bigboydan
08-19-2003, 01:02 AM
Poker's new face
Spurred by two popular TV shows, more Americans are breaking out the cards and chips
By BILL HENDRICK bhendrick@ajc.com
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
JOHN AMIS / Special
Howard Ball (from left), Alan Porter and Maury Brook play a hand during a friendly poker game at Brook's Atlanta home.
Related:
• Poker Q & A: Going pro
• Players see omens in pairs, chairs
It's close to midnight in a plush stucco home snuggled in a gated Dunwoody community as seven middle-aged guys level cold-eyed stares at one another around an oval-shaped dining room table. Lightning crackles outside and, occasionally, inside too.
They're good friends, sure, but this is poker, and money is involved and brains and skill and, most of all, egos, which swell or go bust with every card that flops and every casino-grade clay chip tossed onto the thick brown table pad. Friendly banter flashes easily into snarly barks as each player looks for a flinch, a nervous glance or grin, the kinds of tip-offs they all see every week on the Travel Channel, whose televised poker games have become one of the hottest crazes of the year.
Millions of poker players tune in to the "World Poker Tour" when it comes on Wednesday nights, looking for that edge and getting psyched up.
"I watch it whenever it's on," says Maury Brook, 54, of Marietta, as he flips in a yellow $5 chip and eyes a pair of queens. "It's the talk among all poker players I know. You can learn a lot by watching the high-rollers. It's just fascinating."
The Travel Channel gambled this year by deciding to run poker tournaments on Wednesday nights from 9 to 11 and rerunning the games on Saturdays from 3 to 5 p.m.
The cable network hit the jackpot. Viewership has skyrocketed 150 percent since the first two-hour show April 2 attracted 677,000 viewers per minute. When tournament winners faced off June 25 for a championship game, more than 1.1 million people tuned in, and reruns of the first 13 programs are garnering even better ratings.
Executives of the Travel Channel and the World Poker Tour, the Los Angeles company that dreamed up the idea, are as giddy as slot machine junkies on long lucky streaks.
"We've managed to strike a vein that had previously been ignored," crows Rick Rodriquez, general manager of the Travel Channel. "It's a megahit, already our No. 1 show. And now we have the chance to shout a little louder about all the other great shows we've got."
Steven Lipscomb, founder and chief executive of the WPT, is about as understated in his glee as a strutting cat with a canary in its mouth.
"We've got a tiger by the tail," he brags. "The numbers are far bigger than bowling, and we're the PGA of poker. We've found a way to let viewers sit at the table and all but play. It's like high-octane drag racing."
The games, which this month hit No. 1 on Entertainment Weekly's "hot" list, are part spectator sport, but they also appeal to fans of "last man standing" reality TV by allowing viewers to live vicariously through the players. And, Lipscomb says, "the multiplier effect -- the fact that people get together to watch like they do sports on TV" -- means that at least 3 million people tune in every week.
This is what they see. The seven-card game is called "Texas Hold 'em." Players are dealt two "hole cards" that no one else at the table sees, but TV viewers see them via table-mounted "lipstick" cameras. The remaining cards are "community cards" dealt face up. Players use them with the hole cards to make their best five-card hands. Commentators out of earshot of the players breathlessly describe what hands or bets players might make, heightening the drama. Viewers gain insight into bluffing and what to watch out for, such as nervous tics, twitching lips, trembling fingers and suppressed smiles.
"It's a great recipe," says poker player Bernie Sax, 67, of Sandy Springs. "It's exciting. You learn percentages. You think about what you'd do, so it's kind of interactive."
The Travel Channel, which justifies running poker in lieu of safaris and such because the tournaments are taped at exotic casinos worldwide, has gotten some stiff competition recently from ESPN. Since July 8, the sports channel has been airing one-hour shows from this year's World Series of Poker, drawing 1 million or more viewers a week. Its final episode Aug. 26 is expected to attract a bigger audience.
Mimicking the Travel Channel's format, ESPN has a contract with the Binion Horseshoe Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas to run its world series of poker for the next three years.
Nielsen Media Research says it apparently doesn't matter whether the shows are taped or live, because Travel Channel reruns are attracting more viewers than the original broadcasts. The Travel Channel has just signed a $40 million deal with the World Poker Tour for up to six more years of shows. It will keep showing reruns until its new series starts early in 2004.
The shows are all the rage at casinos from Las Vegas to Reno to Biloxi, Miss.
Poker player Alan Porter, 58, of Roswell says he was in Las Vegas recently and "there was a lot of buzz about the TV shows. And a lot of people said they were playing because they'd seen poker on TV."
