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Community Cards: Poker and The Gambler

Poker in Popular Culture

Topics: Community Cards, Poker in Popular Culture, UIGEA, Politics, Legislation [+]

In early October, two of the individuals named in the “Black Friday” indictment and civil complaint, John Campos and Chad Elie, filed a motion to have charges against them dismissed. The U.S. Department of Justice has since issued a stern response to the motion, restating its case against the pair.

One of the defendants’ claims was that poker did not constitute “gambling” as defined (or not defined) by the Internet Gambling Business Act (IGBA) or the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). The government’s response to such a claim was that yes, indeed, poker is gambling -- not just legally speaking, but culturally as well.

I’ll set aside the legal analysis of these documents, which may well prove significant as legislative wrangling over online poker’s future in the U.S. proceeds. (See Jennifer Newell’s Law Blog for the latest on that front.) But I did want to highlight the government’s conspicuous reference to poker’s place in American popular culture in its response.

In fact, the response begins with the DOJ arguing that not only has poker long been considered gambling legally speaking, but also that the American culture at large has traditionally made the same connection. “Playing poker for money has, since the birth of the game in the 1800s, been treated both in American culture and law as a form of gambling,” the statement begins.

Much of the document then spells out how legal definitions of gambling -- as indicated by the IGBA and UIGEA -- are such that poker should be considered an example. However, along the way the DOJ does make a prominent detour to reiterate what it believes to be the culture’s understanding of poker.

“Poker has, throughout its history, been understood to be a kind of gambling,” the statement reiterates, adding that “Those who spent their time playing poker in saloons were called ‘gamblers’ from the outset, and poker is described almost unfailingly as ‘gambling’ in a variety of contexts in reported cases dating back to the 1800s.”

It must be noted that the statement omits reference to many other terms often used in the 19th century to describe poker players such as “cardsharps,” “blacklegs,” “mechanics,” and the like. That is to say, terms that would highlight the players’ status as not just gamblers, but cheaters, too.

Indeed, when used with reference to 19th-century poker playing, the term “gambler” itself often included an assumed understanding of the individual’s readiness -- or even willingness -- to cheat at the tables. For example, George Devol titled his 1887 memoir Forty Years a Gambler on the Mississippi, a book full of unembarrassed anecdotes of his having successfully cheated at poker.

But poker evolved in the 20th century. No longer exclusively played in potentially risky environs such as saloons and steamboats, the game moved into domestic settings such as referenced by C.M. Coolidge’s 1903 series of “dogs playing poker” paintings.

And as the game grew more popular, so, too, did study of the many strategies needed to succeed at poker -- without cheating, that is. Then in 1957, Herbert O. Yardley published his best seller The Education of a Poker Player, thereby helping to create a generation of poker players with an appreciation for the game’s significant skill component.

That said, even if many who were playing the game understood that it often took more than simple luck to win, poker nevertheless continued to evoke ideas of the “rambling gambling” figure from the Old West. Thus does the DOJ’s statement go on to argue that the “characterization of poker as gambling reflects society’s traditional understanding of poker, particularly at the time of IGBA’s enactment” in 1970.

Then comes the DOJ’s most curious -- and unfortunately inaccurate -- pop culture reference to poker, again presented in the hopes of furthering an argument about the public’s general regard for poker as gambling.

“For example, Willie Nelson’s classic poker song, about knowing when to ‘hold ’em’ and when to ‘fold ’em’ is called -- based on the movie by the same name – The Gambler.”

Most of us know that it was Kenny Rogers, not Willie Nelson, who famously sang the 1978 song. (Willie Nelson who has had some run-ins of his own with the government, might suggest the error was intentional, a means of hounding him into paying taxes on royalties from the song.) And some of us even know that the TV movie -- the first of several, actually -- starring the singer (and set in the Old West) came a couple of years after the song.

The reference is clearly aimed to suggest in a non-specific way that since the song is called The Gambler and is about poker, then the culture at large necessarily equates poker and gambling. However, as anyone who has paid any attention at all to the song’s lyrics well knows, the advice “the gambler” delivers to his young opponent is almost entirely in the service of explaining that skill -- not chance -- is what ultimately decides the poker player’s fate.

After explaining his experience (he’s “made a life out of reading people’s faces”) and letting the young man know he’s picked up his tell (“if you don’t mind me sayin’, I can see you’re out of aces”), the gambler proceeds to explain that “If you’re gonna play the game, boy, you gotta learn to play it right.”

Then comes the sing-a-long chorus in which lessons about understanding relative hand values, the benefits of folding, the importance of ending sessions profitably, and how best to think about money in play are all memorably delivered:

You got to know when to hold ’em
Know when to fold ’em,
Know when to walk away,
And know when to run.
You never count your money
When you’re sittin’ at the table;
There’ll be time enough for countin’
When the dealing’s done.

Before concluding, the gambler sagely notes that “every hand’s a winner, and every hand’s a loser,” ultimately suggesting that the cards aren’t nearly as significant as how they are played.

Sure, he’s called “the gambler” -- a deliberate allusion to the iconic figure of an Old West card slinger. But the lessons he conveys to the young man about poker (and life) are without exception directing him away from taking heedless, ill-considered risks.

The song, written by Don Schlitz, not only helped catapult Rogers to superstardom in the late 1970s, but it additionally brought poker -- and especially Texas hold’em, still a relatively new variant -- into the mainstream in a significant way. Rogers was even invited to Binion’s in the spring of 1979 to sing the song at the World Series of Poker.

And as the DOJ’s awkward reference to The Gambler indicates, the song’s influence as a kind of cultural landmark for poker continues to this day. Even if its specific lessons -- not to mention the identity of the singer -- aren’t quite being remembered by the U.S. government anymore.