| "The Easterners Syndrome": England Poker's Image Problem
We are in the Eastend of London, the old stamping ground of the Kray twins, just round the corner from the boozer where Jack 'The hat' Mcvittie had his throat slit. Dan, Frank, Roy and Phil are playing a quiet game of cards at Frank and Dan's pub. The game is the old favourite of these parts, straight five card draw, and Phil, the one time extortionist and hard man, has called it no-limit. Frank who has recently recovered from a nervous breakdown, and Roy, currently on Viagra, are on edge as they know Phil is trying to trap Dan for conning him out of his share in Frank's pub, so they are playing a lot of Origami (folding).
Things rumble on with smallish betting, Dan baiting Frank and Roy for their cautious play when WHAM, we hit the big one. Dan bets a fiver, Roy and Frank call but Phil raises him a pony (£25). Danny boy re-raises big time, slapping down a wad of 50s that must add up to a couple of grand at least. Frank and Roy, who has a bad ticker by the way, both fold like they just got an electric shock from their cards. Phil, never one to walk away from a fight, raises this by putting his house keys on the table! Dan says he can't see that, but Phil reminds him he owns a share of the very pub where the game is taking place, so he calls. They shake hands over the pot and Dan confidently lays his three kings on the table. Frank and Roy exchange looks of horror as Phil puts down a set of fours, but spectacularly adds a pair of jacks to make his full house and take the pot!
Not surprisingly this is not a description of what happened at my last home game but a scene from the UK's most popular soap opera Eastenders. This is the second time the excellent scriptwriters at the BBC have used poker as a plot device. On this occasion, it was a monster pot with peoples' fiscal lives on the line, last time it was organized cheating with one hapless character getting taken for a couple of grand over a few weeks. Dramatic and exciting as these scenes are to watch they contain within them some of the misconceptions and myths which keeps poker very much an 'underground' game in this country. I have struggled on three separate occasions to set up a regular poker school here in England and let me tell you it was like getting blood out of a stone. When you broach the idea of a poker game or try to invite new players to swell the numbers, the old "Eastenders syndrome" rears its ugly head. People are convinced they will be conned, cheated, left for dead in an alleyway, or all three if they are really unlucky! Our game has a terrible image in this country so long has it been associated with gangsters, violence and con men. Time for a new dawn.
This dawn has arrived, faltering over the felt horizon, through the very medium that has done so much to propagate the "Eastenders Syndrome"- television. Channel 4 here in the UK has a reputation for producing quality, cutting edge output and has recently finished airing its second series of Late Nite Poker. Essentially this is a £1500 buy-in freeze-out tournament with the winner taking around £40k and an entry to the World Series of Poker at Binion's Horseshoe in Las Vegas.
It has attracted some of the UK's top pros and a few celebs from this side of the pond. Where the magic lies is in the innovation which Late Nite Poker has introduced, that of the undertable camera. The table edge is made from a glass panel onto which the players place their HoldÕem pocket cards. Beneath this glass are small cameras, which allow the viewers at home, and the commentators to see what everyone is holding. The format has worked really well and the show has drawn significant ratings. This show, about to film its third series, has done more to dispel the "Eastenders Syndrome" than anything else. People now see poker as a glamorous blend of skill, luck and guts.
Suddenly I have a regular home game with more players than there ar
|
Email this to a friend
