Male Enters Ladies Event at the 2016 WSOP

Every year at the WSOP, a Ladies Event is held that is meant to be only for ladies as the name would imply. What many don't know is that this tournament isn't exactly an all female event. It may be called the Ladies Event, but literally, anyone is allowed to enter. According to Nevada state law, casinos are not allowed to hold gender only events that disallow one gender or another from entering. Many casinos who do choose to hold events just for the ladies do so by exploiting loop hole. That loop hole in this case is offering a deep discount to any female who enters. Technically, the Ladies Event is a $10,000 buy in No Limit Hold Em event on the books. To create the Ladies only part, any female who enters the event only has to pay $1,000. So if a male wanted to enter the tournament, they legally could; but they would need to fork over the $10K, and a ton of equity in the process. Most men respect that the Ladies Event is intended to be for the ladies and respect the game by not bothering with it. And most players understand that having to pay 10x the buy in everyone else does is just a terrible play. However, we still have seen the occasional male enter the tournament over the years. It doesn't happen often, but it can still happen. It's usually a silly bet the player made and lost and his punishment was to enter the tournament. In 2010, a stir was caused when 6 men entered the ladies event. Shaun Deeb in full drag being one of those males. Supposedly it was for charity, but the ladies weren't too happy about this. Even the organizers of the WSOP announced a formal apology over the PA system for the number of men who were in the tournament. In 2016, we saw our newest entry in the Ladies Event. Tony Roberto would gladly pay the $10,000 buy in and sat down with the ladies for his at an over $800,000 prize pool. When asked why he decided to play the ladies event, he cited the multiple prop bets he had with fellow poker players as the reason. Most if the women paid him no mind and it was business as usual. Other than the occasional evil eye, play went on as normal and not much was made of his entry. Roberto would bust out of the event before winning any of his prop bets, and probably to the delight of the female players.