No respect for Annette
December 12, 2007
I’m soaking up the WPBT trip reports – wishing I could have been there with you all. Please keep ‘em coming!
I haven’t felt very ‘pokery’ lately. Work has been both busy and full of holiday activities that it’s all a bit overwhelming. Most days I just want to go home and fall into a TV-induced coma.
I did get the urge to write here last though, when I collected the latest issue of Bluff from my mailbox. I’d been waiting for this issue to arrive, because I assumed there would be great coverage of Annette_15’s WSOP-Europe Main Event win. What I saw, however, was Joe Sebok & Barry Greenstein on the cover. Huh? Annette Obrestad, a woman*, won the main event being both the youngest to ever win a bracelet, and the only woman to win a Main Event – and all she gets is a couple pages in the middle of the magazine? Wha?
Don’t get me wrong – I have tons of respect for Barry Greenstein. I think he’s an incredibly talented player, and I love his demeanor at the poker table. I’m sure the dynamic between a father and a son who both play poker is very interesting. But would this not have been an ideal opportunity to put the record-smashing Annette on the cover?
Banky and I got into a heated discussion over breakfast. I was ranting at how it was sexist – and he said it was because it was the WSOP Europe and the average Bluff reader is a white American male and isn’t interested in a European event they can’t watch on T.V.
I disagree – I think it has way more to do with not wanting to put a normal looking girl on the cover. I’m sure if Annette looked more like Pamela Anderson she’d be splayed all over that cover in a heartbeat. Instead, she’s a normal (if not super-young looking) girl, who is crushing games online and live, and was pushed off the cover by an editorial piece on father/son relationships. Just doesn’t sit right with me.
This isn’t the first time I’ve been disappointed with Bluff. I still cringe every time I come across ZeeJustin’s monthly column. It’s pretty hypocritical of Bluff to fire one of their editors who recently got caught cheating online (which I think was the right move), while contracting with Justin (another self-confessed online cheater). So which is it? Cheaters are allowed to write for Bluff, or they aren’t? The Bluff moral compass is out of whack.
I guess my problem is I’m so starved for quality poker content that I can’t bear to cancel my subscription.
* homage to Wicked Chops Poker
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