This article (The “Ladies” Event at the World Series of Poker) is a bit old (last month) but it raises some questions that transcend poker that are no less relevant.

Basically, the author highlights the fact that men cannot be excluded from the women’s championship at the world series of poker. Casinos are no more able to keep men from plating than they would be from barring women from the main event. And indeed men do play.

This brings up a whole host of notions about gender and equality. Is it even worthwhile to have a women’s main event if it is not really exclusively for women? It seems that there are not many men who play, I suppose out of some notion of decorum, but a few go right ahead and disregard the spirit of the tournament and try to pick up an extra bracelet. But is this whole notion of needing a women’s division fro something like poker obsolete? Does its continued existence merely highlight an attitude of victim hood that is detrimental to the status of women in society? I can’t say I have a clear cut opinion on the matter at this point. But obviously this tournament shows just one example of how society does seem to be moving in a direction of equality is becoming more prominent than singling out individual groups for assistance. Which, in the end, is the aim of movements that instantiated them in the first place.

I can understand peoples’ fascination with celebrities. I ocassionally like to check out a little PopCrunch. But what’s with watching this celebrity poker? These people don’t know what they’re doing. It’s so painful to watch. It’s almost as painful to watch as it is to listen to celebrities pontificating about politics. You hear me, Ms. Steisand and Mr. Penn. The pain. The pain. I hope there is some way to cope with the pain.

Are people (women) so starving for celebrity gossip that they’re willing to watch these poker neophytes talk utter unfunny nonsense while they show their utter lack of talent for poker? No one who is any good at poker can watch this stuff. But I’m sure anyone who is any good at poker would love to play with these celebrity fish.

Enough kvetching. Back to reading about Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton and American Idol gossip on Popcrunch.

1. The poker environment. Think of poker and what else comes to mind… cigars, beer, and late nights of betting. This is a male-bonding retreat and women aren’t invited.

2. Poker is math-related, which men are traditionally better at. (Women have this capability, but it traditionally hasn’t been encouraged.) In addition to basic adding and subtracting, statistical probabilities are involved. Poker takes baseball statistics to the next level.

3. Poker is activity-focused, rather than person-focused. Men traditionally get together with male friends only for an activity (“let’s shoot some hoops”), rather than just talking (which sex spends hours on the phone?). A male acquaintance of mine recently commented that after the weather and sports, men don’t talk. He admired women’s ability to carry on lengthy conversations and bond this way. So poker gives men a reason to get together.

4. Competition. Poker, like sports, is competitive… think of a player aggressively throwing down his cards in triumph. Women are less comfortable with overt competitiveness, and tend to prefer collaboration. Computer-game makers now realize that what sells to girls is a story and interesting characters as the main focus.

Some women, of course, enjoy and succeed at poker – these generalizations are only that. So I say, let men enjoy the smoking, drinking, and figuring out if another ace is still out there… as long as they clean up after themselves. As Ali G says, “Respect.”