A recent article in the Wall Street Journal focuses on the efforts of one of poker’s most respected authors, Anthony Holden, as he attempts to change the public’s perspective on the game of poker.
Holden, who wrote the seminal poker book “Big Deal: A Year As A Professional Poker Player” and its follow-up “Bigger Deal,” has been active over the past couple of years with the International Federation of Poker, or IFP. The organization has been at the forefront of efforts to make the game of poker an official sport, much like bridge, and recognize the intricacies of the game. The Wall Street Journal discussed these efforts with Anthony as he prepares for what may be the organization’s best showing of the skills poker requires.
“I’ve always been cross that poker has this seedy reputation,” Holden states in the article written by Richard Gillis. In comparing bridge to poker, Anthony says, “They fought long and hard to make bridge respectable. We hope to put poker on the same road. People bet on chess and bridge but the world acknowledges that beneath that, these are fascinating, strategic games. It’s been slower to accept that about poker.”
With those thoughts in mind, Holden and the IFP will take on the task of displaying the game as a mental exercise rather than a “chance” game. The IFP will put on the Nations’ Cup, a two tournament event that will play out from November 17-20 in London. At the Nations’ Cup, twelve nations comprised of six players each will take part in a duplicate poker tournament. Duplicate poker, much like duplicate bridge, sets up the decks for each table identically, awarding points for how well a particular player played his/her hand in comparison with others who had the same holding. The second tournament will be an event called “The Table,” a 135 player deep stack No Limit Hold’em tournament, with $250,000 on the line for the eventual champion.
Although poker has gained a great deal of respectability over the past decade or so, Holden says in the Wall Street Journal article that there is still a long road to gaining full acceptance. “Many schools run their own bridge clubs,” Holden states to Gillis, “and no parent group would be up in arms if a teacher were to use bridge to explain a math question to teach probabilities and game theory. But there would be a stigma to an afterschool poker club.”
“They both have much to teach.” Holden continues in the article. “It sharpens your ability to calculate. You need to know what your return on investment would be, what chips are available to be won, what you have to hazard to win it. On top of the math, there is psychology, the need to follow the moods of a player over the course of long game, to recognize fear, panic, frustration, aggression, all of our foibles, is great practice for business, relationships and life.”
The IFP, which was created in 2009 in Lausanne, Switzerland, and elected Holden as its first president, has made tremendous inroads into organizing poker as an official sport. 35 different poker groups from around the world are a part of the organization, including the Russian Sport Poker Federation, the U. K. Poker Federation and the United States Poker Federation. Its Advisory Board consists of players such as Doyle Brunson, Humberto Brenes and Gus Hansen, while Holden and the Executive Board take their cues from the Advisory Panel.
In 2010, the IFP was able to earn admittance into the International Mind Sports Association, which recognizes such games as bridge, chess, checkers (or draughts) and go. Along with the Chinese game xiangqi, or Chinese chess, poker has status with the IMSA as an affiliated sport.
The IFP – through Holden’s actions – is looking to remove some of the stigma that the game potentially has and demonstrate its popularity worldwide. In talking to the WSJ about several of the free play platforms on social networking sites such as Facebook, Anthony comments, “They are playing for no money, with no money, purely for the love of the game. Those people are our audience. They are our rank and file.” With further work by the IFP and Anthony Holden, perhaps the attitudes around the game of poker can be changed.
