Women's Poker Tour CEO Has Ambitious Goals

The High Heels Poker Tour came to the Isle of Capri Racino at Pompano Park Harness Track this weekend, and tour founder, president, and CEO Lauren Failla was there promoting and running her event.

Lauren is a woman who wears her passion for developing women's poker on her sleeve, and she was happy to discuss the successful return of the High Heels Tour to Pompano, almost a year after holding her initial event there.

Lauren is a skilled poker player in her own right, having competed in the Ladies' Event at the World Series of Poker the last three years, and this year finishing 63rd out of almost 1200 entries. She created the concept of the High Heels Tour because she saw that some talented female players were reluctant to make the move to open-field tournaments.

Lauren is quick to point out that her players are women from all backgrounds and walks of life, and consist of varying levels of experience and expertise, from intermediate to masters of the game. But the gap that Lauren saw was a way for women who had not played in casino or tournament formats to make a gentle transition, a way to introduce new women to the game and veteran card players to the live game without dealing directly with the intimidation of sitting as the only woman at an all-male table.

Further, women have needs that may be ignored by general tournament scheduling. Lauren pointed out that three factors decide whether a woman can attend an event: location, buy-ins, and what Lauren referred to as the "mommy factor". That is, in addition to running businesses of their own or managing careers, many female players find themselves also having to consider family issues when debating whether to enter a tournament.

The High Heels Poker Tour goes to great lengths to try to satisfy such special needs and desires that affect women players. Events are scheduled on weekends to minimize conflicts with schools and other family business. Buy-ins are kept at a most reasonable number; in Pompano, the cost was $250, while the upcoming New Orleans stop will charge $230. As Lauren says, women represent 85 % of the purchasing power in the country, and offering them an affordable buy-in makes her tournament acceptable to the budget-conscious.

Women currently make up about 10 to 15% of the poker-playing population, and Lauren expects that events like hers will help increase that number. She says that she, and other women players she knows, generally find the live game far more attractive than online poker. This is because women find the psychological aspect of the game to be a big part of the fun, and love to have actual opponents to read.

Getting women in the door to play casino tourneys is only a part of Lauren's goal. She also wants to help women raise the level of their games, and is opening an academy to help teach players the finer points of poker; this will be covered later in this series of articles.

From its premiere event last October, which hosted 103 participants, Lauren has organized a group of stops for her players, and has found that familiar faces have started following the tour, as well as new players emerging at each destination. Before this weekend, the tour had last played at Turning Stone, near Syracuse in upstate New York, and featured over seventy players. The Pompano event unfortunately was threatened by the looming presence of Hurricane Ike, which led to forty entries competing, still a high number considering evacuation orders may have come that day.

The tour moves next to Hammond, Indiana, in October, and then to Harrah's New Orleans December 7th. Registration can completed in advance on the website, http://www.highheelspokertour.com/ . Payments must be made in person, however, as the tentacles of the UIGEA prevent credit cards from being used online to register for poker, even when the play is live.

Lauren Failla seems to be a woman who has found her passion, and her work is helping to find new and better players, to the benefit of the game everywhere.

onlinepokerwebsite.com

News Added: 08 September, 2008

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