So, you’re millions of light years away from home, in fact so far away that the term ‘Earthling’ has become a vague and obscure term which implies a planet no-one has been to recently (except in the holodeck, that is). However, all is still well in the universe. The best of most traditional Earth games based on chance and skill has survived, and when the Borg get really mean, the senior-crew of the USS Enterprise can put their troubles asunder and enjoy a round of poker.
 
All manner of alien species, each sporting a variety of colours, webbed-appendages and pointy or bony protrusions, enjoy this game, where an alert player could increase their chances of winning by watching their opponent’s facial expressions. And if you’re an android you will have to learn to ‘bluff’, but conversely, you will have the most potent of poker faces ever. It helps, especially if the cards you have are not stellar but you have enough confidence in your game plan to pull it off.

Poker is not a game that can be played by relying on mathematical strategy alone. Winning at poker means a good understanding of human (and in this case, alien) nature, a measure of skill and a healthy dose of luck. Good to know if you ever have to play with the Borg queen.

Trekkies have latched on to this idea and in solidarity have started a Star Trek-themed evening to honour this illustrious game that is sure to be around for many light years travelled to come. This is the best option, considering the fact that we haven’t ‘officially’ had any contacts of the third kind, yet...

To the dedicated fan boys (and girls) who play dress-up and play intergalactic games, all I’m saying is keep your poker face on.

                                            This is not the man by the way

Star City Casino in Sydney, Australia is in a bit of hot water after serving a poker playing boozer 42 beers over a 17 hour poker stint over NYE.

The poker player ordered 5 beers every two hours until the poker table closed at 7am on New Year’s Day. Star City was then hit with a $10,000 fine because it’s quite illegal to let someone who is intoxicated gamble in Australia. Apparently the staff kept serving the patron drinks as he didn’t seem to be too wasted.

A guy downs 42 drinks in 17 hours and you can't tell he's drunk? That's one hell of a poker face.

"He didn't appear to be steady on his feet. He was dozing off at the table and the manager had to help him collect his chips so he could cash them in," bar waiter Helen Mikhael-Ghanime, who was sacked for her role in serving the man 15 beers in seven hours, said

The three wait staff who served the man 31 of the 42 drinks - from 2.29pm on December 31, 2008 until 7.26am on January 1, 2009 - have been sacked or demoted.

Leaked documents reveal staff member Frankie Yuen, who served the man 11 drinks over five hours, had "no recollection of serving the patron".Mr Yuen was demoted and transferred to the Garden Buffet breakfast service.

Gambling has been a favourite past time in Britain for the past thousand years. Dice, horses, cards, cats (!?) have been used for the purposes of gambling. From its ancient beginnings to the multi-million pound industry it is today, it is abundantly clear that the British love to gamble, even if it’s behind the backs of the authorities.

EPISODE 1 – PRE-1100: PRIMITIVE GAMBLING

Religious rituals using stones, sticks and bones, thrown on the ground, their landing positions used to predict the future eventually evolved into a form of gambling – with human sacrifice! Stakes were offered to favour more positive outcomes and rewards would include the best piece of meat after a hunt.

Gambling was banned in Ancient Rome, except for betting on chariot races and during the week-long festival of Saturnalia. So while the Romans weren’t integral in Britain’s love of gambling they can be credited with introducing dice into the Britain.

The Anglo-Saxons grew to love dicing and their favourite was a game called Knucklebones or Fivestones. The game consisted of the flicking of sheep or pig knuckles into the air followed by players attempting to catch them on the back of their hand. Bets were placed on the outcome and the player who caught the most would be the winner. This form of gambling was so popular back then that even a royal grave from this time had over 50 gaming bones as well a two deer antler dice.

There are two poker tables set up in William Snyder’s math classroom at George Mason High School and both are buzzing. At one, 17 year old Daniel Fletcher is trying to decide what to do with his four of hearts and two of clubs.

Fletcher is part of a growing trend to take poker from casinos to classrooms in a drive to get kids to use card-table concepts for math and logical-reasoning lessons.

After his pile of chips grew substantially throughout last week, he inadvertently summed up the exercise: "I don't know whether math class is helping me with poker, or whether poker is helping me in math class,"

The poker club Fletcher is part of is sponsored by his school and since it started in September has become one of the most popular extracurricular activities offered by the high school.

The club has also resulted in a popular debate resurfacing. Anti-gambling groups are questioning whether the club is bringing up unhealthy gambling habits in the kids participating. Gambling has already been recognised as a problem amongst teenagers in the US.

Principal Tyrone Byrd has defended their decision by saying: "We know the kids could play outside of school, but when they're here, we have the opportunity to show them how to play responsibly and to show them how the game relates to their education," said Mason Principal Tyrone Byrd.

Byrd set up ground rules to protect the teenagers: no real money is allowed to be used and the emphasis must be on the game’s educational relevance.

Universities have been on this wavelength for some time with many offering classes that deconstructed the game’s “marvellous architecture” as Harvard Law School Professor Charles Nesson puts it.

Nesson’s classes are about more than basic statistics, but about understanding the anatomy of reasoning and human behaviour - "about teaching them to contend in a contentious environment."

With his students Nesson formed the Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society in 2007 and the club has since expanded to a number of other top universities. Its members aim to deliver their mission statement that poker, "can be used as a powerful teaching tool at all levels of academia and in secondary education."
 
Anti-gambling activists are insisting that these lessons are not suited to high school students who might get heavily influenced by high-stakes poker and celebrity players and start playing on the very easily accessible online poker rooms.

The Annenberg Public Policy Foundation at the University of Pennsylvania released a study last month that found that 15 percent of boys between 14 and 17 years old gamble using cards at least once a month.

 So while there is no doubt that the game is popular amongst teenagers and also holds a large amount of potential for being used as an educational tool perhaps the emphasis should not be on whether or not to offer the game at schools but how the game can be taught so that teenagers can play it, enjoy it and learn from it in a healthy and constructive environment.

Australia’s certification board has got the best one of the strictest in the world. They’ve refused classification to so many games, that the Australian market has lost a large amount of first person shooter due to their strict policies, but this time they’ve gone ahead and banned a poker game created by WiiWare.

The new game is called Sexy Poker and it was created by Gameloft. Sexy Poker is a strip poker game where the player is up against sex females dressed in sexy costumes such as nurse outfits or police uniforms. Players then play and if they do well the females will disrobe.


The Board of Australia refused to classify the game because nudity was used as an incentive which means the game cannot be sold in the country. A statement issued by the Board stated:
“In the Board’s view Sexy Poker offers depictions of nudity as an incentive or reward to interactive game play.

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In the Board’s view, the general rule in the guidelines for the Classification of Films and Computer Games prohibiting depictions of nudity as an incentive or reward, applies to the game play described above, as the player is shown increasingly detailed amounts of nudity following successful game-play. In the view of the Board, the impact of the game exceeds strong as except in material restricted to adults, nudity and sexual activity must not be related to incentives or rewards. As such, the game cannot be accommodated in a MA15+ classification.”