On Tuesday, the Ladies International Poker Series (LIPS) announced that it would hold the first ever U. S. Ladies Poker Championship. The two-day event, which will take place on September 4th and 5th, will be held at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas.
The U.S. Ladies Poker Championship will have a buy in of $500+$50 and be broadcast on the internet. Poker Netcast, which was the organization responsible for the broadcasts of “Live At The Bike” during its heyday at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles, will broadcast the two days of play at its website. LIPS founder Lupe Soto told Poker News Daily in an exclusive interview that “discussions are ongoing” for the event to be filmed for future broadcast on television.
What makes the U.S. Ladies Poker Championship exciting is the multitude of ways for ladies to enter the event at a discount. While players can buy in directly to the tournament in September, two online poker sites are going to run satellite events for players to get in cheaply. PokerStars and Victory Poker will be offering satellite tournaments and Soto stated that “others are welcome” to offer qualifiers.
Land-based casinos have also been jumping at the chance to offer satellite events for ladies to earn their way into the U.S. Ladies Poker Championship. “The California casinos Bay 101 Casino in San Jose, the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles, Phoenix Casino in Sacramento, and Ocean’s 11 in Oceanside will be offering satellite tournaments,” Lupe said. “Two Nevada casinos, the Golden Nugget and the Peppermill Casino, have also agreed to participate. The word about this event has spread like wildfire, and promotions haven’t officially started.”
Any casinos interested in hosting satellite events for the U.S. Ladies Poker Championship are encouraged to do so and there is a significant promotional reason that might encourage more casinos to get in on the action. If the winner of the U.S. Ladies Poker Championship is also a representative of a particular land-based casino, two trophies will be presented, one for the winner and one for her host poker room. The host poker room would also receive worldwide publicity and a guest appearance by a celebrity or prominent poker player for promotional purposes.
The first U.S. Ladies Poker Championship Mega Satellite will be held on Sunday, June 13th at 4:00pm PT at the Golden Nugget. The $150+$25 buy-in event will award one $1,500 package for every ten players entered. The package includes a $500+$50 buy-in to the 2010 U.S. Ladies Poker Championship, three nights hotel accommodations at the Gold Nugget, $650 towards travel expenses, and entry to the prestigious 2010 Women in Poker Hall of Fame banquet and ceremony, which will be held as a part of the weekend’s festivities.
LIPS is the longest running tournament series that exclusively caters to women in the game today. “We’ve been around now for six years,” said Soto. “We broke the ground for many of the women’s tournament series that are around today and we all offer the ability for women to ‘cut their teeth’ on tournament poker, learn and improve their games, and enable women to enter into a mixed tournament atmosphere comfortably.”
LIPS has become a prominent member of the poker industry through its commitment to women in poker. Several of the best female players, including Poker Hall of Fame member Barbara Enright, two-time WSOP Ladies Champion Susie Isaacs, the late Mindy Trinidad, and top professionals Kathy Liebert and Joanne “J.J.” Liu have all taken part in LIPS tournaments. While these ladies have made their mark in the grueling tournament world, women’s poker organizations such as LIPS are still striving to add to the number of ladies who participate in the game.
Last year’s WSOP Main Event included only about 350 women, or 5% of the field, and Soto stated to Poker News Daily that there was a reason for this. “Larger buy-in events constitute fewer women because their experience level isn’t quite the level of men in such an event,” Lupe said. “With the U.S. Ladies Poker Championship and the continuation of women’s poker tours such as LIPS, we’re looking to offer women that chance to gain experience and increase the number of ladies in the game.”