Stan Fleming, 53, of Atlanta is a fan because "it's like watching sports, but you also learn strategies."
Laurie Folie, 42, of Decatur tunes in too, along with her 6-year-old son, Arthur.
"I'm interested in anything that's a subculture that gets carried away with itself," Folie explains. "These players are the biggest geeks, but they are huge celebrities. And it's fascinating to just watch people play for these huge sums of money and stay so cool. Our son had taken up playing gin at home, saw an episode and is now fascinated with poker, especially Texas Hold 'em."
Trend-watchers say that TV poker has struck a chord among Americans and shows no signs of abating. Gerald Celente, owner of the Trends Research Journal in Rhinebeck, N.Y., whose widely publicized predictions have been uncannily accurate for well over a decade, says interest in poker, thanks to television, is picking up fast, especially among baby boomers.
"There's no news -- at least good news -- the economy is sick, and people are looking for a way to strike it rich, even vicariously," he says.
The exploding interest in poker and gambling in general, reported by casinos and the rapidly growing number of online casinos, isn't making everyone happy. Researchers say TV poker and online gambling could be harmful to folks susceptible to addiction.
Keith Whyte, executive director of the Washington-based National Council on Compulsive Gambling, says potential problem gamblers may delude themselves into thinking they can learn the keys to good luck by watching poker on television.
"You can do stuff to favor your position and reduce the odds against you, but nothing is going to be able to overcome the element of chance that is inherent in the gamble," Whyte says. "But you've got to keep in mind that in most states, most gambling is illegal."
Thirty states permit some form of legal poker, but in Georgia, 19 other states and the District of Columbia, any gambling for money is illegal. Georgia's 1843 law makes it a misdemeanor to participate in a game of chance, even in a private home, though prosecutors in metro Atlanta can barely recall the last time a private home was raided over gambling.
"In theory, you could still be arrested, but the reality is slim," says Cobb County District Attorney Pat Head. "There have been cases I'm aware of where somebody lost an extraordinary amount of money and they reported it, then the place was raided."
It's more likely that games held in social lodges or clubs could be raided, but that's not a good bet either, Head said.
The big deal is in the fun, said Marietta poker player Brook.
"There's nothing wrong with friends playing poker," Brook says, "as long as you don't lose too much and your wife doesn't find out."
Spurred by two popular TV shows, more Americans are breaking out the cards and chips
By BILL HENDRICK bhendrick@ajc.com
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
JOHN AMIS / Special
Howard Ball (from left), Alan Porter and Maury Brook play a hand during a friendly poker game at Brook's Atlanta home.
Related:
• Poker Q & A: Going pro
• Players see omens in pairs, chairs
It's close to midnight in a plush stucco home snuggled in a gated Dunwoody community as seven middle-aged guys level cold-eyed stares at one another around an oval-shaped dining room table. Lightning crackles outside and, occasionally, inside too.
They're good friends, sure, but this is poker, and money is involved and brains and skill and, most of all, egos, which swell or go bust with every card that flops and every casino-grade clay chip tossed onto the thick brown table pad. Friendly banter flashes easily into snarly barks as each player looks for a flinch, a nervous glance or grin, the kinds of tip-offs they all see every week on the Travel Channel, whose televised poker games have become one of the hottest crazes of the year.
Millions of poker players tune in to the "World Poker Tour" when it comes on Wednesday nights, looking for that edge and getting psyched up.
"I watch it whenever it's on," says Maury Brook, 54, of Marietta, as he flips in a yellow $5 chip and eyes a pair of queens. "It's the talk among all poker players I know. You can learn a lot by watching the high-rollers. It's just fascinating."
The Travel Channel gambled this year by deciding to run poker tournaments on Wednesday nights from 9 to 11 and rerunning the games on Saturdays from 3 to 5 p.m.
The cable network hit the jackpot. Viewership has skyrocketed 150 percent since the first two-hour show April 2 attracted 677,000 viewers per minute. When tournament winners faced off June 25 for a championship game, more than 1.1 million people tuned in, and reruns of the first 13 programs are garnering even better ratings.
Executives of the Travel Channel and the World Poker Tour, the Los Angeles company that dreamed up the idea, are as giddy as slot machine junkies on long lucky streaks.
"We've managed to strike a vein that had previously been ignored," crows Rick Rodriquez, general manager of the Travel Channel. "It's a megahit, already our No. 1 show. And now we have the chance to shout a little louder about all the other great shows we've got."
Steven Lipscomb, founder and chief executive of the WPT, is about as understated in his glee as a strutting cat with a canary in its mouth.
