Poker's changing face: New breed of players turns the tables on game's shady image

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Poker's changing face
New breed of players turns the tables on game's shady image

By Pete Humes
Timesdispatch
Special Correspondent

Thursday, February 19, 2004

Who would have guessed? With a century-old reputation as the unsavory backroom ritual for cigar-chomping, boozing, gambling men, poker has finally gone legit. And in a big way.

Fate has dealt the globally popular, quintessentially American game a fortunate hand. Televised games and fairy-tale champions have given poker a shot in the arm and a brand-new audience.

An audience that sees poker as a game without division, played by Supreme Court justices (William H. Rehnquist and Antonin Scalia), college students, investment bankers, construction workers, homemakers and the richest man in the world (Bill Gates claims that he spent more time playing poker than going to class during his first year at Harvard).

Poker embodies the American spirit. It proves over and over that with persistence and hard work, anyone can make his or her dreams come true. You can flee your homeland in a rickety boat, arrive penniless in Chicago and end up a poker millionaire like Scotty Nguyen. Or you can raise four kids and support your family for a decade on your poker winnings like Annie Duke.

You can even win $6,000 during your first two months in the Navy, use it to fund a successful bid for the U.S. Congress and go on to be president of the United States like Richard Nixon.

Whatever your desire, poker seems poised to romance a whole new generation of players with its cowboy cool, its psychological warfare, its intellectual challenge and those unbelievable, ridiculously large and terribly obscene . . . piles of money.

The Thursday Game

Vance Cooper is rescuing his Strawberry Street duplex from the fun-house design sensibilities of its former occupants.

He's done away with the goldfish wallpaper and the black-and-gold bathroom. The aqua blue home is not quite ready for an HGTV profile, but it's hospitable enough for six old college friends looking to take one another's money.

Cooper, Lance Smith, Daniel Sydnor, David Cullen, Jason Wright and Jack Cullen sit in a small dining room off the kitchen. The beige wood of the table is covered with half-moon water stains. A dusty and ornate chandelier hangs overhead. Bullhorns are mounted over the empty fire- place.

The game is loose and friendly, a little rough around the edges like the players settling in their seats. The rules are clarified, with some points mimed slowly for emphasis.

Cooper pops the cap on a Sierra Nevada and says, "It's good to be back playing poker." Everyone nods.

Daniel Cullen deals first. The flop comes delicately, a card at a time, until a jack of clubs, a 10 of spades and a two of hearts lay in a neat row.

The men hunch forward and peel up the corners of their cards, careful not to reveal excitement or disgust. There is beard rubbing and furrowed brows. Then the pot grows with the clicking of quarter whites, 50-cent blacks and the occasional dollar blue chip.

Jack Cullen made the chips out of colored plexiglass on his last day working for a sign shop.

All of them have been friends for years (everyone but Jack attended the College of William & Mary), and they started playing poker last August after David Cullen sent out an e-mail suggesting a home game.

"We used to play different games. We played spades, Anaconda," Cooper says.

"But I've been watching a lot of Hold'Em on TV lately," Sydnor says.

Here, kitty, kitty

In the past year, poker has become a full-fledged cultural phenomenon. America's most popular card game also is one of its most popular forms of recreation.

With more than 50 million regular players, poker ranks higher than golf, tennis or billiards.

But because we all don't have a Tuesday night game in our living room or a casino in the back yard, the easiest place for us to gawk at poker's ubiquity is on the television. Even the most casual channel surfer is forced to ask, "What's the big deal with poker?"

The big deal, of course, is money. Lots of it. As much as poker pros love the skill, science and strategy of the game, they are in it to win. And with heated competition for scads of cash comes compelling human drama.

Poker is hot, but one variation in particular is the darling of the deck. The belle of the ball. That game is No Limit Texas Hold'Em.

Poker guru Doyle Brunson called it "the Cadillac of poker." It's a faster moving, more engaging and more lethal animal than your grandparents' five-card stud.

The "no limit' moniker refers to the fact that there is no maximum amount a player can bet. This makes for bold "all or nothing" moves in which players wager all of their chips on a single hand (aka "going all in.")

