I’M not exactly sure when Filipinos discovered Texas Hold ‘Em Poker but it couldn’t have been more than two years ago. Poker on television in the United States is also a recent phenomenon, no more than 10 to15 years old, but the proliferation of internet gaming/poker sites has helped fuel an explosion in gaming the likes of which has not been seen in ages.

Filipinos are no strangers to games of chance in general and card games in particular. In fact, who didn’t grow up in a neighborhood with a regular afternoon mahjong crowd (mostly the women who did not work in offices back then but were done with the household chores after lunch)? The grandmothers also ran the friendly one-centavo/card bingo games while the more enterprising youths were “runners” or bet takers for illegal horseracing and jai-alai bookies. At least that’s how it was in Kamuning, so I’m guessing the scene may have been replicated in other places throughout the country.

As kids, we gambled too, though we didn’t know it at that time. Holen and tex cards and rubber bands and all manner of weird scraps served as “currency” in whatever game was in vogue. Even bottle caps and cigarette wrappers were useful for games as long as you could decide on a fair way of battling for their possession. And there was always some loose change for cara y cruz, which we considered a man’s game.

We wagered our “currency” every which way – flipping them, knocking them out of circles and holes in the ground, tangling them up and taking turns flicking them with our fingers to knock them free (in the case of rubber bands). Yep, early on, we were gambling on the playgrounds of our Catholic schools under the very noses of the kindly Spanish priests.

Pusoy Dos and Tong-its

Then when we discovered the 52-card deck, we learned the classic games of Lucky 9 and Black Jack – bigger, we thought, and, ehem, better things.

Growing up in the 70s, we quickly learned that there was a game going around called “Russian Poker.” Each of the four players were dealt thirteen cards and the object of the game was to arrange the cards into two poker hands of five cards, with the remaining three forming the head or “ulo.” Little did we know that we were simultaneously learning poker by playing what is known in the vernacular as “pusoy.” (This game also has a seven-card variant called “pai gow” that is popular in casinos as well.)

Then in the late 80s, another card phenomenon swept the nation and it seemed to have been based on poker as well although not entirely. The game was based around playing either single cards, pairs, triplets or five-card poker hands such as straights and flushes. It was called “Pusoy Dos” since in a uniquely Pinoy fashion, the lowly deuce became the game’s most sought-after and highest card.

In the late 90s, Tong-Its replaced Pusoy Dos as the hot new card game. It was akin to mahjong and gin rummy, since the objective was to form sets and sequences. The twist was, one could actually end the game once one feels that one had the lowest point value of cards left in one’s hand or “bluff” everyone else into thinking that you did. Or, they pay to see that you do.

With bluffing as a common element, Pusoy Dos and Tong-Its both used the element of bluffing which turned the game into more than just playing one’s hand but also playing the players.

Poker games on cable TV

Which brings us to poker. The classic card game is not considered gambling or a game of luck by the US Constitution. Instead, it’s widely acknowledged as a game of demanding skill that takes only a few minutes to learn but perhaps a lifetime (and a lot of guts) to play well.

In the late 90s, American cable television exploded (or maybe a better word is disintegrated) into a hundred or so different formats all crying out for for original programming. Poker soon turned up on the late night slots and made guys like Phil Hellmuth, Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu as well as women like Annie Duke into heroes and heroines for the card-playing set.

And No-Limit Texas Hold ‘Em was a game in which each player had two hole cards to call his own, five cards common to all players and the ability to put everything the person had into the pot that’s in the middle of the table and daring anyone else to call him or her.

In 2005, Solar Entertainment Corporation launched a second sports cable channel in the Philippines which began airing episodes of Celebrity Poker Showdown (Bravo Network) as well as the globe-trotting World Poker Tour (Travel Channel).

Starry-eyed wannabes rushed out to try their hand at the game, only to end up getting their behinds kicked by local poker veterans, some of whom had been playing the game for decades in their fancy homes and hotel rooms that were booked all weekend for explicitly that purpose. Captains of industry, politicians and enterprising journalists played on these tables, and a strict code of silence was enforced since talk flowed freely amongst the gentlemen.

Banned from free TV

It was also just last year that two separate local tours were organized, mostly with qualifying sessions in bars but the more serious ones taking place in casinos and ritzy country club lounges. The Airport Casino also finally opened the country’s first Texas Hold ‘Em rooms after much clamor and now there are plans to devote some space to this game in other branches.

And this is where the upstarts went to expand their games. They played amongst themselves and soon, tested their poker-playing mettle with the cream of local players.

Poker is widely acknowledged as a game of demanding skill. It takes only a few minutes to learn but a lifetime (and a lot of guts) to play well.

As kids, we gambled too, though we didn’t know it at that time. Holen and tex cards and rubber bands and all manner of weird scraps served as our “currency” in whatever game was in vogue.

Of course, the freshmen got whupped, proving again that skill beats out luck in these contests.

And this was also why in 2006, broadcast giant ABS-CBN obtained the official licensing from the WPT to stage and cover events here, launching with celebrity poker events for charity. With proceeds going to a worthy cause, the show was deemed A-OK for local TV.

However, subsequent events were less welcome. Poker games with entry fees that culminated in a championship table (and with the possibility of winners getting slots in overseas tournaments) could not be broadcast because the Kapisanan ng Mga Brodkaster sa Pilipinas (KBP) frowned on what they felt was the promotion of gambling so these shows were to be aired strictly on cable TV.

So will the Philippine poker phenomenon last? My guess is that even as we speak, the fad is starting to fade and kids will soon be looking for the next big thing to get a high on. Maybe that damn expensive Playstation 3 and its games will cost them their entry fees for the next several tournaments and that poker will remain misunderstood as a the game of chance it definitely isn’t.