It’s a kind of magic: poker’s new breeding ground

Beyond being young, fearless and hugely successful, top poker pro’s David Williams and Noah Boeken share another poker connection - they both came to the game via a popular (yet little publicised) card game called Magic: The Gathering.

If you’ve never heard of it, here’s the skinny. Magic: The Gathering first appeared in the early 90's and was the brainchild of a US based maths professor called Richard Garfield. Since then it’s become a huge success and is played by an estimated 6million people in over seventy countries.

In terms of gameplay, Magic: The Gathering is a collectible card game that has a Dungeons & Dragons style feel to it. Each game represents a battle between two wizards, each of whom uses spells, items and creatures depicted on individual cards to defeat their opponent. With all the possible combinations available, it can be hugely complex and highly strategic.

PKR’s very own IT Manager Brett Antill (PKR_Brett) is a more than able Magic player. “I was a journeyman player, but I would regularly qualify for National events and used to travel the length and breadth of the country to play. At one point it was pretty much all I did, playing and practising every day”, says Antill - which may explain how the game earned the nickname, “cardboard crack”.

One of the similarities between Magic and poker are the major international tournaments that run on a regular basis and award significant cash prizes. “There is a highly organised tournament and ranking system similar to that you would find for chess or backgammon”, explains Antill. “The highlight of my career was qualifying for the Pro-Tour in 1998 and playing in Los Angeles”.

So what is it about Magic players that makes them take to poker so ably? Antill thinks he has the answer, “Magic players need to be thoughtful and logical, and they also need to be able to have strong mental maths skills and the ability to read an opponent. Players also learn a mental endurance as Magic tournaments can sometimes run for several days across several disciplines - much like poker.”

It certainly seems as though the two games share many of the basic skills required for success - and where poker has a romantic, glamorous and risk-taking air about it the fantasy nature of Magic has seen some write it off as geeky. But write them off at your peril - as writer David Kushner, author of ‘Johnny Magic and the Card Shark Kids’, says “They may look like geeks but they come to the poker table like bionic men.”

And for any Magic player, some advice from Antill. “Stop playing Magic and start playing poker. Invest the huge amount of time you currently spend playing MTG instead reading poker forums and developing your poker game at low stakes. If you can afford it, sign up to a video training site. If you are a winning MTG player, you’ll be a winning poker player.”

And if the likes of David Williams and Noah Boeken are anything to go by, switching from MTG to poker could be a nice little earner.