Women and Poker

By Gary Carson

There was a time that poker was a man's game. Of course, that's not true anymore, poker is very much a coed game. There are many women poker players today, and they're welcome every place I've ever played. But, the majority of poker players are men and, whether they are poker players or not, men are still men. This works to the advantage of women who understand it and can exploit it. If you're a man, you should be aware of this and take defensive measures.

The majority of successful women poker players are more aggressive than their male counterparts. All successful poker players are aggressive players, but it sometimes seems that successful women tend to be almost hyper-aggressive. They often find success in adapting this style because it usually works well against almost any male poker player.

Aggression tends to work well for women because of the way most men perceive and react to hyper-aggressive women. You can categorize men poker players according to the way they to react to women at the table. One catogory of male opponent are chauvinistic men.

Chauvinists

There are chauvinistic men who tend to think all women are weak, predictable, tight players. Nothing they see at the table will sway them from this view. They think all women are bad poker players and that they are easy to read. They will assume that a bet or raise from a woman simply means that the woman has a very good hand because they think no woman would have the nerve to bet or raise without a near chinch hand. The result is that chauvinistic men tend to fold marginal hands whenever a hyper-aggressive woman player bets or raises.

But, at the same time, chauvinistic players do not think that women have good judgment. So, if he starts out thinking he has a good hand, he isn't likely to change that assessment of his own hand based on anything a woman player does.

One interesting characteristic of chauvinistic players is that they also tend to be tight players. This combination of tight and chauvinistic does make it easy for an alert aggressive woman to profit from his reaction to her aggression.

Playing chauvinistic men

When faced with an aggressive woman player, chauvinistic men tend to react with hyper-aggression of their own when they fear their hand is second best. They try to win by psychological domination and intimidation. When they think they do have the best hand, they'll often play aggressively, but not hyper-aggressive. They go on tilt and react predictably, over extending themselves with second best hands.

For example, say a tight, chauvinistic player has opened with a raise from early position. A woman should raise with most hands. Even a hand like 8s-5d is worth raising with. The reason for the raise is to begin a determination of whether he has a big pair, or two big cards. Because of his opening with a raise from early position he almost surely has one of those two hands. Either something like Ah-Ad or Ad-Ks. Whatever her hand is, she should just raise. He'll re-raise.

If the flop comes something like As-10d-2c and he bets, she should probably give it up right there. Just fold.

But, if the flop comes something like Jd-8c-4h and he bets, she should raise.

If he re-raises then she can be pretty sure he has two overcards and she has the best hand. But, she should just call. The reason she should just call is to encourage him to bet again on the turn and the river. Unless an ace or king comes on one of the last two cards she can be fairly sure her pair of eights is the best hand. If no big cards come by the river she can sometimes even raise for value on the river. He'll call her with an Ad-Ks.

If he just calls her raise, she should worry that he has a large overpair. But, the good thing that will probably happen now is that he'll check on the turn, thinking she'll bet and he can check-raise. She should disappoint him. She should check. If she doesn't improve to 3-of-a-kind or 2-pair then she should probably fold when he bets on the river.

This kind of behavior is very predicable with this kind of male, chauvinistic player when playing against an aggressive woman.