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Card game that holds all the aces
Published: 2005-04-13
 Card game that holds all the aces
Adrian Mather
THERE’S probably two images that spring to mind when someone mentions playing poker. One is of a set of grizzled cowboys in a seedy Wild West saloon, reaching for their guns as the fifth ace in the pack turns up. The second is of a group of high-rolling businessmen, laying down gigantic bets in the back room of high-class casino.
But the craze for poker is spreading beyond the mega-rich, business-suited elite, thanks in part to the proliferation of online sites, such as Ladbrokes and 888.com, allowing ordinary punters to place modest bets from the comfort of their own homes.
Albert Tapper, general manager of LadbrokesPoker.com, the biggest online poker site in Europe, says: "There’s been such a growth in poker being shown on television, and we’ve seen that rise echoed online. More than 25,000 people play online poker with Ladbrokes every day, and at peak times we have between 6000 and 7000 people playing on over 400 tables.
"In January 2003, the total global daily cash game turnover for online poker was just $10 million (£5.3m) and by 2004 it had risen to $60m (£32m). Now, $180m (£95m) is wagered in cash game pots in online poker every day."
But the craze is not just for online games. Fuelled by reports of glamorous names such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Nigella Lawson and husband Charles Saatchi, and Ben Affleck - who won the Californian State Poker Championship last June - spending their evenings bluffing and betting, groups of friends are setting up their own poker circles.
Even Coronation Street has got in to the act when at the end of last year viewers saw butcher Fred Elliott lose his shop to Mike Baldwin in a high-stakes game of poker, just weeks after they had started playing in the OAPs’ club for mere pennies. But for many the appeal is a sociable and intimate night’s entertainment - with no more cost than that of an average night out in town.
As Joe Tree, of Leith, who plays with around six friends on a monthly basis, says: "We play a tournament style game where everyone buys into the game with an equal amount, which is usually around £20 or £30. Then we play to the death and the last one standing takes home whatever cash is left. We usually buy some beers and pizza with the pot, but there’s still quite a bit left over. And no one ever loses out too much because £30 is less than you would spend on a good night out."
Joe, who runs his own interactive media company in the Capital, has been playing poker regularly with friends for the past two years. He also runs his own poker website, which contains brief updates about his games.
"We weren’t particularly clued up on the rules when we started," Joe admits. "We’d just seen some poker games on TV and thought that it would be a good laugh to do." He says that the group plays standard Texas Hold ’Em rules when they meet - where each player is dealt two cards and a further five "communal" cards are placed face up on the table, allowing everyone to make a five-card poker hand combination. But he admits that they don’t always stick to the rules.
He adds: "There was probably three of us who started our poker group up, but it’s grown since then and there’s now a core group of six. Sometimes one of us will bring along someone new as well, so it’s a good way of socialising and meeting new people and we try to play every month."
And he says the games aren’t just about the money.
"Sure, if you win it’s a nice wee Bonus, but it’s not the real reason that we play. I won our last game and took £108 away with me, which isn’t bad for an evening’s work, but it’s more the social side to it that is the fun part. It’s all about meeting up with a few mates and having a laugh and a few beers with them for a whole night.
"It’s probably far cheaper than going out clubbing and drinking in the city centre."
JOE’S thoughts are echoed by Forth One presenter and Evening News columnist Grant Stott, who has recently set up a regular poker night with some of his close friends.
"There’s a group of us who will all be hitting 40 in two years’ time," he says. "And we’ve planned to go over to Las Vegas to do a spot of gambling. We used to play cards when we were at school, but none of us has really had the chance to play poker recently, so we thought we’d better get some practice in before we go, otherwise we’ll lose all of our money straight away.
"I looked on the internet for some poker gear and found out that Texas Hold ’Em was the popular poker version nowadays - as opposed to Seven Card Stud, which is what we used to play when we were kids. Since then, we’ve been trying to teach ourselves how to become proficient at it, and we had our first real poker night a few weeks ago."
He adds: "We’re all very much in the novice band, but it’s still a particularly pleasant and sociable way to spend an evening. About five of us played at our first night, and it was just nice to be able to have a few beers and relax with some friends whilst playing cards.
"We’re getting the hang of it slowly but we haven’t played for money yet, which is lucky because within three hands of our first night I’d lost all of my chips.
"But then again, the only way that we’ll get better is to practice properly in front of other players rather than trying to master it on the internet. We’ve got two years to get better, so our poker nights should hopefully become something of a regular thing."
Many players, of course, have taken up the game purely because of the online offerings. One is Matt Milne, 21, an IT worker from Murrayfield.
He says: "I started playing in May last year when I heard a couple of guys from my old work talking about a tournament on a site called Totalbet.
"I was intrigued and decided I wanted to try this whole money for nothing thing, and the fact that you didn’t have to pay an entry charge made it more appealing."
