 |
| Pienciak (r.)
goes shoulder-to-shoulder and elbow-to-elbow with Astoria's
Demetrios Georgous. |
|
 |
|
ATLANTIC CITY - The
Borgata's Tuesday morning No Limit Texas HoldEm scrum is two hours old,
and I'm doing quite well for a poker tournament rube.
The betting has just
been raised to Level 6 - the ante is now $75 a player and the blinds -
required bets by two players each hand - are $300 and $600.
I pull a winning
Ace-high straight on the last card. On the very next hand, I collect a
very handsome booty, thanks to two pair, Aces and Jacks.
Incredibly, for a
very brief moment I have the most money of the 11 seats at Table 2 -
more than $7,200 worth of tournament chips.
Welcome to the PPT -
Pienciak's Poker Tour - where success can be fleeting, and piles of
chips can turn into stardust with the toss of a card.
I bet a couple of
hands heavy, and lose.
"You're dead," pro
gambler Demetrios Georgous, 31, of Astoria, Queens, whispers as I weakly
bet the Ace of spades and Queen of hearts just dealt to me. Timing may
not be everything, but it's darn important.
As my once-large
stack of chips steadily shrinks, I draw an Ace and 7 as my pocket cards.
No one in front of me bets, so I toss $1,000 into the pot.
Unfortunately, one of the players behind me calls.
On the flop - the
first three common cards - I get another 7. I bet my pair.
I am overcome by a
sense of desperation, though, when the guy raises me. I have little
choice, but to go "all in" - I bet the rest of my chips.
The guy hesitates,
and for a moment I think I'll have another life to live. But he calls -
why he does is one of the mysteries of poker. The final two cards do not
improve my hand, or his. But he's got pocket 9s, so his pair beats mine.
I am toast.
All the rage
Texas HoldEm is the
rage these days. As I sit in my spacious room, 28 floors above the
Borgata's 34-table poker room, I am watching a repeat of the 2003 World
Series of Poker on ESPN. With a flick of my mouse, I can switch screens
on my laptop to pokerstars.com, an offshore Internet site that operates
an international card room.
Poker is all around
me.
The Borgata, the
city's hottest poker room these days, hasn't even celebrated its
one-year anniversary, and officials are already talking about tripling
the number of poker tables.
Across this resort
community, there are more than 170 poker tables. From 2002 to 2003,
dollar win statistics for poker here increased 14%, according to the
N.J. Casino Control Commission.
Gambling houses like
the Borgata use tournaments to bring in new players. Once in the
building, they often play non-tournament "ring games," where the house
takes a 10% cut, up to a $4 maximum per hand in small-stakes games.
In higher stakes
"time games," the house takes a specified cut every half hour.
These payments,
called "the rake," are how casinos make money in poker.
These same players
later dabble in some blackjack or craps, grab some dinner and perhaps
even take in a show, says spokesman Michael Facenda.
But the usefulness
of small-stakes tournament poker has suddenly changed with the dramatic
rise in popularity of Texas HoldEm, fueled by the booming success of
several poker shows on cable TV. The casino tourney is in danger of
becoming too much of a good thing.
Only 92 players are
allowed to play Monday night on eight tables. Another 50 are placed on a
waiting list, 100 more are turned away. The other 26 tables are maxed
out with ring games.
Bully or be
bullied
Playing poker
against professionals who thrive on intimidation is a tough way to make
a living - even if the boss is picking up the tab.
"It's not that you
don't play your cards right," Georgous tells me, "it's your betting that
is severely flawed. You bet way too little, which allows too many people
to stay in the hand."
Sure enough, too
many times I start with strong hands but wager weakly. Other times,
players with junk cards bet strong. These guys are experts at "stealing
the pot" from the tourists.
Georgous, who splits
his work week between casinos here and private games in Manhattan and
Queens, grabs my pen. "Never 'limp in' in a No Limit HoldEm tournament!"
he writes.
A few hands later,
Bob Brower, 47, of Mays Landing, N.J., politely scolds me from across
the table for the way I've just played pocket Queens - a pair of ladies
in the hole.
Again, I wager
meekly - scared, without confidence. I limp in.
After taking my
money, Brower tells me that if I'd begun with a stronger bet, say a
couple thousand dollars worth of chips, he would have folded. Instead, I
let him hang around, he pulls a straight, and beats my three Queens.
During a break in
play, I ask Brower, dressed in an orange T-shirt - and looking like he's
on a relaxing vacation - what he does for a living.
"This is it," he
says. He explains that he plays poker four days a week.
"The kids come
first," he continues. "If they have something going on, I'm there. But
I'd rather be here than cleaning the pool."
The concept
Casino poker
tournaments have a buy-in price, which can range from $20 for the
Borgata's Tuesday daytime offering, to $10,000 for a top-notch event on
the World Poker Tour.
In the local casino
tourneys, the buy-in translates into $1,000 worth of chips.