"We've got a tiger by the tail," he brags. "The numbers are far bigger than bowling, and we're the PGA of poker. We've found a way to let viewers sit at the table and all but play. It's like high-octane drag racing."
The games, which this month hit No. 1 on Entertainment Weekly's "hot" list, are part spectator sport, but they also appeal to fans of "last man standing" reality TV by allowing viewers to live vicariously through the players. And, Lipscomb says, "the multiplier effect -- the fact that people get together to watch like they do sports on TV" -- means that at least 3 million people tune in every week.
This is what they see. The seven-card game is called "Texas Hold 'em." Players are dealt two "hole cards" that no one else at the table sees, but TV viewers see them via table-mounted "lipstick" cameras. The remaining cards are "community cards" dealt face up. Players use them with the hole cards to make their best five-card hands. Commentators out of earshot of the players breathlessly describe what hands or bets players might make, heightening the drama. Viewers gain insight into bluffing and what to watch out for, such as nervous tics, twitching lips, trembling fingers and suppressed smiles.
"It's a great recipe," says poker player Bernie Sax, 67, of Sandy Springs. "It's exciting. You learn percentages. You think about what you'd do, so it's kind of interactive."
The Travel Channel, which justifies running poker in lieu of safaris and such because the tournaments are taped at exotic casinos worldwide, has gotten some stiff competition recently from ESPN. Since July 8, the sports channel has been airing one-hour shows from this year's World Series of Poker, drawing 1 million or more viewers a week. Its final episode Aug. 26 is expected to attract a bigger audience.
Mimicking the Travel Channel's format, ESPN has a contract with the Binion Horseshoe Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas to run its world series of poker for the next three years.
Nielsen Media Research says it apparently doesn't matter whether the shows are taped or live, because Travel Channel reruns are attracting more viewers than the original broadcasts. The Travel Channel has just signed a $40 million deal with the World Poker Tour for up to six more years of shows. It will keep showing reruns until its new series starts early in 2004.
The shows are all the rage at casinos from Las Vegas to Reno to Biloxi, Miss.
Poker player Alan Porter, 58, of Roswell says he was in Las Vegas recently and "there was a lot of buzz about the TV shows. And a lot of people said they were playing because they'd seen poker on TV."
Stan Fleming, 53, of Atlanta is a fan because "it's like watching sports, but you also learn strategies."
Laurie Folie, 42, of Decatur tunes in too, along with her 6-year-old son, Arthur.
"I'm interested in anything that's a subculture that gets carried away with itself," Folie explains. "These players are the biggest geeks, but they are huge celebrities. And it's fascinating to just watch people play for these huge sums of money and stay so cool. Our son had taken up playing gin at home, saw an episode and is now fascinated with poker, especially Texas Hold 'em."
Trend-watchers say that TV poker has struck a chord among Americans and shows no signs of abating. Gerald Celente, owner of the Trends Research Journal in Rhinebeck, N.Y., whose widely publicized predictions have been uncannily accurate for well over a decade, says interest in poker, thanks to television, is picking up fast, especially among baby boomers.
"There's no news -- at least good news -- the economy is sick, and people are looking for a way to strike it rich, even vicariously," he says.
The exploding interest in poker and gambling in general, reported by casinos and the rapidly growing number of online casinos, isn't making everyone happy. Researchers say TV poker and online gambling could be harmful to folks susceptible to addiction.
Keith Whyte, executive director of the Washington-based National Council on Compulsive Gambling, says potential problem gamblers may delude themselves into thinking they can learn the keys to good luck by watching poker on television.
"You can do stuff to favor your position and reduce the odds against you, but nothing is going to be able to overcome the element of chance that is inherent in the gamble," Whyte says. "But you've got to keep in mind that in most states, most gambling is illegal."
Thirty states permit some form of legal poker, but in Georgia, 19 other states and the District of Columbia, any gambling for money is illegal. Georgia's 1843 law makes it a misdemeanor to participate in a game of chance, even in a private home, though prosecutors in metro Atlanta can barely recall the last time a private home was raided over gambling.
"In theory, you could still be arrested, but the reality is slim," says Cobb County District Attorney Pat Head. "There have been cases I'm aware of where somebody lost an extraordinary amount of money and they reported it, then the place was raided."
It's more likely that games held in social lodges or clubs could be raided, but that's not a good bet either, Head said.
The big deal is in the fun, said Marietta poker player Brook.
"There's nothing wrong with friends playing poker," Brook says, "as long as you don't lose too much and your wife doesn't find out."