Poker Underground

The unparalleled emergence of a game that had to fight its way out in India

Sometime in February last year, Ashish (name changed on request) found himself in a room with eight other large men. He’s cagey about the city, the names of the others and the real identity of his gracious host. Ashish was there on invite and the cold month marked his first steps into the fast emerging world of poker, in India.

By May, he had found a good “supplement”.

“I made Rs 25,000 every two weeks. The competition kept getting better. My social life and Facebook were visibly more vibrant and I was able to keep a relaxed 5-day week job — which didn’t pay much or cost much. Poker was the supplement,” says the 36-year-old engineer and former 6-day-week product manager.

Just like Ashish, thousands in India have found the “perfect gig” in poker. Ask any veteran of the game and the answer is similar — the game is fast rising. Across the country, in almost every neighbourhood of every city, there are invite-only house games being held with “pots” ranging from Rs 50,000 to a few lakhs. In Bengaluru, poker clubs have started to advertise on radio and the wives are no longer frowning.

Hell, even the students are diving in. “A lot of young players can now be found in these clubs. I’m earning my way towards a higher education and a trip around the world. Do I want my parents to foot the entire bill No. Can my three games a month help pay that bill Likely. I could be Chris Moneymaker,” says Robert, an up and coming poker star from New Delhi. He has his eyes set on Las Vegas and WSOP — the neon-lit Wimbledon of world poker. Last year, there were at least 30 Indians at the tables there.

Chris Moneymaker though, is a name that constantly inspires people like Robert. Perhaps it’s because he has an effect named after him, called the “Moneymaker effect”. A few pages into his bio and you just cannot discount the impact this one man has had on poker. In 2003, Moneymaker became the “first person to become a world champion by first qualifying at an online poker site”. That’s en-route Wimbledon, and thrashing Andy Murray, after a bus ride. That’s leaving smoke in Vettel’s face at Monaco after turning up in your Fiat.

Moneymaker had essentially converted just about $40 dollars into $2.5 million. The Moneymaker Effect then, refers to the sudden spike in interest in poker after Chris’ win — worldwide.

But, for now, Bengaluru first.

Skill, not chance The mild weathered, music-loving capital of Karnataka is where poker in India emerged out of the shadows because in 2013, a full decade after the Moneymaker effect, a landmark court verdict ruled that poker was a game of skill, not chance. This separation of poker, from other on-the-mat, by-the-bottle card games was a major boost. Forming the campaign’s spearhead was lawyer K.N. Suresh — a Gandalf of sorts for the Indian poker community. Suresh launched his legal campaign shortly after the shutting down of poker clubs in Bengaluru, by police.

“I’m the founder secretary of the Indian Poker Association and the idea is to find the next world champion of poker from India. Basically, IPA aspires to be to poker what BCCI is to cricket here,” says Suresh. “The IPA was established to bring poker in India out of these tiny rooms and onto the world stage.”

He then explains how the then newly-formed IPA went about fighting the system. “In India, gambling applies to only ‘games of chance’. This is the same everywhere in the world. But there is really no law which states that cricket, volleyball, chess are games of skill and roulette, blackjack and poker are games of chance. So the courts here simply want to find out how much of an influence chance has on the final outcome of a particular game. If it does play a huge role — like the throw of a dice or the toss of a coin — it’s a game of chance, not skill.”

The lawyer in him offers a more lucid explanation. In fact, it turns out cricket and chess have the same percentage of chance as poker.

“All games have this element of chance. In cricket, a batsman hitting a shot using the nick of his bat could score a four or lose his wicket. He could be run out. He could be caught. That’s chance. When a golfer takes a swing, the ball’s trajectory is influenced by wind and it could go in a different direction. But the crucial check here is to determine if you need more skill during the actions, than a desperate hope for better luck — or chance. Because in roulette, you just have to bet on a number and wait for the ball to land on a particular number on a spinning table. It could be on any 38! That’s all chance.

“Even in chess, there is a particular element of chance because the first move is decided after a coin toss. And the player moving first uses white — white being the aggressor. The first move always forces the follower — black — to react. So essentially, you getting to play first in chess is chance.”

There are other legal points to keep in mind too. “Here in Karnataka, offences related to gambling are dealt with using the Karnataka Police Act. In New Delhi, offences come under the Delhi Public Gambling Act of 1955. But the main aspect to all these Acts is that nothing in them applies to games that need true skill to win. The Gambling Act does not apply on games of skill. Also, except in Assam and Odisha, betting on sports remains legal in the country. I can sit in Bengaluru and place a bet on a game. What is illegal is spot fixing.”

Suresh’s fight didn’t stop with Bengaluru. In 2015, he scored another win for poker in Kolkata after a court ruled the game can go on in the state of West Bengal, undisturbed. Authorities in other states are considering a move in similar direction, with essential checks in place.

“In poker, the cards are the bat and the ball. It’s one of the most serious games we play. Just how serious is it Let me put it to you this way: There are more books on poker than ones on medicine or mechanical engineering. A good beginner’s guide can cost up to Rs 2,500 and Super System, one of the first books on Poker strategies, went on sale in 1976 at a cost of $100. Poker theory and analytics is a subject actually being taught at MIT and there’s a extremely close link with poker and high-level mathematics. Like almost all games that need the mind, Poker takes a minute to learn, and a lifetime to master,” adds Suresh.

It’s true. Poker players The Asian Age spoke to have described how they had to be constantly thinking and strategising for hours. Games often go on for hours — six being the surveyed minimum. One of the players sat through a 100-hour game — taking nap breaks of 30 minutes or less. All the while, he was thinking of the hand he was dealt and trying to remember what cards the other guy had in possession. If you think that’s not skill, you must have managed a three-pointer while on roller skates with a tiger on your tail.

The scene But there are those who play the game for a satisfaction. Poker players agree they meet a lot of interesting people. Players also agree the game’s a great way to network and yes, they claim it’s also better for the mind than sitting in a room alone breathing in and breathing out. Some quarters of the thinking public believe poker teaches you essential “life and trade skills”.

“I like to play cards. I’m not very good, because I don’t want to calculate, I just play by instinct. But I’ve learned a lot of business philosophy by playing poker,” Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, was quoted as saying.

In June of this year, Inc., in an article, argued that poker made better CEOs. “Poker forced me to listen to the opponent’s verbal and nonverbal cues — is his hand moving, is he looking at me, can you see his pulse beating in the side of his neck, is he sweating Over time, you improve your read on people,” Tom Popomaronis, founder of OpiaTalk, a start-up based out of Baltimore, Maryland, in the United States, was quoted as saying.

Back in India, industry captains agree poker has had a certain effect.

“But does it make for a better CEO Not really. There are many CEOs out there who don’t play poker. But here’s the thing, it makes you a better decision maker, which is what CEOs do,” says Jaypore.com’s Puneet Chawla. “Ratan Tata once said, I don’t always make the right decisions. But the decisions I take, I work towards making them right. That’s the spirit of poker. You are dealt with a set of cards and you have to use strategy, patience and every available bit of insight about the other person to win that game. I’ve had the very bad days but I’ve also learnt a great deal. Plus, it’s a great way to network and I use poker to just relax and unwind — almost like meditation.”

Way down on the ladder, Robert is confident about his climb up. “I used to go to Goa and mum was always yelling. I now go to Goa after reading these big fat books on poker and she’s quite surprised. No one really takes a large book on a beach trip and it’s rather strange. Hopefully, by the time I turn pro the law here catches up and I can just tell her I’m a poker champion,” he says with a laugh.

Because what’s there to worry about It’s not as if he was leaving anything to chance.