An initiative launched by Pocket Queens on Friday, with the support of many other prominent women's poker groups, seeks to address the common misgendering of many female players that occurs within GPI/THM's gigantic The Hendon Mob results database.
The issue has been somewhat intractable for many years. THM has long been the world's largest database of live poker results, and it offers the ability to the public to sort those results according to many conditions, including whether a player is male or female. However, the data THM receives from casinos and cardrooms regarding top finishers in poker events almost never includes data about a player's gender.
That has left THM the task of assigning gender to players as they are listed in the database. The task is easy when the results come from ladies' events, involve known players, or show a first name that is almost exclusively fenimine. In other instances, however, players have a gender-neutral first name or a foreign name -- often Asian -- for which gender is difficult to determine based on name alone.
Since THM's data-entry default for new players has always been male, since male players comprise the heavy majority of poker players, that's meant that large numbers of female players have been innocently but erroneously listed as male in The Hendon Mob's data. The Hendon Mob has always fixed such records upon notification and request, but it's still an after-the-fact, one-at-a-time process.
Collaborative initiative features most major women's groups
That's where Pocket Queens has entered the picture. In its new "You Count. Be Counted." initiative, Pocket Queens and other supporting groups will publicize for their members how to go about correcting the misgendered records at THM. As Pocket Queens notes in the first related action page to be launched, "It's a joint effort by respected poker organizations to fix this issue through awareness, education, collaborative data gathering, and advocacy."
In addition to Pocket Queens, groups supporting the initiative include Women Poker Association (WPA), Poker League of Nations (PLON), Fantastic Ladies in Poker (FLIP), Poker Power, Globetrotting Poker Women, Ladies International Poker Series (LIPS), Women in Poker (WIP), Herzdamen, Women’s Poker Charities, Women’s Poker Resources, and others.
The groups are "taking a proactive stance to rectify this issue," a Pocket Queens press statement declares. "The collective mission is to ensure that all poker players, regardless of gender, are accurately represented in the database."
GPI/THM president Eric Danis told PokerOrg, "We always strive to have the most accurate information possible on The Hendon Mob - we gladly always have and always will be on the ready to update anyone's profile, no matter the reason."
Initiative's three-pronged approach
The "You Count. Be Counted." initiative plans to focus on three areas in energizing women players to ensure their online records display the correct gender:
- Awareness and Education: The campaign will raise awareness within the poker community about the misgendering issue and its impact. Educational resources and guidelines will be provided to help players understand how to verify and correct their gender classification.
- Collaborative Efforts: Pocket Queens and partnering organizations will actively engage with the poker community to gather accurate gender data. This data will be shared with GPI/THM, offering a reliable and verifiable source for gender information.
- Advocacy: The campaign will advocate for improvements in the GPI/THM database, suggesting more inclusive and accurate ways to represent gender information.
Rachel Giacopuzzi, Pocket Queens' founder, stated, "Every poker player deserves to have their identity respected, regardless of gender. By collaborating with other women's poker organizations, we aim to create a more inclusive and equitable poker environment." Pocket Queens has also published a brief video, available within its press statement, detailing why female poker players should be proactive in making sure their online records are corrected if needed.
Ultimately, it will likely fall to the women's groups themselves to shepherd their members' data and results and provide periodic updates to THM. While Pocket Queens cites THM as always having been "exceptionally prompt in responding," the initiative will nonetheless force some extra labor, at least in the short term, for the provider of the free-to-the-public service.
Featured image source: Pocket Queens
