Daniel Negreanu scored a double knockout on his poker blog after savaging Shaun Deeb for entering a WSOP ladies tournament, and then attacking Annie Duke’s claim to be the best female poker player in the world.
Shaun Deeb claimed to be highlighting the issue of gender equality when he entered the WSOP $1,000 Ladies Championship this week, but in Negreanu’s opinion Deeb was just acting like an “ass.”
“I mean, you have over 1000 women in that event who love it! Why in the world would we want to spoil their fun in the name of sexual equality? You aren’t fighting for men’s rights, or women’s rights for that matter, you are just being an ass,” explained Negreanu.
Despite support in his cross gender endeavour by Annie Duke and Liv Boeree, Deeb decided to apologise for his behaviour and only half heartedly defended himself against Negreanu’s harsh comments.
Deeb insisted he intended to donate a part of any potential winnings to a woman’s charity. However, it would appear the actual effect of his entering the ladies tournament was to label the ladies event a sham.
If Deeb was not more forthright in justifying himself, Annie Duke provided a more vocal defence of Deeb’s cause by stating:
“I get that women would be upset, but I think it’s important for men to take that stand and also it’s for charity…If there were a men’s only event, people would be encouraging women to play.”
The whole affair rankled Negreanu, who reacted to Dukes comments by attacking her claim to be ‘The Best Female Poker Player in the World.’ In his blog he states:
“It shows just how out of touch she is with women in poker. She insults the other hard working women professionals when she makes such a claim…While Annie is supposedly claiming to fight for equality, she does so at the same time as claiming superiority over all women in poker.”
Always willing to vent his opinions, it would appear ‘Kid Poker’ is taking no prisoners these days when he has a point to make. What’s more he’s once again shown that he’s more than prepared to call anyone out pulling such ill-considered stunts, and then justifying their actions as a coup for human rights.
A double knock out?
Let me tell you something as an experienced 20+ years female poker player here in Vegas.
Daniel is an asshat who is loved by his clueless fans who look up to him like he’s a star or something, when in fact he’s a prick who is going broke and gets his kicks and hard ons from trashing other poker pros (I guess because the little turd can’t keep a woman).
The women’s event is a disgrace but the clueless and ignorants out there are not educated people with an IQ above 65.
All the tough losers out there in forums who trash Annie Duke or the guys who dressed up like women and played the tourney, really don’t have a clue what they’re talking about.
The WSOP has turned into a complete circus, everything from the 4 mth delay to the final table for the “November Nine” to the poorly setup tournaments, to the lousy coverage by espn, to the women’s event even existing.
You twits need to stop writing about a topic you know nothing about. You don’t have a vagina and you didn’t live through the discrimination of the 60′s.
The tournament for women only says loud and clear, women can’t compete with men on a mental level. I for one, (and Annie and many other women) can tell you that is not the case. We can compete and beat any of you.. and do on a daily basis.
i suppose they can keep adding such dividing tournaments to the agenda. a women’s event already exists, so does a seniors. deeb suggested a rookie event, and they can take this “segregation” route in many different ways. but, if there will be all these special events, they shouldn’t be bracelet events.
they could add a guys n dolls tournament, where each entry is a couple that shares their hands… then gay couples will want to enter that one, and THAT will piss people off.
let women have their event. ok, now i have to throw in one douche comment cuz im a guy:
let the women have their event, just put it during the special olympics instead of the wsop!
It seems a bit silly for a guy to enter the ladies tournament. I really doubt he was legitimately attempting to make a stand for gender equality by doing so. Historically, men have not been kept from doing a huge number of things just because of their gender, women on the other hand have been. If he really wants to fight for gender equality, he would be much better served to become involved in a legitimate cause like fathers right (or one of his choosing). I don’t think the criticism of this behavior was anything other than the feeling that it wasn’t a legitimate statement on the issue of gender equality. I doubt that very many men are losing sleep over a ladies poker tournament. Men haven’t been historically excluded in the way women have been and I don’t think many men feel excluded from or discriminated against in the poker community because of their gender.
no