He found the Texas Hold ’Em rules on the internet, read up about them - and started playing.
"At first I didn’t put any money in, but about three months ago I started to play for real cash and began to put aside £100 each month to play. I’ve entered online tournaments and won a few now, so it can be a nice side income to have and I won $1000 (£530) on one last month.
"I also try to play a few tournaments at casinos as well, although they are more for practice than anything else. It’s usually only the online poker that I make any money on."
And, according to Ladbrokes’ Albert, being in Edinburgh gives punters a head start in the good fortune stakes.
He says: "Out of the highest-winning cities that we saw in the UK last year, Glasgow came fourth and Edinburgh was placed second on the list."
But, of course, the biggest winners are the firms themselves. As Albert admits: "This year, online poker will provide more business for us than all of our other online sports betting put together."
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Swimming with the sharks
Published: 2005-04-06
 April 06, 2005
Swimming with the sharks
By Howard Swains
Howard Swains, Times Online Deputy Sports Editor and keen amateur poker player, entered the European World Series of Poker Trial at the Concord Card Club, Vienna, in March. He was joined in a field of 297 players by a number of online poker players who had won their seats by entering tournaments on the internet, as well as the leading lights of the European poker scene. First prize was in the region of £130,000 and the last eight players contested a final to be screened by Eurosport on April 8
There are people I play cards against regularly who will scoff at even the following, fairly humble, claim: I am a moderately capable low-stakes poker player. To some - now choking on my arrogance - my presence across a poker table is about as threatening as a basket of kittens; I am a "fish" to use the correct terminology, while they are the sharks. I am, however, not a total novice. I began playing about five years ago and since then have made a very small profit from poker. I won't be buying any Caribbean islands, but unguarded handbags are safe. I am best-described as a recreational player, entering small tournaments in London's card clubs and various games at friends' homes where my biggest single win is just shy of £1,000, my biggest single loss about £100.
Then there is internet poker, where "boom" is not strong enough a word to describe its sudden and phenomenal upsurge in popularity. I, like anyone with an internet connection, can log on any time of any day and find thousands of potential opponents from every country in the world. And it is thanks to the amazing recent success of online poker that I am about to cut my teeth on the professional live poker circuit. PokerStars, the best known online card room, have invited me to take part in a European Poker Tour (EPT) event at the Concord Card Casino, Vienna, a tournament attracting 300 of the continent's most successful poker players, costing E€2,000 (£1,400 approx) to enter, building a prize pool of more than £400,000.
This is by far the largest tournament in which I have ever played and I am way, way out of my depth, but in addition to the mug journalist, there are 52 players in the field who have won their admission via smaller, feeder tournaments hosted online by PokerStars. By now entering a high buy-in live event, these players are attempting to emulate the feats of Chris Moneymaker and Greg Raymer, online players who, in 2003 and 2004, qualified for the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas from the comfort of their own homes. When they then "turned a toothpick into a lumberyard" and walked off with the first prizes of $2.5m and $5m, respectively, the face of poker changed forever.
I, too, have an auspicious predecessor. When it comes to journalists playing poker, the name springing to mind is that of James McManus, a reporter for Harper's magazine despatched to Vegas to cover the progress of women in the 2000 World Series. McManus had no major tournament experience when he decided to gamble some of his advance on a satellite for the $10,000 main event. He duly won a seat in the "big one" and outlasted all of his article's subjects to finish in fifth place overall. He took home $250,000, wrote a book about his experience and later became an inaugural member of the invitation-only Professional Poker Tour in the United States.
On the eve of the Vienna tournament, there are a disproportionate number of dreams featuring Moneymaker, Raymer and McManus. Meanwhile, the likes of Dave "Devilfish" Ulliot, Ram "Crazy Horse" Vaswani, Joe "The Elegance" Beevers and Pascal "The Poisoner" Perrault, prepare for another day at the office - and an unusually generous helping of shark-bait.
THE GAME - DAY ONE
The Concord Card Casino is a purpose-built poker venue, free of usual casino temptations such as roulette or craps. As a result, it is popular among players, especially those prone to re-investing poker winnings on one, all-too-often luckless roll of the dice. The players begin the day by nervously pacing through the hangar-like cardroom, greeting acquaintances with the kind of wry smiles that may later transform into grimaces when the chips are spilt. They - sorry, we - draw a card with our seat and table number printed on it. I am on table 28, seat seven. I attempt to manipulate these into some kind of lucky number, but without success.
The only immediately recognisable face on my table is Luca Pagano, a 26-year-old Venetian whose arrival on the European poker scene has coincided neatly with the series of televised tournaments comprising the EPT. Pagano is young, good-looking and instantly marketable, a rare boon for the sponsors in a world still largely dominated by middle-aged men with faces like pebbledash. But the poster boy is also no small talent. He has made two final tables from five EPT events to date, coups worth nearly £24,000.
