Card players from
all over the world have travelled to Dublin to try their hand at the
World Poker Championship.
Competitors
will be hoping for a royal flush
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The cream of professional
Texas Holdem poker players are involved in the competition, which runs
until its grand final on Sunday.
The competition was open to
anyone who paid a stake of nearly £4,000, and now 128 players are vying
for a top prize of about £170,000.
Bluffers beware - only one in
eight Texas Holdem competitors will win prize money, and there are some
wily old hands taking part.
As the old country song
suggests, you've got to know when to hold them and when to fold them.
But is psychic ability
required, or is it just the ability to keep your cool under pressure?
One man who might have a
better idea than most is a nine-times World Series champion from the
United States, who has taken about $6m at the table.
Phil Hellmuth
has won more than $6m in his poker career
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Phil Hellmuth says some
theory is involved, and a good basic mathematical strategy was
definitely helpful.
"The thing that takes people
way over the top, that makes the greatest of the great cook, is the
ability to look someone in the eye and know whether they have a hand or
whether they're bluffing," he says.
He insists it's not all down
to luck, but someone who may benefit from a bit of good fortune is
Northern Ireland man Paul Leckey.
A 70-1 tournament outsider,
he admits he still has some things to learn about the game.
"It takes great discipline to
throw cards away," he says.
"I think that's where I've
had great difficulty, in learning how to throw bad hands away."
