Man wins women's poker event in Florida: 'I figured why not?'



A man won a women's poker tournament in Florida but says he is "100% against" men participating in women's sports.

Dave Hughes, who won the "Ladies No-Limit Hold'em" event at the Seminole Hard Rock in Florida, said he drove over five hours to visit a friend competing in a $7 million poker event at the casino on April 29, 2023, TimCast reported.

However, when Hughes wanted to play in an event, the only game available for participation was the women's tournament. Hughes was able to compete in and win the tournament, as state law prevented management from barring a man from entering a women's event, according to PokerNews.com.

“I figured why not, the ladies, as you know, are just as fierce, capable, and competitive as the men in poker and smell a lot better as well,” Hughes told Timcast News.

“For the record, I’m 100% against men taking advantage of women in sports where strength and muscle make it quite unfair — as we all can clearly see with men breaking all records set by women in every sport across the board while pretending to be women," Hughes explained.

“It’s pathetic and embarrassing that we allow our women to be abused and victimized by this nonsense and eventually the country will wake up and put a stop to this," he added.

In a video posted to Twitter, one woman recorded Hughes' participation and noted that several women and one husband had placed a bounty on him. The bounty meant cash would be given to the person who knocked him out of the tournament. Hughes even added $100 of his own.

“At this time (all in good fun) the ladies and other spectators start[ed] putting cash bounties on my head for whoever sent me packing,” said Hughes. “This started at $300 and by night’s end was up to $2,000, which is a massive gift (equivalent to 2nd place money) added to the prize pool, which really made it fun for the ladies,” he continued.

\u201cPlaying the @WPT ladies event today, and Dave here is the only man. (Filmed w/permission!)\n\nWhile we appreciate the dead money, I really wish men would get what these events stand for.\n\nSo I put a $300 bounty on his head and Tamra & Noah Piderit matched it. \ud83e\udd73\ud83e\udd73\n\nLet\u2019s get him.\u201d
— Ebony Kenney | Poker & Purposeful Pleasure (@Ebony Kenney | Poker & Purposeful Pleasure) 1682807660

The bounty, Hughes said, made the event "more exciting" with added incentive to knock him out. Since Hughes was never defeated, however, the $2,000 bounty was given to the second-place winner.

Hughes remarked that he is unlikely to enter another women's tournament despite the fanfare it created. “Doubt I’d ever do it again, but it sure caused a fuss and created a buzz and a lot of extra prize money for the ladies,” he admitted. “Women are every bit as good as men in any game that requires mental skill and wits.”

"Our young girls and women who dedicate their lives to playing sports deserve better [treatment], and the silent majority are starting to speak up.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Left-wing academic violates Twitter rules by wishing Queen Elizabeth II an 'excruciating' death



As the world mourns the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-reigning monarch in British history, a self-described feminist university professor was roundly condemned for wishing the queen an "excruciating" death.

"I heard the chief monarch of a thieving raping genocidal empire is finally dying. May her pain be excruciating," Carnegie Mellon University linguistics professor Dr. Uju Anya wrote on Twitter Thursday morning after news broke that doctors were concerned for the queen's health. Her tweet has since been taken down for violating Twitter rules.

But Anya's sentiments were shared by a handful of other left-wing academics and media personalities, who called the queen a "colonizer" and expressed disdain for the British empire.

"Real question for the 'now is not the appropriate time to talk about the negative impact of colonialism' crowd: When is the appropriate time to talk about the negative impact of colonialism?" Washington Post national political reporter Eugene Scott tweeted.

\u201cReal question for the \u201cnow is not the appropriate time to talk about the negative impact of colonialism\u201d crowd:\n\nWhen is the appropriate time to talk about the negative impact of colonialism?\u201d
— Eugene Scott (@Eugene Scott) 1662655131

"I will not mourn a colonizer," wrote Aabria Iyengar, a tabletop role-playing game streamer who has appeared as a guest on the popular Critical Role show.

\u201cI will not mourn a colonizer.\u201d
— Aabria Iyengar \ud83c\udf39 (@Aabria Iyengar \ud83c\udf39) 1662658639

"Good riddance to any and all murdering colonizers," said independent journalist Kavin Senapathy.

\u201cGood riddance to any and all murdering colonizers\ud83d\udc51\u201d
— Kavin Senapathy (@Kavin Senapathy) 1662660543

Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, an associate professor at the University of Michigan, defended criticisms of the queen upon her death.

\u201cTelling the colonized how they should feel about their colonizer's health and wellness is like telling my people that we ought to worship the Confederacy. \ud83d\ude12\n\n"Respect the dead" when we're all writing these Tweets *in English.* How'd that happen, hm? We just chose this language?\u201d
— Ebony Elizabeth Thomas (@Ebony Elizabeth Thomas) 1662650166

"Telling the colonized how they should feel about their colonizer's health and wellness is like telling my people that we ought to worship the Confederacy," she wrote. "'Respect the dead' when we're all writing these Tweets *in English.* How'd that happen, hm? We just chose this language?"

