Our guest is Sia Layta — a pseudonym of a woman whose about-to-be-published book is called Black Widow Poker. It’s about the advantages and disadvantages of women playing poker. In addition, Sia is planning to enter the Main Event in this year’s World Series of Poker dressed as a man. Seth Palansky, WSOP Communication’s Director, has said that dressing in this manner is against WSOP rules and Sia will be removed from the event and her entry fee forfeited if discovered. Bob and Richard also dip into their mailbag.
podcast
Click to listen – alt click to download
Show Notes
[00:49] The origin of the nickname “Black Widow” and the advantages of being a man in poker
[05:35] Cash games v.s. tournaments
[06:26] Playing poker disguised as a man
[09:48] Black Widow’s first time dressing as a man
[16:49] WSOP rule on revealing identity
[18:57] Go Fund Me page
[19:41] The origin of the name Sia Layta
[20:59] Advantages of being a woman at a poker table
[27:05] Will the pictures in her book inadvertently reveal her identity?
[29:13] Playing the main event v.s. satellites
[30:13] Women’s representation in the world of poker
[37:31] A strategy deviation in Triple Double Bonus
[40:12] Paul Magriel’s passing
[43:18] Are good VP games still available? Do you have to learn all the strategies? What kind of BR do I need?
Black Widow Poker: http://black-widow-poker.com/
Go Fund Me page: https://www.gofundme.com/blackwidowpokerlegalfund
“Backgammon” by Paul Magriel: https://www.amazon.com/Backgammon-2004-Paul-Magriel/dp/1593860234
VPfree: http://www.vpfree2.com/
Bob’s section on Gambling With an Edge: https://www.lasvegasadvisor.com/gambling-with-an-edge/author/bob-dancer/
Never miss another post
It’s odd that this chick is going to play as a guy in the Main Event of poker. I don’t see why the WSOP should stop her as long as she can afford to pay the $10K buy in. If anything it’s a Halloween costume. 🙂 I don’t think changing her table image to that of a man is going to have that much of an impact for her in the Main Event considering the size of the field. If players are chipped up and in position they will raise her and call her bets to see if they can connect on the flop whether it’s a woman or a man.
A thing I noticed in the podcast is that the Black Widow has a feminine voice. Hopefully she can mask her mannerisms and voice at the table if need be. The whole plan of dressing up as a guy is a bad idea the way I see it unless it is some kind of prop bet. If she feels that she cannot win the Main Event of Poker as a woman then there is no way in hell that she is going to win it as a man! Why should anyone put any undue stress on themselves playing in such an event?
It could become unnerving for the Black Widow to get kicked out of the Main Event by the tourney officials, or to meet some jerk out on the tables who figures out she is in disguise and starts to tease her about it. :/
You can bet your bottom dollar Caesars Entertainment’s World Series of Poker (WSOP) Communications Director Seth Palansky (who was fired from the highly regarded entire Caesars PR spokesman position) will be on the floor of the Main Event searching for Black Widow. He’s likely to ban her from all Caesars properties as he has done to many others for minor offenses (or no offense at all). If he doesn’t like you, you are toast. No one should represent a company who bases rules on personal feelings rather than policy. If his boss Mitch Garber had some guts, Palansky would be on the street looking for another job!
She can dress like a man but still look like a woman. Just look at Ellen Degeneres.
And Didn’t Shaun Deeb enter the women’s event as a women. using a tampon as a chip cover. I don’t remember Seth having any objections to this ….
Then your memory is flawed.
Seth (and others) instituted rules that said the Women’s tournament entry fee is $10,000, but if you are an actual woman you get a $9,000 discount. This effectively eliminated men crashing the women’s event.
I prefer Ellen Degenerate. Your comment reminds me of Vanessa Selbst. She pretty much dresses up like a dude.
It was nice watching Selbst get knocked out of last years ME by Gaelle Baumann’s quad 7’s, Selbst had Aces Full and took an early walk.