This is where the aforementioned drama comes in because in serious tournament play this can mean single bets (and bluffs) worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Or in a smaller house game, the difference between going home rich or going home early.

Players are dealt two cards facedown. There is a round of betting and then three common cards (the flop) are laid faceup. Another round of betting, then a fourth common card (aka fourth street or "the turn"). More betting and then the final common card (fifth street or "the river"). The winner with the best five-card hand takes the pot.

Of course, the specifics are a tad more complicated. There are millions of variables involving statistics, strategy and human psychology. And let's not forget that elusive mistress better known as luck.

Johnny Big Chips

Jack Cullen is losing his stack.

That's why he's taken to taunting every time Cooper plays it safe.

"C'mon let's see Johnny Big Chips do some raisin'," Jack says. All he gets in return is a shrug.

By now the room is hazy with the sweet smog of filtered mini cigars. After David Cullen sweeps a pot with a pair of kings and a pair of threes, he fumbles through a nearby closet for an ashtray. No luck.

Jack Cullen lurches toward the kitchen and returns with something from the cupboard. In unison, the players tap their dark ashes into the pristine white ceramic dish.

"No more cereal for that bowl," Jack Cullen says.

At the end of the table, Smith practices his poker face. A computer tech for UPS, he has left his emotions at home. He greets each hand with equal indifference.

Action on the round ends with a showdown between Cooper and Smith. With a sizable pot at stake, Smith reveals a pair of twos easily squashed by Cooper's two pair.

Jack Cullen shakes his head in disbelief as Cooper rakes in his take and carefully arranges his tiny towers of white, black and blue plastic.

"Sick. That's just sick."

Ready for prime time

Until recently, the edge-of-your-seat thrills that come with high-stakes poker weren't evident in early broadcasts of the game. It became obvious that the only way to make the game truly engaging for a home audience was to let them in on what the players had been dealt.

Enter England's Channel 4, the station that brought "Late Night Poker" to British television screens in 1999. The first made-for-television poker tournament quickly became a cult hit, and Chris Stuart, creative director for Presentable (the producer of "LNP") is quick to give credit to his gadgets.

"The under-the-table cameras are key. Suddenly we had a fantastically watchable game on our hands. It intensifies the sense of danger that's always been a vital part of poker's appeal," Stuart said in a news release.

Fox Sports Net began broadcasting the show last month.

But the first show in the United States to integrate miniature tabletop cameras into coverage of professional tournaments was "World Poker Tour."

The Travel Channel series quickly validated "WPT" creator and co-producer Steve Lipscomb's argument that big-time tournament poker could make for thrilling American television. It also made significant strides in turning around the less than desirable reputation of the game.

With increased attention to production values, the cooperation of world-class players and picturesque globe-trotting, "World Poker Tour" became the Travel Channel's highest-rated series of 2003 (and one of its all-time top two). Each week, between 3 million and 5 million viewers tuned in to the televised tournaments. The new season begins March 3.

Imitators, sequels and spinoffs soon followed.

Bravo developed "Celebrity Poker Showdown," which pit celebrity amateurs (including comedian David Cross, Coolio, Martin Sheen and Carrie Fisher) against one another for charity. The finale, which crowned "King of Queens" star Nicole Sullivan the first champion, was watched by 1.7 million people.

Bravo plans to air a new season later this year.

"World Poker Tour's" entry in the "famous people playing cards" genre is "Hollywood Home Game," featuring players such as Ben Affleck, Jack Black, Mimi Rogers and Richard Karn. The celebrities play for charity as well as a $25,000 seat in the World Poker Tour Championship.

The poker TV juggernaut shows no sign of slowing. "World Poker Tour" commentator Vince Van Patten has signed on to develop and host "Poker Dogs," a reality series set in the world of competitive poker. "Casino" is an upcoming reality series from "Survivor" producer Mark Burnett. And the Game Show Network is trying to see past the poker trend by broadcasting the World Series of Blackjack in March.

