TEXAS HOLDEM ONLINE POKER

"I've been to some of the other games around town and they look like they're doing pretty well," Fleener said. "I'm slowly learning the game myself and enjoy it quite a bit, so I combined a love of the game and the desire to create a night that can be popular and successful."

That's just what Texas holdem has been. Diablo's Downtown Lounge holds a Wednesday night game that regularly draws more than 100 players, and other spots are drawing 30 or more a night.

The games are so popular that some places are even running them on Friday nights and Saturdays, when bars usually are busy anyway.

"The customers that come in are great," said Frank Abatangelo, of Bada Bing's (formerly G. Willicker's). "They have a good time.

"That's what it basically comes down to; it's just a great time where they get to go out and do something fun."

Novices welcome, of course

Locally, games are starting up so fast it's hard to keep up with them. One reason people are playing it in clubs and bars wherever it's legal is that it's a quick learn, giving even novices a shot at the pot.

"Anybody really can come in and win," said Douglas Foster, a tournament organizer who runs Oregon Poker Association (www.eugenepoker.com). "Half the games I run, it's somebody playing for the very first time that makes it to the final table and usually wins.

"I think that's the big appeal."

That and money.

First-place finishers in most games can get anywhere from $100 to more than $500, depending on the number of players and the "buy-in" each pays to purchase chips.

Some of the larger tournaments have paid out more than $1,000 to the winner, although games with bigger prizes typically attract the more skilled players.

Cardplayers are making use of 20-year-old city ordinances that allow certain types of "social gambling." Although state laws ban casino gambling other than state-run lottery games, legislators in the early 1980s granted cities and counties the authority to allow social gambling under certain rules.

Back then, the card game everyone wanted to play was blackjack, and many of the local ordinances were tailored to that game. That sometimes leaves gray areas when the rules are applied to Texas holdem.

Eugene has a social gaming law in place, as do Junction City, Creswell and Oakridge. Springfield had one, but let it expire in the mid-1990s after city police raided a number of establishments and found numerous rule violations and some outright cheating, police Chief Jerry Smith said.

The biggest problems then were the requirement that there be no house bank and that the deal always rotate among players. Blackjack isn't as attractive under those rules, and that led to violations when professional dealers would control tables and run the bank.

Texas hold 'em is different. Players pay a "buy-in" amount that gets them a certain amount of chips and then wager with the chips, not money. Play usually involves several tables, and players play until only one person remains; the buy-in money is then awarded as prize money to the top finishers.

That way, the chips themselves don't have any specific monetary value and the only bank is the buy-in money. Buy-ins typically range from $10 to $50, sometimes with opportunities to buy additional chips.

A host of restrictions

Club owners say they're being especially careful about hosting the games. They know that both their liquor and state lottery licenses would be on the line if games are not legal.

"I absolutely will do nothing that will get us in trouble with the OLCC before I know exactly what it is legal for us to do," said Deanna George, general manger of The Old Pad, which held its first poker tournament Sunday.

Eugene's ordinance sets out a list of rules. Among them are requirements that the business owner or designated agent supervise all games and that the supervisor not participate.

Others rules mandate that games be played in plain view, prohibit the game supervisor from accepting payment and bar the establishment from charging players more for food and beverages than nonplayers.

Administrative rules also limit the maximum bet to $2 and limit players to a maximum of three raises per hand.

Business owners can't be paid for hosting games; they make money by having more customers. To keep the proper arm's length from the games, they typically have an individual, poker club or one of the newly formed poker tournament organizers arrange the game, providing the advertising, cards, chips and tables.

Garret Braun parlayed his love of poker into a start-up business, Willamette Valley Poker Tour. He organizes games at Bada Bing's, Kowloon Restaurant and the Brew & Cue, providing professional-quality chips, regulation tables and a video monitor to track the game and betting.

Braun said Texas holdem isn't like the poker games shown in old Westerns, played in smoky back rooms by grizzled old-timers and card sharks.

"It's so diverse," he said. "We get 60-year-old people that bring their moms in to play. We get younger people that have only played on their Super Nintendos or Xbox or whatever. We get people brand-new to it that play."

And from all appearances, games are friendly. None of the club owners reported any problems with the games or the players, and game organizers say it's all good fun.

"I think this is a fantastic game," said Keith Simonson, who's gone full time with his tournament business, Cascade Poker Tour. "Heck, we have young girls, we have older ladies, we have young guys, old guys playing it, and they love it.

"And everybody has a good time."

A competitive game

Treston Docker, who helped organize the Eugene Rounders poker club, said Texas holdem is a game of skill and strategy that people simply enjoy playing.

"It's a competitive sport," he said. "We just do it mainly because of the sport of it. I just love poker."

The game is proving competitive in more ways than one. All three tournament organizers - Foster, Braun and Simonson - are jockeying for tables at local clubs, and Simonson hopes to get social gambling laws passed in Springfield and Florence.

That adds up to a lot of poker.

Whether Texas holdem stays in the game or goes the way of other fads is still to be seen. But for now it's giving Eugene clubs some extra exposure that owners hope will pay off, even if the game craps out.

"Will we have it forever? I have no idea," Abatangelo said. "But at least it's a way to get people into my restaurant and see what we have."