"Re-buys" are
allowed until the third level of betting, which usually ends after an
hour. At that point, every player is allowed to purchase an "add-on,"
which nets another $2,000 in tourney chips.
Monday night, I
buy-in for $30, make three re-buys (after playing terribly in the early
rounds) and take the add-on.
Tuesday morning, I
re-buy before the tournament even begins. Since I do so well, I take
only the add-on. You can't re-buy if you have more than $1,000 worth of
chips. Casinos usually charge a registration fee to cover expenses,
ranging from $10 for small-stakes tourneys, to $300 for blue-ribbon
events like the Borgata Poker Open in September.
All told, including
the two registration fees, the Daily News invests $230 in the PPT's
HoldEm education. I hope it is money well spent.
The trouble with
tournaments is that only about 10% of the participants get prize money.
In my two events, the first nine places win cash, with first prize
averaging about $3,000. Otherwise, whether you finish 10th or 100th, a
loser is a loser.
Still, I'm happy
with my efforts - 37th place out of 92 players Monday, 45th of 111 on
Tuesday.
I have nice
conversations with a school teacher from Philly, who wins Monday night,
and retiree Bernie Koven, 71, from Deer Park, L.I., who used to teach at
Thomas Jefferson High in Brooklyn.
Koven wins the
Tuesday tourney, his second Borgata victory in a month. He and wife
Ellie, 63, tell me they learned to play on their computer, using the
Texas HoldEm portion of the Hoyle's "Casino" program.
I also chat with a
Mary Kay consultant from Florida, who drives her RV to Atlantic City
every March so she can spend six months here playing poker.
I especially enjoy
outlasting a snotty, smirky college kid who wears the seemingly
obligatory sunglasses and thinks he's the next world champion.
You'll be reading
about some of these characters, and others like them, in the coming
weeks. The PPT has a lot to learn, but we're determined to kick some
butt before summer's end.
The rise
of Texas Holdem
Texas Holdem is the
hottest blood sport these days. There's the World Poker Tour, the World
Series of Poker and Celebrity Poker Showdown. Millions watch the pros on
cable TV. Tournaments are held daily at casinos across the country.
Neighborhood games are springing up in dens and basements everywhere.
Wagering in Internet poker rooms has exploded. Last month, for the
second year in a row, an unknown amateur won the World Series of Poker,
taking home a record $5 million. He'd gained entry into the premium Las
Vegas event by finishing first in a $160 Internet satellite tournament.
All this, and more, means it's time for Pienciak's Poker Tour.
Each week this
summer, Senior Correspondent Richard T. Pienciak, staked by the Daily
News, will file a special report about the wildly popular world of Texas
Holdem and other exotic gambling specialties. In between reporting about
the ups and downs of the men and women who wager for fun and profit,
he'll join the action himself - playing in No Limit casino tournaments
in locales like Atlantic City and Nevada, on a Mississippi riverboat and
an upstate Indian reservation, inside an Internet poker room and at a
private game somewhere in New York City.
Pienciak will talk
to the professionals and the amateurs, the winners and the losers, the
wannabes and the has-beens. Follow his exploits as he tells the tales of
big bets and bold bluffs. It's a journey every gamblin' Daily News
reader can only dream of taking. And who knows - by the end of the
summer, he might even win a buck or two.
Rules of
the game
Texas Holdem poker
tournaments often involve NO LIMIT betting, meaning any player can wager
all of their chips at any time, known as GOING ALL IN.
Unlike the 7-Card
Stud and 5-Card Draw games conducted in your den, Texas Holdem requires
two players to deposit money into the pot each hand before a single card
is dealt. The player to the left of the dealer position contributes the
SMALL BLIND. The person to the left of that position puts in the BIG
BLIND, usually twice the amount. These payments are in addition to any
ANTE, which is a smaller contribution to the pot made by each player
before play begins.
As a tournament game
progresses, the ante and both blinds increase, usually every 20 minutes.
The dealer position on the table is designated by a round plastic chip
called THE BUTTON; it moves one player spot clockwise after each hand.
To begin a hand,
each player is dealt two cards, face down, known as the POCKET CARDS. A
round of betting then ensues, beginning with the person to the left of
the little blind.
In order to stay in
the hand, that player, and every subsequent player, must CALL THE BET,
meaning they must at least match the big blind.
When that round of
betting ends, the dealer discards A BURN CARD, then turns over the next
three cards in the middle of the table, called THE FLOP. Each player now
has five cards, the three common cards and his still-hidden pocket
cards.
Another round of
betting ensues, after which the dealer burns another card, then turns
over an additional common card, called THE TURN.
Another round of
betting takes place, followed by another discard and the turning over of
a fifth and final common card, THE RIVER.
The last round of
betting takes place, after which all remaining players reveal their
pocket cards so that a winner can be determined.
A player never has
to wager any money on a hand, except for when the small blind and big
blind comes their way. But over time, as the blinds and antes increase,
those mandatory payments eat away at a player's chip stack - until
they're busted. |
