Florida man wins women's poker tournament, sparks debate over male inclusion in female sporting events - Dave Hughes, 70, took home more than $5,500 for the victory.



A Florida man drew ire over the weekend when he entered and won a women’s poker tournament at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in the Sunshine State.

Dave Hughes, 70, entered the $250 no-limit Texas Hold’em event with a prize pool of up to $17,450. Of the 83 competitors to enter the tournament, 82 of them were women, and the last one was Hughes. Hughes ended up defeating Dayanna Ciabaton at the end and take home $5,555, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Hughes was allowed to enter the women’s tournament as Florida casinos are prohibited from banning men from entering women’s tournament, according to anti-discrimination laws. The newspaper noted that Nevada casinos have a similar rule. The World Series of Poker’s Ladies event has a $10,000 buy-in tournament, and women receive a 90% discount in hopes of keeping men from entering.

1683147068592.png
A video from Hughes’ time at the tournament on Saturday was posted to Twitter. Some players put a bounty on him, which rewards a player for eliminating him. The bounty went unclaimed.

"Good luck, not really," the woman in the video can be heard saying.

The issue of a man playing in a women’s tournament sparked a debate.

"I love ladies-only poker tournaments. I would have no problem with them having a men's only and I wouldn't enter it as I would not qualify for it," Poker Hall of Famer Linda Johnson said, via Poker News. "I would have no problem if they had a tournament for 26-year old, motorcycle riding, Mohawk-haircut seniors and I wouldn't enter it because I wouldn't qualify.

"I don't think men should play in ladies-only tournaments. That said, I think there is a total overreaction to the few man (sic) who do enter. They are usually looking for attention, so why give it to them? Maybe we should just ignore them and play our best. This is just my two cents and you are welcome to your own thoughts on this."

Charlie Carrel, a British poker player, also weighed in on the issue in a tweet, saying initially that it was "hilarious that he won."

"It pokes fun at the idea that anybody can identify as a woman and be allowed to enter women's spaces," Carrel continued.
1683147093658.png

"It's a real issue that people are taking advantage of in many different areas, including sports, prisons and changing areas. This has lead to some horrific repercussions (female inmates being raped in prison, or women getting destroyed in MMA fights by somebody who spent 95% of their life as a man).

"It does suck that it comes at the expense of the women's only space. I wouldn't do it, even though I probably share the same criticisms. Female only spaces in poker are really needed. Mixed poker can often be absolutely horrendous environments for women to be a part of.

"The trans issue is a lot easier to handle in poker, as the stakes are relatively low. The difference between male and female players is negligible enough that the incentive for men to join women's spaces isn't really there.

"It does speak loudly to the insanity that's playing out on a larger scale."
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Between failed male athletes taking 1st place in women's sports and tranny rapists being put in female prisons, this is rather blasè. I mean, there is a difference between men and women in these types of competitions, but it's not infeasible for a woman to win and the dude isn't trooning out but probably wants some sort of socialization in his old age, so it's rather understandable. Plus, being women, they probably had terrible poker faces.
 
Out of all people, I would not have expected Charlie Carrell to have a reasonable opinion on the matter. He is a fucking nutjob hippy, and, well he is British.

Anyway, this polemic happened before ,and nobody cares but attention whores and the casino because it brings publicity.

Woman event are not important for the poker community. They bring nothing else but positive PR to a select group of people.
 
Out of all people, I would not have expected Charlie Carrell to have a reasonable opinion on the matter. He is a fucking nutjob hippy, and, well he is British.

Anyway, this polemic happened before ,and nobody cares but attention whores and the casino because it brings publicity.

Woman event are not important for the poker community. They bring nothing else but positive PR to a select group of people.
Isn't Russel Brand British, insane, and more on the ball than the entire UK political class?

I mean, when the ruling ideology is completely divorced from observable reality, you can be significantly insane and still more grounded than whatever they teach at Eton these days.
 
I was told that the only differences where physical... did this guy simply played poker faster than the women?

Nobody wants to watch women's sports outside of beach volleyball for a reason.

And we're definitely not watching it for its high level of play and competition, lmao.
Depends. You have gymnastics (artistic and rhythmic), synch. swimming, ice skating. Although yes, these are more likely liked and watched by women.

Now, here, women's volley is very popular among men and women. Same for surfing.
 
I like where your head is at, but in person competitive poker players are so autistic that this tactic would not work, they're literally too busy staring at their cards.
They can only play one game of hold em I guess. Damn autistic bastards.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BikeLock
So what are they upset about? Men and women are intellectually identical, right? So what does it matter if a man entered a woman's tournament? We're all the same! Right?
This is a retarded argument retards bring up every fucking time, and every fucking time it's as retarded as always.

Women's "intellectual" events are meant to promote the activity among women. When a hobby is unfashionable among women for cultural reasons, there are fewer female hobbyists and vastly fewer female hobbyists that are any good, which is obvious to everyone whose brain isn't overheated by basic arithmetic. Whether such promotion is desired or virtuous is massdebatable and depends on the activity, but at least with poker it's not done because women are retarded, it's done because women aren't retarded enough to be into fucking poker.

To illustrate, car racing (muh penis reactions) was popular among young female socialites a century ago. Many women won and placed high in open races. A woman motorist (with a male cameraman) was the first person to circumnavigate the world by car. Where are the female drivers now, why aren't they competing in open races? It isn't fashionable anymore, isn't glamorous, so the rich large adult daughters aren't doing it, and the poor women are too poor. (It seems the Great Depression started the decline and WW2 dealt the killing blow; Margaret Jennings won [women's] Circuit of Ireland in 1950 despite having retired 16 years before.)
 
Back