Here’s an unexpected snippet from the race to be elected the Democratic candidate for the presidency: when Barack Obama was asked to name a ‘hidden talent’, he said he considers himself ‘a pretty good poker player’. There was a subsequent information blackout, presumably perpetrated by his minders who will be worried they will lose the vote of the Puritans. As James McManus, author of Positively Fifth Street puts it, ‘playing poker for tiny stakes has turned radioactive.’
It seems an odd state of affairs that a game that was frequently labelled America’s favourite pastime is at times treated with a level of respect usually awarded to workers of the world’s oldest profession. It wasn’t always thus: plenty of previous Presidents, some not immune to using persuasive powers to attract a spare dollar, have turned a few tricks at the poker table.
Truman, a man who had a sign on his desk at The White House stating ‘The Buck Stops Here’ was playing poker when he learned he was to be President. He continued to play the game throughout his life, at times with the White House press corps. When he was Vice-President, the game was a key part of his relaxation and some sources have argued had Hitler kicked back in a way similar to his enemies in London and Washington, he would have proved a great threat.
Truman later said, ‘He [runs] for office talking out of both sides of his mouth and lying out of both sides.’ He was referring to another keen poker player, Richard Nixon.
In his autobiography, Nixon wrote ‘I learned that the people who have cards are usually [those] who talk the least and the softest; those who are bluffing tend to talk loudly’. His stance obviously gave Truman a ‘tell’ and also possibly explains why, when he said in a TV interview broadcast in the height of the Watergate scandal, ‘I’m not a crook’, he was so softly spoken.
Although they would have hated to be paired together, both Truman and Nixon were highly profitable players, the latter allegedly partially funding his first campaign for Congress with his winnings. In a way, seeing a successful poker player become the most odious President of the 20th Century could, for some, be a more acceptable reason for some to criticise the game as moral Kryptonite. At least it makes more sense than being told that if you play, you are damned to hell.
Sadly, some of same people who know that you cannot judge the game based on one player, also fear eternity in an inferno. We will probably hear no more about Obama’s game. From what little information we have, he is versatile but avoids unnecessary risks. He wants premium cards before he gets involved. They sound like promising assets for the potential leader of the free world.
If he wins, we may see a change of attitude and those chips used by Truman, embossed with the presidential seal, may again glide over tables at The White House. We might even see the US online gaming laws changed for the better.
But let’s not go nuts.
It seems an odd state of affairs that a game that was frequently labelled America’s favourite pastime is at times treated with a level of respect usually awarded to workers of the world’s oldest profession. It wasn’t always thus: plenty of previous Presidents, some not immune to using persuasive powers to attract a spare dollar, have turned a few tricks at the poker table.
Truman, a man who had a sign on his desk at The White House stating ‘The Buck Stops Here’ was playing poker when he learned he was to be President. He continued to play the game throughout his life, at times with the White House press corps. When he was Vice-President, the game was a key part of his relaxation and some sources have argued had Hitler kicked back in a way similar to his enemies in London and Washington, he would have proved a great threat.
Truman later said, ‘He [runs] for office talking out of both sides of his mouth and lying out of both sides.’ He was referring to another keen poker player, Richard Nixon.
In his autobiography, Nixon wrote ‘I learned that the people who have cards are usually [those] who talk the least and the softest; those who are bluffing tend to talk loudly’. His stance obviously gave Truman a ‘tell’ and also possibly explains why, when he said in a TV interview broadcast in the height of the Watergate scandal, ‘I’m not a crook’, he was so softly spoken.
Although they would have hated to be paired together, both Truman and Nixon were highly profitable players, the latter allegedly partially funding his first campaign for Congress with his winnings. In a way, seeing a successful poker player become the most odious President of the 20th Century could, for some, be a more acceptable reason for some to criticise the game as moral Kryptonite. At least it makes more sense than being told that if you play, you are damned to hell.
Sadly, some of same people who know that you cannot judge the game based on one player, also fear eternity in an inferno. We will probably hear no more about Obama’s game. From what little information we have, he is versatile but avoids unnecessary risks. He wants premium cards before he gets involved. They sound like promising assets for the potential leader of the free world.
If he wins, we may see a change of attitude and those chips used by Truman, embossed with the presidential seal, may again glide over tables at The White House. We might even see the US online gaming laws changed for the better.
But let’s not go nuts.
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