When poker rose to the height of its popularity during the poker boom, the undeniable truth was that the game attracted men. When women began to ask about the actual percentages of women playing poker, a few tournament directors and tournament staff paid attention.
The easiest way to determine the percentage was to calculate gender through poker tournament registration forms. That took time and effort, though. And it took tour management’s willingness to give that information to the media.
It’s been difficult to obtain information from World Poker Tour events, as the casino staff is responsible for registrations. Most casinos are not accustomed to releasing such data and are often hesitant to do so.
Therefore, the easiest way to verify women’s participation in tournament poker was to record the numbers for the same series – one that attracts players from around the world – year after year. That series was the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, with a focus on the WSOP Main Event.
Even that has been a hit-or-miss process. The WSOP provided gender numbers for summer series in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 but missed 2019 and 2021. In 2022, upon request, the WSOP did provide the numbers again. Small Growth is Still Growth
From the 2022 WSOP data provided, we found that the number of women had increased from 2018 to 2022. Considering that all the years of data showed that the number of women in the entirety of the WSOP in Las Vegas never exceeded 5.5%, the jump to 5.8% in 2022 was significant. As for the WSOP Main Event, the percentage was lower but always had been. And the 2022 Main Event showed the highest number to date with more than 4.5% of the field identifying as women. WPT Prioritized Women
The World Poker Tour has been upping its efforts in recent years to grow the number of women in poker. From the WPT Women’s Poker Summit in 2018, VP of Global Tour Management Angelica Hael has been focused on initiatives to bring more women to the game.
Following that summit, the WPT hosted […]
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