PL Poker - The History Part Two (1945-1959)

The after war period was a difficult time for the Punters Lounge.
The blitz had caused a lot of damage to the Lounge, and rebuilding took quite some time - with the club not re-opening until 1948. Another significant factor was rationing - when the supply of playing cards became scarce, but luckily insider links within the Lounge kept a constant supply coming.
1952 saw a major crisis within the Punters Lounge, that led onto the PL becoming infamous on a national level - and eventually on an international level.
The "Hungarian" crisis began when the Lounge hosted an International event, for the cream of the World's poker players. The event was intended to be a showcase for poker, and because of the popularity got moved to Wembley. The Queen opened the event with the now famous line - "Gentlemen - deal your cards", and off they went.
The event was going swimmingly until an incident on day four when a reporter (Nicholas Cloud from the Times) picked up on a story about supposed collusion between two Hungarian players, and this was backed up by eye witness statements from various players.
"There were signals going across the table" - said Lord Teaulc.
"One thing I can't abide is cheating" - said the Mayoress of Avon.
"Cheats I tell you, cheats" - said Sir Gareth Blades.
"Looks like Ghoulash is off the menu then" - LargeBoyLarge Esq said.

The whole event was stopped while an inquiry was held in the House of Commons, and the threat of sanctions against UK from Hungary was narrowly diverted after a top level meeting between the Hungarian Ambassador and Sir Winston Churchill.

So the fifties came to an end under a bit of a cloud, but the swinging sixties would bring the PL once again to the fore.