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How to... play poker
IT DOESN'T matter how many times I've seen poker played on television and in films – I've still never been able to grasp just what is going on.
IT DOESN'T matter how many times I've seen poker played on television and in films – I've still never been able to grasp just what is going on.I'm one of those people that, when watching a Bond film, is totally confused during the "reveal", when Bond turns over his cards at the culmination of a long-winded, high stakes poker game. I find myself thinking "what does that mean? Has he won?"
The foreign language of poker hands were explained to me, however, when I visited the Rose and Crown in Thorney, near Peterborough (or at least the basics). I'm not scared to admit I was a little intimidated as I arrived at the former coaching house for one of its regular amateur poker games.
The visitors to the Tuesday session were chatting amiably about hands they had been dealt, and runs of luck that had run out, and, being somebody who struggles with rummy and pontoon, I was worried about how I'd get on playing such a complex game.
As any player will happily tell you, however, poker is completely removed from these other card games, in that there is so much more to it than knowing the rules and what does or doesn't constitute a good hand.
Landlord at the Rose and Crown Steve Shreeve has been playing for some time.
"You've got to be patient . . . you've got to wait and you've got to be able to read people . . . you've got to be able to look for tells," he explained to me before the games started.
Tells, in case you don't know, are the little eccentricities of behaviour that give players' true intentions away as they raise the game.
Thankfully, Steve and son Gareth, who organises the league at the Rose and Crown, were used to having beginners along to the sessions, and Gareth even said my ignorance of the game could work to my advantage during play – a statement that would prove eerily prescient (but more of that later).
Gareth and Steve ran through the basic rules, and I tried my best to keep up, but, like anything, the best way to learn is to get stuck in.
I made my way to one of the tables and began playing, with a great deal of much appreciated help from the players sat either side of me. It took a few games to get the hang of it, but one of my fellow players advised me that if I had anything . . . anything at all that might make a winning hand, then I should go all out to win. It was advice that I stuck to, and continued to raise the game until I'd manage to get a fair amount of chips.
Gareth and Steve told me that a lot of beginners benefit from beginner's luck, and this proved to be the case; not only was I dealt some lucky cards, but my total haplessness and tenuous grasp of what was going on made my game difficult to read or predict.
Where Bond might confound his enemies with bluffs and subterfuge, I was able to baffle the other players simply by being totally baffled myself.
The Rose and Crown league is part of the wider Amateur Poker League, meaning that if players succeed at their local venue, they can progress to regional and national championships.There is also a points system in place, which allows the Rose and Crown to maintain a kind of leaderboard, which awards average points if a player has to miss a week.
This emphasis on points is perhaps the best thing about the pub's poker league in that there are not large amounts of money involved; players put in 5, and only if they want to, meaning there isn't the chance for more impetuous players to stake the family silver or the wife's car on the turn of the cards.
"The idea is that we only play for fun," Steve explained.
"People can put money in if they want to, but we play more for fun than anything else."
This meant the games were much more enjoyable, and the atmosphere around the tables was one of friendliness – the players were having a laugh together about the way play unfolded, rather than getting aggressive because someone had been taken to the cleaners.
They were also very welcoming and tolerant to me as a new player as well, and seemed more amused about my spate of luck than bitter about helping me out in the opening stages. That's not to say there weren't moments of high drama and tension, however; it was genuinely exhilarating to win and even to lose, but it was reassuring to know there was no chance of meeting with an "accident" in the car park in a Guy Ritchie style.
Halfway through the evening, as the players took a break for fish and chips (the Rose and Crown's kitchen offers a decent meal to players for 3), I decided to take my leave, before the tide of luck turned.
Why do it:
To emulate Bond and to have fun.
You will need:
Your wits about you.
It will cost:
You can put in 5 to play if you want to, but novices are usually encouraged to play for points at first.
Where to go:
The Rose and Crown, Thorney, from around 7.30pm on Tuesdays. The new season starts this Tuesday.
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