Poker News

What is the deal with the sudden popularity of poker on television? Faster than you can say "Deal me in!" Texas Hold 'Em has taken a permanent seat at the programming table. Tournament poker is now showing up on the Travel Channel, Bravo, Fox Sports Net and ESPN, where a digital clock on the crawl bar does a countdown showing when the next tournament will be aired. "Five hours, 31 minutes and 28 seconds" it reads. Obviously somebody is having trouble waiting.

"Celebrity Poker," is second only to "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" in viewer popularity on Bravo. The 2003 World Series of Poker is being shown for the third time on the Travel Channel. Fox Sports Net debuted "Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament" on August 15. Early play in the 2004 World Series of Poker is being aired even though the tournament is long since finished and the winner crowned. NBC has announced a two-hour special to follow the Super Bowl Sunday on February 1. "The Travel Channel World Poker Tour Battle of Champions" will feature top players shuffling for a six-figure grand prize. Poker is everywhere.

The question is: "Why?"

The answer is easier to get than a bad hand in a big pot. A lot of people play. As my accomplished poker playing friend, Domenic, pointed out: "Poker is an intriguing game. It's been around since the middle of the 19th century." Game historians have connected it to the 18th century French game poque, the German game pochspiel, the Hindu word pukka, and the magicians' term "hocus-pocus."

"It takes just a few minutes to learn but a lifetime to master," is the mantra of one popular show.

Domenic noted that "Hold 'Em is a pretty simple game, and that's why it works so well on TV, because people can follow it."

Secondly, the rising popularity of poker seems intrinsically tied to the constantly increasing thirst for gambling in our culture. We notice the distance between highway exits to Indian casinos shrinks every summer. Lotteries are booming. Sports betting is everywhere. Did you check your soda pop cap for a winner? Online poker "casinos" for beginners and experts continue to proliferate.

Thirdly, and perhaps most important, is a simple technological wonder. "It has become so telegenic with the cameras under the table that allow you to see the hole cards; that makes it very exciting," said Domenic. Imagine it. The defining skill of poker is a player's ability to know what cards the opponent has, while, at the same time, through strategic betting and theater -- more often than not stoic mime -- disguising his own hand. The viewer is treated to the same voyeuristic component that infuses excitement into reality shows. We know the reality but they don't!

Lastly, in live poker, most hands are not good enough to play; they are thrown away, or "mucked." Televised poker is highly edited to treat the viewer to only those hands that have the most action and built-in suspense.

Nowadays Domenic plays online almost exclusively. There are hundreds of sites with untold thousands of players. He likes online poker because it is fast, convenient, and lucrative. Aren't those the defining qualities of success in our American way of life? Are we talking about the real "national pastime" here?

Speed counts. "In a live game you get maybe 30 games an hour," said Domenic, who sometimes deals at the S&K Card Room in Old Town. "Online you get 45-50 hands an hour." A "pook pook pook," sound springs from the computer as animated cards fly into place on the green felt. Players don't have to stare across the table to decipher the opponent's intentions, divine his inner thoughts. They see betting position and the amount of chips held by the opponent. Bam!, A bet. It moves fast.

But get this: "What I do a lot of times is play three or four games at once," said Domenic. He doesn't have to wade through long spells of boredom. He is usually holding at least one good hand, playing in one thrilling game. Or, if he plays in just one game, he can "wash the dishes or something while playing." That's fast AND convenient. Start and stop play when you want, and if you lose, "You don't have that long, disheartening drive home."

For a skilled player, online poker can be very lucrative and lead to appearances in televised tournaments. Small buy-ins ($20 - $40) can lead to victory in a "satellite" tournament that qualifies you for a seat in a tournament as huge as "The World Series of Poker."

In 2003 Chris Moneymaker, a Tennessee accountant, parlayed a $40 online tournament buy-in into 2.5 million dollars first prize at the World Series of Poker, televised. This year, married patent attorney Greg Raymar won the $5 million first prize after first qualifying in a satellite tournament. Viewers of the poker boom on television think: "If they can do it, I can do it! It looks so easy." Don't quit your day job.