The game of poker has to maintain an image and this image has been generally less favorable in the past. We want to say that poker has had a bad image, but this is changing. Poker is no longer a game for gangsters. Now, even women are playing poker and poker has become a very popular game. Even Hollywood wants to exploit this trend. Currently the making of the sequel of the film directed by John Dahl’s “Rounders-The Gambler” with Matt Damon is in progress. In the past a lot of really good movies have used the poker. One of these is the classic film “Cincinnati Kid” with Steve McQueen, released in 1965.

Once poker scenes in films sent negative messages. When you saw the players sitting at the poker table, you could tell immediately that something was – or would be going – wrong in no time. One of the guys sitting at the poker table was for sure a bad person, a crook. Something bad would be about to happen.

Gambling in the scenes of Hollywood movies has always been a way to add flavor, and in general it was an element that gave something slightly wicked, if not bad. Poker has certainly an impact on people. There are still those who think it’s a bad game played by bad people. You can still hear this speech today, although poker is so popular and played by many different people. Why should poker be bad for people? Quite the contrary, there are certainly people who have done well to start playing poker. One of them is definitely Chris Moneymaker. He is a very good example; he won the 2003 WSOP, coming directly from the online poker and never having been in a live poker tournament before. He may have had an advantage, he is an accountant – he has a master’s degree in accounting. Nothing is more respectable than that. We are very far from pictures of famous gangsters as Bugsy Siegel and others.

Half of young people who appear at the WSOP, hiding their faces behind hooded sweatshirts and hats are probably students of the Ivy League. Poker is a thinking game and must be taken very seriously.

In the American sitcom Grace Under Fire, the personages of Grace claims that women can play poker, because if women are able to fake an orgasm they can also bluff and winning at poker. This has become reality.

And the poker today is also becoming an honest and respectable activity, even a day job!