Page 12 - September 2004 • Southern California Gaming Guide

POKER CRAZY
by
Bill Burton
by Rozz Landis
WHAT, WHERE AND HOW TO PLAY
The past year a poker explosion rocked the world as matches made their way onto television and into the living rooms of millions of viewers. e coverage of the World Poker Tour on the Travel channel and ESPN’s broadcast of the
World Series of Poker has sparked the interest of “kitchen table” poker players as well as people who have never played poker before. Add the fascination of watching lm and TV stars like Ben A eck winning on Celebrity Poker Showdown on the Bravo network, and we’ve got a genuine poker craze. And the game that has everyone playing is Texas Hold’em.
A new generation of poker players is learning when to hold ’em and when to fold ’em from television and the Internet. Poker is going through a renaissance nationally,
thanks to the rising popularity of Internet games, poker shows on television, and casino tournaments and play. We’re all watching and hauling up a chair at the poker table.
Poker has been played for hundreds of years — and there are a myriad of variations: Stud, 3-card, 4-card,
5-card, Omaha, Pai Gow, Caribbean Stud, just to name a few. And many of our favorite Southern California casinos have them all — including Texas Hold’em.
But why the extreme popularity of the game? Why are casino Hold’em tournaments over owing, poker Internet sites jammed, and an extremely pro table industry of books, magazines, newspapers and poker brands dedicated to playing this basic seven-card game?
ere are few games where fate can change so much hand to hand. Most circles of Hold’em players play no limit. is means that a player can bet as many chips
as he or she has by going “all-in.”
Watching a game of Hold’em can be like ve di erent people trying
to dance all together at
the same time. Players have to focus on their own hand, the potential hands on the table, and how their opponents respond to their
cards. Every player is unique, and each
has a special approach. Some rely on
their intuition. Not everyone agrees on strategy, but everyone agrees on what they like most about the game: It is about beating your opponent.
Deception is one of the main facets of poker. Blu ng is the classic trick. Of course, the reasoning for a blu is to trick the other players into thinking you have a better hand when you actually do not. For a blu to work, you want the other players to think you really have that better hand. Many new poker players love this idea of
blu ng and often abuse it. e value of the blu increases under speci c circumstances that often have a lot to do with information you presume about the other players.
How has Hold’em translated so well to TV? Being able to see the hole cards (the cards you are dealt) makes all the di erence. Each Hold’em televised tournament, including the huge World Series of Poker and World Poker Tour have tiny cameras attached to each player’s position at the poker table. Players are coached on how to reveal their cards in TV tournaments, so viewers immediately see what each
player is dealt. is totally changed the percep- tion of poker, turning it into a spectator sport. Now poker tournament
viewers can be arm- chairquarterbacks! eWorldSeries
of Poker, now 34 years old, has grown exponentially. In 2003 800 people signed up for the tournament, In
Page 12 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAMING GUIDE September 2004