The entire plan is just a publicity stunt for her book. If she gets DQd for dressing as a man, instant major press coverage. If she somehow manages to get deep, either before or after getting outed as woman, instant major press coverage. Only thing that would not result in a net positive for her would be to get stacked early and before anyone notices that she’s a woman, thus weakening her facile premise that male privilege extends to the poker table. People might treat women differently at the table as a general rule (e.g. Assuming they play generally tighter) but smart women can just exploit this. Pretty transparent and lolzworthy from my perspective.
That knockout would’ve been a hell of a lot funnier had it been Hellmuth!
I suppose so, somebody has to put him out. Considering the topic at hand I think Selbst fit the description pretty well as a female poker player dressing and looking almost like a guy. At least in last years ME. If the Black Widow can make herself look even more like a man than Selbst, more power to her. I think it would be hard to pull off since poker players are sitting next to each other and are fairly observant. Someone may get the impression that she may be a female that looks like a guy but they may not say anything for fear of questioning someone’s gender at the table and looking like a buffoon.
Her voice will be a tell tell sign that she is a female even though poker can be played non verbally, as well as other mannerisms, the color of her phone while she’s checking her social media at the table, maybe her hands, earring holes in her lobes, and her scent.
I believe she will have a decision on her $10K buy-in before a disqualification happens. If she ran deep I think her cover would be blown as was said in the podcast. Poker doesn’t care about gender and if your a man or a woman as far as winning is concerned since people can be beaten by robotic poker machines today. If 50% percent or more of the players in every poker tournament ever played were stacked with strong women players the winning margin would probably even out or go in favor of the ladies.
Seth Palansky whoever he is, gave the typical casino employee jerkwod response if he wants to disqualify her for dressing up in disguise. He’s about driving business away. He should have said something along the lines of, “Bring it!” “I wanna watch you melt down and get knocked out!” Then put her on the feature table. That’s how the tournament director should respond. Palansky doesn’t know how to challenge the player and have a little fun in the process.
This whole idea that women have an inherent disadvantage at the poker table is insulting to me as a woman and a winning player, and to the hundreds (or thousands) of us who have been successful for many years without feeling the need to hide who we really are. It’s called playing the player and adjusting your game, and it’s not that difficult to do no matter what you happen to look like.
Maybe a woman hasn’t won the WSOP Main Event yet, but I’d like to know what Sia thinks of the women who have won other major events including the WSOPE Main Event, EPT Main Event, this year’s APPT High Roller and many many other open events over the years including WSOP bracelets. Have all these women had to work extra hard to overcome the fact that “women can’t play real poker against men,” or are they just great players, period?
I was waiting to hear about Sia’s actual credentials as a player (like how long she’s played, how many tournaments she’s actually won, what stakes she plays, etc), because from the way she talks about the game and her hand examples, I have a hard time believing that she has much experience playing poker at all.
Not that I care, but, She is “butch” ya know…
Bob,enjoyed your podcast on Sia,i was wondering which bath room she uses,mens or womens in a casino dressed as a man?
“from the way she talks about the game and her hand examples, I have a hard time believing that she has much experience playing poker at all”
I had a similar reaction. Richard’s questions were spot-on.
She made some questionable early statements, and then when she started complaining that too many people call her when she has AA, I decided that she didn’t really know what she was talking about enough for me to listen to the full interview. (For the non-poker players: you typically WANT people to call you preflop when you have AA.)
“Other players don’t respect my raises” is a classic novice cliche.
Adjusting to your opponents is a fundamental part of winning poker, and she seems uninterested in doing it.
I guess one could make a case that if men are generally too passive but specifically ramp up their aggression against her, or men focus better against her, maybe she’s accidentally pushing them to play BETTER somehow? That seems like a real stretch, though.
