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John McEvoy studied
accounting in college, but later chose another career. Even so, all
those hours studying math, statistics and money finally paid off a
couple of weeks ago - at the Seneca Niagara Casino.
After investing $225
to enter the Seneca Poker Classic tournament, the Lewiston native walked
away with just over $11,000 in winnings.
"I was honestly
shocked," said McEvoy, 25, currently a games supervisor for a Las Vegas
casino. "This was the first time I've ever felt I won without getting
the best cards."
McEvoy is part of a
new generation of Texas Holdem poker players that has transformed the
game's image from a rec-room pastime to a televised spectator sport in
glitzy casino showrooms and followed by millions of fans. Novice players
have flooded poker tournaments in person and online, chasing the dream
of megadollar jackpots.
Poker's popularity
has soared in the United States since ESPN began showing high-stakes
poker tournaments in 2003. Now, shows like the World Series of Poker,
the World Poker Tour and Celebrity Poker Showdown boast scores of
faithful viewers. In September, the World Series of Poker finale was
watched by 2.5 million households.
Even before the
Seneca Niagara Casino opened its
Texas Holdem
poker room in
May, the game's popularity made it easier to find a table in Western New
York. University at Buffalo students enjoy weekly games with top prizes
of $3,000 or more. Bars and other establishments hold poker tournaments
without police interference, according to players.
Poker also has
become available on demand, 24 hours a day, via the Internet. Pokerpulse,
a poker industry monitor, estimated that 1.3 million players played
online last month, betting about $6 billion.
The brick-and-mortar
casinos don't find poker that profitable, but it certainly pays off in
marketing and brand recognition, said Joe Weinert, vice president of
industry consultant Spectrum Gaming Group.
In October, for
example, all of Atlantic City's casinos won about $389 million, but
Texas Holdem
poker accounted
for only $4.6 million.
Yet Harrah's
Entertainment, "one of the biggest and smartest entertainment companies
out there," said Weinert, "went and bought an entire casino in downtown
Las Vegas almost solely to get rights to the World Series of Poker."
Television and the
Internet have had a huge impact, but one of the single biggest factors
may have been something that happened in 2003 that caused players to
start thinking of poker not simply as entertainment, or gambling - but
as a moneymaker.
That was his name,
after all. Chris Moneymaker, a Tennessee accountant, had only played
poker over the Internet before he won a seat at the World Series of
Poker, in an online tournament that cost $39 to enter. He borrowed money
for the plane ticket to Vegas, where he won $2.5 million.
Moneymaker became an
icon overnight, said Weinert.
"He was Joe Average
poker player, and then he went and won the World Series of Poker. So now
you've got millions of other
Texas Holdem
poker players
saying, "If he did it, I can too.' "
Even though veteran
players like McEvoy tend to feast on such fresh players, the Lewiston
native was left shaking his head at the ease of his success in the
recent Seneca Niagara tournament.
"I've never gotten
away with so many bluffs in my life at a tournament," he said. "I just
couldn't believe some of the hands they would fold."
There are bar
tournaments in Western New York where most people seem to be drawn
primarily by the television shows, McEvoy said.
"I've had much
success playing in those kind of games, too, because nobody there really
knows what they're doing. All they know is they've seen it on TV."
The stakes were
higher at the Seneca Classic, but the level of expertise didn't
necessarily follow, McEvoy said.
"The way I saw some
people playing in that tournament in Niagara Falls . . . they really
shouldn't have been there," he said.
The relentless
television exposure, coupled with eternal Internet availability, has
heightened poker's potential for harmful addiction, said Renee Wert,
head of gambling treatment services at Jewish Family Services in
Buffalo.
Texas
Holdem
Poker isn't as addictive
as slot machines or faster-paced games like blackjack, but it's
especially alluring to the young and reformed gambling addicts, Wert
said.
Because it's not
entirely random, she said, some people think poker isn't gambling.
Parents are less likely to object if their children spend hours playing
with their friends.
But teenagers who
gamble are twice as likely as adults to develop gambling problems, Wert
said. When parents report "all my son wants to do is play poker," Wert
said, she tells them to look for signs of problem gambling, like lying
to gamble, and talk to them like they would about the dangers of
alcohol.
McEvoy has
considered becoming a professional poker player but he's seen up close
what it takes to survive a Vegas poker table.
It's a different
world.
"With the knowledge
I have I think I can be competitive, but not regularly enough to make a
living at it," he said. |
