6A the university daily kansan
poker
monday, december 1, 2003
POKER: Campus card players inspired by TV tournaments
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A
room in the casino, which is closely guarded to prevent any possible impropriety.
The hole-card camera has taken the sport into prime-time and raised its ratings to network-record levels. James Ashurst, spokesman for the Travel Channel, which airs the World Poker Tour each week, said the new-found poker popularity wouldn't be possible without the new technology.
"It's the hole-card camera that really engages the viewer." Ashurst said. "It creates a situation where the viewer has more information than the players."
Ashurst said the amount of money at stake also made events exciting. The annual World Series has a prize of $2.5 million, and tour events, aired weekly, usually have a purse exceeding $1 million.
"When you have hundreds of thousands of dollars hanging on one card, it's pretty compelling," Ashurst said.
The emergence of reality TV has shown that in the world of television, success breeds imitation. Fox Sports aired a Thanksgiving tournament, the "Showdown at the Sands," and network giant NBC has also joined the newly crowded field of TV poker.
Bravo, one of NBC's subsidiary networks, will unveil a new celebrity no-limit hold'em series tomorrow night, and the network has partnered with the Travel Channel for a "Battle of Champions." The event, which will include professionals from this year's World Tour, will air Super Bowl Sunday.
Poker Pals
Poker is taking over the television airwaves. But for many students, merely watching poker is not enough.
Felipe Rosso has been hosting a regular game for more than two months. He and his friends watched the World Poker Tour and decided to start their own weekly event.
Every Thursday around 8 p.m., between six and 10 people contribute $5 to sit at Rosso's wooden table and fling plastic chips into the pot. They play winner-take-all, which means that each week, one person walks away with $30-50 and everyone else leaves with nothing. It also means that the games average about five hours in length.
Rosso describes their game as "last man — or woman — standing." One of the unusual aspects of Rosso's game is that two females play in it regularly. Poker has long been in the same category of stereotypes as draft beer, heavy machinery and Monday Night Football: "guy stuff."
But the game is changing, as pros like Annie Duke, who finished tenth in the 2000 World Series while eight months pregnant, are winning millions. The student game has similar trailblazers. Rachna Govind, Overland Park senior, has played in Rosso's game nearly every week, winning the big prize more than once. She said her gender could be an advantage in the game.
"Sometimes people think you don't know what you're doing because you're a girl," she said.
Govind is one of the stronger players despite having the most dreaded of poker habits, a "tell," a behavior that gives players a hint on the strength of a hand. When Govind wants to bet, the right side of her mouth quivers ever so slightly as she fights a smile.
Govind's tell doesn't hurt her
How often does a certain hand win?
Starting Hand Win Rate
AA 75%
KK 63.5%
OQ 56.1%
JJ 50%
AK, suited 51.1%
AK, not suited 48.1%
AQ, suited 46.5%
AQ, not suiced 42.4%
AJ, suited 41.7%
10,10 43.5%
KNOW WHEN TO 'HOLD' EM
RULES
Nail Mulka/Kanser
If you're going to start your own poker game or play in someone else's here are some rules and terms you should know.
How to play Texas Hold'Em:
Each player is dealt two cards face-down, called hole cards.
After a round of betting, 3 cards are dealt face-up. This is the flip.
Another round of betting follows.
then another card is dealt. After another round of betting, the final card, the river, is dealt. Players bet one more time, and the player with the best 5-card hand, made by combining hole cards with the community cards, wins the pot.
In no-limit hold'em, a player may bet all of his chips at any point in the hand.
ALL-IN. When a player bets every chip he or she has on a hand, they are going all-in. BLIND. Two bets, the big blind and small blind, which are force bets for the two players left of the dealer to try and ensure action o.o each hand.
TERMS
DIMECK: To waive the right to bet
to the next person at the table.
Checking is usually indicated by
tapping the table.
COMMUNITY CARDS: The face-
cup cards in the center of the
table used by all players.
FLOP: The three community
cards deal face-up after the first
round of betting.
FOURTH STREET: Also called the turn card, fourth street is the first
card dealt after the top.
MUCK: to discard a hand.
NO-LIMIT: Building structure in which players may wager all their chips at any point in a hand.
NUTS: The next possible 5-card
hand on a given hand.
OUTS: Cards which could improve a player's hand.
RIVER: Also called Fifth Street, the river is the last card dealt.
STACK: Chips in front of a player.
SUITED: Two hole cards of the same suit are suited.
Compiled by Zack Hemenway
Compiled by Zack Hemenway
Sunglasses at night
Source: www.thepokerforum.com
At Overland Park senior Joe Gloeckner's apartment Friday night, it's hard to believe that any of the players would describe poker as a mere "game." With a borrowed felt poker tabletop
much, since it merely shows she has a good hand, not when she's bluffing. Besides, her friends hardly notice. The mood at the game is as raucous and easygoing as the classic rock music blasting from the stereo. Players joke with one another about bluffs in between discussions of TV poker and KU basketball — it's almost as if they've forgotten that the small plastic trophy, which ceremonially holds the night's purse, is overflowing with $5 bills.
