Dogs Playing Poker

A gentleman of humbler persuasions will recognise the joy espoused on the first three pages of The Smoking Room this month. He will gently guffaw as he acknowledges the humanoid antics of our card-playing canine compadres – and how they’ve so voluntarily adopted our vices, for better or worse. He will tilt his glass and slug serenely at the nobleness of table sport, the joy of the raised-bet and the scent of the bluff. Then he will titter most heartily as he realises the anthropormorphic skullduggery on show; the boozing Boxer, the smoking Collie and that ace-slipping swindler of a Bulldog. The lesson: A man doesn’t need grand metaphors, melting clocks or ugly French women to make him smile. Stick some dogs round a table with a deck of cards and let the appreciation commence.