TEXAS HOLDEM ONLINE POKER

A crowd of Texas Holdem poker players watches as Frank Coveno, left, reacts to getting knocked out of the first-ever Texas Hold ‘Em No Limit poker tournament at the Naples-Fort Myers Greyhound Track in Bonita Springs. Coveno finished third in the tournament, which drew 50 players competing for a total prize pool of $1,600. The track plans on having a weekly tournament and increasing the number of players to 100.

All-in.

It was a term bantered around the Naples-Fort Myers Greyhound Track poker room frequently Thursday, with a renewed meaning.

Normally in the Bonita Springs card room's money games with their $2 betting limit, going all-in (a poker term for pushing all of your chips into the pot) signifies someone's chip stacks have dwindled down to nothing. Thursday afternoon, when for the first time the room capitalized on changes to state laws that permit no-limit Texas HoldEm poker tournaments, players were pushing stacks of chips big and small into the middle, hoping to win the pot and a slice of the $1,600 prize pool.

One player gave up that hope early, betting it all on the first hand with a pair of fours and heading to the sidelines when another player turned over two kings. Others lasted longer.

"It's a lot of fun for $50," said Frank Coveno, who finished third. "Nobody can get hurt."

Texas HoldEm poker is riding a phenomenal wave of popularity across the country, and Bonita Springs is proving no exception. Players lined up outside the track two hours before the tournament began and the maximum allotment of 50 players was reached by the time the clubhouse doors opened. As card room manager Juan Fra playfully noted, "Doesn't anyone have a job?"

There are subtle and less-than-subtle differences between strategy in money games and tournaments. The fundamental credo of the tournament player is simply to survive and continue their fight. Each player began with the goal of taking home the nearly $800 first prize, though everyone starts with the same $1,000 in chips.

Granted, they were all tournament chips without redeemable cash value (unless you were fortunate enough to finish in the top five), but I was running well short. A few hours earlier, like 49 fellow combatants, I plunked down my $45 to see what the best, albeit the only legal, poker game in Bonita Springs had to offer.

I won two pots by recklessly tossing my chips into the middle and, early on, eliminated a man known, with a more crude moniker than I'm allowed to print, as "Flat Posterior Jim." I talked to Jim for about an hour (I was one of the hopeless souls who showed up early) about his family in Minnesota, Midwestern fishing and raising bucks for their racks.

Now the only bucks I wanted were from him to fill my chip rack. I pushed all-in before the flop with two sevens in the hole and Jim quickly called. In Texas HoldEm, each player is dealt two cards not visible to the other players. Three cards which each player can use are turned face-up, called the flop, and there is a betting round.

There is betting after the fourth community card (known in poker slang as "the turn") and fifth ("the river"). Each player turns over their concealed cards after the final betting round and the best hand wins the pot.

Jim called me with a pair of queens, but my uncomfortable sigh quickly turned into an internalized roar when the seven of clubs showed up on the flop. That card gave me three sevens (also known as a set of sevens), and Jim's hand never improved. Jim shook my hand and checked in with me periodically throughout the afternoon to make sure I was making good use of his chips.

Unfortunately, my cards went cold while they seemed to be hitting everyone else at my table. I played very tight (a "tight" player throws away bad and mediocre hands while a "loose" player plays a much wider range of hands) and was watching my chip stack dissolve before my eyes.

In Texas HoldEm there are two forced bets, called "blinds," that rotate around the table to ensure there are at least two players in every pot. The blinds were eating at my stack because I was folding my bad hands, opting to wait and pick a better spot to win some money.

By the time I picked up another playable hand, fittingly another pair of sevens, I had no choice but to put all my dwindling money in the pot. Four other players called my raise and I was forced to sit helplessly and hope for a miracle when two aces appeared on the flop. There was no miracle (another player made a full house on the river) and I finished in 17th place. As players rimming the final table noted, 6th through 50th pays the same... nothing.

About three hours after the tournament started, the 50-player field had been whittled down to Ed Fitzhugh, a south Fort Myers resident who started playing poker when an injury took him off the tennis courts, and Gary "Willie" Willoughby, a quiet, tattooed player who had caught a furious run of cards, knocking out player after player with what seemed like an endless string of aces in the hole.

Remember my pair of sevens in the hole that were trounced by a full house? Thanks a heap, Gary.

Fitzhugh and Willoughby, the latter of whom began the head-to-head match with a significant chip lead, battled back and forth. By that time, the blinds had risen to $600-$1,200 in tournament chips with a $300 ante, and each hand seemed like a race to see who could push their chips in the fastest and with the most authority.

Aggression is rewarded in poker, particularly in the no-limit game. Each of the two finalists used this strategy and made big bets when the other showed weakness.

"When you get to that level, the first person to push some chips in will probably win the pot," Fitzhugh said.

After an hour or trading chips and both players already assured a share of the prize pool, Fitzhugh's aggression garnered him a big chip lead. Fitzhugh, playing in his first tournament, won the affair with a pair of twos in the hole, hitting a two on the flop and making a full house on the final card.

"There was a lot of stress," Fitzhugh said, "but it's not like we were gambling with our own money."

Fra said he was surprised at the response to the tournament, with some players taking the day off work just to play. Fra said the tournaments, which are held at 1 p.m. each Thursday, will be expanded to 100 players beginning this week, effectively doubling the prize pool. Players buy their chips for $45, of which $32 goes to the prize pool and $13 goes to cover expenses and give the state its cut.

"I knew this would draw interest," Fra said. "It's been widely anticipated by our players."

Fra said he would be surprised if the track sold all 100 spots this week, but judging by the amount of players lined up well before the doors opened, that is a very reachable goal. And Fra is assured of at least one player making a run for another payday.

"I'll be back next week," Fitzhugh said.