When Girls Are at the Table

  For a very long time poker has been predominately a boys club. In this way they were sort of like the Boy Scouts except with a lot more alcohol and swearing. With recent influx of highly attractive women into the sport, a new distraction has been added to the game. Let's face it, in the old days, after 18 hours of play a guy with long hair could get more than a passing glance from the men at the table. Today with women like Jennifer Leigh and Erica Schoenberg entering the game, another distraction that has nothing to do with the game has been introduced into the mix.  When we mention female players posing a distraction for the guys, it has nothing to do with the fact that many of them wear tops that have necklines that plunge down to their ankles. Most poker players can deal with the physical diversion posed by a creative use of cleavage, it is our own tendencies that we have to avoid as a stumbling block.  When an available female is in the area the default setting for a large percentage of guys is to go into dating mode. This should be obvious but it is still a trap a lot of men fall into: the poker table is not a good place to play the dating game.  If you are thinking of how to approach the attractive woman at the poker table for a date, then you are not concentrating on what you are doing. Whatever the plan is for getting her to give you a phone number, losing your bankroll will not help.  At the poker table it is all about the chips, not the chicks.