Poker, once a game played by adults on a Friday night was just an excuse for something to do, for the boys to get together one night a week without the women bothering them. It went that way for years and years. The women had no problem with it since it kept the men happy and they got their free time also. The only real big poker game took place every April at the Horseshoe casino where they took their "skills" to match against the best poker players if for no other reason than to get away from home and hit Las Vegas for a few days. There were less than 100 players in the first WSOP (World Series Of Poker) but when the money prize began to get larger and larger, more of those Friday night poker players started to take the game seriously.

First they had to learn Texas Hold'Em since they mostly played five card draw and stud and sometimes seven card stud, but the game of Texas Hold 'Em was the game to play in Las Vegas and it would take a lot of practice to learn the game like the pros. They started to show the WSOP on TV in 2001 and ever since it's taken off like a Saturn rocket. Which is fine, since the players were playing against each other it was greatly preferred to the other casino games since they didn't have to play against the casinos own money. The rules were simple and since it was on TV they might even get their 15 minutes of fame every time they got a good hand to play. The TV station carrying the tournament was always on the verge of canceling the show. They found it too slow and boring and worse of all, since no one watching knew the cards being held by the players it was exceptionally boring. But then came the mini camera and with the time delay the people watching at home could now see the hands and how they played professionally and how they won with or without the best hand. So by 2001 you couldn't find a seat at a poker table. The game took off so fast thanks to television moguls that there was no stopping it.

Now enter the family. Mostly dads watched the tournaments and one by one the moms and kids began to watch. It was fast moving now with the mini cams, the huge amounts of money at stake (it's really play chips, sorry to burst your bubble) compared to the other poker games, thousands of dollars changed hands in only minutes, and that was the hook.

One by one the TV people began to see the trend of Texas Hold 'Em shoot to fame like a shooting star. Even Hollywood celebrities got into the game. They would get an hour lesson before filming started and although they were (are) the worst poker players people just liked seeing their favorite celebrities outside their Hollywood homes and being real people. They didn't combine the real players with the celebrities since they couldn't possibly keep up, but both poker shows were very successful.

When I was a kid my friends and I would play cards, usually just for fun but we also played for pennies and nickels, harmless right? Many of us would grow up still playing poker but now the stakes were up to quarters and even dollars. But we never got addicted, we could take it or leave it. When I moved to Las Vegas only a few casinos had poker rooms and 7 card stud was mostly the game. Texas Hold'Em quickly began to take over since it was a much more interesting game compared to the other poker games.

But now those "games" started to turn serious. Now the kids were all playing Texas Hold'Em. No more penny games with the one-eyed Jacks being the wild card. Now it went from four or five players to 10 players on a Friday night, they even hired a person to deal the games and paid him for his time, and this wasn't in Las Vegas, this was in every large and small town America. Every time poker was on TV every interested poker player was glued to the TV. They took their education from the TV players. Even though the TV players were so much more advanced than the watchers it would take months and practice to learn how to play. But upstairs the kids were glued to the TV watching the same poker games, but now they were putting it into practice. Kids would get together whenever they could to play Hold 'Em. Even at recess kids would pull out a deck of cards and play poker. And the supervisors didn't even care. But now it was becoming an addiction. What was once an innocent game suddenly became very serious. Kids would steal money from moms purse and dads wallet for money to play. What would happen when they reached 21?

As it turned out what we feared is coming true. I deal poker when they're short a poker dealer and I've noticed the players getting younger and younger. Many kids that just reached 21 were heading for the poker tables, not giving the other games even a glance anymore. They stroll past the slot machines not giving them even a glance. They walk past the Blackjack tables like walking past a lingerie store. Most of them even have to be carded since they look so young. They even model themselves after the professional players. They wear dark sunglasses (not a great move since the cards can be reflected in the sunglasses) They put on their cool hats and their CD players, but you tell me how anyone can concentrate on a serious game of Hold 'Em while listening to Snoop Dog telling them to bust a cap in a cops ass to get their street cred.

The good thing is that it's all an act. These kids never got any real practice in a real game with seasoned players and when they get their asses kicked they blame it on everything but themselves.

The way the better players learned to play was to head up to North Las Vegas to find the $2-$4 games to practice on to get some lessons under their belts. They're rich (or at least mommy and daddy are.) and they head to places like the Bellagio and the Venetian and the big hotels so they can feel important and brag to their friends. No matter if they won or lost, their bragging that they lost counts almost as much as winning as long as they did it at one of the big casinos.

They watch the TV players and watch how they hold their cards, their banter back and forth, the way they put their chips out for a bet or a call. They watch the cloths they wear, they want to look and act like real poker players but when the night is over they have to explain to themselves how they're going to pay the rent and bills. The reality sets in when the bills come in with the stamp "immediate attention" which means they have a week to come up with the money. Than Thursday the phone goes dead, Friday the electricity goes off, and a few days later the Sheriff is putting eviction notices on their door and a week after that they're out on the streets sleeping in a two story refrigerator box.

The fact is that poker isn't the most honest game, in fact a study done shows that there's more cheating at a live poker game, casino or home, than any other game. The reason is that they're playing against other people instead of the casino so the casinos aren't as diligent about surveillance as the other games because if players cheat against other players the house doesn't lose anything. It's usually up to the dealer and the brush man to catch the cheating. It takes team work to cheat and there's no knowing how many could be in on it. It could be two, three, or four players sending signals on the cards they're holding. Signs are given to raise, to fold, to pass, and all are set on the player with the most money in front of them. The question is does that go on every day, are people practicing how to cheat rather that practicing how to play well. Well don't worry, the amount of cheaters (that got caught) is fairly low since getting caught cheating will bring you anywhere from three months to a year depending on how often they've gotten caught and how much they took them for and how many others were in on the scam.

Poker is an easy game; it's the psychology of the game that separates the bad from the good to the great players. Many games are won not always on the best hands but how you play your hand no matter what you have. I can't count how many times the best hand was folded strictly on the way the other player psyched out the rest of the players. Weather obnoxious or calm and quiet, it's all a way to psych out the other players.

If you're interested in playing poker, and playing it well pick up a good poker book at the Gamblers Book Store on Main St., Scanrnes being the best on Hold 'Em, read it twice with chips and a deck of cards and practice with someone that also knows the game, then walk into a small casino in North Town and play some small games and see if you have the nerve to play. If you're winning at those games go slowly to a $3 and $6 game, it's quite a difference every time you go up on the stakes. But even the most practiced player can and will take a beating and you'll have to take it, get back on the horse and if you still like it, just keep at it.

Now for a few pointers, don't wear dark sunglasses, light sunglasses is fine but not the real dark ones. Act the same way no matter what hand you're holding, the better players are always looking for a tell and without you knowing it you'll give them a tell and they'll jump on it. Keep your eyes down, don't socialize with the other players, they're not your friends, they're the enemy. Don't look at the cards and put them down with a chip on top that tells players you have good cards, usually big cards or pairs since you're telling them you don't even have to look when you put a chip on the cards. Keep attention, don't ask stupid questions like if there's a raise, don't ask how much the raise was for, this tells people that you're ready to make a raise. Don't throw the chips into the pot (called splashing the pot). It's the quiet players that put fear into the other players when you put in a raise.

And like Confucius said "Don't play the game, be the game. " and as Confucius also said "He who leaves with the most cash, WINS"

-Ken Pearlman