Play the Game, Not the Field
Despite prevalent ideas to the contrary, women poker players are not sitting down at the table in order to get a date. While the attractive woman sitting next to you may be distracting to your play because of her good looks, that is not an invitation for you to ask her out. Just like you, she is there to play the game of poker. She has put just as much practice as you into learning strategy and memorizing card hands. If you think of an attractive woman as a potential date instead of a poker threat, you will undoubtedly lose money as she turns your immaturity against you.
The best way to handle female poker players at the table is to treat them like a male poker player. If you start making allowances for her as a female player, your allowances could end up costing you in the long run. Men have a tendency to think that attractive women cannot play as well as men, so they play much more loosely and give away more pots. Women have caught onto this trend and will use your weakness against you. You need to be especially careful if you are playing online poker, as most players with female avatars are not actually women. They are just men who exploiting the tendency for players to play less competitively against women.
