n my last blog I wrote how I thought the guys who played in the WSOP ladies’ event were pretty sad. I have thought about it quite a bit more, and well, I think it is even more sad. I just can’t get my head around why on earth someone would do that. I did listen to Shaun Deeb’s you tube BS video and all I can say is that I think it is a crock of shit. I think he made a very poor decision to even make a bet that includes dressing up in drag and playing the ladies event, and I also will not be convinced that he did it to take some kind of stance on this issue.
I think that is what bothers me the most about this. Shaun Deeb not only made a stupid decision to play in the ladies event, he then backed it up with some lame excuse. Give me a break Shaun. There is no way on earth you care this much about the ladies event that you are doing this as some sort of political stance on the issue. If you are, then that is maybe even more sad considering the 10 million other more important issues in this world you could be taking a stance about. If you were really taking a stance I am all for taking stances. Shoot, I played online poker outside in 12 degree temperatures this past Christmas to take a stance on supporting homelessness. I spent the time outdoors playing online next to homeless people in an effort to raise money for them. So I know about doing crazy things to take a stance for something. What Shaun did was just a phony cover up to pretend he actually gave a shit about womens equality when really he was just being a jack ass.
I am glad the WSOP gave him a hard time and I hope they continue to give him a hard time this series. He tried to make a mockery out of an event that while he may not agree with, was designed with all of the best intentions. Whether he agrees with the event or not, thousands of women showed up to play poker on a day many of them have been looking forward to all year. And what do they show up and see? Some jack ass in drag trying to ruin their good time. Not only that, but he wasn’t trying to just prove a point. He was trying to make money! I had originally thought that all of the money was going to charity, but he said in his video that “a portion of the profit would go to charity!” So if he was doing it to take a stance, why wouldn’t he donate the whole thing? It is seriously pathetic and I don’t feel bad if they harass Shaun for the rest of the series.
I happened to be married to a woman who is a fierce advocate of woman’s rights. We have talked about women’s rights quite a bit over our marriage and what we have agreed upon is the notion of separate, but equal. Some women who are feminists want everything to be equal, but in reality, that makes no sense. Women are different than men. First of all, women have different anatomy. They have different hormones and everything. No matter how much we may want it to be equal, when raising a family, my wife is just more naturally inclined to care for our baby. She can breast feed, I can not. I could cite a million examples like that. So my point is, we believe the goal is for everything to be equal where it makes sense to be equal, but when there are situations where it clearly makes no sense to be equal, we strive to be fair within the inequalities, if that makes sense.
I asked my wife about the ladies’ tournament and she said she did not see how it would harm women in the long run to have some sort of separation between the sexes for one event of the year. She argued that in practically every other sporting like endeavor, there has been a men’s, women’s and senior’s (and usually a junior, but we can’t have a junior championship for obvious reasons) championship, so why not poker? Is poker not on ESPN nearly every single day? I’m not saying poker is a sport, but why on earth would it be such a horrible thing to have a few different division’s of champions? It gives the ladies and the seniors their day to shine. Sometimes you have to ask yourself, who has more to lose in a given debate. If we do away with the ladies and the seniors event, who wins? I can’t think of anyone, to be quite honest. But we know through the participation numbers that it is quite clear women (I am not sure what the seniors attendance looks like) enjoy this event. Like DN said, his female asst. looks forward to this event every year. Why are we trying to take that away from her and others like her?
Anyway, to all of the ladies out there, I apologize on behalf of men that so many of them have such extreme view points when it comes to this. I am not sure why anyone takes such an issue with having a woman’s event. I think it is cool and I hope that the WSOP doesn’t chicken out because of this latest fiasco and take away the event I know so many of you look forward to. Same goes to the seniors event. I hope they keep that title alive as well. For the rest of the guys, I think we have like 60 + events here at the WSOP (plus London) so no need to try and sneak in the ladies event in a dress to try and win a bracelet.
This whole thing reminded me of a conversation I recently had with a buddy of mine. We just look at what human beings do to each other and it really is quite sad if you think about it. I mean take BP for example. They are pumping millions and millions of gallons of oil in to the water on a daily basis. They have worker’s who are coming forward saying they ignored safety practices and cut corners in the name of a buck at every turn. Their practices lead to the deaths of I think 11 people in the blast. Many analysts say the damages are in the tens of billions. What does BP do? They try and fix the problem with the cheaper option first and then try and give out a 10 billion dollar dividend!!!!!!! I mean I seriously can’t make this shit up. So my friend and I were talking and he just said, “Go Humans!!” So that has pretty much become my go to phrase whenever I hear about people doing selfish and dumb things. So congrats to Shaun Deeb for becoming the official jack ass of the 2010 WSOP!!