Zimba Blog: Poker - A Global Game

Zimba Blog:

Under the sweltering mid-day African sky, troops loyal to democratically elected Ivory Coast president Ouattara were closing in on the presidential mansion of long time strong-man Laurent Gbagbo. For weeks and months, opposing forces had been battling for control of this West African Nation. Gbagbo has managed some kind of political control in the Ivory Coast since 2000. Since 2005, he has been clinging to reduced power as the north of the Ivory Coast was occupied by his opponents. All the while Gbagbo kept his cool. A skilled orator who came up through the union trades before going into exile, Gbagbo is no stranger to power politics. Despite losing the internationally recognized election to his opponent from the north, Gbagbo has steadfastly refused to relinquish power or accept the legitimacy of the election.

In recent days, United Nations forces initially brought in the monitor an uneasy truce, have taken a more active military role teaming with the French military in trying to push Gbagbo from power.

Choi Young-jin, the Korean top United Nations envoy asserted yesterday "He accepted (the) principle of accepting the results of the election, so he doesn't have many cards in his hands. His surrender is imminent, the key element remaining to be negotiated is where Mr. Gbagbo would go."

Gbagbo, later that day in his first interview in months to French television, defiantly insisted he had no intention of surrendering power. "I won the election and I'm not negotiating my departure. I find it absolutely incredible that the entire world is playing this...game of poker."

It immediately struck me that it's highly unlikely that either of these men, one Korean and one Ivoirian, has ever played No Limit Texas Hold'em. And yet they understand what the game of poker entails. Poker is a game where you struggle for supremacy at the expense of your opponent. Each participant has conflicting goals requiring you to use all the tools at your disposal to achieve your goals. Those tools involve aggression, bluffing, misdirection, misinformation, assessing your opponents strengths and weaknesses and looking to exploit what you find. The most successful players in both politics and poker will create the air of superiority or dominance, more so than the actual cards held in the game.

While poker is claimed as an American phenomena, as it was developed on the riverboats of the Mississippi, it is really a global game. The international popularization and spread of poker over the last half decade has easily outstripped growth in the American homeland of the game. The growth of international poker tours (e.g. ANZPT, LAPT, EPT, PPT etc.) demonstrate how the international popularity has waxed while the American poker tours have generally waned in a more restrictive legislative environment.


I have to look no further than the site I launched a couple years ago - Poker Curious. Initially the demographics of members showed a slight majority of US players, but as the months have progressed those newer players most hungry to play the freerolls that we sponsor weekly has tilted more and more to a more international majority of nearly two-thirds. Five new members I've recently interacted with:

• A 22 year-old Senegalese college student
  
• A mid 30's Brazilian businessman
  
• A 19 year old Ukrainian female who is training to be a teacher
  
• A retired British man
  
• An Australian stay-at-home mother

Members who have trouble speaking English well understand the language of poker (i.e. raise, check and fold). There is a simplicity to the interaction at the virtual poker tables that crosses cultural and language barriers. What you do, who you are, where you come from matter little in your desire to outwit, outplay and outlast your opponent.

Another key element to the game's popularity that can't be ignored is the desire to acquire wealth. Virtual chips and the money they represent is how the score is kept. Poker is an extremely egalitarian game that allows any player to attempt to assert their dominance, or at the very least their better luck quotient.

For most avenues of wealth creation, there is an education expectation, a connection necessary, or a significant investment required that precludes many making a serious attempt. In poker, you can start playing with literally no money and build it into something quite impressive, if everything comes together. In fact just today I saw poker pro Nick Rainey asserting on Twitter that he would easily take eight good grinding poker players vs. eight top day/stock traders in a battle of wealth creation from $10,000 to $1 million. He felt, and I agree, that the disciplined and talented team of poker grinders can make more money out of little or nothing than experienced stock traders, especially factoring in the risk of ruin

The mechanics of the online poker industry allow for the right combination of drive, discipline, strategy and luck to accumulate more from less than almost any other endeavour. I say all this with the full knowledge that for every winner, there is a loser. Those without drive, discipline, strategy, or luck will suffer losses. But for those with the right initiative, poker provides the ideal environment to attempt their assault.

Returning to the heavily fortified presidential Abidjan mansion with Ivoirian strong-man Laurent Gbagbo hunkered down in his underground tunnels, the question arises why and how he is able to hold on for so long? The fact is he is no stranger to conflict. While I oppose him politically and morally, he has many of the essential skills it takes to succeed in poker. He is not afraid to represent a better hand than he actually has. He will manipulate the information available, giving misinformation if it serves his purposes. Determined to arrange the best possible scenario for himself, he will probe bet, check raise bluff, and try to "out-aggress" his opponent to achieve his goal. In the end, he may run into an unbeatable hand. But until that point, Gbagbo will attempt to manufacture a winning hand because he understands that it's often not the cards you are dealt, but how you play them that matters.

That international leaders so commonly use poker references in their language of power politics is a testament to the universal language that poker speaks. The global appeal of poker at all levels reflects the egalitarian desires of competition, supremacy and wealth.