Pub poker raises the stakes

Bonnie and Trevor are typical of customers drawn to a gambling craze that's pulling in the punters - but not without controversy.

The two poker fans search out pubs across the North West of England that host poker and, on the Sunday afternoon I joined them at the gaming table, are playing in an inter-pub tournament at Llay Miners Welfare Institute in Wrexham. Fourteen pub teams are pitted against each other at the event and it is jam-packed with all walks of poker life.

There's Steve Bellis, head of pub poker operator Nuts Poker, who went on TV show Dragons' Den to secure funding for the company and now insists that the game is an entirely above-board way for pubs to secure custom on otherwise quiet nights. There are casual players such as Bonnie and Trevor, and more serious poker faces who have played for big prizes in Nuts Poker finals after qualifying through pubs.

Local licensees come up to Steve during the afternoon to remark that participation in inter-pub tournaments has helped them develop a customer base of poker fans who now come to play in their pubs. The licensees believe it encourages players to tour pubs that host games.

The Llay tournament encapsulates three big debates surrounding poker in pubs:

High stakes and gaming permits

The venue has recently secured a full gaming permit. While pubs must play with maximum stakes of £5 per player per game and prizes of no more than £100, the Llay club's licence allows it to host games for unlimited sums.

The appetite for higher-stakes poker demonstrated by the turnout this afternoon points to growing customer demand for such gaming. There have been calls for the Gambling Commission to re-think its limits for pubs, which would make poker even more of a draw.

"The Gambling Act was created by people who made decisions without ever going to a game of poker in a pub," says Bellis. "I think ultimately the Gambling Commission will have to review some of the guidance. Pubs are having a torrid time and poker is something legitimate that can get people in."

Nuts is planning to give players at the miner's welfare club the option to play in £50 buy-in games, and believes it will regularly get around 50 players wishing to do so.

It was, according to Bellis, easy for the club to get a full licence - so couldn't pubs just apply in the same way? Yes, he says, but it probably would not be worth it financially. "The path is a lot smoother under the law for venues classed as non-commercial enterprises [a definition covering private members' clubs]," he explains. "It's not impossible for a pub to get one, but it would be very difficult and involve a lot of lawyers' fees."

Linked gaming

Llay Miners Welfare Club will also host so-called 'linked gaming' for Nuts - poker finals promising prizes of up to £6,000 for players who have qualified through rounds in pubs. This remains a controversial practice.

A paragraph in the Gambling Commission's code of practice for the on-trade appears to rule it out as illegal.

Paragraph 5.1 reads: "A number of poker tournaments and leagues have been established in alcohol-licensed premises based on playing for points. In some leagues, the organisers offer 'prizes' at the end of a series of weekly games for the players with the most points."

The next paragraph continues: "It is likely that the association of a prize with a monetary value with a game or series of games constitutes gaming, certainly by the latter stages of the competition.

If the eventual prize is worth more than the maximum prize set out in regulations then it could be unlawful."

However, Nuts and other operators claim to have had the go-ahead for such competitions.

Bellis says: "Every game in a poker tournament is linked in a way - it just depends on the term's definition. Having consulted with lawyers, all that's going on in a pub is a qualification process, not linked gaming."

Others dispute this. "If poker operators are holding big money events in casinos, this is illegal," says Paul Rimmer, director of another operator, Premier Pub Poker League.

"They must gain approval from the Gambling Commission as they are offering prizes that are outside the boundaries laid out in the commission's new laws."

Linked gaming means pub players are effectively competing for significant prizes - which is drawing in some highly-competitive players to the early rounds (see box, right). So is this good for pubs?

Quality competitive players

One of the concerns voiced when the new Act was drawn up was that playing for money in pubs would cause acrimony between players. While some operators point to the glamour of quality players taking part in pub rounds, Nuts plays this aspect down. "These are sociable players," says Bellis, "here for a laugh and nothing more."

Bonnie and Trevor certainly fit this bill, bantering good-naturedly with other players and ordering drinks at the bar.

It's clear that when playing poker in pubs, customers like these represent good business. Debate about the rights and wrongs of pub poker are sure to continue, though.

Pub poker's high rollers

Deepak Parmar

Parmar, a 48-year-old self-employed delivery driver from Derby, is one of the Champions Poker League's most prolific players, well-known in most of the league's Midlands venues and a veteran of more than 100 tournaments.

Last year he won entry into the first-ever World Series of Poker Europe, which was held in London in late 2007 with a main prize of £1m.

Sitting at a table with poker pros Chris 'Jesus' Ferguson and Annie Duke, Deepak lasted 10-and-a-half hours before finally being knocked out of the tournament at half past midnight on the first day of play, outstaying several big names.Kirsten Edwards

After playing weekly at the Lock, Stock & Barrel in Newbury, Berkshire, Edwards was crowned Redtooth Poker's South East regional champion at finals held in the White Horse, Southsea, last year.

That was her third regional final after only starting playing the game in May 2007.

While Edwards won a relatively paltry £100, Redtooth's prize pot at each of this year's regional finals has increased to £1,000.David 'the Broker' Bellamy

Investment manager Bellamy is Poker in the Pub's national champion for 2008. This earned him a prize of $1,000 (£502) and a luxury holiday to Las Vegas, where he entered a number of higher-stakes games. His best result saw him take $750 (£377) from a $70 (£35) buy-in tournament.

Bellamy took up free-to-play poker as a hobby in 2006, and now plays every Monday at the Turks Head in Heighington, Lincolnshire.