“Going to play the ladies event. Proceeds go to charity. A battered women’s shelter or to help homeless women. Tony Hartmann and my idea, what ya think?”
The text came at 7 pm on Monday, from a good friend who is definitely not a lady. I was concerned. Tom Hammers, considering his options. (Image: Chris Wallace/CardsChat) Tom Hammers, 50, is the most recent man to try his luck in the WSOP Ladies Event . I know Tom isn’t afraid of controversy, but I was worried that he would catch some serious heat. And he doesn’t back down from a fight. I would hate to see a big controversy over something that he was just doing for fun, on a whim.
“You’ll definitely catch hell from some people,” I replied. I knew that wouldn’t stop him, but I wanted him to be ready for it. There have been some really strong reactions to men playing ladies events in the past. There are only two ways to change Tom’s mind — convince him that what he is doing is morally wrong, or convince him that it would be a disaster. I couldn’t come up with an argument for either that would be strong enough to sway him.
There are certainly arguments against a man playing the ladies event. Many were presented online in tweets and op-eds all over the poker world, which is why I wanted to write this article. Because people who have never met the man are attacking him and making assumptions about him, mostly so they can fill a page, get a few clicks, and place themselves on the moral high ground. I saw people who have never met the man, who have no idea how he behaves toward women, vilify him. Some are probably just being paid by the word and could care less about the real story and the man behind it, others just wanted attention for being on a certain side with their “hot take.” I guess that’s the modern age — opinions and clickbait everywhere, with search engine marketing that means more to a company’s bottom line […]
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