Poker used to be the card game of choice for hard men late at night in smoke-filled rooms. Now online poker is bidding for respectability and a site on the home computer. Phil Woodward gives us the straight dope. Poker, to borrow a well-used advertising slogan, is probably the biggest gambling game in the world right now. The Friday night game among friends, with whisky and cigarettes on the side, traditional as a form of male bonding, continues as a social activity, but with the Internet the stakes and the number of participants has changed-and so, one could say, has the character of the game. According to last December's edition of the BBC's The Money Programme, over $1 million is being staked every minute on Internet poker around the world.
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