"It gives us a reason to hang out," Govind said. "It's really the only tradition we have in our group of friends."
A recent article in The New York Times estimated that 50 million Americans play poker, with most playing in small-stakes home games like Rosso's.
Minutes after that statement, Govind gets a call on her cellphone. The table expresses its displeasure as she turns away.
"Hey," someone shouts in mock anger. "We're trying to play a game here."
with clay chips, the scene is set for serious poker. Serious does not describe the stakes at the table, as the eight players bought into the game for $5, but the word hardly does justice to the faces — this is the site of the cold eyes described earlier.
Minutes seem to go by without anyone blinking. Players move slowly, eyes shifting from their hole cards to other players. The bets come quickly and furiously, as players with larger chip stacks try to steal pots from less wealthy players through sheer intimidation.
The table has the feel of a final exam test room. The little talk that goes on is restricted to betting procedure and gallows humor jokes about possible hands. Brad Vangoethem, Overland Park senior, says good poker requires such intensity.
Kit Loffler/Kansan
"These guys aren't my friends right now." Vangoethem says. He laughs afterward, but it's not very convincing.
Vangoetham is one of four players at the table wearing sunglasses, even though it's 11 p.m. They say the shades help them examine other players more closely, but also acknowledge glasses-wearing pros sitting at televised tables might have influenced their game garb.
Brad Vangoethem, Overland Park senior, looks at his hole cards, the ace of spades and six of hearts. Vangoethem, who bet strongly on this hand, plays poker three to four times a week.
Joe Gloeckner, left, Overland Park senior, watches as his roommate, Brian Pollack, Overland Park senior, folds his hand during a $5 buy-in tournament last week. The two host poker games at their apartment a few times a week.
Vangoethem freely admits his style is modeled after his poker hero, World Series runner-up Sam Farha, but any casual poker fan would already know this. Vangoethem is in full Farha costume, dressed all in black with Farha's style of shades. Completing the look is an omnipresent unlit cigarette — smoking is not allowed at the World Series.
The apartment's dining-room table has seen its share of cash. Vangoethem and his friends play three to four times a week. This frequency of play has turned the apartment into a mini-casino, with buy-ins and cash balances not settled immediately. Winnings are recorded on "The Sheet", a pad of post-its with pluses and minuses scrawled into the margins.
The Sheet seems to defy one of the mathematical certainties of gambling: for every winner, there also is a loser. Nearly every player is ahead for the month, according to the Sheet. Grumblums at the table accuse players of jumping to record their winnings, but slinking off when they've had a bad night.
For big games, though, cash is required. The group of friends held a 14-person, $10 buy-in tournament last month. The three-hour event ended with Heasley winning $140. The players said that playing so often helps improve their skills.
"The more hands you play, the better you get." Gloecker said.
Kit Leffler/Kansan
rreasley, Overland Park senior, said the route from beginner to "serious" player follows a natural progression.
"At first, it's all about the cards you have," he said. "But as you evolve your own style, you learn it's more than the cards. You can win by reading people and betting creatively."
When they can't get the poker posse together, some of the players play online, an increasingly popular pastime. Partypoker.com, an internet poker site which offers games for real and "play" money, has digitally dealt over 50 billion hands since opening in 2001, according to a counter on the site. But all the players in Friday's game say they prefer face-to-face action.
"Poker is about playing against people," Gloeckner says, taking one last look at his cards before tossing more chips into the pot.
After I call his bet, Heasley has a mild look of disgust on his face as he turns over his cards; two fours. With one card left, he's still got the better hand, but my flush draw, straight draw
PRO POKER ON TV
Wednesday 3-5 p.m. World Series of Poker 2003: ESPN (48)
Wednesday 8-10 p.m. World Poker Tour: Hollywood: Travel Channel (41)
and higher cards mean that if the dealer turns over any diamond, jack, king, or ten, Heasley's stack is mine. With nine diamonds, four jacks, three tens, and three kings left in the deck, in theory, I have 19 "outs", cards which will win me the hand. Discounting the eight cards I've seen — mine, Heasley's and the flop and turn
- 19 outs in 46 cards means mathematically, I have about a 42 percent chance of winning the hand.
I stand up, confident I made the right move. I'm waiting for the dealer to turn over my diamond so I can sit back down and try to knock someone else out. The dealer seems to move in slow-motion as he turns over ...the nine of hearts. The nine of hearts? The nine of fing hearts!
Later, Heasley tells me he was not happy when I called him, and other players tell me that I made the right call as I gather my notebooks. It's supposed to make me feel better, but right now, it's not working.
A minute ago, I was calmly playing the game. Now I'm done. But as I walk slowly out the door I realize my heart hasn't slowed a beat. I'm not thinking about the five dollars I just lost at all. Instead, a single question dominates my thoughts: Where can I play my next game?
— Edited by Shane Mettlen
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