The Texas Hold'em Revolution
The chips are stacked, hopes are high. The flicking of cards being shuffled and the sound of clicking chips seems to please junior RA Nick Teachout. He deals cards to the players at his table with a wry grin on his face.
"It's a great game for anybody to get into," Teachout says of his new favorite card game, Texas Hold'em poker. "It is a lot of fun for everybody."
Teachout's casino may just be the converted lounges of Anderson Hall, but to him it's as good as Binion's Horsesho Hotel and Casino.
Riding the wave of interest in Hold'em poker, Teachout and poker buddy Dave Doolittle, also a junior RA, turned their obession with the game into one of the most popular campus events of recent memory - the Quads World Series of Poker.
But Texas Hold'em poker hasn't been confined to the makeshift Anderson Casino; the phenomenon is spreading campus wide.
In dorm rooms across Ripon, Hold'em is being played almost as much as video games.
Spurred on by ESPN's increased coverage of the 2003 World Series of Poker, the once obscure cult game is hitting popular culture with full force.
"I watched the World Series of Poker on ESPN last summer and got hooked," says junior Jim Kreitzer.
Kreitzer says he plays with his friends at least three or four times a week and often plays Hold'em online at UltimateBet.com. "It introduced me to the game and it got me going on it."
Even the pioneers of the Quads World Series of Poker say they were influenced by the past summer's explosion of poker on television.
"For most people, you really get into it after seeing it on TV," says Teachout.
The original tournament last semester, designed as a RA programing activity netted 50 to 60 participants according to Teachout. "The first one blew me away, it was an awesome event."
This time around the planners, which also include senior RA Tom Crisp and Quads Hall Director Scott Mundro, were more organized. They purchased chips, visors, and planned the date specifically to target the highest turnout possible.
Although Texas Hold'em poker has been around for a long time, it began to flourish as the most popular form of the game after 1970, the year it was officially adopted as the version used at the first World Series of Poker in Las Vegas's Binion's Horseshoe Hotel and Casino.
The history of poker itself can be traced back to 1830 in New Orleans. It grew up on the Mississippi gambling boats before spreading east and then west.
By the late 1990's poker began moving away from smoky back rooms into the mainstream and Hold'em was the version of choice.
In 1997, Hold'em took its first major step into pop culture with the release of the movie "Rounders" starring Matt Damon and Edward Norton.
For many it was their first exposure and lesson in the game. In a coy voice over, Matt Damon's character Michael McDermott explains the game: "Each player is dealt two cards face down, then five cards are dealt face up across the middle, these are community cards everyone can use to make the best five-card hand."
It is a more complex game than it first appears. Luck, is of course, a part of it but most players insist that the game is about skill too. "The key to the game is playing the man not the cards," McDermott continues in his voice over.
There are few games where fortune can change so much hand to hand. Most circles of Hold'em players play no limit. This means that a player can bet as many chips as they have by going "all-in."
"It's such a psychological battle between people and so much money is on the line," says Doolittle, who was playing Hold'em against himself minutes before the interview. At the last World Series of Poker, over 3 million dollars was dispensed among the top finishers.
Pocket Aces. Senior Andy Mielke and junior Kjell Sporseen stack their chips, hoping hot cards will be dealt their way. The best two cards you can be dealt are two aces.
Although buy-in at most college tables is around five dollars, students are still drawn to the high stakes elements of the game. "People our age really like to gamble," says Doolittle. "Everybody wants to push the envelope."
After all, gambling is "technically illegal" says Ripon Police Chief Dave Lukoski. However, it is unlikely anyone would get in trouble over it, he says.
Like gambling fit the wild west, the historically scandalous reputation of Hold'em seems to fit the Quads climate.
"The clientele down here are more likely to take up gambling than a program about life planning," Doolittle says.
Teachout says the reaction to his proposal was skeptical at first. "We were worried if they would let us do it," he says. However because no one was putting his or her own money on the line and the event gained so much interest, Residence Life eventually warmed up to the idea, he says.
Gambling is part of the appeal, but most say they keep coming back to the poker table for the thrill of the game. Watching a game of Hold'em can be like watching five people try to dance together at the same time. Players have to pay attention to their own hand, the possible hands on the table, and how their opponents react to their cards.
Every player is different and each has a different strategy. Some rely on their instincts. "If you have a bad feeling, get out," says Kreitzer. "You can't loose what you don't put in."
Others contend you have to have a stone face to play the game. "You have to have patience and a lack of emotion," says junior Noah Wishau.
Not everyone will agree on strategy, but everyone agrees on what they enjoy best about the game. It is about out-thinking your opponent.
"The best part of the game is bluffing someone out of the pot," says senior Cooper Jones.
Aside from the art of bluffing, "it's a great feeling knowing that you have the best hand on the table and having [opponents] bet into you," says Kreitzer.
Although the Travel Channel and ESPN pioneered the poker television market other networks have tried to ride the wave of success with their own brand of poker shows. Bravo recently aired six episodes of "Celebrity Poker Showdown," a charity tournament with such stars as Ben Affleck, Coolio and Tom Green.
Poker may just be riding on a high wave into pop culture that could leave as quickly as it came, but those who have picked up the game say they will keep playing.
"I think it will stick around," Kreitzer says, "I am not sure about the shows but I think the popularity of the game will stay."
Trend or not, for now the Hold'em craze continues to engross the Quads and is expanding. Scott Hall has announced a similar turnament to be held March 4.
Not only is there a 'best of' tournament between the Quads and Scott poker players in the works, Teachout and Doolittle are already planning another Quad's tournament. "I would be willing to wager there will be another," Teachout says.
