“You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em,
Know when to walk away and know when to run.”

I decide to take Kenny Rogers’ advice and run. “I fold, there was no way I could win with the cards I was dealt.”

Trendy, hot and potentially sexy. This is the scene of the Texas Hold ’Em Poker craze that has Australians, and their gambling ways, begging for more.

Hardly new, poker is a simple game that has been around for centuries. Some experts suggest that the origins date back as early as 900AD when Chinese emperor Mu Tsung played ‘domino cards’ with his wife. However, the mid 1800s saw it a common game with players competing for the best hand.

A new variation of poker, Texas Hold ’Em, and a rise in female players is the direct result of televised games. An Australian-based poker promoter, Keith Sloan, thanks “Celebrity Poker Competitions, the World Series and the World Poker Tour” for “sexing-up the game’s image”. It seems that technology has played the biggest hand in raising the level of popularity for the world of poker. The simple deck of cards is a thing of the past. No longer is it necessary to have your cards on the table. Xbox games, PlayStation games and even Internet tournaments are making poker a 24-hour-a-day phenomenon. Internet poker is growing, with millions of users online, writes occasional player Chris Ingle. Hundreds of thousands of people compete with each other over cyberspace, with bets starting from 50 cents.

That’s how Nathan Anderson, 26, got his start. Originally a casino dealer, he started playing online. Then, as he got better, so did the stakes. Last year, saw Nathan compete professionally for the $1 million winner’s prize at the Aussie Millions tournament at Crown Casino in Melbourne where he made the final tables. The tournament is part of the Crown Australian Poker Championships. To be a part of the tournament, there is a $10,300 entry fee that makes up the $1 million prize pool for the winner and 26 runners-up who share a large percentage of the remainder.

Unlike Nathan, Beau Fernance, 21, refuses to become a username on the Internet. Instead he opts to play poker with his friends on a Friday night. “I think there is still a lot of fun to be had with a deck of cards. When playing poker on the Internet, a very large part of the game is lost. The psychological side of poker just doesn’t exist.” One of the greatest aspects to this simple game is the “poker face”. Poker has a tendency to challenge one’s abilities to conceal emotion and one’s daring to bluff and deceive opponents. It is this side of the game that attracts many participants. Nathan suggests that “the rules of poker are simple; it’s the players that make the game complex.” Here Nathan is discussing the emotional side to poker. The “poker face” as many know it, is the ability to hide your emotions from your opponents so that you don’t give them any clues as to the hand you hold. In the lyrics of his hit, The Gambler, Kenny Rogers sings about the skill of reading people’s faces during a game of poker:

“He said, ‘Son, I've made a life out of readin' people's faces,
And knowin' what their cards were by the way they held their eyes’.

According to Keith, this learned skill is what makes a winner, a consistent winner. “On the surface is seems so basic and simple. Anyone can win playing poker; you can get a lucky hand. But to win consistently, 80 per cent of the time, that’s skill.” Beau agrees; “the best part about poker besides the beers; is the strategy your opponents employ and the mind games they play.” Adding, “Having a good hand and knowing you might win is half the fun; you slowly raise the bets to suck someone in so you end up potentially winning a bigger pot, it’s all about strategy, mind games and more strategy”. My father who is also an avid poker player, adopted the motto, “you’ve got to be able to read people well and bluff them better”.

This may be why women are good at the game. Their intuitive nature and ability to play mind games can change a game’s direction even with a poor hand. Women are not as prevalent in the poker world as men but they are becoming more so, and with it, are bringing an interesting factor to the game. Keith agrees; one reason that women are naturally good at poker is because they “have got the ability to think of more than one thing at a time”.

Rosie Jackson is a regular winner on the poker circuit because of her killer instinct. “She’s great”, says Keith. Rosie talks about her experiences as a professional female poker player, “I tend to be super aggressive at times so that the men don’t push me around, I’ve been known to steam-roll tables at times. I think it’s very hard for men to take a beating from a woman”. Rosie tends to feel sorry for the men she plays, but suggests that it is more difficult for women. “We almost have to prove ourselves and show that we can play the game. After we punish a few men, then they get the idea that we do know how to play the game and they tend to appreciate that.” Women are taking a liking to the game suggests Graeme Johnson from the Australian Poker League, “there is a significant amount of females registered to play in our tournaments”. This may be due to the fact that the winner of the first season of the Australian Poker League was female. Keith suggests that there is an added appeal for young, single women, these days. “Where else can you go to socialise in a secure environment with a ratio of ten men to every one woman” he chuckles. But for those women who would rather play against women, the Australian Poker League has introduced female-only tournaments. There is no excuse for not giving poker a go. Who would want to miss out on the social event of the year anyway?

These days, playing poker is all about being social. Keith suggests “playing poker is now the cool thing to do”. Grandparents, Jack and Heather Grant enjoy playing poker on a Saturday night. They taught their granddaughter, nine-year-old Marnie, to play late last year. Heather says, “for Christmas, Marnie got a poker set off Santa, she was ecstatic. We enjoyed the game for hours that afternoon, and when we were finished, we ate our winnings because the poker chips were chocolates!” Heather adds, “a deck of cards can bring people together; we experienced this on Christmas day”. Keith agrees; a deck of cards can unite even the most unusual characters, “What’s nice is you can sit down and on your left is a doctor, a young student, a uni professor, a guy who swings a pick all week, and a taxi driver. Where else are you going to meet that spectrum?” Regardless, Beau still prefers to play poker with his friends, because he knows their weaknesses. He enjoys his regular Friday-night poker game with his mates, both male and female. “We all enjoy just getting together, having a chat over some drinks and playing poker. It’s a cheap way to catch up and can be done in your lounge room.” Poker has become the cost effective way to social in the 21^st century.

However, if you feel like playing for higher stakes, you can take a trip to your local pub or club and take part in the free Texas Hold ’Em tournaments offered by the Australian Poker League, which are all over Australia. Currently, the Australian Poker League has over 48,000 registered members and is growing week by week. The attraction is accessibility, availability, prizes and the fact that the tournaments are free to take part in.

When you develop your strategy and perfect the “poker face” and mind games, becoming a professional poker player might be something to consider. The entry fee to the World Series is US$10,000 which is currently about AU$13,600. The entry fee may be high, but the winnings are huge. Just ask Joe Hachem, an Australian who won the World Series in 2005 and walked away with $7.5 million dollars, not so bad for a days work. Nathan suggests that there is “good money” to be made in playing poker. When asked his annual earnings, he did not give a figure; instead he said that he earned “somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000 dollars playing poker full-time last year”. He goes on to say, “the stakes don’t have to be so high; that’s the great thing about poker. You can gamble anything: M&Ms, matchsticks or high amounts of money.” Nathan sums up the rewards of poker well when he said, “Poker is rewarding. Literally”.

So what are the ingredients for a good night in or out? A deck of cards, something to gamble and a fist full of friends. Kenny Rogers offers some final advice about the game of poker:

“Now Ev'ry gambler knows that the secret to survivin'
Is knowin' what to throw away and knowing what to keep”.

As the lyrics suggest, the rules of the game are necessary to learn and understand before you attempt to play. Knowing how to play is the key to winning, but you are only as good as the hand you’ve been dealt.

“It’s your call, so what will it be: check, raise or fold?”

Emily Angwin