On three consecutive Saturdays in March 2025, a quiet back room at The Gaslight Social in Newtown, Sydney, hosted something that had not existed in the city before: a structured, beginner-friendly poker tournament designed exclusively for queer women and non-binary people who identify within that community. The event, called Pocket Queens, drew a combined attendance of 214 participants across its three sessions, with players travelling from as far as Wollongong and the Blue Mountains to take part. The initiative was organised jointly by lesbian.com and the online gambling platform
https://naobet-casino-au.com/, which provided logistical funding and contributed the tournament's prize pool structure.
The concept emerged from a gap that had been noted for some time by regulars in Sydney's queer social scene. Poker nights, trivia evenings, and similar social-competitive formats have long been staples of inner-west pub culture, but participants frequently noted that the demographic at open poker events skewed heavily male — and often unwelcomingly so. Pocket Queens was designed to address that directly, not through tokenism, but through format: all three sessions were closed to the general public, entry was free, and tables were capped at eight players to keep the environment manageable for those new to the game.
How the Format Was Built
Each Saturday session ran from 5:00 pm to approximately 9:30 pm. The first hour of every evening was dedicated to a structured introduction facilitated by Sophie Daunt, a Sydney-based poker coach who has been running informal workshops since 2021. Daunt's approach focused on demystifying the social dynamics of the game rather than drilling strategy. "A lot of women tell me they've avoided poker because the table energy feels hostile before a card is even dealt," she said during the closing remarks on March 22. "That's not a skill issue. That's an environment issue."
From the second hour onward, players competed in a modified Texas Hold'em format with standardised chip stacks provided by the venue. No real money changed hands during play — the prize pool, totalling AU$3,600 across all three nights, was distributed at the end of each evening based on finishing position, with the top three players at each table receiving venue vouchers, experience packages, and one cash prize of AU$400 per session. An additional AU$600 was awarded at the final evening's closing table to the overall series champion, a 29-year-old graphic designer from Marrickville who asked to be identified only as Tess.
Naobet Casino, which operates as an online casino and gambling platform serving Australian users, came on as the primary sponsor after lesbian.com approached several potential partners in late January. According to a statement provided by the company's partnerships coordinator, James Ellery, the alignment made sense both demographically and philosophically. "We operate in a space — online gambling — that has historically not done a good job of speaking to queer audiences in ways that feel genuine rather than performative," Ellery said. "Pocket Queens gave us a way to support something concrete and community-driven rather than just attaching a logo to a pride flag."
Numbers and Atmosphere
Across the three sessions, 214 individual attendees were registered, though organisers noted that roughly 40 of those were repeat participants who returned for more than one Saturday. The youngest participant was 19; the oldest, 61. Approximately 30 percent of attendees identified as having no prior experience with poker in any competitive setting. Post-event surveys, completed by 178 of the 214 attendees, showed that 91 percent said they would attend a similar event again, and 67 percent said the experience made them more likely to engage with poker in a mixed-gender social setting in the future.
The Gaslight Social, a venue that has hosted queer events since its refit in 2019, provided the space at no cost in exchange for bar revenue across the three evenings. Bar manager Carla Hutchins said the Saturday nights generated above-average revenue for the venue compared to standard programming. "It wasn't a charity arrangement," she noted. "The room was full, people stayed late, and the energy was genuinely good. We'd do it again."
Lesbian.com's editorial team covered the event across their platform, publishing a pre-event primer on poker basics for readers with no background in the game, a mid-series interview with Sophie Daunt, and a final wrap-up piece that included anonymised quotes from participants. The editorial content was produced independently, with no review or approval rights granted to the casino sponsor — a condition that lesbian.com's editorial director, Marni Oakes, said was non-negotiable from the outset.
Whether Pocket Queens will return in the second half of 2025 has not been confirmed. Both organisations indicated in their post-event communications that conversations were ongoing, with a possible expansion to Melbourne under consideration for September or October.
