/ Editor / 11 October 2007 /

Poker Anorak wonders whether Poker's image is out of kilter with reality

We know poker to be a wholesome game. No diving. No feigning injury. No poking your fingers into opponent's orifices and gouging (at least not outside some of Berlin's livelier rooms). No steroid abuse. Poker is not football, rugby or athletics.

But how the world beyond the green baize sees our game is an oddity. The Poker Anorak has been looking over the forums and notes Seaside's comment: "Because I opened an account with c/v to play poker I had my Bank account suspended. Had to contact the fraud department."

Why? The poker forum is uncertain. JPJ says: "I've never heard of anyone's bank account being frozen whilst opening any type of account with any company."

Rum Tiddle recalls: "I transferred £200 to my BF account a few months back and got a call almost immediately from my bank's fraud dept."

We cannot comment on Seaside's issue. We suggest he contacts his bank and work out if "C/V" is a genuine poker operator.

But what the thread suggests is that poker is in itself inherently untrustworthy, there is something seedy and underhand about those who play it.

But you can't cheat the odds - it's an honest game. And I wonder why it was my credit card operator who once allowed a purchase in a Cairo jewellers (£1,423.69) to go through when I had but ten minutes earlier used my card to buy petrol in Bournemouth?

Would the fraud have passed the bank's watchful gaze had the villain purchased poker chips?

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