TEXAS HOLDEM ONLINE POKER

"Bring your money and your sense of humor, that is the bottom line," says Brian, a tall laid-back man who is one of the Bennington Rounders' founding Texas HoldEm players.

(The men agreed to be interviewed if only their first names were used.)

Fifteen players show and everyone antes up $100 and gets a pile of chips from John, then seats themselves around the tables. Tonight is the Fall Classic tournament so the stakes are higher than the usual game, where maybe $25 or $30 is anted up per player.

The winner this evening will take home $900, the runner-up $450, third place $150. Texas HoldEm with no limit bidding is the game. It is the same game played in professional tournaments and on TV, is easy to learn but harder to master, and has become the standard for poker play across the country.

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The scene here is one which is being played out increasingly regularly here in Mercer County and across the country.

The popularity of Texas HoldEm poker has exploded in recent years. Professional poker tournaments are now broadcast regularly on television, and through the Internet poker fans can meet up and play at any hour of the day or night.

The boom has hit home poker games, too. Often insular affairs until recently, home games are growing rapidly, becoming more professional and with higher stakes while retaining their friendly night out with friends atmosphere.

The Bennington Rounders are a case in point. Named both for a nearby street and a 1998 poker movie starring Matt Damon called "Rounders," the raucous monthly gatherings here started with just four guys from the neighborhood - John, Brian, Pat and Paul - who liked to get together and play poker.

"We would constantly play with each other, but we wanted to see how we'd do against other people," says Pat, a wiry man who usually hosts the games at his house next door.

Brian established a Web site for the Bennington Rounders and set up a laptop with software that manages the games. Then players began getting in touch and showing up.

"We have a good time. We usually pick up a new guy every month. It's been growing that way, and growing strong," says Brian. "A lot of walks of life, different kinds of money, obviously there are varying ages," Brian says regarding the diversity of the players.

Some women have played, but the overwhelming majority of Texas HoldEm players are men. People regularly travel from out of state to join the Bennington Rounders, too, he notes.

"It used to be you had to know people to get into a game," says John, but not any more because of the Internet. Matt, a waggish man who is called "chopper" by John because when he's ahead he always wants to split the pot rather than play to the end, lives within walking distance but only found out about the Bennnington Rounders through the Internet.

"I've walked into places you can feel the tension, and here I just walked in and felt comfortable," says one convert to the Bennington Rounders games, a bespectacled man dressed all in black, who says he goes by the name of "Eyes."

"It's just a good group of guys. It's real friendly," says Randy, a lanky young man who wears his baseball cap backward.

"If you've been here twice, you are no longer a stranger," says Pat.

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At-home games are completely legal under New Jersey's gambling statute, says John Hagerty, a spokesman for the state Division of Criminal Justice. "Their is no prohibition on at-home poker games among friends, regardless of the game, for pleasure or entertainment," says Hagerty, adding, "As long as no one is charging any fee or taking a percentage of the winnings for profit, you are fine."

The founding Bennington Rounders players acknowledge they have been lucky to have never had a player who turned out to be trouble. They have taken precautions to keep it that way, screening new players, interviewing them prior to inviting them to play.

Jim Bucci, a professional player and coach with PokerCoaching.com, a coaching Web site based in North Haven, Conn., notes that in recent years the national love affair with poker "is just going completely crazy." Poker-playing in tournaments, in casinos and at home is expanding everywhere in the country, Bucci says.

Why now?

Bucci says the televised poker tournaments, turning certain players into minor celebrities, are a major reason for the expanding popularity of poker, specifically no-limit Texas HoldEm poker.

And the popularity of televised poker has skyrocketed now that viewers can actually see what cards the tournament players have in their hands. "Before you had no idea what a player was doing," says Bucci.

He also notes the powerful pull of recent poker folk heroes. He describes how two years ago an amateur player named Chris Moneymaker - his real name, according to Bucci - parlayed a $40 stake into $10,000 and a spot in the World Series of Poker, which he ended up winning, taking home $2.5 million.

"People see an average Joe can come off the street and beat the big boys. It has made the amateur feel that he really has a chance," even in high-stakes poker games, notes Bucci.

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Back at the Bennington Rounders game, John reinforces that notion. "I think it's great for the sport. You are not just seeing professionals winning," he says.

Tournament poker is a sport, but it's a sport where the average guy has a shot, where "you don't have to be 6-foot-5 and 260 pounds and pure muscle," in order to succeed, John notes.

The players here are aware of the pitfalls of their "sport" as well - mainly underage gambling and addiction. "It is an alarming trend," says Pat. "You've got 17-, 18-, 19-year-old kids who have a gambling problem."

As the popularity of poker explodes, so does the incidence of gambling addiction, says Ed Looney, executive director of the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey, based in Hamilton.

Part of the problem is the television coverage glorifies the players, but little is shown about the downside, how some of the players on TV run up huge debts and the like, says Looney.

"The problem is that the addiction rate for young people is twice that for the adult population," notes Looney. The problem has reached epidemic levels at high schools and colleges and needs to be recognized and dealt with, he adds.

The Bennington Rounders founders say they are aware of the problem of youth gambling. After originally allowing anyone 18 and older to play, they thought better of it and now have a 21-and-over policy.

Kevin, a newcomer from outside Philadelphia, seems like he might take the prize at the Fall Tournament, but as the evening wears on he falters, winding up third.

Gary and Randy are the last two players, and after going back and forth for a while without either getting much of a lead in chips, at about 11:15 they opt to split the first- and second-place pots, taking in $675 apiece. The night is far from over, however.

A post-tournament informal game goes on into the wee hours of the morning. No need to convince these guys that poker is the game of the moment. "We think poker is going to replace bowling," as an American pastime, says Pat.