Kings, Queens and Hot Flushes

by IM Angus Dunnington

Last Edited: Monday February 13, 2006 5:46 PM

Some of you might have noticed that I haven't played much chess during the last couple of years. This is because while writing Gambling Online I went so far into 'researching' online poker that I ended up switching professions and turning to poker full time. The recent fourth Gibtelecom Chess Festival, held at the Caleta Hotel, Gibraltar, was a comeback of sorts as I returned to do battle with some chess players for a change. This time I was there in my role as the 32Red Poker Room ambassador, Gibraltar-based 32Redpoker.com being one of the sponsors of the festival. And the game was to be poker.

Picture left: Angus Dunnington

My stay was brief but it was interesting walking around a strong chess tournament again and hanging around with the players. Only half an hour or so after arriving I was sitting in the lounge trying to keep up with Nigel Short, Jon Speelman, Peter Wells and a couple of others as they were playing through a couple of entertaining games, and it dawned on me pretty quickly that I was even rustier than I'd expected. It might be like riding a bike, but when I spent a couple of minutes weighing up the pros and cons of ...f7-f5!? while the others were curiously ignoring this possibility I noticed that White had a bishop on b3 and Black a king on g8 on an otherwise clear diagonal, rendering my planned suggestion illegal. After that the only strategy I attempted was how best to attack my club sandwich, and I just sat back and let them practice their magic.

As for the promotional poker tournament, the idea was to rustle up enough players from Stewart Reuben's evening poker master classes to join me in a friendly 10-player one table tournament, with 32Redpoker offering a tasty short break for two at the excellent Caleta Hotel to the winner and a meal for two to the runner-up. In fact Stewart - a very well respected poker pro and author whose contemporaries include some of the greatest players in poker history - kindly stepped in to deal on a second table as more players than expected turned up. We are all aware by now of the amazing poker boom, and it is not surprising that chess players are perhaps the most naturally suited group to indulge in online poker, but the fact that two of the players were, in fact, professional poker players is indicative of the relationship between chess and poker. (One of these, Anton Aaberg, was having the chess tournament of his life, performing so well against very strong opposition that he had practically wrapped up an IM norm by the half-way stage!).

Left to right: Martyn Hamer (runner up), Stewart Reuben (dealer), Odin Blikra Vea (winner)

Despite the fact it would have been awkward had I won this little tournament I did try to win for my ego's sake, and I was off to a good start when I almost doubled my stack of chips on the opening hand. But when we eventually broke down to a single table I had wasted too many chips (showing off, no doubt) and was knocked out when I committed myself to a pot with an ace and a jack and seeing my opponent flip over an ace and a queen. Ho hum. A good time was had by all, Jonny and Kate from 32Redpoker were great hosts and a young Scandinavian chess player won himself a nice holiday playing poker...

Angus Dunnington is a professional poker player and writer and is the www.32redpoker.com ambassador.

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