Editor note: The following post was censored from the Two+Two Publishing site. Although I agree that the post is controversial and possibly could be misunderstood, I also believe the post is an honest assessment from the author. I believe the author's opinion is worth listening to. I gave this post to my wife to read (who plays poker) and she agrees that although controversial it is probably accurate. For more information on the author and this article visit http://www.posev.com/posted/censored/.

Posted by Abdul Jalib on Tuesday, 9 March 1999, at 6:26 p.m., in response to THANKS! And what about the female experience?, posted by Sue on Tuesday, 9 March 1999, at 2:11 p.m.

S&M [Sklansky & Malmuth] have said in the past that being female should not significantly impact how a female should play. I hate to paraphrase them, since exact quotes of them are controversial enough, but with Andy Morton as my witness, that is a fair summary of what they said at one time in the past.

Perhaps my wife will respond later, but I just wanted to note that my observation is that most successful female poker players are "hyperaggressive", more aggressive than just about any successful male poker player.

I think women have to categorize men into female-stereotype-misusing, penis-waving, penis-following or unaffected categories.

Female-stereotype-misusing male opponents think all women are weak-tight-predictable. Against them, hyperaggression works to make them lay down good hands when a woman has a worse hand.

Penis-waving male opponents do not like to lose to a female, some are likely wife-beaters, and they raise and reraise in an attempt to outplay the female, then often call with a hopeless hand if she keeps raising back at him. Against them, hyperaggression by overplaying hands works - a woman can sometimes value 4-bet with just top pair.

Penis-following male opponents will cut females lots of breaks. Against them hyperaggression works because the man won't punish the woman for it. A male pro harshly criticized my wife for value betting something like aces up into a very scary board in 7-stud. The man just called on the end with a monster that clearly beat her, quads I think. The criticism from the observing pro was silly. My wife knew the guy was a tourist who liked her, and if he had raised her she could have safely thrown her hand away. The fact that he did not raise with essentially the nuts is ample proof her thinking was correct. If he would give her a bet by not raising with the "nuts", he would not try to steal the pot by bluff-raising with a hand that did not beat aces up. It's unlikely a male would have been afforded the same break as she. Penis-following male opponents give lots of gifts to poker-playing women in many ways.

Even I was once guilty of penis-following, against a sexy young woman I liked who had apparently jumped into a $40-$80 hold'em game just to flirt with me, as she had never played that high and had only been playing hold'em for a month and wasn't rich and had been flirting with me away from the table. I flopped quads heads up with her, and my penis screamed, "Check it the whole way!!!" We checked the flop and the turn. If I was playing to take her money, I would have bet the river, but I checked, and then she surprised me by betting. Damn, I have the nuts, what can I do? My penis screamed, "Call! No, wait, fold!!!" My brain had had enough of this silliness, and told me to (check)raise to take her last chips, which I did. She called, of course, because she was a new fishy player. Tears filled her eyes, she stood up, and left the table. Dooh! Clearly the highest EV play to call with the nuts, take the pot, toss her back her last $80, and ask her out. She started going out with the old ugly poker shift manager after that. Now that I'm married, I'm cured of this problem. :)

Unaffected men don't treat women as any different than men. Maybe they're gay. Maybe their discipline is unbreakable. Maybe they're too old. My wife thinks the old guys who play 7-stud every day have long ago forgotten about sex and are completely unphased by any woman.

Some successful hyperaggressive women who come to mind are Betty (Hollywood Park $60-$120), Dee (now Bellagio $30-$60?), Mary (Hollywood Park $40-$80), Jennifer Harmon (Bellagio $80-$160), and Mimi (Bay 101 $80-$160). My wife will complain about being omitted, but I think her aggression is at a more sane level.

Mimi and Mary are interesting because they both started out loose-hyperaggressive (coincidentally they are both Asia-born, Vietnamese and Phillipino, respectively) and with both of them I thought they would become good players if they tightened up preflop, and they did, and now they are good players. I'm not sure Mary maintains her tightness, but she sure was playing tight preflop the last time I played with her in Vegas (and BTW David Sklansky was next to her, though not for long.) She said she folded AJs on the button to my middle position raise. I didn't have the heart to tell her I had ATo. :) -- I tremendously respected Mimi when I played her daily in the Bay 101 $60-$120, but she was definitely a loose-aggressive maniac/fish when I played her some years before in Garden City $10-$20 games. A lot of players couldn't shake their old fish assessment of Mimi, and playing back at her when she always held quality starting hands cost them dearly. The Bay 101 $60-$120 changed to $80-$160 after I left. The opinion of a Bay 101 $80-$160 player I respect tremendously is that Mimi is now the best of the Bay 101 $80-$160 players, parodoxically much better than Barry, her boyfriend/pro who taught her to polish up her game to where it is now.

-Abdul