Check the bit in
RED 
All bets are off as I bid to be next poker ace - MAUREEN ELLIS (Glasgow Evening Times)
POKER has come out of smoke-filled backrooms to become one of the world's hippest games. Two years ago, Natasha Ellis quit her job to play online poker full-time, and now earns around £50,000 a year.
It inspired MAUREEN ELLIS to take a crash course in cards. But would she be good enough to give up her own day-job?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ANY job that allows you to work in your pyjamas sounds all right by me ... and earning £50,000 a year for the pleasure sounds beyond anyone's wildest dreams.
So it was with more than a little jealously that I read about my namesake, Natasha Ellis, a 33-year-old Scot who gave up her job as a journalist to play online poker full-time.
By sitting at her computer at home in Edinburgh for only four or five hours a day, she's earning an average of £1000 a week.
At the moment you can't seem to escape the game. A glimpse at the TV schedules reveals late night "all-star" and "celebrity" poker duels.
Brad Pitt plays poker in just about every movie he can get away with, Ben Affleck is a California state champion, and Greg Hemphill is no mean player.
The new Guy Ritchie film Revolver centres on those all-important five playing cards, too.
Moreover, online gaming is so widespread that if you type "poker" into search engine Google you get 49,300,000 hits, just 20 million fewer than "Jesus".
Having only ever played for matches on family holidays, I set out to get a crash course in the craze that's sweeping Scotland.
Don MacLeod, of Glasgow casino company Top Hat, was the man charged with teaching me to play poker like an ace.
According to Don, I'm in good company - increasing numbers of the new users who're registering to online poker sites are women. In a live poker game, the influence of a feminine touch can't be underestimated.
"Women are often at an advantage because men can never tell what a woman is thinking," he jokes (I think).
Don chose to teach me the most popular variation of poker - Texas Hold'Em. The rules of the game were explained in just 10 minutes.
Putting the basics into practice proved a lot harder.
"They call this table Hollywood," said Ricky 'The River' Foulis, the table's dealer, "because of all the Oscar-worthy acting performances it's seen."
Learning poker goes against so much I'd learned as a child. First, it's good to stare.
Studying your opponents is vital to predicting what hand they have and what moves you expect them to play.
HONESTY isn't the best policy either, unless you're trying a bit of reverse psychology to outwit your fellow players.
And you can never have too many chips.
However, I don't seem to remember any of these things ... and my chips disappeared faster than lunch at the Blue Lagoon.
Texas Hold'Em is thought to have originated on Texan oil rigs to allow lots of players at once. It's strewn with twists, and is played with a 52-card deck and up to 10 players.
To start the game, each player gets two "hold" cards face down, so only they can see them.
Then five "community" cards are dealt face-up, allowing all the players to make use of them.
The player who makes the best five-card poker hand with any combination of their two "hold" cards and the five "community" cards wins the round.
For instance, four of a kind, which is four cards of the same value, or a straight, where the card numbers go up in order - for example, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen - would be hard to beat.
The players take turns to deal and are given a button to show they are the dealer. This is the best position to be in as the dealer bets last and can see what every other player has done.
The next two players clockwise from the dealer have to place "blind" bets with their chips - this means they must bet before seeing their cards, and this starts the money pot.
With each player dealt their two hold cards, I'm praying for Ace-King suited - an ace and king of the same suit, arguably the best hand - but I settle for two eights. ah kh
The first round of betting starts and I have to decide whether to call (match the preceding bet), raise (make a bet higher than the preceding bet) or fold (decide to withdraw from betting, losing the "blind" bet I've staked).
It's a little confusing, but Don (forgoing poker etiquette, and helping me with this first hand) advises I raise. I'm too busy trying to remember the suit of the first two cards to study my opponents' faces, but I'm relieved when they match my raises.
Then three "community" cards are dealt into the centre of the table (this is known as the "flop").
They're all low cards and nothing matches my two eights, so I raise again and everyone follows.
Then the "turn" card, or fourth "community" card, is dealt. That's two pair I have, but someone else could easily trump me with three of a kind, which is three cards of the same value.
MORE chips disappear into the middle and I feel this hand is getting away from me.
When that fifth and final "community" card, the "river", is dealt, I'm confused. My furrowed brow can be read like a book.
Even more chips go in and it's a critical showdown.
I'm gutted when the player with the dealer button makes a pair with the river card - a queen, giving him a pair of queens. Beaten by the last card!
The dealer button moves clockwise and the next hand begins. Surely I'll master the glacial glaze of Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke with another hand.
Again, it isn't to be. My hold cards are low and I should have folded immediately. Instead, I get out of my depth bluffing (badly) with almost nothing.
The flop, turn and river cards don't help and I'm down to only a third of my chips after losing a second hand.
Salvation comes in the third game - two Jacks. I go for it and put in all my chips in to keep up.
Just my luck. The killer blow is again dealt with the river card, which hands my opponent the whole pot.
I leave the table with no chips and very little dignity, thanking my lucky stars we're playing for meaningless chips that might as well have been matchsticks.
I won't be giving up the day job just yet!
Author