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THINK poker and you
think of dim-lit, smoke-filled rooms at the back of seedy bars where
villains do deals and desperate, hard-up men gamble for their lives.
But not any more. The
card game loved by many a gangster has risen from its underworld
roots and is taking the respectable world by storm.
Thanks largely to the
internet, a whole new audience is learning the rules and getting a
hand in.
Now we can even watch
our favourite TV celebrities deal a hand, from the comfort of our
own armchairs.
So it should come as
no surprise that this weekend's winner of a major international
poker tournament should not be a cigar-smoking baddie with a pistol
under the table and a worrying Italian accent but a middle-class
television producer from Cardiff.
Iwan Jones is
celebrating today after winning $750,000 in the World Poker Exchange
London Open lifestyle poker tournament.
He eliminated some of
the world's top poker competitors and Hollywood heavyweights to win
first place after a final nail-biting round in the early hours of
yesterday morning.
Iwan, 35, beat 138
players at the four-day tournament at Old Billingsgate Market,
including the young Swedish prodigy, Mikael Thuritz, to win the
jackpot.
Not bad for someone
who only started playing the game three years ago.
"It was terrific,"
said Iwan, who plans to share the prize money with friends who
helped him raise money to enter the competition.
"Some of it will also
go towards the new house he and his wife Sioned are buying in
Cardiff in time for the arrival of their first baby in three months
time.
"It was an honour to
play against such a strong field of players.
" I was up against
some of the toughest competition I've ever encountered, but I was
patient and in the end that paid off.
"This was a top-class
tournament and it surpassed my expectations."
Iwan, who works for an
independent television company in London, got hooked on poker after
a night at a Swansea casino.
"I took to it quite
well and made a healthy profit so I started going to poker festivals
and playing on-line.
"It's competition
poker, not a gambling game.
"You need skill but
you also need a lot of luck - you can be the best player in the
world but if you have a bad hand you can lose.
"On the first two days
of this competition I hardly picked up a good hand but on the final
day I had one.
"I had a feeling a
fine win was just around the corner. I played in the World Series of
Poker recently and came 296th out of 5,650. I was unlucky then but
I've made up for it now."
The skill, says Iwan,
is, not surprisingly, keeping your cards close to your chest.
"I don't think it
takes a particular type of person to be a good player.
"There are all sorts
of characters who play - tight, aggressive, manipulative, quiet. I
like to concentrate - if you let the manipulative ones get under
your skin, they'll get your chips."
Concentrating on the
game, rather than the money involved, helped Iwan, a former
professional snooker player, win the final games, he said.
"At the start it was
nerve-racking but when I got down to the last 18 and was assured of
taking home $20,000 I began to relax."
He's not at all
surprised poker has become so popular. It is, he says, a good way to
make money.
"If you have any
inkling with cards you can make £1,500 quite easily in clubs.
"Not everyone will be
as lucky as I've been but you can make a few pounds.
"Even in the short
time I've been playing I've seen the game explode in popularity.
"Every tournament I go
to has three times the number of players as the last one had.
"At the end of the
day, it's great fun."
The World Poker
Exchange London Open drew some of the most accomplished names in the
game from all corners of the globe.
The grand-daddy of
poker Doyle Brunson and Max "The Italian Pirate" Pescatori
demonstrated their consistent proficiency at the tables.
Jennifer Tilly, Mimi
Rogers and Willie Garson further proved that Hollywood talent could
tax the felt with as much acumen as those who make their living from
the game.
How to play
poker (although keeping a poker face is up to you)
THERE are several varieties of poker. Iwan's favourites are Texas
Holdem and Omaha Holdem.
Texas Holdem
The most popular of
casino poker games, Texas Holdem (usually shortened to just Holdem)
is a community card game where each player gets two cards while
sharing five community cards with all players.
The person who can
combine their cards to make the best five card poker hand wins -
unless a worse hand bluffs the better hands into folding during the
four betting rounds.
Omaha Holdem
A community card
cousin of Texas Holdem, in Omaha each player receives four personal
cards and shares five community cards. Commonly played
eight-or-better high-low split, Omaha can also be played high only,
although then it is usually played with pot limit betting.
Stud
Stud has dozens of
variations. Seven Card Stud is the most popular casino Stud type,
whereas Seven Card Stud Eight or Better is the most popular
tournament version. While an immensely popular home poker game in
its many forms (Chicago, Anaconda, Baseball, etc.) Stud has been
losing popularity in casinos to the community card games.
Draw Poker
Five Card Draw is the
most basic of all poker games, familiar to tens of millions of
people via western movies and home games. Due to its extremely high
level of basic skill (bad players simply can't compete in even the
medium run) Draw is nearly extinct in casinos. Variant: Jacks or
Better where you must have at least a pair of jacks or better before
you can open a pot before the draw.
Razz
Razz is Seven Card
Stud played low. A simple, mechanical game when played with a full
table of players, Razz games seldom exist except in tournament and
shorthanded (two to four players) situations where limited chip
stacks or high antes encourage action.
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