It is for playing against the likes of Pagano that I have come up with a definite gameplan. I will keep it tight, playing only premium starting hands and hoping they don't get beaten. I'm not keen on bluffing and I want to avoid giving myself too many tough decisions early on. It's about the most transparent plan I could possibly possess, but I don't have any other. At least not yet.
In Texas hold 'em, the variation of poker that is now standard for most high-profile tournaments, each player receives two concealed "hole" cards and places a bet on their initial potential. Five more cards are dealt face up on the table, in three stages; three at once known as the "flop", then the "turn", then the final or "river" card. These are also known as community cards. By this point players have seven cards from which to make the best five-card poker hand but since there is a betting round following each stage, decisions are usually made with incomplete information. It favours a specific blend of discipline and bravura; measured aggression is the order of the day.
I sit out the opening exchanges, eyeing my opponents and attempting to pick up some patterns in their betting or personal quirks, known as tells. Predictably, I notice nothing - these guys aren't amateurs - but I am able to spot that mine is a super-tight table. No one, not even Pagano, is prepared to bet much at this stage and I therefore decide to tear up my initial game plan and try to loosen up a bit. I try a small bet in an attempt to steal the two "blinds", compulsory bets placed before any cards are dealt to ensure some money in every pot. The players all fold, so I try it again. Success once more, and so on. Within a couple of hours, I have been openly labelled a "serial raiser", and am managing to pick up a few chips. As players begin to be slowly eliminated, I am finding my stride.
I have mixed feelings when two of my table's empty chairs are re-occupied by familiar faces from the British poker scene. Arriving to my left is Rumit Somaiya, a Leicester-based professional tipped as a future star of the game. On my immediate right I now find David Colclough, a consistent tournament winner for the past ten years, fresh from a £70,000 first place in Walsall last month. What's more, Colclough is also one of the first poker players I ever encountered after watching him on Late Night Poker, the Channel 4 series that pioneered the game as a televised spectacle by introducing under-the-table cameras to peek at players' hole cards. This innovation offered an unprecedented look behind the poker face and made celebrities of many of its participants as television audiences were left in awe of their phenomenal composure under pressure and audacious derring-do.
Undoubtedly I am now playing with some of the big boys, but the thrill is tempered by the knowledge that my lucrative blind-stealing operation will now hit the skids. Rumit is certain not to tolerate it for long, while Dave, who is short-stacked, is likely to make a speedy play for anything he can pilfer from me. "I need to double up," he announces. "Who's going to be the man to do it?" I have no intention of it being me; I want to knock him out.
Success at no-limit poker, especially at this level, owes a lot to a player's confidence, and right now mine is dangerously high. I entered this tournament without the right to possess any, but so far my judgement has largely proven to be sound and I have managed to accumulate some chips without ever being under threat. More importantly, I have also avoided sacrificing too many when I am beaten; known when to hold 'em and known when to fold 'em in other words. Kenny Rogers would be proud.
This new-found confidence can be the only explanation for my next notable play, which finds me embroiled with one of the names. Not for the first time, everyone folds their cards around to me and I decide to forget Rumit's reputation and attempt to steal his big blind. That my hole cards are among the worst I can possibly have - a six and a three - may actually suggest temporary insanity, an opinion confirmed when Rumit calls my bet in a flash. I now should have little option but to discard my hand at the earliest opportunity, but in fact am overjoyed when I see four community cards without any further betting. They include a two, four and five to make me a straight, five cards in sequence. Naturally I now bet and am further delighted when Rumit calls; he simply cannot know I have this hand because he would never expect me to raise with such poor cards. There are also, however, an ominous three diamonds among the shared cards, meaning he might have a flush, five cards of the same suit, a better hand than my straight. I play it cautiously, as does the professional, and we showdown. "I have the wheel," he says, using poker slang for the lowest possible straight, ace through five. I am nearly as embarrassed as I am elated to announce I have him beaten by a single pip. My straight, two through six, is a winner.
Rumit and Dave express genial disgust at my audacious raise with garbage, while affable sneers of derision also come from Luca and Greg Hill, another notable talent, at the far end of the table. Daylight thievery has never felt so good, and when both Dave and Rumit are knocked out - both of them losing while holding pocket aces, the best possible starting hand - the injustice is complete. I have felt the hollow sensation attendant to tournament elimination from games for micro-stakes played with friends. Risking, and losing, €2,000 on the turn of a card can only amplify the despair. I am keen not to sample it until I have had a bit more fun, so keep my composure, continue to back my judgement, and - against the odds - make it to the end of the first day, 13 hours after we started playing. It is the longest session of poker I have ever endured, and the tournament is only just beginning.
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