Can Men Still Play in Women's Poker Events?

The first Ladies' poker event at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) was held in 1977. The event was a $100 buy-in Seven-Card Stud tournament, and the first Ladies' Champion was Jackie McDaniel, who won $5,580. This was a historic moment for poker, as women got the opportunity to compete in a male-dominated game. Female events became more popular in poker, and now we have a whole series based on female events.

The Controversial Change in Pricing

The tricky part starts when men start to enter these events and dominate, taking away the opportunity for female poker players to shine and get the recognition.

There is no legal way to stop men from entering these events as it would be regarded as discrimination, so in 2011, we saw a player named Jonathan Epstein reach the final table of the WSOP $1,000 No Limit Hold'em—Ladies Championship, where he finished in 9th place for $13,701.

Jonathan registered the tournament as that was the only event he could schedule in his tournament, and there was already a history of men participating in ladies' events. When he was at the final table, he was constantly booed by players and the rail. There was also a huge cheer and applause when he busted in 9th place.

As discrimination laws prevented organizers from banning men from participating in ladies' events, they had to find a way to do it lawfully. So they didn't raise the entry price for the men, but they gave all female players a huge discount. So, the entry price for the WSOP ladies' event would be $10,000, but the ladies had to pay only $1,000, which significantly reduced the number of men in ladies' events. This change was met with some controversy, but it was efficient.

Dave Hughes Doesn't Care

In 2023, Dave Hughes, a poker player from Florida, entered a WPT $250 No Limit Hold'em—Deep Stack—Ladies event. There were 83 entries, and 82 of them were females, but the last one was Dave. That act was not appreciated by female players, and female poker influencer Ebony Lenney started a bounty on Dave's tournament life, which was joined by a few other female players. Plus, there was an online bounty of $2,000 gathered on him.

To make things even more controversial, Dave went on to win the event for $5,555 and the title of ladies' event champion..