However, many others swiftly condemned Anya and came to the defense of the queen and her legacy.

“This is someone supposedly working to make the world better?” billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos wrote, quoting Anya's tweet. "I don't think so. Wow."

\u201cThis is someone supposedly working to make the world better? I don\u2019t think so. Wow.\u201d
— Jeff Bezos (@Jeff Bezos) 1662655895

"You vile disgusting moron," British broadcast journalist Piers Morgan said to Anya.

\u201cYou vile disgusting moron.\u201d
— Piers Morgan (@Piers Morgan) 1662658248

"Uju, what happened to your family is a tragedy but Britain under Queen Elizabeth II was far less of a 'thieving raping genocidal empire' than it had been before then -- and for all its faults, that empire had positive consequences, as well. She wasn't the villain you suggest," Fox News editor Tyler O'Neil charitably wrote.

\u201cUju, what happened to your family is a tragedy but Britain under Queen Elizabeth II was far less of a "thieving raping genocidal empire" than it had been before then -- and for all its faults, that empire had positive consequences, as well. She wasn't the villain you suggest.\u201d
— Tyler O'Neil (@Tyler O'Neil) 1662664109

Anya posted a follow-up message at 1:51 p.m. ET after Buckingham Palace announced that Queen Elizabeth II had passed.

"If anyone expects me to express anything but disdain for the monarch who supervised a government that sponsored the genocide that massacred and displaced half my family and the consequences of which those alive today are still trying to overcome, you can keep wishing upon a star," shewrote.

\u201cIf anyone expects me to express anything but disdain for the monarch who supervised a government that sponsored the genocide that massacred and displaced half my family and the consequences of which those alive today are still trying to overcome, you can keep wishing upon a star.\u201d
— Uju Anya (@Uju Anya) 1662659490

President Trump blasts Fauci as a 'disaster' during campaign call



President Donald Trump went off on Dr. Anthony Fauci on a campaign call Monday, calling him a "nice guy" but also a "disaster" and saying that most Americans are tired of hearing about the coronavirus.

CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins was given access to the phone call, during which Trump reportedly claimed that if his administration had listened to Fauci, more than half a million people would have died.

"People are tired of COVID. I have these huge rallies," Trump said. "People are saying whatever. Just leave us alone. They're tired of it. People are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots ... Fauci is a nice guy. He's been here for 500 years."

"Fauci is a disaster. If I listened to him, we'd have 500,000 deaths," he added, going on to say it would be 700,000 or 800,000. "If there's a reporter on, you can have it just the way I said it, I couldn't care less."

Trump: "Fauci is a disaster. If I listened to him, we’d have 500,000 deaths," before later saying it would be 700,0… https://t.co/rjjeuvJT8F
— Kaitlan Collins (@Kaitlan Collins)1603121353.0

According to New York Post Washington correspondent Ebony Bowden, Trump also said that firing Fauci would be a bombshell story, seeming to imply that doing so before the election would be a bad idea.

President Trump told campaign staff he thought Dr. Anthony Fauci was "a disaster" while indicating he wanted to fir… https://t.co/5PN0tYB9fC
— Ebony Bowden (@Ebony Bowden)1603124862.0

Fauci made headlines over the weekend for comments he made on CBS' "60 Minutes," where he said he was "absolutely not" surprised that Trump contracted a coronavirus infection. He said he was concerned after watching the Sept 26. Rose Garden event announcing Judge Amy Coney Barrett's nomination to the Supreme Court and noticing that there was "almost nobody wearing a mask."

"'Oh my goodness. Nothing good can come outta that, that's gotta be a problem.' And then sure enough, it turned out to be a superspreader event," he said.

He also said that the Trump administration has restricted his media appearances and expressed anger at the Trump campaign for using his remarks in a TV ad. Fauci said his comments were taken out of context and emphasized that he has not and will not publicly endorse any political candidate for office.

On the effectiveness of wearing masks to slow the spread of the disease, Fauci claimed that "masks really do work in preventing infection." He admitted he was wrong when he said in March there was "no reason to be walking around with a mask."

"When you find out you're wrong, it's a manifestation of your honesty to say, 'Hey, I was wrong. I did subsequent experiments and now it's this way,'" Fauci said.

He expressed opposition to calls for a new national lockdown.

"The country is fatigued with restrictions," Fauci said. "So we wanna use public health measures not to get in the way of opening the economy, but to being a safe gateway to opening the economy."

Over 8.1 million coronavirus cases have been confirmed in the U.S. More than 200,000 Americans have died.