History shows that card skills can help manage a nation

Author: Simon Dexter

Why is it that politicians of every persuasion are often referred to as knaves or jokers, but rarely as aces? And isn’t it a peculiar fact of life that every negative card-playing connotation, from being guilty of sharp practice to behaving in an underhand manner seem to be associated as much with elected members of Parliament as they are with the dirtiest of poker tables?

Ironically, however, given what the batch of career politicians currently occupying the palace of Westminster have allegedly been up to, few of them are known poker players. This is in stark contrast to the situation in the USA, where there is a strong tradition of the Commander-in-Chief knowing the difference between sweetening the pot and sweetening up a would-be peer to lend your party some money.

American Presidents have always been notoriously good or incredibly poor poker players and their style of play has often reflected their political careers and strategy. Perhaps the most well-known poker-playing President was Tricky Dicky himself, aka Richard Nixon, who, after he was forced out of office, admitted that his former success in Washington was based upon the moves and deceptions he learnt at the card tables. Only one final attempt to bluff ultimately let him down.

As a young naval officer, Nixon’s fascination with the game ensured he became an accomplished player after teaming up with a Navy colleague, James Stewart, when he was a lieutenant commander in the South Pacific.

Retired lieutenant Stewart later recalled how he had taught Nixon to play: “Is there any sure way to win at poker?” Nixon once asked him, to which Stewart responded, “Only stay in if you are sure you hold the best cards.”

“Nixon liked what I said,” added Stewart, “I gave him his first lessons and we played two-handed poker without money for four or five days until he learned the various plays. Soon his playing became tops – he never raised unless he was convinced he had the best hand.”

Such was Nixon’s dedication to the game that he once passed up the opportunity of dining with Charles Lingbergh as he had committed to playing poker with his buddies.

The future US president apparently stopped playing after he was elected to the US Congress in 1946, a career move funded, in part at least, by poker. Legend has it that Nixon made more than ,000 during his time in the Navy (bear in mind this was in 1942-43) and saved the cash to pay for his first political campaign.

Nixon later wrote in his memoirs that he found playing poker “instructive as well as entertaining and profitable. I learned that the people who have the cards are usually the ones who talk the least and softest; those who are bluffing tend to talk loudly and give themselves away.” Who needs Slansky?

His reputation as a tight aggressive player was to later stand him in good stead when dealing with the Russians and the Chinese at the peak of the Cold War. From playing poker, Nixon had learnt the art of not giving anything away and many political observers noted his coolness under extreme pressure (these guys were playing for the biggest stakes imaginable). For example, he was able to modulate his breathing and to maintain an absolutely stony face when negotiating with the Communists, lest he betray any nervousness.

Another President, more famous for his lack of poker prowess, was Warren Harding who revealed how his easy-going nature had once been characterised by his father. “If you were a girl, Warren,” his old man had told him, “you’d be in the family way all the time. You can’t say no.”

Virtually every member of Harding’s cabinet became participants in his twice-weekly poker games at the White House. “Forget that I’m President of the United States,” Harding would say as he took his place at the poker table. “I’m Warren Harding, playing poker with friends, and I’m going to beat hell out of them” as he and his political pals enjoyed drinks galore despite having passed the Prohibition Amendment which banned booze across the nation. Nor was Harding a good poker player – he is said to have gambled away the White House’s best china when he ran out of cash.

Dwight Eisenhower was, with Harry Truman, widely regarded as one of the finest poker-playing Presidents.

As a boy, Eisenhower learnt the game from an old frontiersman who had once been a professional gambler. Although his mentor was illiterate, “he knew poker percentages and even when playing for matches, he drilled percentages into my head” Eisenhower recalled.

The man who would later plan and direct the D-Day invasion of Europe became fascinated by poker to the point where he claimed he was incapable of “playing the game carelessly or wide open. I adhered strictly to percentages.” How many of us would love to stick to the same rule.

Like Nixon, Eisenhower too used his poker winnings to good effect, buying his first military uniform after graduating from West Point in 1915 and cashing in a few more chips to buy his future bride a succession of gifts that clearly impressed the future Mrs E.

In 1952, Eisenhower was elected the 34th US President, but unlike Nixon, he started playing once more, frequently hosting stag poker nights in the White House Treaty Room after dining on wild game. Classy.

Another contender for the title of best poker-playing President was Harry Truman who claimed to play “for relaxation”, but was a very astute man at the table and another who frequently left in profit.

Truman had probably played since he was a youngster, but the first recorded instance of his assembling for a game came not long after he was made a judge in Jackson county, Missouri.

Several of his poker buddies later told stories of playing poker with Judge Truman. The games were played across the street from the county courthouse, in a building that later became the Harpie Club where Judge Truman was made the honorary head. The club met for a poker game once a week. Games had a ten-cent limit with three raises and Truman played regularly with club members until he left for Washington to become a U.S. senator in 1935.
But being in Washington did not prevent Truman from continuing his poker education, which meant that by the time he became President in 1945, he had his eyes set on turning the Presidential yacht, the Williamsburg into the ideal poker venue.

“You know I’m almost like a kid; I can hardly wait to start,” he wrote to his wife, Bess, as he looked forward to a poker weekend on the Williamsburg in the summer of 1946. The President, accompanied by his regular poker buddies, would usually board ship on Friday afternoon and cruise along the Potomac River until Sunday afternoon.
Stakes at one of Truman’s games were far from small. Each player started with a 0 stack of chips, although losers could buy a second 0 stack. Around 10% of every pot was put into a “poverty bowl” and duly distributed 0 at a time to players who had lost their second stack.

On one occasion, during a visit to the US in 1946, Winston Churchill joined Truman for a game as they travelled by train from Washington to Fulton, Missouri, where Churchill would famously tell the world about an “Iron Curtain” that had descended upon Europe. This night, however, the great man told of his poker prowess, assembled over four decades.

Truman felt that he and his companions would have to be at their best to match the wartime leader. As the game progressed, however, Churchill’s chip stack dwindled and after an hour of this disastrous play, he left the room. Truman told his fellow players that they would have to take it easy on their cigar-smoking guest. “But boss, this guy’s a pigeon” one of the players exclaimed. “If you want us to play poker for the nation’s honour, we’ll have this guy’s pants before the evening is over.” Truman didn’t want that and the players eased up on Churchill, although not enough to let him go back home claiming he had beaten the Yanks.

This is the last known record of a British Prime Minister playing poker – although by 1946, Churchill was in Opposition. Since then, the collection of knaves and scoundrels that have made it to Westminster has increased exponentially. Perhaps they would make good poker players after all; think about it - for bluff read ‘spin’, for tell read ‘subtle soundbite’ and for overplaying one’s hand – well, read ‘policy promises’.