|
WEST PALM
BEACH -- Normally, baby-faced Jared Goldman with his low-top
sneakers, black shorts and gelled hair would look out of
place among the receding hairlines and leather loafers of
area retirees passing their day playing cards.
But Goldman
is not the only baby face here. And the seniors aren't
playing Go Fish.
On the
green velvet field of the poker table, age, agility or
athletics are no advantages for the new waves of
20-somethings challenging the traditionally older crowd at
the Palm Beach Kennel Club's
Texas Holdem
Poker Room.
Smarts
and strategy are what matter here, players say.
"The
older guys are more savvy," said 72-year-old Roger
Bouthiller, who is a two-year veteran at the club.
However,
Goldman, who at 19 just exceeds the club's 18-and-older
rule, is used to being underestimated.
"I have
that young look. I know whenever I sit down people are
eyeing me, asking me, 'What I'm doing here?' " Goldman, 19,
said. "I don't mind it. I've gotten it for so long. I kind
of like it sometimes because it starts a conversation with
someone else rather than me starting it."
Conversation and camaraderie -- maybe with a roast beef
sandwich and a $2 Miller High Life on the side -- are what
these poker pals say they cherish. Poker, for some, has
become a midday to midnight affair, emptying bowls of Chex
Mix and switching from games of Omaha to Seven Card Stud or
Texas Holdem, the premiere game.
Generational gaps have not led to falling outs in the club,
even as a more eclectic band of players, spurred by
ESPN-aired poker tournaments and larger winnings, discover
the sole pari-mutuel poker room in Palm Beach County.
There is
Shirley Schnitzer, a local retiree and previous poker
tourney victor who said she unknowingly played poker with
one of the Sept. 11 hijackers in Broward County. Brian
Tompakov, 27, owns a small Internet business and is an avid
online poker player. After his 18th birthday, Adam Streifel
gambled at The Poker Room after fulfilling another
coming-of-age tradition, visiting a strip club.
Until
about a year ago, none of them played
Texas Holdem
poker at the
kennel club.
Compared
with possible $10 bets on the Palm Beach Princess or in Las
Vegas, single bets that could not exceed 25 or 50 cents did
not entice much more than senior citizens living out their
retirement or the occasional dog track gamer waiting for the
next race at the club a couple of years ago, players and
dealers said. Not to mention, the maximum any player could
win in a game was $10.
"They
would throw 50 cents and not even look at their cards,"
dealer George John says about the lack of gamesmanship that
existed.
Rather,
"It was like a showdown," as all the
Texas Holdem
players would
bet money regardless of how useless their cards were, he
said. "But at the time it was all the state of Florida would
let us do."
Florida
loosened up a bit last year when the legislature, without
Gov. Jeb Bush's approval, folded on their $10 winnings
restrictions while setting individual bets at $2, with a
three-raise limit each round. With potential $200 pots now,
showdowns are out and bluffing is in. But some players say
even $200 is too low.
The most
Ryan Reeder, 24, has won playing poker was $400. Reeder,
like many of the Ray Ban and Oakley sunglass sporting Gen-Xers,
became fans of
Texas Holdem
poker after
watching televised tournaments on ESPN or the Travel
channel. The Palm Beach Kennel Club recently started its own
tournaments, $45 to play and $830 to whomever can beat 99
other opponents. Reeder was in the top-third and out of $45
in Wednesday's tournament.
"I'm on
the list to get on a regular table," Reeder said after
losing with two aces in the tournament. "I'm going to go
over there to win my $45 back."
He left
the kennel club less than three hours later -- with his $45. |
