Great attitude towards poker – article.

From the back room to the living room

Posted on Sat, Jan. 15, 2005
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/opinion/10654192.htm

By Frank Leonard

Special to the Star-Telegram

It’s midnight. I slither out of bed, tippy-toe to the basement and flick on the bare bulb that hangs in a far corner above my PC. I check to make sure that the Texas prosecutors’ association doesn’t have me under surveillance, then turn on the PC and click on ww.PartyPoker.com.

Although an exaggeration (hardly anyone in Texas has a basement, my computer is in the corner of my bedroom, and I play any time I like), the scenario is not preposterous. What’s absurd is that anyone should feel guilty about playing an exciting and challenging game.

Poker is a national phenomenon. The paraphernalia can be found in pharmacies, department stores, mall kiosks, gas stations and selected lemonade stands.

Electronic poker is ubiquitous. It can involve a controller hooked to your television, a hand-held device or software. Even Game Boy has poker games. Hey, your 8-year-old could become a poker prodigy rather than a chess prodigy.

The televising of World Poker Tour, The World Series of Poker and celebrity poker tournaments has brought the game out of back rooms and into living rooms. A year ago, the local bookstore had half a shelf devoted to poker books. Now there are five full shelves. The poker train is rollin’.

Why the sudden popularity? The aforementioned televised tournaments, an elementary learning curve, great entertainment value and Internet poker rooms. But there is more.

The variety of venues is a major factor. You can play online, at a friend’s home or at many local bars and restaurants.

If you are an analytical number weenie, you can play on the Internet while sitting around in your preferred dress mode (or as comedian Ron White might say, “naked, in a beanbag chair eating a bag of Cheetos”), with no distracting chatter from annoying opponents. You can devote 100 percent of your concentration to winning.

If you can’t exist without social contact, you can play with cronies at home or patronize any establishment that sponsors poker nights — “Hey, bartender! More brewskis for these suckers.”

But the primary reason for poker’s popularity is that, unlike chess, where you can devote years of excruciating study and mind-numbing practice and never elevate yourself above novice rank, any person can get lucky and win a poker tournament.

It could be a tournament for points, prizes or big money. Those who tune in to televised poker and have seen dingy hairdressers and curmudgeonly retirees win hundreds of thousands of dollars figure, “Hey, I can do that!”

If you’re monetarily challenged, you can spend as little as $5 to enter satellite tournaments that feed into big-money tournaments. Chris Moneymaker, the 2003 World Series of Poker champion, won a satellite tournament with a $40 entry fee and went on to win $2.5 million in the big game. Moneymaker is an experienced player, and he invested only $40 to win $2.5 million.

It doesn’t take an SMU professor to realize that the odds of winning a poker tournament are much better than those of winning the lottery. Why throw money away on a 25 million-to-1 shot or a skimpy scratch-off payout when thousands, or maybe millions, are to be made playing poker?

Alas, in Texas, the lottery is legal, but playing poker for real money is not. (Gambling is gambling, right?) And according to a Dec. 17 article in this paper, even public games that are played for points and prizes may be in jeopardy. The Texas prosecutors’ association and archaic gaming laws again threaten to squelch innocent fun.

I have a solution that is closely aligned with a proposal by the governor: Go ahead and legalize slot machines — but legalize poker, too, and collect fees and taxes from sponsors and participants. We could raise much-needed revenue for state coffers and make thousands of poker lovers happy.

Even better, we could put an arrow through the heart of that despicable bandit in green tights and silly hat who robs “rich” Texas property owners. Thrashing Robin Hood is enough of a reason to legalize gambling.

Strong opposition from conservative lawmakers and people who fear the gambling bogy man will probably put the kibosh on this idea. But you can’t stop a train that is chugging ahead full-steam.

Poker is red-hot, and it’s got staying power. Rather than attempt to squelch it with arcane laws and gambling-will-ruin-your-life paranoia, the Legislature should get on board and promote full legalization.

Let’s not drive poker back to smoky back rooms or back alleys. Let’s embrace the trend and lead the way to legalized poker play.

Don’t send me back to the basement.

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Frank Leonard of Euless is a member of the Star-Telegram’s community columnist panel.