The big one

Not to be left out of the poker party, ESPN dusted off episodes of the "World Series of Poker" that had originally aired last spring. Thanks to pokermania, the reruns of the legendary event (held every spring at Binion's Horeshoe Casino in Las Vegas) attracted an average audience of 1.25 million over the summer.

Not only did it refocus attention on a record-breaking year for the championship tournament (839 contenders paid $10,000 each for a shot at the $8.4 million prize pool), but it gave Chris Moneymaker's Cinderella victory a much wider audience.

The aptly named Moneymaker, a 27-year-old accountant, won his $10,000 World Series seat by dominating an online poker tournament that only cost him $40 to enter. After four days of elimination play, Moneymaker outplayed and outlasted legends such as Johnny Chan, T.J. Cloutier and Phil Ivey.

Earlier this year, Harrah's paid $50 million to rescue the Horeshoe Casino from bankruptcy and put to rest the rumors that the World Series of Poker was finished. The 2004 series will be broadcast by ESPN, which should reap even higher ratings thanks to an estimated $20 million in official prize money.

Need further proof that poker is on a roll? An ESPN publicist noted that recent media inquiries about televised poker have actually surpassed those for the NFL and the NBA.

The flop house

President Harry Truman once said, "Poker among friends and colleagues should not drive anyone to the poorhouse, but should be expensive enough to test skill and make it interesting."

Another kind of home game is happening on a cold Tuesday night in the far West End. The town house parking lot is an obstacle course of snow. It's an eerie quiet night with a full moon and a frozen lake.

You can't tell from out here, but around the corner is some serious poker. A different kind of poker from the loose game between buddies on Strawberry Street. The stakes are higher, the play is tighter.

Tonight, Dave Hillegass has five men at his kitchen table for a game that Truman would consider "interesting." His apartment has the spare look of a twentysomething bachelor pad. Mountain bike in the corner. Large-screen TV. Bare, white walls.

On top of the table is a homemade playing surface that Dave and his roommate constructed. It's shaped like an oval racetrack, with a soft, oatmeal-colored pleather center. The "track" is a thin white rail of linoleum and the edge is gathered black vinyl.

The players are a mix of old and young dressed in casual sweatshirts and open-collared shirts. No one is smoking. There is hardly any chatter. The loudest sound is the hum of the refrigerator condenser and the clacking of chips.

Fingers and hands are busy. Cards are dealt at a dizzying pace, the flop drops with one fluid turn. Two decks always rotate to keep play in motion. Shuffling is reduced to flutters and blurs of blue. A red chip rolls on its edge from hand to hand. Cards float from one end of the table to the other.

In October 2002, a friend invited Hillegass to sit in on a game. He agreed. The only snag was that he had never played No Limit Hold'Em.

"It sounded interesting. I played more for entertainment purposes."

The game, in reality, was a No-Limit Hold'Em tournament. Undaunted, Hillegass sat down for a crash course and ended up taking second place. He became a quick fan of the game.

In addition to playing games around Richmond, Hillegass made a trip to Atlantic City, N.J., that found him sitting at the same Hold'Emtable for 23 hours straight. In between live games, he hones his skills online.

"I like the simplicity of Hold'Em. I like the action. I also like to master games. If I don't master them, I don't keep playing."

Hillegass joined his friend in a quest to recruit players for more serious games in the Richmond area. They found players at work (where Hillegass is a software designer), through a Web site community called Pokermeetup.com and by starting a Yahoo! group of their own.

What started with five regular players has grown into a network of 85 who meet on a regular basis. Hillegass has definitely witnessed the poker explosion.

"These days, if I wanted to, I could go to a live game every day of the week."

What's evident at Hillegass' table is that the focus is on the game. The Spartan setting and the caliber of the players filters out the not-so-serious.

"Our game is a tough game," Hillegass says.

There is a reverence for the rules and displays of poker savvy. There is no shred of poker's scoundrel past, no desperate men tossing wedding rings into the pot and no fear of sitting with your back to the door.

"Poker has evolved. I don't think people just consider it gambling anymore. It's become more about the skill. It's more about the game."


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