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A player peeks at her
hand during a round of Texas Holdem poker at Famous Sam’s. The
popular card game draws large crowds to the East Valley restaurant
each week for a tournament-style event. |
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When Alex Palacios moved
to Gilbert four years ago, he knew only his sister. Last fall, the
42-year-old decided it was time to get out of the house more. |
To meet people, he became
a regular at a local watering hole — but Palacios doesn’t go there to
belly up to the bar. He goes to throw down bets at a poker table.
Palacios and friends meet at Famous Sam’s on Baseline Road in Mesa each
Monday and Tuesday night to play Texas Holdem poker, a card game popular
well beyond the borders of the Lone Star state. Now Palacios has enough
friends to field a softball team — he plays ball with the poker crowd on
weekends.
Texas Holdem, the high-risk sport of card games once played in the back
rooms of saloons, is now out in the open. It’s enticing diverse crowds
of amateurs who play for the competition and the chance to socialize.
At 7 p.m. on a recent Tuesday, the crowd at Famous Sam’s begins to
gather at round tables packed tightly in the aisle. The chatter rises to
a low roar. Marlboros are lit, beer is ordered and cards are dealt.
The sound of plastic chips falling onto one another begins. It will
serve as background noise for the next six hours.
This is Texas Holdem poker — neighborhood style.
"Man, I have everybody (playing). Businessmen, retired people,
21-year-old kids. It doesn’t matter," says Tom Wiley, owner of the Poker
Pub of Phoenix. "I have tons of women winners."
Along with his wife, Kenda, and his brother-in-law, Wiley runs
tournament-style poker games in Phoenix and the East Valley every night
of the week. The Wileys work 50 locations in the East Valley alone, and
they’ve only been doing this since November.
About 4,500 people compete weekly for points — not money — and winners
play in a monthly tournament. Each of those winners will go to Las Vegas
at year’s end to compete against franchise champions from across the
country. The ultimate chip taker gets a buyin (worth upward of $10,000)
to the World Series of Poker or the World Poker Tour, courtesy of the
Poker Pub’s sponsors.
On this Tuesday, players are betting and bluffing at seven tables that
are full for the first round. Everyone is in — and No Limit Holdem is
under way.
After an hour, players begin to drop off, losing chips to opponents with
better hands and sharper skills. But that doesn’t mean it’s time to go
home.
People hang out by the bar or sit in booths and eat. Inevitably, they
talk loudly about the pocket pairs they thought were sure bets and
losing it all in an unforeseeable twist of the game.
Sharon Redmond and her girlfriend, Darlene Kaminski, both of Gilbert,
started showing up together at Famous Sam’s in November. Avid card
players, the women wanted to learn the game and get some practice for
the casinos.
They never expected their opponents would become friends.
"After a while, you know like 30 or 40 people," says Redmond, 35. "It’s
the thrill of the game, and the people."
The players meet at different East Valley locations for poker
tournaments during the week to get in on a game or two.
Redmond and Kaminski often get together for money games at players’
homes or go bowling with people they’ve met through poker.
And it doesn’t matter that they are women — not traditionally
represented at poker tables in the Old West. Holdem is for anyone and
everyone — it’s now common for women to throw down bets at tables across
the country.
"It’s supposed to be a men’s thing, but it isn’t. Women are very good
poker players," says Redmond. "The bottom line is, when you beat a man
at the table and you’re the only woman there, it’s exhilarating."
The men, who are still the majority, say they don’t mind who sits next
to them on any given night.
"People welcome you in," says Tim Lindenken, 31, of Mesa. "It’s not
young, it’s not old. It’s everyone, and they all get along."
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