Blogs and Stories
Poker Returns to the White House
Expertise at poker used to be an unwritten job requirement for all would-be U.S. presidents. Proficient White House poker-players have ranged from Andrew Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt and Warren Harding to FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, Johnson and Nixon. As I noted in my 1990 book Big Deal, Truman played the game with the White House press corps while pondering whether to drop the first atomic bomb on Japan; Nixon financed his first political race in California on his wartime poker winnings in the Navy; Johnson used his poker know-how to forge early political alliances in Texas.
In recent years, however, this great American tradition seems to have fallen out of fashion: Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr, Clinton, Bush Jr—not a cardsharp among them (beyond, of course, W.’s party days at Yale). Or is it just that America’s "new puritanism" has all candidates of whatever party zipping their lips about their enthusiasm for anything remotely to do with gambling?
Obama may just have higher priorities than exempting poker from Bush Jr.’s Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, the opportunist legislation tacked on to the 2006 Safe Port Act, which has crippled the online game in the U.S. by making it illegal to transfer funds to a gaming site from a bank, credit card or any other financial institution. But he seems more likely to grant an audience to former New York senator Alfonse D’Amato—who, as chairman of the Poker Players Alliance, has been lobbying for the cause.
What does seem certain is that regular poker nights will soon return to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for the first time in a generation. So let’s hear it for one early sign of Obamanian "change": White House poker games played, like Harry Truman’s, with chips embossed with the presidential seal.
Anthony Holden is the author of the poker classics Big Deal (1990) and Bigger Deal (2007). His strategy manual, Holden on Hold’em, is published this week by Little, Brown.
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Anthony Holden is the author of the poker classics Big Deal and Bigger Deal, as well as a strategy manual, Holden on Hold’em. An award-winning journalist and author, Holden has also written biographies of figures from Shakespeare to Tchaikovsky, Laurence Olivier to Prince Charles, and romantic poet Leigh Hunt to Mozart’s librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte.
This is great story, I really like the contrast between poker/craps and how it relates to the Obama vs McCain's decision making skills.
PS where is everyone?
Here's a different take...poker players are almost never portrayed as gentlemen (watch any World Series of Poker and you will agree), while craps, roulette, blackjack, and baccarat players are almost always portrayed in a highly stylized and gentlemanly fashion. In appearance and demeanor McCain looks and acts like the prototypical, mean, gunslinging poker player. Bluffs big and loses big.
On the political scene today, no one evokes Baccarat more than Barack Obama (if you understand the game).
(in answer to the question, "where is everyone?"...the army of paid bloggers from the Obama campaign have left the fray...the level of discourse will rise accordingly)
A quibble: Thinking that you are a skilled poker player, & anything else, & actually being a skilled poker are 2 different things. You cite RMN as being a skilled poker player. In the event RMN was a card shark, the skills weren't useful in setting up black bag jobs [Watergate] or running wars ['Nam].
RMN, like LBJ, didn't know when to fold & when the game was too rich for his blood & his skills.
It's said that you can make some money pulling a gambling putz or other kinds of putzs out of their financial problems. Maybe somebody made money pulling W out of his failures before W became POTUS #43.
I love POKER, I play every Sunday. Poker is an amazing game of skill, instinct, and luck.
So, now it can be told! Why, oh why, was this information not made public months ago? All those countless hours of airtime and acres of newsprint analyzing the relative 'merits' of the candidates has been irrelevant. All we needed to know was this. Give me a poker player over a craps player anytime.
They tend not to suffer fools gladly and are not prone to enlist 'lootin' hillbillies' into their cause.
Awesome! I never doubted Obama had the intelligence and the birds eye vision needed to govern, but being good at poker is a definite plus.
Wonderful piece and I'm in complete agreement on the assessment of Obama. The record should reflect, though, that George W., even in the White House, had friends by for poker on occasion. Like it's been for the President-Elect, it was more for socializing and bonding (and for the Commander in Chief to unwind). But among all the things we castigate Bush for, let's not brand him with the sin of not enjoying the game of poker.
Great story! I would like to point out that craps with all of its odds is not just a crapshoot but a game of strategy, skill and luck just like poker. They are both great games.
The world "feels" lighter since the Obama win. I'm NOT a religious person but it seems to me that Barack is a combination of Jesus and Martin Luther King. There is a good reason why the entire world is celebrating.
THANKS America for doing the right thing, from a grateful Canadian.
Great article, Mr, Holden! I never knew the difference between poker players and craps players psychologically; thanks for educating me on the difference.
Further case for anointing Obama as America's honorary 007.
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"Why, oh why, was this information not made public months ago?"
It was. You just need to read the New Yorker.
Thank you.
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