Could Playing Poker Bring Out The Spirits This Halloween?

Following on from our look at the famous poker story of the Liverpool businessman who made a deal with the devil for his soul and who to avoid having his soul taken by Satan, was buried sat up holding a Royal Flush, we are now going to ask ourselves a (semi) serious question:

Could playing poker bring out the spirits where you are playing this Halloween?

Now, by that we don’t mean cracking open a bottle of whisky, or chugging your way through a slew of cocktails, but rather the act of playing poker summoning the spirits!

I know it sounds far-fetched, but it is precisely the strategy employed by a small group of researchers in their YouTube video, Playing Poker With Ghosts.

• Part One – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzTq8zUMaok
• Part Two – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knSbZb2l3T0

Of course, you won’t find anything as creepy if you are playing at the online bet365 Poker tables, but with this being the period around Halloween, we thought this ‘investigation’ was worth a closer look, not least because they are not playing poker, but rather a simplified version of blackjack.

Location Of Spooky Poker Game?

As ludicrous as this method seems, it is based on some kind of historic evidence.

The location of the investigation was the Birdcage Theatre in Tombstone, Arizona, which is not only the site of plenty of paranormal activity according to the owners, but was also the venue for what was the world’s longest poker game, which is said to have run for eight years.

The Paranormal Files investigators aim was to try and invoke the spirits to come out and manifest themselves in some way, by reliving the poker games of the past (we’ll forget that they are playing blackjack at the moment) where one man would get so angry, he would then shoot the dealer claiming that the dealer was cheating him.

Admittedly, the acting isn’t going to win them an Oscar and in truth, if a ghost can’t tell the difference between this and a genuine game of poker, then you’d wonder why spirits would have been blessed with some kind of eternal life if they had the intellectual capacity of a cupcake.

Still, as the investigation progresses, they seem to invoke what they interpret as some kind of ethereal action such as a very quiet female voice (or as I’d call it, silence), soft footsteps (again, silence), an unexplainable squeak (or as I’d call it, wood shrinking as the temperature cools) and an unexplainable orb captured on camera (or perhaps, floating dust refracting light).

Poker Cheating?

Later on in the game, the female investigator implores the spirits to tell them the hand that is being held by her opponent.

And apparently, there are two knocks heard in the video. I can’t really verify this as I couldn’t make anything out on the video, but they are posted above for you to check out and see for yourself.

The investigator is holding his hand and the front card that is most visible is the 2 of clubs, which he suggests is evidence that the ghostly spirit in attendance is trying to inform the female player of the hand he holds.

I mean, is it possible that this is how Robbie Jade Lew got a read on Garrett Adelstein in the poker hand that has split the poker universe over the last few weeks?

Who knows?

There then follows a wander around the theatre at night where they try to talk to the spirits and get them to interact by moving a picture or answering their questions. Apparently indecipherable responses are caught on the camera, but I’d also add that to my hearing, they are also inaudible.

They round off the investigation with a trip to the Boot Hill cemetery, which is genuinely the most unnerving part of the video for me, which houses the graves of many Tombstone inhabitants and visitors including those that died in the famous battle of the OK Corral.

Las Vegas Ghosts And Ghouls

If that little trip into the unknown didn’t get your spidey senses tingling, how about a trip to the neon-lit façade of Las Vegas?

Now, Sin City may be famous for The Strip, its long list of casinos and hotels, restaurants and more that is as famous for its bright lights, gambling and crazy goings on as it is for its reputation as a holiday destination.

However, Las Vegas also has its share of ghostly goings on, which you should be well aware of if you are heading over there around Halloween.

There’s the ghost of Mr Petri, who is said to walk the hallways and haunt the theatre of the Las Vegas Academy of Arts in downtown. Generations of students have claimed to have spotted Mr Petri across the building.

Some claim he is a former teacher at the academy, while others a homeowner who was burnt to death in a mysterious fire many years before.

However, Casinos also have their fair share of spooky visitations if you believe the stories.

The Westgate Hotel and Casino was formerly the International Hotel where Elvis played over 600 shows in 7 years before his death. Many claim his ghost still haunts the hotel, at least those that are not claiming that the King is actually alive and living on Mars or the Moon or similar.

Back in 1980, 87 people died in a fire at the old MGM Grand Hotel, the worst blaze in the history of Nevada. That property is now part of Bally’s Casino and Hotel and part of the building is where the fire is believed to have started.

Many guests have reported hearing strange noises in this part of the hotel, claiming that furniture also moves around mysteriously and that there are strange human-like shadows spotted in the hallways.

Other famous Vegas supernatural hotspots include the corner of Flamingo and Koval where the ghost of Tupac Shakur is said to roam after he was killed there in September 1996, while the Luxor’s Titanic Exhibition is also said to be haunted by the victims of the famous maritime disaster.

So just remember, if you are playing poker this Halloween, you could have more than your opponent’s looking over your shoulder…