2008 WSOP - Ladies Never Limp

Most of the crew at PL.com were rather excited to come to work on Day 2b of the 2008 WSOP Main Event.

While having marquee names like Phil Hellmuth, Joe Hachem and Chris Moneymaker on the roster of the 2,500 or so starting the day would almost be reason enough, the all-male tournament reporting staff found this day quite attractive for several other reasons as well.

It just so happened that the second batch of Day 1s produced an extraordinarily large number of beautiful women with impressive ... chip stacks. Players fitting this description included Bodog's Evelyn Ng, PokerStars EPT hostess Kara Scott, Absolute Poker's Liv Boeree, Team PokerStars pro Isabelle Mercier, poker web-TV reporter Tiffany Michelle and PL.com blogger Lacey Jones just to name a few.

But while the PL.com staffers who began the day did show up all smiles just chomping at the bit to rail a few of these poker hotties, it was more than just the chance to take a few hot pictures of gorgeous women that had us all looking forward to the day.

Stacked.

It's what these women can do for the game that is their real appeal.

Already two years removed from the biggest Main Event in World Series of Poker history, poker's growth, on this side of the Atlantic at least, has slowed down some. The game has been sold a myriad of different ways to the average 25- to 35-year-old American males who now dominate the sport, and if there is to be new growth here in North America, it must come via players with crossover appeal. We've looked around, done a little test marketing and found that nobody has more crossover appeal than hot girls.

While the story of the bloated math geek turned online poker shut-in winning the Main Event would certainly appeal to the computer nerd demographic, most of those people have already been sold the poker dream.

Math geek?

But if the poker gods saw fit to allow some easy-on-the-eyes female to find glory on the felt, it would be an entirely different ball of wax.

Not only would a fabulous female Main Event champion draw more women into the male-dominated game, but the media attention an attractive woman winner would garner could help the game reach the corners of the Earth it has yet to.

Madison Avenue would likely come calling with the kind of endorsement deals that include more than just online poker sites and beverages designed to aid in marathon 16-hour sessions.

Easy on the eyes.

Hollywood may even begin find poker attractive again and make a few more flicks on the Rounders level, instead of the C-grade celluloid like Lucky You that they've been churning out lately.

Considering a woman has never even made the Main Event final table in the modern era, you may scoff at the idea that one of these lovely ladies can win it this year, but I'm here to tell you they have an edge.

In building a stack in the $100k range on her Day 1, Kara Scott told me she was incredibly surprised at the number of times her three-bets induce a fold from some male opponent.

"They never think a girl will three-bet without a hand," she said. "I can get away with murder."

Definitely has an edge.

The last time I checked on Kara before the dinner break today I saw the move work to perfection and couldn't help but notice that her stack seemed to be in the same fine shape she started the day in.

As long as Kara and these other great ladies keeping getting credit for big hands every time they make a play, one will make the final table before long.

So sure you can scoff, but if God can fix it so a guy like Jerry Yang can win the Main Event in 2007, there's no reason why he can't see fit to make us all winners by letting a hot babe do it this year.