players apart.

Myth #2: We are not brought up to be competitive.

I am going to use my beautiful niece Raegan as an example here. My niece does competitive dancing. She practices every day. She eats healthy and she has given it her all. She recently won a scholarship. Anyone says she hasn’t been taught to be competitive is just wrong. Even when I was a kid. I played softball and was on the schools swim team. I wanted to win. No one tries to come in second. That notion is just absurd.

Myth #3: Guys treat us bad that is why we don’t play.

Most guys are a pleasure to play against. But I will give some merit that this is in our heads. We have been told this will happen. It starts when boyfriends have poker nights where they don’t want their girlfriends at. Poker rooms goals should be to get female players into play their first game. We can handle being called sweetheart and guys looking at our chest. We all went to high school and have dealt with it before. It isn’t what is keeping us away from the game.

So why don’t more women play? My theory is simple.

It isn’t advertised to us. Most of the ads are created by men for men.

Safety. I live in Montreal I wish I could play more live games but a lot of the games in my area happen starting at 7 pm going until 3 am+. That means I have to take a $50 cab ride home. Supplying a shuttle bus for events that end late the downtown core would entice me go play more.

Lack of ladies games. The first question that is asked when someone brings up having a ladies game is, Will we get enough ladies? The answer is… YES. Poker rooms and casinos should try putting these together. It is a great way to get those women that are a little reluctant to play live. It is more social and a great way for the staff of the room to show women that they are welcome and that it is a friendly environment. The game sells itself once you have played. Just get us at the table that first time.

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Why poker is more than a game.

I am writing this blog specifically for you those fighting to stop ipoker. I want to show you why online poker is more than just a game. Four years ago I wrote this blog on a poker social network.

A few weeks ago, I posted a blog about my rough patch. A month ago I had been diagnosed with anxiety and depression. After months of feeling down, hiding panic attacks and endless crying. I went to see a shrink that I had visited in the past. The moment she looked at me she told me, that I was sick and I needed to see a doctor. After careful decision, I decided to take the medication that the doctor prescribed, and try to continue working. I tried to hide this from my family and friends as for some reason I had felt like I had failed. All came crashing down one day when I had a panic attack that I couldn’t control. I was sent home on a two week vacation to get myself together. During that two weeks, I had countless doctor and shrink appointments.

I have now been off work for almost a month. I have started to sleep, and eat again. The rest will slowly get back to normal I hope and I will be able to return to work.

Why am I telling you this? Because I need to, I feel like it will help me come to terms and stopped feeling ashamed of what I’ve turned into. Right now I don’t want to go outside and face the world, I just want to stay at home. Poker seems to be the only thing that I enjoy, but I really want to get back to going to the gym, I just can’t bring myself to run into anyone yet. The last two days, I have had a extra hard time and also thought this might help.

I received countless replies both private and on the forum. That made my life a little easier to live. To this day when I play poker online I know I am doing something great for my mind. It gets a workout. I get to practice thinking logically. Not to mention the amount of amazing people that I would have never had the chance to interact with had I not joined a poker forum. A few months later I was back at work. I still played poker at night and on weekends and was getting ready for my first ever trip to Vegas. A member of that forum had won a trip but couldn’t go so they gave me the tournament buyin portion of the prize.

Since then I go to Vegas once a year. In 2012 I final tabled the Ladies WSOP. None of this would have happened if I didn’t learn to play poker online. Just another great experience I got to have because of online poker.

Online poker players are not criminals. You keep trying to paint us all as these evil money hungry scammers. We aren’t. We just found something in life that we enjoy that happens to have money as a reward if we work hard on our game. If you want to know why we take your campaign against us so personally. It is personal, you are calling me a criminal. You don’t play poker so you can’t possibly understand how this game is truly a wonderful thing.

Do people try to cheat? Yes. They do that in Brick and Mortar games also. In the past sites have caught cheaters, banned them and returned the money to players that were cheated from. So don’t paint the online poker world as something that pushes it under the rug. They don’t. We have communities that callout scum and sites have security departments that are on the lookout for odd behavior. Cheating happens in every industry. People try to cut corners or gain an unfair advantage. With your logic every business that money switches from person to person should be illegal. Just in case.

So far I have found all the propaganda you have been spewing about online gambling disgusting. It is like watching and reading examples from bad marketing book on scare tactics. This last Youtube ad on underage player is a perfect example of how you don’t know what you are fighting against and are uniformed. Not only was this posted but the comments were all deleted. So much for having a voice? I took the time to watch your video you can have the respect not to delete my comment. I didn’t say anything vulgar just my opinion.

I don’t know what you have a passion for but everyone needs something like online poker has been for me. It has helped not only improve my life but has given me opportunities that others wish they had they had and the courage to take them. Just imagine if someone had the power to take away your dream. Or do you deserve happiness more than me?

March

I haven’t written a blog in a while. The reason why is I hurt my back again and that makes me incredibility bitchy. More so because I was/am ready to get back into shape. I’m eating fairly healthy. Except I am a still a member of the poutine a month club. I registered for a 5k months ago and I am not ready to give up on the run. So yesterday I did something I should have done a long time ago. I bought a back brace and I am going to start training. It isn’t a sexy look but hey it has helped me feel like I can again. 🙂

I am also looking for a new apartment. My lease is up at the end of June so I am starting the search now. Not that I don’t love the place I am living in but I like change and I think I can find something a little more economic.

Other than the back pain March has been a great month. My sister came to visit. We took my niece to get her grad dress. She is going to look beautiful. Went out a few nights with some friends from French class. Cashed in a live event. Not a great cash but I personally think I played great. I lost majority of my chips with AA all in pre flop against another 20ish bb stack. After that I just did the only thing I could do. Actually I tried to do what I should do and that would have been fold till the money. UTG I looked down at 66 with my 4bb stack and pushed my chips in the middle knowing that I should be folding but I just couldn’t stand blinding away. Just as I did the bubble burst. Good timing!