A couple of things here:I think for a contemporary casino based thriller, the game makes sense. Bond likes baccarat, roulette and craps but we've seen it enough. DN, TB, OHMSS, FYEO, GE all have had Bond playing and winning. Hold'em would be something new. Not so much by trying to gain the younger crowd, but it's the hot game these days. I've been in Vegas five times this year and the action was all at the poker tables both on the casino floor and behind the velvet ropes and mostly being played by a black-tie crowd.
1. Just because something has been done in the past, it's not like the series breaks from tradition very often. Every movie we have a gunbarrel; teaser; exotic credits sequence; "My name is Bond, James Bond"; "vodka martini, shaken, not stirred"; things we have seen before. We even get stunts recycled and plots. Baccarat was probably the least of the things many people remember in a Bond film. They do remember Bond plays it in a black tie. What a lot of people think about with regular poker is sweaty guys with sunglasses and names like Snooky.
2. Whose to say poker will still be hot a year from now? By that time you may be seeing the Texas Hold 'em tables in clearance bins for all we know. That combined with a Bond Begins storyline could prove to be a tough sell and instantly dated. Bond needs to stand out from, not with the crowd.