U.S. Presidents who played poker
"Poker is a brilliant revealer of character, a truism that applies to Presidents in addition to to lesser men."
So wrote the poker writer David Spanier, inspired partially by the truth that such a lot of of these who've held the United States' highest office have actually played the country's favorite card game.
First introduced within the south and west within the early 19th century (not long after the U.S... itself declared its independence), poker soon became a countrywide pastime, with politicians gravitating toward it perhaps in higher numbers than most.
For those on the highest levels of power, strategic parallels between poker and politics are especially apparent. After all, both poker players and presidents are sometimes equally occupied by efforts to ascertain credibility, to construct images, to weigh risks and rewards, to read others for strength and/or weakness, and, of course, to bluff.
With the 2016 presidential campaign entering into its latter stages, it is a shame we cannot pit the candidates in a poker game against one another, as doing so could well reveal more in their characters than is shown in debates and stump speeches.
Here's a glance back at a couple of poker-playing presidents, a few of whom now and then gave the impression to play the sport with as much energy and study as they did running the country.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN (1861-1865, Republican)
Before becoming the country's first president, George Washington gambled at cards, keeping close records of wins and losses on a page in a ledger book titled "Cards and Other Play." Whist was Washington's favored game, as was the case for other early presidents like James Madison who enjoyed playing "for half bits" after dinner.
Eventually the brand new game of poker wound around the country through the early 1800s. It was in this period a tender Abraham Lincoln -- decades from becoming the country's 16th president -- is assumed to has been first introduced to the game.
Soon after turning 22, Lincoln was hired with others to construct and sail a flatboat from Illinois to New Orleans to deliver a produce shipment. The trip eventually carried them down the Mississippi where card sharps on steamboats had already begun fleecing unwitting travelers of their floating poker games.
Arriving in New Orleans, Lincoln encountered much that was new, including slave traders' posts advertising prices for human lives. He is also said by some to have encountered poker, having traveled on to the game's birthplace and location of various early gaming dens. Later as president, Lincoln noted poker when addressing a matter of diplomacy throughout the Civil War, revealing his familiarity with the game.
While little is understood of the games Lincoln played, most agree he likely played for the bottom stakes. That is, "penny-ante" games -- some three-quarters of a century before his own likeness could be added to one-cent copper coins.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT (1901-1909, Republican)
After leading the Union to victory within the Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant became the country's 18th president and while in office enjoyed poker. So did numerous other politicians because the 19th century came to an in depth. Among that group was Theodore Roosevelt who used poker so that you could gain entry into social circles while moving up in the course of the ranks to the vice presidency.
Following William McKinley's assassination in 1901, TR took office because the country's 26th president. Before his first term ended he began advancing a chain of domestic policies presented because the "Square Deal."
Much as poker were dominated by cheating -- particularly within the saloons and at the steamboats of the Old West -- more games were being played "at the square" because the new century began. Similarly TR's "Square Deal" sought to offer protection to consumers against overly powerful businesses, making a level playing field for all.
"All I ask is a square deal for each man," he wrote. "Give him a good chance. Don't let him wrong any one, and don't let him be wronged."
Clarifying his position in a 1905 speech after being elected on his own, TR was much more explicit in regards to the poker analogy.
"When I say I THINK in a square deal I DON'T mean... [it's] possible to offer every man the most productive hand," he said, revealing a keen understanding of poker's chance element. "All I mean is that there shall not be any crookedness within the dealing."
WARREN G. HARDING (1921-1923, Republican)
Theodore Roosevelt's successor, William Howard Taft, also played poker, occasionally joining games hosted by the industrialist Henry Frick. But no president had ever previously shown such dedication to poker as would the nation's 29th president -- Warren G. Harding.
Harding would only serve just two-and-a-half years before death cut short his tenure. Though Harding was popular, his administration was found to be corrupt in different ways, the Teapot Dome scandal essentially the most notable. Nor did the revelation of Harding's extra-marital affairs help his posthumous reputation.
During much of his presidency, Harding hosted poker games twice per week with members of his administration, earning them the nickname the "Poker Cabinet." Players smoked and drank whiskey (despite the Prohibition), with Harding insistent he not be treated any differently by others by virtue of his higher rank.
"Forget that i am President of the United States," he's famously quoted as having said to his fellow players. "I'm Warren Harding, playing poker with friends, and i am going to overcome the hell out of them."
One (perhaps apocryphal) account of Harding's card playing doesn't exactly endorse his skills as a gambler. In keeping with the story, the socialite Louise Cromwell Brooks (first wife of General Douglas MacArthur) was a guest, and Harding played a game of "cold hand" along with her -- only a game of high-card -- saying that whoever won could name the stakes. When Brooks won she chose the White House china as her prize, and Harding had it dropped at her the following day.
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT (1933-1945, Democrat)
While Harding's successor Calvin Coolidge enjoyed poker, next-in-line Herbert Hoover was less of a fan. Hoover have been a part of Harding's cabinet (as Secretary of Commerce), but declined games with the president, later writing that while he didn't mind poker, "it irked me to look it within the White House."
Franklin Delano Roosevelt followed Hoover because the nation's 32nd president, bringing back the poker-playing tradition with low-stakes games several times a week, often nickel-ante stud. Some claim even to have heard FDR riffling chips during his famous radio "Fireside Chats."
Following the footsteps of his fifth cousin Theodore, FDR likewise employed a poker metaphor to explain his "New Deal" series of programs geared toward fostering recovery from the Depression.
FDR hosted games at the final night of every Congressional session, and whoever led when the session adjourned was declared the winner. Once FDR was down when the decision came, but didn't let directly to the others the session was over. Hours later he was ahead, then had a phone delivered to him and reported the session had ended, making him the winner.
