AUTHOR: Jerry "Jet" Whittaker TITLE: Poker's been dealt a new hand DATE: 7:36 AM ----- BODY: For charitable organizations, poker tournaments have now become one of the
most profitable ways to raise funds. Last week, the Miriam Foundation, a
non-profit organization that provides a variety of services for children and
adults with intellectual disabilities, held Canada's largest charity poker
tournament. Over 1,500 people attended the event and after elimination
rounds, the playing field shrunk to 20 finalists who will fly to Las Vegas
in May to compete for a $150,000 prize pool at the 2007 World Series of
Poker. Poker has always been a way to raise funds - but usually not for
charity. The game was played by riverboat thieves and outlaws who would
search out an easy mark, rig the game and cheat him out of all his money.
William "Canada Bill" Jones, a gambler and con artist, played along the
Mississippi River in the mid-1800s. Jones had a high-pitched voice, was
somewhat of a klutz and came across as a doofus - but nothing was further
from the truth. Canada Bill was a hustler of legendary status who regularly
fleeced unsuspecting opponents who thought they had him pegged as a dork.
His winnings were also routinely lost in rigged games operated by other con
men and he eventually died penniless. When a friend once tried to warn him
to stay away from a particular game he knew to be crooked, Canada Bill
responded: "I know, but it's the only game in town." Former U.S. president
Richard Nixon allegedly financed his first political campaign with money he
won playing poker in the U.S. Navy during World War II. The winnings helped
pay for his successful U.S. Congress run in 1946. Apparently, Nixon decided
that his lucrative pastime would not sit well as his political career gained
momentum, and he gave up poker in 1952 when he became Dwight Eisenhower's
running mate. In his autobiography, Nixon wrote: "I learned that the people
who have the cards are usually the ones who talk the least and the softest;
those who are bluffing tend to talk loudly and give themselves away." Could
it be that Nixon got the name "Tricky Dickey" playing poker? With the surge
in the popularity of poker in the past few years, the game is attracting a
record numbers of players to casino poker rooms and online poker sites. It's
also being played in homes worldwide. Never before has so much media
attention been focused on this classic game that rewards skill, mental
dexterity, money management, bluffing, luck, patience, deductive reasoning,
and an all-around killer instinct. Today, the professional poker player
receives celebrity status equal to champion athletes and movie stars. Women
have also taken to what was previously a guy's game - and they're damn good
at it. Their intuitive nature and ability to play mind games can change a
game's direction even when dealt a poor hand. More so than men, women have
the ability to think of more than one thing at a time.
One of the great feats in this game is to develop a "poker face" to conceal
emotions, to be able to bluff and deceive opponents. It's this side of the
game that attracts many of its participants. In the lyrics of his hit song
The Gambler, Kenny Rogers sang about the skills of poker: "I've made a life
out of readin' people's faces, and knowin' what their cards were by the way
they held their eyes." A weird story involving a game of poker surfaced
recently in southern Pakistan, where a 17-year-old girl is being claimed by
a 45-year-old man as payment of a debt her late father owed him from a poker
game played 15 years ago. The father, who didn't have the 10,000 rupees
(about $200) to throw into the pot, bet his two-year old daughter as payment
when she grew up. It's hard for me to keep a "poker face" after reading that
story. What was the other guy's bet? --------