Female poker player Vanessa Rousso

We desperately wanted a woman to win the Main Event – it would have done wonders for the game – but with only 270 female entries in a field of almost 9,000, the numbers didn’t add up. We caught up with Vanessa Rousso, who cashed three times in this year’s WSOP and made a final table in the $5,000 Short-Handed event, to find out what’s going wrong.

PokerPlayer: We really thought this year might see more of a balance between men and women but only three percent of the Main Event were female. Are you disappointed?
Vanessa Rousso: If you look at the WSOP in general, although no ladies won a bracelet, in terms of the numbers playing we’re doing really well. I cashed in three events and in each of these there were four women and 800 men. I know Isabelle [Mercier] made a final table, Cyndy Violette got a third place – I mean women are making final tables. I am disappointed in the numbers in the Main Event though. I think a lot more could be done to market poker to women. I think a lot of women have the natural skillset – you know, a good strong basis in maths, confidence, competitive instincts, logical skills – there are women out there like that.

PP: A lot of the old school say a woman can never win the Main Event…
VR: That’s definitely not true – it’s just a matter of time. Give it 10 years. Hopefully it’ll be me.

PP: But how are things going to change? Traditionally we’ve been against women-only tournaments – we love the fact that everyone plays poker together. But are we looking at it from a male perspective?
VR: I have two answers. I see and understand the perspective that there are some women who are intimidated by sitting down with guys; so having women-only tournaments gets more women into the game. It’s a temporary solution to a problem with a more long-term focus on getting women into the game and eventually leading to full integration. It’s a similar problem that existed with racial integration in schools in the 1960s – whenever there’s a majority/minority situation it takes special solutions like affirmative action.
But as a poker player and as a woman who’s played women-only tournaments, I see problems. They aren’t as rewarding, the blind structures are generally faster, the chip counts are generally lower, and it adds up to a situation that doesn’t really benefit skill and that’s bad. That perpetuates the negative stereotype about women being bad poker players. If they had a better structure, more skill-conducive, it could be a more positive asset. It also means it’s a lot harder to make a name for yourself on the female circuit as the tournaments are based more on luck.