Businessmen show their hand at poker

"The skill set you need to succeed in corporate life and the financial world is the same skill set you need to succeed at the poker table," US hedge fund manager Daniel Shak told Collins & Spencer this week.

Shak plays the professional poker circuit when not trading gold and silver futures, and is in Melbourne for the Aussie Millions tournament at Crown.

"You'd be surprised just how many Fortune 400 company executives and chief executives I've met playing poker," Shak says. "It's an obvious appeal to them."

So it came as no surprise to see two of Melbourne's more familiar business figures rubbing shoulders and doing rather well at Crown's celebrity tournament for the Aussie Millions.

Myer chief executive Bernie Brookes, poker "skill set" fine-tuned by the float of his department store at the end of last year, cleaned up on his charge to the final table. He was joined by Nicholas Bolton, whose poker skills have been honed by his high-stakes games of bluff with the boards of both BrisConnections and Multiplex Prime in the past year.

Indeed, the two corporate representatives in the event swept aside a score of well-known poker aficionados, including Shane Warne, and footballers Campbell Brown and Glenn Archer.

"There were about 200 people, and I managed to get down to the last five, which was very surprising as I'd never played poker before, and never even been to the poker room at Crown before," Brookes said. "It was self-help, from all the late night poker I've watched on Foxtel."

Brookes managed to beat off the competition and make the final table, despite being a touch star-struck at the start of the event. "It was good to meet Shane Warne and Jeff Fenech. I was in awe," he said. "I also liked the opportunity to meet Jesse Metcalfe from Desperate Housewives, which I love."

According to a few well-placed people at Myer, Brookes was "chuffed" with his performance at the poker table, but not as chuffed as those who played with him on the day. The winner of the celebrity and media event was given $5000 to donate to the charity of his choice, and Brookes decided to stake 27-year-old English professional player James Akenhead, who's in Australia for the first time.

He told Akenhead that, if he won, he would double the sum donated to charity.

Akenhead, who won a cool $US1.26 million after finishing ninth in the World Series of Poker Main Event last year, duly won, and chipped in another $5000 of his own cash.

All-up, $15,000 was donated to the Shane Warne Foundation.

"It has been a good year, and I had a great day, so after finishing fifth I was more than happy to donate to a good cause," Brookes said.

Bolton, who is launching his Australian Style investment fund, came seventh at the event, and sat alongside Brookes at the final table.

"I've also never played at such a tournament before, but given Bernie and I did well, I agree that maybe there is a correlation between business skills and poker," Bolton said.

Identity tease

LAST week Collins & Spencer revealed the curiously named The Hitman Transport is in liquidation, but Melbourne's king of the lap dance Raymond Bartlett quickly interrupted his Queensland holiday to inform Collins & Spencer that he isn't the Ray Bartlett behind the trucking company.

The 69-year-old boss of Goldfingers strip club in King Street might have a trucking past, and was a key player in the 1979 trucking strike that brought Melbourne to a standstill, but he was keen to let Collins & Spencer know he has nothing to do with The Hitman, which has been put into liquidation by Esanda.

"Must be a case of mistaken identity," Bartlett said. "Not the first time. There's some bloke out in Doncaster with the same name and a string of shelf companies as long as your arm."

Indeed, Bartlett suggested the other Ray Bartlett might be giving him a bad name, which is a touch cheeky given his own colourful past.

Still, life isn't so tough right now for one of Melbourne's strip club kings.

"On holiday in Queensland at the moment, but the phone's run hot since your story. Even had the bank manager on the phone."