No bluff -- more women playing poker

02/13/2006 PHOENIX -- There will be gambling this night, you can bet on that. Stacks of chips will dwindle and re-form, then dwindle again. There will be bluffs and raises and groans over lost pots -- even though there is no money gambled.

But first, there will be some practice rounds.

More than 40 women are gathered at a restaurant in Phoenix to participate in the Hot Damn Lucky Ladies' Poker Club. They're here to eat, drink and socialize, but most of all, to play cards. Many have never played poker before.

Tonight's game is Texas Hold 'em, a form of poker in which players use the two cards in their hands and five community cards to make the best possible five-card combination. At a table in the back, dealer Larry Pabst has just laid down the last of the community cards.

"Now, what's the best possible hand that could be made with these cards?" he asks.

The novices at the table frown at the cards.

"A straight?" one ventures.

Pabst nods. Enough practice. It's time to play poker.

The players aren't thinking about what their presence means to the game of poker. They're busy examining their cards, calculating how much to bet, deciding between a chocolate martini and a cosmopolitan.

But this group represents a larger trend in poker: The increase in women players, from home tournaments to online gaming to casino poker rooms. It's hard to determine how many women are in the game, says Eric Morris, co-owner and publisher of Bluff magazine, but the number has jumped in the past few years. He estimates that women now make up 25 percent of players.

Morris credits that growth to increased exposure to the game, adding that Annie Duke and other women players have had an enormous impact.

"TV has really helped bring that out," he says. "Annie Duke won the championship [at the World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions] on ESPN. You see a lot more women now profiled in magazines and television. We've seen a lot of women subscribers coming in."

Maryann Morrison, founder of Womens Poker Club, a national women-only Web site (womenspokerclub.com), has seen membership climb to more than 3,000 since December 2003, when the site was launched.

"At that time, it was right before the big poker rush," she says. "I noticed the difference in treatment of women at the tables and figured it would be great if women could get together."

An avid poker player, Morrison recalls that she was treated differently from the male players at the table. Men would single her out and play more aggressively, or worse, fold or play as if she needed help. She started the site so women would have a place to meet and exchange strategies without feeling intimidated or pressured by male players.

Now the atmosphere at the tables is changing, she says.

"That [behavior] is not really apparent today, because more and more women are playing," Morrison says.