It started so well…

The World Poker Tour prepared to launch its ninth season with exciting changes and additions to its tour. With PartyGaming at the helm and fresh minds on the job, the powers-that-be sought to change the trend of the past few seasons, one that saw declining registration numbers, limited tour stops, and the overall feeling that the WPT just wasn’t what is used to be. And the new-and-improved WPT was ready to announce Season 9 with a much-hyped press conference at the Bellagio in early July, just before the start of the Bellagio Cup that would kick off the season.

Coincidentally, I attended the conference with none other than “He Said” author Martin Harris. We found the correct Bellagio ballroom, awkwardly filled out media forms that we may never need, and began greeting others in attendance. The presser got underway with words from WPT CEO Steve Heller and President Adam Pliska, both of whom expressed excitement about the new season. Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten were also on the panel, resuming their long-term roles as commentators for the show. And Matt Savage was there as well, in his new role as Executive Tour Director. There were numerous changes announced, such as tour stops once again beyond the North American borders, better final table structures, lower buy-ins at some events, the addition of side events, and more of the television show time dedicated to earlier stages of the tournaments.

Then some introductions were made. The first was a welcome back for Kimberly Lansing, the one-time video host for WPT’s live updates. She was brought to the room to discuss her new role as an anchor for the show, which will consist of more professional interviews and some that will be used on the television show as well as on the website. While the introduction of Lansing as the “Bob Costas” of the WPT may have been overkill, her presence on the upcoming season could be a positive, especially in a more specialized and professional role than her earlier responsibilities required.

And then the press conference took a turn . . . back to a time when pretty girls could sell anything, and back to a time when women were referred to as girls.

Vince Van Patten introduced the WPT Royal Flush Girls. Four utterly gorgeous women in tight nightclub-appropriate dresses and high heels entered the room in attempted dramatic fashion. They walked around the media seats toward the front of the room, where they posed for photos. They all had long black hair and exotic model-like look about them, were nearly the same height, and needed to eat several portions of a healthy meal. Van Patten could hardly contain himself and smiled from ear to ear as he began to introduce each of them. Each went something like this (my attempt to paraphrase): “Katrina was tall as a child and destined to be a model. She’s gorgeous, isn’t she? Wow. She volunteers with children in Los Angeles, and she is just beautiful. Can’t wait to have her on the tour with us! Yeah. Oh, and she has a degree in business economics from UC Irvine.”

The press fact sheet about the women, of whom there are actually six who will rotate so that there are four at each tournament stop, shows that some of the women are very well-educated, but bullet points like “one of eight kids, she longs to have a large family” tend to make it sound more like a dating website bio. But that theme fits in with the duties of the women on the WPT. They are supposed to serve as “event ambassadors,” and reports from their first appearance at the Bellagio Cup indicate that they’re present as eye candy. They walked the tournament room in their tight dresses, talked to players, and looked good.

While the WPT looks to make very positive changes to its ninth season of tournaments and television shows, they miserably failed with this idea. However, it will not be a total failure because of the predominantly male fields that will fawn over the women at the tournaments, praise the WPT for its choice, and believe that they will date them. Outward appearances will allow everyone to believe that the Royal Flush Girls were a perfect addition to the tour.

The truth, though, is vastly different. Women are the key to growing poker tournaments, and should more of them play open tournaments like WPT events, registration numbers would grow. But most women, who are of average size and weight, could be intimidated by models hovering around the tables, and many women find the mere presence of the “girls” offensive. Though the Royal Flush Girls should not be the one and only determining factor as to whether a woman should play a World Poker Tour tournament, one could not blame them for choosing another event on another tour that did not treat women as objectified showpieces.

Phil Hellmuth does it by surrounding himself by scantily-clad models for his entrances to major poker tournaments, and he is viewed as a buffoon. Victory Poker does it by promoting bikini models as their players and using images of women sitting on the laps of “real” poker players in their advertisements, and the site is finding little success. Does the World Poker Tour want to jump on that bandwagon? Their videos may get a few more hits on the internet, but no one will watch the WPT on television because of the Royal Flush Girls, nor will men play a $10K buy-in tournament because a pretty woman might talk to them.

The World Poker Tour made a mistake with the Royal Flush Girls. And the six women who took the job can do better. They’ll see.

See He Said: Women on the WPT