By David Richardson

08/28/2008

There is another new kid on the online poker block.  To those who are part of the online poker community this is no surprise.  But this poker website is wanting to stand out from the rest, touting itself as a website promoting women in poker.  But how positively is it promoting them?

The Online Poker Website, is a venture launched this month by the 925 Media Group which specializes in online magazines.  Their poker website runs with a very similar structure to that of their other style/journalism based web magazines offering daily news, features, forums and photos.  In their quest to be fresh 925 Media Group is trying to take advantage of the growing female population in poker. 

However, it appears they might be speaking more to the male population than the female one about ladies in poker.  Online Poker Magazine features a Ladies in Poker section which covers live poker tournaments in casinos across the country.  The web magazine states that with their Ladies in Poker Section they want to reveal the up and coming women in poker that are discovered at these tournaments.  Here’s what they had to say:

"It is our intention to prove to the world that poker is played by more than just the average college age, or middle age male, but that it is also game played by intelligent, beautiful, and sophisticated ladies of all ages," said Aaron Hampton, Online Poker Website\'s spokesman.

That’s all well and nice, but they fall short.  The Ladies in Poker Section has very slim coverage of the ladies actually playing, talking just as much about the casinos they are in.  What is probably worse is that out of the 9 women pictured in the section only one has even had her full name given and some aren’t even named, adding to that there’s commentary from only 1 woman.

The Poker Dolls section however is a different story.  This section of the web magazine gets prime home page placement and has full photo shoots and interviews with women poker players.  Of course this is the very attractive, young sector of women poker players.  Out of the 4 feature ladies of poker only two have interviews though all of them have photo shoots. 

The interviews themselves leave a lot left to be desired in taking women more seriously in the sport of poker.  Among the whooping 7 short questions and answers are questions like ‘what’s the best/worst pick up line you’ve heard at a poker table?’ and ‘Who\'s the hotter man at the table? The one with all the chips? Or, The dealer?’.

I’m not saying featuring hot chick poker players is wrong.  Heck, in America everyone can appreciate an attractive female form.  However, if you’re going to state that you’re important to the poker community and proving that it’s not just a man’s sport by focusing on women players, then you should focus on their playing.  It would also help to include information on women who are up and coming as well as fighting their way onto the professional circuit.  Just a few thoughts.