High stakes poker - 175 feet up

Dominic Wells reports on a unique poker game, 45 metres above the city streets

With the second World Series of Poker Europe starting at London’s Empire Casino tomorrow, with a first prize of £1 million, the game retains that dangerous James Bond cachet.

As proof of that. And as a prelude to the World Series, the world’s first ever aerial tournament was held, swinging from a crane 45 metres above the ground in the same place that David Blaine once hung his Perspex box. I was one of the select few brave enough, or foolish enough, to take up the challenge.

The day started badly as it took an hour longer to set up than expected. An hour of heightening anticipation or, to put it less euphemistically, sheer naked terror. The celebrity dealer arrived, 23-year-old John Tabatabai, who was runner-up at last year’s WSOP Europe. “That?” he exclaimed disbelievingly on seeing the table. “Where’s the floor?”

There isn’t one: players’ legs were to dangle over the void. As if on cue, a truck arrived with a timely special delivery - two Portaloos.

Next, all the players were strapped into their chairs. For safety reasons, they said, but it could equally have been in case we experienced second thoughts. And then we were off, up, up and away, until we were level with the top of London’s City Hall, and looking out over Tower Bridge.

It felt for all the world as if we were playing at some sinister game hosted by Ernst Blofeld, and the first person to be knocked out would be tipped backwards into the Thames. Then we discovered that the chairs really did tip backwards at the push of a lever, and swivel, too. Now my poker face is as good as any man’s, but it was broadcasting “Get me out of here” as surely as if it was stencilled on my forehead. And that’s when the crane operator decided to make the whole table spin in slow pirouettes.

Before the bright sparks at Betfair.com thought of converting it for poker, this special table, made in Belgium, was used for mid-air banquets. God knows how anyone kept the food down.

In the circumstances, the poker itself was almost an irrelevance, though a welcome distraction. Betting or “blind” levels went up too fast, rather like the table itself, to make for a skilful game - or, at least, that was my excuse.

High-stakes poker is all very well, but high-wire poker may not catch on. How are you supposed to be able to tell whether an opponent is shaking because they have a monster hand, or because they’re terrified of heights? I’ll stick to playing on terra firma, where the ground is firmer and there’s a good deal less terror.

UK TimesOnline

News Added: 19 September, 2008

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