We have the WSOP "November Nine" - time to shuffle up and deal !

So we have talked about two of my favourite obsessions – politics and public relations. But for a bit of light relief it is time to cover the third P – poker.  And my excuse for doing so is that we now have our November Nine, and one poker player will walk away with almost nine million dollars. Let me explain….

You may have been flipping through the channels and come across one of the many poker players. You may even have stopped in to hear the commentator get very excited about one of the players having the “nuts” or the number of “outs” they have.

Well poker is a multi-billion past time, which owes much of its success to expansion on the internet. The poker websites have taken poker into countries that do no encourage gambling, or indeed countries where live poker is illegal.

The Internet and poker are inextricably linked. If you are a student of social networks and growth of the net, then you need to follow the history of online poker.

And in the real world, there is a 51-day tournament called the World Series of Poker. It ends with a major elimination competition that ends with nine players. So over the last few days, one by one, the players have been eliminated. Over 7,319 players started and now we are down to the last nine.

So why are the November Nine so important? Well they will come back in November and they will play until there is a winner. And the winner will walk away with $8,944,138. The consolation prize for second place will be $5,545,855.

In fact the smallest amount that any of them will take away with them is $811,823. And they will also have the opportunity to top up their winnings with sponsorships.

Because each of the players in the main event paid $10,000 for a seat, the total prize pool is massive.

Well lots of people pay for their seat.  Some lucky players win their seat in sattelite competitions, and in 2003 Chris Moneymaker paid $39 which in turn led to place at the Main Event.  He went on to win $2.5 million.

But just because we have been talking poker lets not lose our political angle. The explosion of online poker has not been lost on US politicians. Many local laws have been by-passed as players left the brick and mortar casinos to play online.

So there are now a number of legal initiatives to prevent the expansion of gambling. Including some rules about using credit cards to buy into the sites.

The poker players are now fighting back, with one of the top female players heading to Washington DC to lobby the legislators.  Annie Duke is a great player, and her brother is Howard Lederer who is also recongnsed as one of the best players in the world.  Sibling rivalry may be a factor but Annie has won over $1 million in WSOP events, and unknown millions in other events on the circuit.

And so the fight-back has given the politicians pause for thought.  They are aware that in their districts there are thousands of voters who are playing online.  And many of those players are internet literate.  They know how to bring together supporters online and then to use the web as a campaign platform.

So it is time to Shuffle up and Deal.