Growing interest in African poker

Author: Simon Dexter

Talking of football (although there was only one side playing the game last Sunday evening), you may have recently caught the African Cup of Nations on TV. It seems strange that Egypt’s dominance of the tournament has not been matched in the World Cup, nor has any other African nation managed to perform as well on the international stage as many obserevers may have imagned when one considers the calibre of players such as Drogba, Essien and Yakubu regularly on show in the Premier League.

James Hardie-Smith, a South African novelist and semi-pro poker player, believes parallels may be drawn with the poker world: although the US and Europe stole an early march when it came to tournament dominance, online poker’s burgeoning growth has led to a surge in the number of African players, with South Africa in particular becoming a veritable hotbed of the sport.
Much of this can be attributed to the success of Raymond Rahme who hails from South Africa, but news that a clutch of new African players are beginning to make their mark online provides concrete proof of poker’s appeal across the continent.

“I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we had an African winner of the WSOP within the next decade,” says the affable Hardie-Smith, currently writing a book about poker’s African history. “We’re traditionally the guys who make the second, not the first move which, from a poker persepctive, is not a bad position to be in,” he muses.

“In much the same way as we’ve made startling progress on the football pitch, we’re doing the same at the poker tables in places like Sun City and obviously online too. Poker’s appeal is worldwide, so there’s absolutely no reason why Africans cannot come to the fore, especially as online games are accessible and a relatively inexpensive place where players can learn how to play the game. Mark my words, we’ll have an African world poker champ before an African nation wins football’s World Cup.” Remember where you heard that first.

Tags: Africa, African Cup of Nations, poker

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 21st, 2008 at 11:55 am and is filed under News & Promotions Blog.