Will a Woman Ever Win a WPT?

When Farid Yachou picked up $361,600 and a shiny new Corvette for his WPT Tournament of Champions victory recently, he fought off 63 fellow WPT champions along the way.

What he didn’t have to fight off, however, was a female challenge of any sort. Why not? For the simple reason that no woman has ever picked up a WPT title in the history of the event, thus there were absolutely no representatives of the fairer sex in the inaugural WPT champions event!

Now, while this may seem like an ordinary affair – poker being seen as a male-dominated and oriented game for the most part – but it is far from so. If we were to move across to Europe, and run a similar ‘tournament of champions’ event for the EPT, we would see the likes of Victoria Coren (who might even argue for getting a re-buy, having taken down two titles – London in 2006 and San Remo in 2014!), Liv Boeree, and Sandra Naujoks taking to the felt against their male counterparts.

And this would be a fair comparison, given that both WPT and EPT Main Events attract some very strong fields and offer massive prizes and kudos to those who prevail. So where are all the WPT women?

If we look at last week’s WPT festival at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida, there was really only one woman who even came close to joining the championship ranks – the multi-talented Cate Hall, a former Yale classmate of the top female player this decade, Vanessa Selbst.

Hall, who has spoken out many times of the sexism seemingly inherent in the poker world, reached the final table of the $3,500 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship, but could only finish 9th – a great result but still no cigar to be lit for a WPT female champion.

Hall had also come close previously, placing 5th in last year’s WPT Maryland Live, taking home $58,890, with another 5th in the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic, pocketing an impressive $291,320. Her total earnings are now over $500,000 and her high finishes are fairly clear proof that giving up a law career to focus on poker was a very reasonable decision.

What of other women in the WPT? Well, no-one as yet has come close to replicating Hall of Famer Kathy Liebert’s runner-up spot in the Bay 101 Shooting Star event back in the 2008-2009 season. It still isn’t a victory though!

Maria Ho and JJ Liu have also performed well in the WPT, so what is preventing them from making that final step on to the winner’s platform? Several European women, as mentioned, have managed it – is there such a huge difference across the Atlantic?

Let’s take a detour and look at the white elephant in the room for a while…. sexism in poker. If nothing else, it might give the trolls something to do for an evening!

Perhaps, the nature of the game is simply different in the US for women. It is extremely common to hear of the rampant sexism in US casinos and card-rooms – somewhat less so in European events and venues.

I know, I know, the WPT is a ‘world’ tour – it isn’t restricted to the US, but when you look at Farid Yachou’s qualifying win last year at WPT Amsterdam, their one big visit to Europe, there wasn’t a single female in the main event money.

Hall herself spoke out on this issue just last summer, stating that:

Ho has also talked about how the poker world is still a ‘boys club, saying:

Cate Hall explained her feelings and experiences in depth for an opinion column she penned for Pokerwomennews.com:

I have yet to come across such an account from a leading female in EPT poker, although it may well exist. Play numbers of about 5% female/95% male seem to be the norm both sides of the great divide, so unless there is a cultural difference whereby women feel under more unnecessary pressure in US events, these numbers shouldn’t of themselves be the reason for the lack of female WPT winners.

However, numbers of women in the game might be hard to increase if the game is seen a hot-bed of chauvinist or sexist behaviour. Hall describes putting up with boorish behaviour like this:

So, WPT-wise, let’s say it’s not sexist table abuse or annoyances which are to blame for the lack of title-runs. What is it then?

The ‘luck/numbers’ factor? Tournaments are well-known for having a big luck factor involved in making it through huge fields and picking up titles, so perhaps it's just variance which has prevented a woman from picking up a title so far.

Maybe three or four will come along in close succession and balance the numbers so that they are closer to those of the EPT? It may be Hall herself - who has seven cashes this season alone - or it may be one of the others.

It may also be that the WPT simply isn’t attracting the same calibre of woman on a regular basis. Aside from Hall and Ho, who would even have the game to make it to the top of the pile in a WPT event these days?

JJ Liu simply doesn’t seem to want to mix it in the bigger events - for whatever reason. She’s a very, very good player – and has $2.6million in lifetime earnings – but look at her recent events. Mid-stake casino weeklies are her staple diet, and it’s hard to transform that level of play into WPT title runs.

Attracting the likes of Vanessa Selbst would certainly up the chances of a female picking up a title – her three appearances resulted in a 23rd, then a 3rd and then a 2nd spot! But she hasn’t played a WPT since 2013, finding bigger fish to fry elsewhere.

Kelly Minkin is a good player, taking down 3rd spot early in 2015 at the WPT Lucky Hearts event, but she hasn’t repeated that kind of run and seems unlikely to do so any time soon.

Loni Harwood had a good 9th spot finish last year in Jacksonville, but her main focus seems to be WSOP each year.

Esther Taylor-Brady had a fine 5th place at WPT Borgata, again last year, but nothing of note since.

Well, enough of the who/why/when’s. As it stands there, is a glaring gap in the female CV’s out there when it comes to WPT success. If you have an idea why this is so, add it to the comments page below. Better still, start a book about which woman will take down a WPT title first. My money is on Cate Hall!