A 70-year-old man entered the World Poker Tour in the women’s category in Florida and won, all as a way to highlight the unfairness of transgenderism in sports.
On Saturday, David Hughes won the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, taking a $5,500 prize in the women’s category. Hughes beat out 82 women who entered the tournament, PokerNews reported.
One of the players, Ebony Kenney, was furious that Hughes entered the tournament as a woman despite sporting a long white beard and making no attempt to dress as a female.
Kenney tried to organize a “bounty” to remove Hughes from the game. In pro poker, a “bounty” is money offered to any player to defeat a specific person. Kenney offered $300 to any woman who could beat Hughes and knock him out of the tournament.
Playing the @WPT ladies event today, and Dave here is the only man. (Filmed w/permission!)
While we appreciate the dead money, I really wish men would get what these events stand for.
So I put a $300 bounty on his head and Tamra & Noah Piderit matched it.
Let’s get him. pic.twitter.com/dXVZVlriAP
— Ebony Kenney | Poker & Purposeful Pleasure (@Ebony_Kenney) April 29, 2023
Kenny also told fans that she “100%” heard Hughes mocking transgenderism and radical gender politics.
Maybe Dave was overheard saying he “could pretend to identify as a woman bc they allow anything nowadays.”
And by maybe, I mean, 100%.
— Ebony Kenney | Poker & Purposeful Pleasure (@Ebony_Kenney) April 29, 2023
While many in the world of pro poker criticized Hughes for his stunt in Florida, one pro, Charlie Carrel, said he thought the whole incident was “hilarious” because it exposed transgenderism for the fraud that it is.
“Hilarious that he won,” Carrel wrote.
“It pokes fun at the idea that anybody can identify as a woman and be allowed to enter women’s spaces,” Carrel said. “It’s a real issue that people are taking advantage of in many different areas, including sports, prisons, and changing areas. This has led to some horrific repercussions (female inmates being raped in prison, or women getting destroyed in MMA fights by somebody who spent 95% of their life as a man).”
“It does suck that it comes at the expense of the women’s only space,” he added. “I wouldn’t do it, even though I probably share the same criticisms.’
1) Hilarious that he won.
2) It pokes fun at the idea that anybody can identify as a woman and be allowed to enter women's spaces.
It's a real issue that people are taking advantage of in many different areas, including sports, prisons, and changing areas. This has lead to… https://t.co/EKgnPgU9sO
— Charlie Carrel (@Charlie_Carrel) April 30, 2023
But not every poker pro agreed. Hall of Famer Linda Johnson, for one, insisted that men should not play in ladies-only tournaments.
“I love ladies-only poker tournaments. I would have no problem with them having a men’s only and I wouldn’t enter it as I would not qualify for it,” Johnson wrote, according to PokerNews. “I would have no problem if they had a tournament for 26-year old, motorcycle riding, Mohawk-haircut seniors and I wouldn’t enter it because I wouldn’t qualify.”
She continued: “I don’t think men should play in ladies-only tournaments. That said, I think there is a total overreaction to the few man who do enter. They are usually looking for attention, so why give it to them? Maybe we should just ignore them and play our best.”
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston, or Truth Social @WarnerToddHuston
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