Jack Boulware

A comprehensive look at our nation’s obsession with all things poker.

High Stakes
Celebrity players, a million-dollar pot. Poker is no longer a seedy backroom card game. Anyone can play, and anyone can win—big.

It’s the final table of the World Poker Tour Invitational at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles. Sixteen cameras point at the table from all angles, rolling tape for a show to be aired in four months. Although the flashing lights and stage fog give the feel of professional wrestling, there’s no hammerlocks or reverse neckbreakers. Any blood spilled is in the wallet. But it’s a battle just the same.

Sitting behind stacks of chips are six pros who’ve paid a $25,000 entry fee for the privilege. Joe Cassidy, the table’s leader with $315,000. Antonio Esfandiari, who won $1.4 million two nights ago at this same casino. Costa Rican businessman Umberto Brenes. The icy calm John Juanda, originally from Indonesia. London’s Harry “Big Slick” Demetriou. And former backgammon pro Phil Laak, nicknamed “Unabomber” because of his hooded sweatshirt and mirror shades. The winner gets $100,000 in cash and entrance to the April WPT Championship in Vegas. Action starts slow, small bets and small pots, like a no-hitter baseball game, until Juanda suddenly goes all in against the Unabomber, dramatically shoving all his chips into the pot.

“Why are you doing this to me?” says the Unabomber. Juanda replies without emotion: “I do it to everybody.”

This World Poker Tour Invitational is small by poker tournament standards, only 196 players for a two-day event. But it’s high visibility, and open to pros, amateurs and celebrities. On the first day, the hotel ballroom tables are filled with about 50 celebs, from Ben Affleck to Tobey McGuire, Jon Favreau, Jennifer Tilly, Lou Diamond Phillips, Lolita Davidovich, and L.A. Lakers owner Jerry Buss. James Woods calmly eats grapes with one hand, playing poker with the other.

The game is no-limit Texas Hold ‘em, the Cadillac of poker. Each player makes his best hand from any combination of his two down (or hole) cards and the five communal cards turned face-up—three coming at once (the flop), followed by the turn (or fourth street) and the river (fifth street). Any player can bet all his chips at any time.

Sprinkled among the Hollywood faces are poker legends like T.J. Cloutier, Phil Hellmuth, Howard Lederer, Annie Duke, Jennifer Harman, and Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, a memorable presence in black cowboy hat, long hair and beard. Chris Moneymaker, an amateur who walked off with the $2.5 million World Series title last year, sits glumly at a dwindling stack of chips. No such luck for him today. As the afternoon moves to evening, play starts tightening up. The less experienced start worrying, the pros get more aggressive. At this moment, Howard Lederer’s words are more true than ever: “You need to be willing to die in order to live.”

The following night, the field has whittled down to Brenes and the Unabomber. When Brenes wins a huge pot from the Bomber, he pats his slumping opponent on the back, stands up and announces to the crowd: “I need a doctor – my friend is sick.” But just a few hands later the Unabomber retakes the lead with a million-dollar pot. It’s exciting even without knowing their cards.

The very next hand, Umberto reciprocates and goes all in with everything. Nothing to lose except first prize. Unabomber calls him, and their cards are revealed: A-K for the Bomber, J-2 for Brenes. The flop comes Q-9-4. Everybody stands in the audience, straining to see. Brenes needs either a Jack or deuce to pick up a pair and beat the Unabomber’s ace. Otherwise he’s toast. Turn card comes up 4, no help there. The crowd is church-quiet, except for someone who yells out: “Hey Bomber—send ‘em a package!” Here comes the river. Another King! Brenes goes down and the place explodes. The Unabomber shadow-boxes around the table and then pulls off his sweatshirt to reveal a T-shirt with the slogan: “Bad-Azz Mofo.” It’s pandemonium. Photos, drinks, the trophy, U2’s “It’s a Beautiful Day,” and WPT announcer Mike Sexton: “This has been one of the most entertaining finals in the history of the World Poker Tour. You have created millions of poker fans with your performance here tonight.” As the audience filters out into the night, a crew starts dismantling the set, preparing to ship it to San Jose for another WPT tournament next week.

Poker television shows air regularly on ESPN, Travel Channel, and Bravo. An estimated 50 to 80 million people play poker in America. Over 500 different books instruct readers the secrets of how to play poker. Casino tournaments are held every single week of the year. Our nation’s current poker craze is so much more staggering because it’s only a few years old.

Although the World Series of Poker has been televised from Las Vegas for several years on ESPN, Texas Hold’em was still relatively unknown until 2003, when the bestselling book “Positively Fifth Street” by James McManus detailed the author’s experience playing in the 2000 Series. Suddenly poker was back in the public eye. When the WSOP 2002 and 2003 no-limit hold’em championships were won by complete amateurs, the message was clear: poker is no longer a seedy back-room card game. Anyone can play, and anyone can win big bucks.

The biggest boost by far has come from television. Watching people play poker has always been deathly boring. Several players describe it as watching paint dry. WPT CEO Steve Lipscomb has even said it’s “like poking yourself with a fork.” But after launching the World Poker Tour in 2003, to immediate success, he doesn’t say that any more.