John Nance Garner, FDR's first VP, was a reputed stud expert, although didn't receive invites to the president's games, especially after disagreements during FDR's second term cooled their relationship. In 1940 Garner ran for president himself, but Roosevelt chose to run for a 3rd term and was reelected by a large margin.
In stud terms, Garner had expected a fold, but FDR chose to stick within the hand.
HARRY TRUMAN (1945-1953, Democrat)
Apart from Warren G. Harding, 33rd president Harry Truman played probably the most poker while in office. In fact, the evening Truman learned of FDR's passing he was because of play a poker game, but necessarily canceled his appearance.
Truman brought with him friends to fill positions under him, a bunch dubbed "The Missouri Gang" with whom he often played. He even went as far as to have a distinct chip set made featuring the presidential seal.
On Truman's desk appeared an indication reading "The Buck Stops Here," an individual slogan with a poker-related origin, relating to the buck-knife once utilized in place of a button. Like both Roosevelts, his "Fair Deal" proposals again evoked poker when naming a domestic agenda.
A dedicated player, though not overly interested by results, Truman preferred stud games with wild cards, with stakes reaching hundreds of bucks. Truman appointed Fred Vinson -- one of the regulars within the games -- Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in 1946. That very same year Truman famously played poker with Winston Churchill aboard a train in order to Westminster College where the statesman would deliver his iconic "Iron Curtain" speech.
Truman also was playing stud with a bunch of reporters aboard the U.S.S. Augusta nowadays the atomic bomb was dropped over Hiroshima. There's another little bit of poker-related trivia related to the WWII-ending attack -- two planes used for weather reconnaissance ahead of the bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were named Straight Flush and whole House.
DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER (1953-1961, Republican)
The 34th president, Dwight D. Eisenhower, rose to prominence not through politics but as a five-star general and ultimate Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe during WWII.
Eisenhower learned poker growing up in Texas, calling it his "favorite indoor sport." At West Point he routinely beat all-comers, eventually stopping for some time when his opponents became unable to pay him. After graduation he continued to play while working his way up the military chain of command, once buying a uniform along with his winnings.
One story from this time finds Eisenhower outing a cheat trying to mark cards in a game of stud. In another later one he was serving under General George Patton at Camp Meade, again dominating games among fellow officers. Once he discovered an opponent having to cash his family's war bonds as a way to pay Eisenhower what he owed, and then Ike conspired with others to lose purposefully to the soldier as a way to help him recoup his losses.
"This was not achieved easily," Eisenhower would later write. "PROBABLY THE MOST hardest things known to man is to make a fellow win at poker who plays as though bent on losing every nickel."
The experience made Eisenhower less the sport. "I DETERMINED I needed to quit playing," he wrote. "It was not because I DID NOT benefit from the excitement of the sport -- I TRULY like to play. But it surely had become clear that it was no game to play within the Army."
RICHARD NIXON (1969-1974, Republican)
While Eisenhower's successor John F. Kennedy preferred bridge, Lyndon B. Johnson played poker and, in keeping with one highly dubious tale, won a sports car from Ronald Reagan in a high-stakes game. But Eisenhower's VP (and LBJ's successor) was perhaps probably the most studious poker-playing president of all -- 37th president Richard Nixon.
A professor of Nixon's once remarked that a man who couldn't hold a hand in a first class poker game isn't fit to be president. His most famed pupil became proficient at poker while serving within the Navy during WWII, earning perhaps up to $10,000 which he used to assist fund his first Congressional campaign. So concerned with poker, Nixon even turned down dinner with famous flyer Charles Lindbergh as he was hosting a game that night.
Nixon often told of once creating a royal flush in five-card stud. A fellow officer later claimed he "once saw him bluff a lieutenant commander out of $1,500 with a couple of deuces."
He'd continue to play as a politician, although in step with House member Tip O'Neill, Nixon wasn't as great as some claim. "He had an excessively fine grasp at politics but was just miserable at poker," wrote O'Neill, adding "he talked an excessive amount of and didn't follow the cards."
One of Nixon's greatest political triumphs came early in his career when calling the bluff of suspected spy Alger Hiss. But later "Tricky Dick" didn't bluff his way out of Watergate, eventually "folding" because the only president to resign from office.
BARACK OBAMA (2008-present, Democrat)
Current White House resident and 44th president Barack Obama likewise lists poker among his hobbies, although more was product of his playing previous to being first elected in 2008 than have been the case since.
Much like had happened with Theodore Roosevelt, poker helped Obama network early in his political career. He played in a weekly game with fellow state senators in Illinois previous to his rise to the national stage. An escape from the legislative grind, the games involved participants from either side of the aisle, enabling Obama and others to develop relationships over the poker table that proved beneficial when stepping into negotiations within the senate.
The games were for low stakes, with wins and losses only rarely reaching 100 dollars during a single evening. A colleague, Terry Link, explained to poker historian James McManus how Obama played a "calculated" game, showing patience and developing a decent enough image that after" Barack stayed in, you just about figured he's got an excellent hand." Such a picture enabled Obama to run the occasional bluff, too, along with his "stone face" often helping him earn folds to his bets.
There hasn't been much news of Obama playing poker during his two terms in office, although earlier this year he did reveal he carries a "lucky poker chip" given to him by a voter while campaigning back in 2007. Obama was quick so as to add he wasn't superstitious, but carries the chip (and other keepsakes) as a reminder of these he's met.
Martin Harris is Freelance Contributor to the PokerStars Blog.
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[Source: PokerStarsBlog.com]
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