I know I’ve heard of a poker player that goes by her nickname before. To the best of my knowledge I believe it was some televised poker event where the announcers mentioned her nickname as the camera feed was going from table to table. I hope that Palansky is able to find her during the tournament and immediately puts her on the feature table so we people that are not making the trip out to Las Vegas can watch the action in the comfort of our home. 🙂
When I get dealt AA in a cash game or a tournament I want to isolate either one or two players to go against by raising or reraising an early raise in early position pre flop unless someone before me has already pushed all in. I have a buddy who thinks that whenever he gets a monster hand like AA pre flop, he should always let the entire table come in the pot with him whoever is willing. He won’t do a pre flop raise with a hand like AA, KK, or QQ if nobody in front of him raises, he’ll just let them come in and he’ll smooth call the big blind or call one of their raises. It was funny watching him lose at the GoldStrike Poker Room years ago in a cash game before they closed it down. In a 1-2 No Limit game he picked up QQ pre flop and just called the big blind, come to find out the big blind had 4,7 off suit and checked his big blind. The flop came 4,7,2 to the best of my memory but nothing higher than a Queen hit the flop and that’s when my buddy went all in only to find out that his queens were no good compared to two pair and he lost everything by the river when he was $70 to the upside from his initial $200 buy in. He blamed his loss on the weed we smoked before we played because it was the best that him and I had ever smoked and it still is to this day. Not only was my buddies loss embarrassing but he wore a rainbow trout hat to the table, one that protrudes like one of those arrow hats. Oh boy it was funny watching my buddy lose at poker while wearing a 3D fishing hat. I’ll never see that again at the table.
Same thoughts here. This lady is a novice/intermediate at best, with a weak understanding of poker game theory.
Intentionally or not, she is broaching some interesting issues with regard to gaming and gender. But this podcast drops the ball on the mathematical fundamentals. I love our GWAE hosts, but here I would’ve liked to hear them either push back harder or involve someone with deeper, modern poker experience to provide more of a sounding board. (Bob and Richard are in a tricky spot… it’s gotta be tough to risk alienating the guest up-front and compromising their entire podcast!)
If you’re listening to this and not an experienced poker player, be very skeptical of this otherwise nice-sounding lady’s tendency to generalize strategies that her undoubtedly small playing sample size cannot mathematically support.
This is why you hopefully have a balanced range of cards that you raise with, if you get multiple callers, your big pairs do lose value, but you gain value in your small pairs, suited connectors, and suited aces. Hence, a “balanced range”.
Yes! Thank you for this. I was thinking the same thing.
We actually asked that on the air. She said she has a large mobile home parked nearby and uses that to avoid the problem.
Were that not the case, she would clearly need to use the men’s room so as not to blow her cover. Simply wait for a stall, close the door, and do whatever she has to do. Yes she might accidentally see a dick while a guy is using a urinal, but that shouldn’t be a traumatic experience for an adult of either sex.
I wasn’t saying to limp. You should typically raise with AA. But you should also typically be happy when you get called.
Years ago I would like to think I learned a valuable lesson as it pertains to limping in a NLHE game with AA. My opponent flopped a full house against me deep in a tournament and I realize I made a stupid mistake pre-flop by not going all-in when I know I should have to make him fold. It was an embarrassing loss to say the least and I have a hard time forgetting that hand.
My worst loss when I got dealt AA pre flop in a NLHE game happened in a casino cash game. It wasn’t the amount I lost, it’s how I lost. A new player and a new dealer came into the game at about the same time. The new dealer ends up dealing me AA, I go all-in pre flop only to get called by the new player on the table who come to find out later had pocket 9’s. The dealer dealt the flop and a 9 popped, the dealer caught a mistake because he forgot to burn a card before the flop so he asked the 2 players involved in the hand if we wanted to muck our hands and get our money back. Of course I say no and he washes the cards and begins the flop process all over again while we keep our hole cards. He deals the second flop and a 9 popped up where I lost by the river card. I was so disgusted with what happened that I left the table with the feeling that I may have been cheated but later on I suppose that I just got unlucky. I would hope that the degenerate who called me and won that hand lost all of his bankroll.
I agree that Sia’s poker comprehension and experience come off as amateurish at best.
Couldn’t help think of the story “The Emperor’s New Clothes” as I listened to this podcast. Just because Sia has enjoyed a higher level of success while masquerading as a man, that does not necessarily mean that it is *because* she is dressed as a man and therefore her opponents treat her play differently. Perhaps she just plays better and has a higher confidence level while in her costume?
Finally, I have to admit I find the whole notion of her book and strategy slightly offensive towards the many successful women poker players out there. I would like to know how they feel about this.