The World Poker Tour holds tournaments in 14 locations throughout the year, including Paris, Mexico, and Aruba. Tournaments are edited down to two-hour episodes, which run Wednesday nights on the Travel Channel. WPT claims 5 million viewers each week, earning the highest ratings in the network’s history. Lipscomb’s biggest contribution to televised poker was the hole card camera, which allows viewers to see each player’s hand, and offers a window into the strategy of betting and bluffing.

The so-called “lipstick camera,” also used by ESPN and Bravo, helps explain why televised poker is so popular. “The entire purpose of poker is that you want to be poker-faced and not reveal any emotion,” says Dave Schwartz, author of the recent casino history “Suburban Xanadu.” “You want to be undramatic. And instead, TV has become so compelling. It’s fascinating.”

“It’s exciting when you’re watching a guy work out in his mind what to do,” says “Jesus” Ferguson, the 2000 WSOP Hold’em champion. “You know ahead of time, if he calls he’s gonna lose the tournament. Or if he folds when he still has a chance.” Howard Lederer even burns WPT episodes to DVD, and studies them to watch opponents’ strategies.

Another reason for high poker ratings is the game itself. Texas Hold’em is deceptively simple, a frontier-flavored cowboy fantasy that’s easy to understand for everyone. “It’s no limit,” explains World Series of Poker director Matt Savage. “There’s a danger factor where you can go out on any one hand. People see that as exciting.”

Pumped up by the TV shows, new poker players descend upon casinos by the thousands. At the town-sized Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut, tournament poker revenue is going through the roof. “It’s running 70% over what it was last year,” says Kathy Raymond, director of poker operations. “We have lists for people waiting to get into seats. One Sunday tournament, by 6 am there were over 400 people waiting in line. We’re actually looking for additional gaming space.”

Younger players also bring a fresh, brash style of poker to the game, says Steve Lipscomb. “These kids are coming in – they are so excited about putting their chips into the pot, you don’t know if it’s because they have a great hand, or they’re just excited to be playing.”

Unlike the NFL or NBA, poker is also a sport available to the masses. “If you go out and you start playing and develop some kind of game you could be there in a year, or two years, or three years,” says Howard Lederer. “I don’t think too many people are watching the Lakers and thinking they could be dunking on Shaq anytime soon.”

“It’s the only sport with a 90-year-old grandmother going up against a 200-pound bodybuilder, and she can take him down,” says Foxwoods’ Kathy Raymond. “I’ve seen it happen.”

Today’s professional poker sharks have come a long way from old-school cowboy hucksters like Amarillo Slim or Puggy Pearson, who drove around the U.S. in a motorhome emblazoned in huge letters: “Puggy Pearson – I’ll play any man from any land any game that you can name for any amount that I can count.” A new breed of poker star roams the tournament circuit—day traders, dotcom millionaires, ballsy women, booksmart twentysomething guys, online poker hotshots, and mathematical geniuses like Howard Lederer or “Jesus” Ferguson.

Poker is both math and instinct, Ferguson is quick to point out. Knowing the numbers is not enough. “Most people think of math and poker as just knowing what chances a pair of aces have against a pair of jacks, or whatever. But it’s only a very small part of it. It’s much more important to know what to do given you know those percentages, than it is to get those percentages right.”

Another twist to the poker boom is the celebrity show. WPT’s Hollywood Home Game offshoot program features Drew Carey and Jack Black. The Bravo network’s Celebrity Poker Showdown has included cast members of The West Wing, Carrie Fisher, Don Cheadle, Ben Affleck, Mimi Rogers, Coolio and Tom Green, all playing for the charity of their choice. Unfortunately, being an actor doesn’t necessarily mean someone is better able to bluff in poker. “Every actor would like to think that,” says Bravo executive producer Bryan Scott. “But some actors are really bad liars.” It’s easy to play against celebrities, adds Norm MacDonald. “They’re bad actors? They’re terrible poker players.”

This year promises even more poker action. The World Series of Poker in Las Vegas is predicting 1,200 players or more, battling for a record $3 million first place stack, a prize bigger than the Masters, Indy 500, or the Kentucky Derby. “I expect this to be the biggest World Series ever,” says Matt Savage. “We’ve got ticket requests for the last three months.”

More poker shows are in development. Season Two of Bravo’s “Celebrity Poker Showdown” starts in summer 2004. And the Travel Channel has picked up the WPT for six more seasons, in a $40 million licensing deal. “The game has a infinite amount of nuance,” says Lipscomb. “I can make ten years of shows.”

Audiences will also see a deluge of more books and instructional videos. Online poker continues expanding as well. Fulltiltpoker.com launches this April, where people can receive $1,000 in free money to play against pros like Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey, John Juanda and Chris Ferguson. Credits can then be applied to play for real money on the site.

“This thing is going to have four marvelous years before the thing rolls over and starts down the other side,” claims Tex Whitson, who did publicity for years at the World Series of Poker. “It’s no longer a game between a bunch of old gamblers in a shoot-out. It’s become a business. But the World Poker Tour is damn sure working.”

Can the Unabomber action figure be far behind?

(A version of this story first appeared in American Thunder magazine)