He needed a better poker face.
A Florida man is facing backlash after competing in a women’s poker tournament and winning, the NY Post reports.
David Hughes, 70, from Delton, Florida, participated in a $250 no-limit Texas Hold ’em game at the World Series of Poker’s Ladies event at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida, over the weekend. And social media was quick to skewer the gambler for his entry into the $17,430 prize pool, the Las Vegas Review Journal reported.
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Hughes was allowed to enter the all-female tournament alongside 82 other women.
Per its anti-discrimination legislation, Florida casinos by law cannot ban men from entering into a women’s tournament.
Nevada also prohibits excluding men from competing in a women’s tournament.
The event had a hefty price tag: $10,000 buy-in, with women earning a 90% discount to deter males from entering.
Hughes took home $5,555, beating out poker player Dayanna Ciabaton, who placed second.
Hughes’ disregard for the all-female competition set off a wave of controversy.
Pro-poker player Ebony Kenny took to Twitter to put out a bounty — which rewards players for trying to eliminate another — on Hughes.
“Dave here is the only man. 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,” Kenny tweeted.
Others, like British male professional poker player Charlie Carrel, also chimed in on Twitter.
“It pokes fun at the idea that anybody can identify as a woman and be allowed to enter women’s spaces,” Carrel wrote. “It does suck that it comes at the expense of the women’s only space. I wouldn’t do it.”
He added, “It does speak loudly to the insanity that’s playing out on a larger scale.”
Poker Hall of Famer Linda Johnson said via Poker News: “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.”
She added that she would have no qualms about a “tournament for 26-year-old, motorcycle riding, Mohawk-haircut seniors and I wouldn’t enter it because I wouldn’t qualify.”
Hughes isn’t the first man to go all-in on a women’s poker tournament. Former World Series of Poker circuit event winner Abraham Korotki won the pot in a ladies no-limit Hold ’em event at Atlantic City’s Borgata Poker Open.
This article originally appeared on the NY Post and was reproduced with permission.
