According to Team Pokerati local femme fave @LasVegasPokers, today is “girls day” in Las Vegas. Currently running is the Ladies event in the Caesars Palace Kickoff Classic (a $130 NL event) … and then at 7pm is a $105 Pink Ladies $1000 guarantee at the new Tropicana poker room. (Yay?)

Today is also the final table of the Epic Poker League’s 8-handed NL event. No woman has yet to cash in an Epic event, save for maybe in a satellite to a $1,500 pro-am. In fact, only one woman two women entered this week’s $20k Epic event (J.J. Liu and Vanessa Selbst) … and only one woman cracks the Global Poker Index’s ranking of the top 150 players in the world (Vanessa Selbst #20). Not sure what that says about the only poker league run by a woman save for maybe Pink Ladies … but listen to Epic Commish Annie Duke’s keynote address last week at the Women in Poker Hall of Fame ceremony, where she speaks to essentially the Vegas-to-LA power poker sister set — a potentially hostile audience considering Annie’s public opposition to Ladies Events in the past.

CORRECTION: Vanessa Selbst also entered Epic’s 8-handed event; she was one of the first players eliminated. ALSO: LIPS and HHPT are poker tours or leagues run by women.

MORE CORRECTIONS: Vanessa Selbst also cashed in the first Epic Pro-Am, making Epic a little less women-dry than suggested above.

(Sexist to say rrreow?)

1. Annie Duke: Women in Poker Hall of Fame ceremony, 2011 – 15:50
2. Jan Fisher, emcee follow-up – 1:50

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“We’re going to do everything we can to legalize online poker,” said US Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-NV) to a crowd of mostly women Friday night at the Golden Nugget. She was the opening speaker at the Women in Poker Hall of Fame induction ceremony, and wanted to let nearly 300 attendees know that she hasn’t wavered in her position against government interference in online poker, and now is the time for Washington DC to get Americans back online.

Berkley, who declared her intent to run for US Senate the day before Black Friday, was one of the few representatives to call the UIGEA “a travesty” at the time of its passage and one of the first to jump on board to co-sponsor Joe Barton’s (R-TX) post-Black Friday online poker bill.

“There’s no reason people shouldn’t be playing online. It will be good for the 26 million poker players … it will be good for our country, and it’s going be good for our economy,” she said. “We’ve got to get this piece of legislation passed!”

Have a listen to what all she had to say in Las Vegas before heading back to DC:

Shelley Berkley at the Women in Poker Hall of Fame 2011
4:58

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There’s a lot going on going into this (American) Labor Day Weekend. Some happenings in poker you may want to follow, or follow up on:

On the tournament trail …

WSOP Circuit Council Bluffs, Iowa Blair Hinkle wins $1,500 Main Event, Robert Georato “Casino Champion”, qualifying for $1m National Championship at Caesars Palace in May. WSOP.com

PokerStars.net EPT Vilamoura, Portugal :: Toby Lewis takes down the title, football legend/MBE Terry Sherringham finishes 5th. PokerStars Blog.

WPT London :: Final table set, Party qualifier eligible for $500,000 bonus with win, £15k High Rollers starts this afternoon PartyPoker Blog

Partouche Poker Tour, Cannes :: Over 750 players, prize pool nearly €6 million, live streaming w/ hole cards starting Monday at Partouchepokertour.com. Follow along en Francais w/ Benjo at Winamax.fr

The River – Winstar, OK :: Raymer, J. Mercier, Chainsaw, G. Smith, Flack among hundreds of North Texas locals fighting in the $2.5m guaranteed main event this weekend

Commerce Holdem Series :: – Encouraging numbers halfway through 500k guarantee opening event despite rumblings of a boycott. Commerce Tournaments

UPDATE:

Gulf Coast Poker Championship – Biloxi, Mississippi :: $5,000 Main Event starts Saturday. BeauRivage.com

Elsewhere & Also …

PokerStars’ WCOOP gets underway Sunday.

WSOP Circuit Horseshoe Hammond tournaments to add more than 40 $10k Regional Championship seats to their tournaments – WSOP.com

Jennifer Harman, Kathy Liebert and Billie Brown get inducted into the Women in Poker Hall of Fame tonight. US Ladies Championship Saturday at the Golden Nugget. Women in Poker Hall of Fame

And Tatjana Pasalic spends three minutes with Phil Ivey

Not only did you, the everyday Joe pokerer, get to have your say on who gets considered for the Poker Hall of Fame, but now, coming up soon, via Wicked Chops, you can weigh in with Jason Alexander and Brad Garrett on the historically most significant WSOP railbirds:

Watch Girls on the Rail Hall of Fame with Jason Alexander, Brad Garrett and Gavin Smith on RawVegas.tv

It was two years ago that I wrote my first opinion piece about the WSOP ladies-only tournament. After I received a sufficient amount of hate mail, I wrote a follow-up piece. I skipped the subject at the 2008 WSOP except for a few snarky comments, and now it slaps me in the face yet again as I sit on media row in front of a sea of women. In lieu of a rant or reiteration of my previously-stated feelings on the issue, I’ll just relay a few notes.

• When your practice game isn’t at a casino but in a home game with your husband and your dad, you might be in trouble at the WSOP.

• When your first instinct at the table is to introduce yourself to everyone and ask where they’re from instead of sizing them up and concentrating on your own strategy, you’re giving off a big tell.

• If you have to apologize for knocking another player out of the tournament, you’re not cut out for tournament poker.

• When the floor staff is openly yawning while observing the tables, the play is not exactly top-notch.

• When tables full of women squeal at every mention of finishing a level or moving to a new table, this is clearly not a room full of pros.

• When the tournament announcer says that another event’s restart will be in the other room to “make room for all these beautiful ladies,” they’re talking to you like you’re “special people” and you shouldn’t smile about that.

Media row is half empty today and will be until the 5pm start of the World Championship O8 tournament. And those of us who are here are praying for the men to arrive for other events so it evens out a bit. For me, add some women-tilt that came from a phone call attempting to convince me not to write anything negative about the Women in Poker Hall of Fame, and I’m simply trying not to write something that will get me bitch-slapped I may regret later. I’ll be staying out of the hallways on breaks, that’s for sure.

Forget Jeff Madsen … Kristy Gazes is a dirty girl wet and naked:

She’s getting ready for the High Heels Poker Tour ladies boot camp at the Hard Rock, and then the Women in Poker Hall of Fame induction ceremony at the Golden Nugget … and as she points out, this is a very Ladies-y weekend. So not a bad way to start.

The issue of women holding ladies-only events and a separate Hall of Fame is certainly drawing attention. There are great arguments on both sides.

I happen to be on the anti-ladies-only side of the debate, as demonstrated in this article on PokerWorks. When I took this stand during the 2007 WSOP by writing an article for PokerPages, specifically about the WSOP Ladies Championship bracelet event, I received some harsh criticism by women in the poker community, but I also received more support than anticipated – from men and women.

It’s an issue that won’t be resolved any time soon, as women continue to turn out in droves for the ladies-only tournaments, but it’s an interesting topic for discussion.