Wednesday, December 12, 2007

No respect for Annette

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

3 comments:

actyper said...

fyi she's on the cover of the Bluff Europe issue. But I agree, I'd rather have a feature on her than BG/JS

BamBam said...

Don't fight Banky too hard P/T !
You've both got valid points. Not that it's right... just valid.

By the way.... You can tell Banky we'll meet him at the L.I.R. tables at Rama soon. It is terrible house odds... but great odds for players if they hit something decent. I love the game. We'll be playing with Rama's money for a very long time to come.

We can sit there all day for $200 and way more often than not, we'll come home with a profit. It's a patience game. Chasers go broke fast.

KajaPoker said...

If you like Annette so much why don't you just marry her? That's my tarded response to anything KajaWife says about liking someone.

You're both right. But I would also like to see her on the "real" cover instead of the euro one.

And if you're so into her you can go read her blog and see the fantastic photoshop version that could have been on the cover:
http://betting.betfair.com/annette_15/

And then you can just go marry her!