Sexual Identity in Online Poker
by Bodog Poker | Jan 27 2010
There are still a big percentage of male
poker players who believe that they hold an edge over the female players when it comes to the
poker tables. This edge may have been true in the past, but over the last ten years female players have certainly evolved as a whole, and playing against a woman is not the experience it once was. But that doesn't stop some players from trying to find an edge. They use the stereotypes that many players believe about female players in order to take advantage, and some do find an edge in this.
The most common thing that one will run into is the guy posing as an attractive woman. He will post a picture of his girlfriend or someone he knows in an attempt to pretend to be her. The idea is that young men will see the picture of the attractive girl and will become engaged in flirtatious conversation with them. This throws a player off his game and gives the cyber cross-gender player an edge. The player will pretend to be a female and this changes how opponents play against her.
This works the other way too. Many young online female players use usernames that would make one think that they are male players. They carry on conversations as if they're a male player so they're treated with a little more respect and don't getting bullied at the table. There are many accomplished online female poker players; Annette Annette_15 Obrestad leads the way as the young gun female poker player in the world right now. Her feared style gets her all the respect she can handle.
Other skilled female players will use this assumption about female players being pushovers to gain their own edge. In today's poker world everyone can get a free
poker tutorial and poker books are in any bookstore in North America. Women have studied game strategy and have become world-class players, and are not to be taken lightly. Like it is in live poker, more women are playing in tournaments than in live cash games. There are no big name top-tier female online cash game players. Even live cash games have a few females that have become accomplished enough to sit in on the biggest live games.
It makes more sense to watch how a player plays before making a decision on how you intend to play against them. Each player has their own style and one should adjust to their opponents, not the other way around. Just because a player is female doesn't mean that they play a certain way. If you don't believe this, you're likely to dump to lots of female opponents. Don't assume anything on the poker table until everyone has informed you on what they are capable of doing.
