Seeger and his pals, who faithfully listen to Rogers' "The Gambler" before their every-other-month poker game, are part of an estimated 50 million Americans playing the card game nowadays.
The five are seated in Mark Seeger's Milwaukee basement when the anthem begins to play. Not that anthem. This one is more Kenny Rogers than Francis Scott Key.
Because in this event, you really do have to "know when to hold 'em; know when to fold 'em."
Seeger and his pals, who faithfully listen to Rogers' "The Gambler" before their every-other-month poker game, are part of an estimated 50 million Americans playing the card game nowadays.
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They play at home - like Seeger's group. They play on the Internet. In Los Angeles, they play in one of the city's five sanctioned poker rooms with 150 tables each. This week, players are anteing up $10,000 to play in a tournament in Tunica, Miss.
Oh, and right now, poker is really hot on television.
Yes, television. Go figure.
In the last year, Steve Lipscomb's "World Poker Tour" has become the highest-rated series in the history of the Travel Channel.
"It's a great game, and it's a very social game," Lipscomb said. "Poker is to cards and games what jazz is to music. It's this great American thing, born and bred here. We dig it because everybody can play."
Except, like jazz, poker needs some finesse, a hook.
Lipscomb found one. He created a camera that allowed viewers to see the cards the players were holding in their hands as well as graphics to help viewers keep track. Then he added commentators who would make the game sound as if it were live.
It took off, with repeats of poker shows getting even more viewers than the original airings. When Lipscomb, who learned poker as a child by playing his grandmother for peanuts, put together the world's best female poker players for a show, it became the highest-rated show in the World Poker Tour series and the second-highest rated show for the network.
Then came Bravo's "Celebrity Poker Showdown," which featured - what else - celebrities.
Imagine Coolio cooling his heels in the miked Losers' Lounge while "Friends' " Paul Rudd takes the poker pot from Shannon Elizabeth, Ron Livingston and Sarah Silverman.
The Travel Channel called Bravo's hand with "World Poker Tour: Hollywood Home Game," featuring a four-show series with celebrities from Drew Carey to Ben Affleck and Mimi Rogers (the latter two were also on "Celebrity Poker Showdown"). And then it raised. The Travel Channel is teaming up with NBC for "The World Poker Tour Battle of Champions" at 3 p.m. Sunday - better known as Super Bowl Sunday.
Earlier this year, Fox Sports presented a poker "Showdown at the Sands." And McDonald's is running a poker-themed commercial where four 20-something men are playing poker for french fries instead of money.
More people coming to the table
"There's an explosion going on in poker," said John, a Brookfield resident who, along with his wife, hosts poker games in their home each Friday.
John, 57, doesn't want to give his full name because playing poker for money is illegal in Wisconsin.
"About a year ago, when we thought of having poker games, it was like pulling teeth to get people to come. How to even find them was the question," he said. "It's just coincidence that these shows started airing on TV - the World Poker Tour and the World Series of Poker (which runs on ESPN).
"People started to think, 'I can do that. These guys aren't any better than I am. Of course, they are."
"People think it's a matter of luck; they're wrong," John said. "Poker is a game of skill."
John advertises on two Web sites and, while he could fill as many as 15 chairs, he only has room for 10. He had 12 at a time, but players leaned too heavily on the table, and now it's breaking.
The youngest player he recalls was 21; the older ones hover around 60. They come in both genders, and everyone brings their own food and beverages. Game limits are set low - "I don't want someone hurt by what they lost," John said.
For John and his wife, the games are a chance for a social life. The couple are caretakers for an Alzheimer's patient and can't get out. The games start at 7 p.m. on Fridays. They've gone as long as eight hours.
"The people who love poker have never stopped playing. This is creating new players," John said.
Anyone can play
Enter Tom Nolting, 19, a freshman at Marquette University. Nolting's friend watched poker on television about a year ago, then taught all his friends, including Nolting.
Now he can't get enough. He's played for modest stakes. He's played for Goldfish crackers. He's borrowed money from his mother to play by promising he would double it. The most he's won at a time was $400. He did not share it with his mom.
"You can win a lot of money with not a lot of good cards. Those are my favorite nights," said Nolting, an education and history major.
He will play "usually with anyone who ever asks me."
Thankfully, he's in the right place.
"In college, people just walk in your room and say, 'Anybody want to play cards?' " Nolting said.
Dan Lorenz, 22, of Manitowoc advertises on poker.meetup.com. He's been playing since last spring when he was at Fort McCoy, although he's pretty sure his dad taught him years earlier by playing for pennies. He tries to play two or three times a week.
Practice makes Lorenz better, but he also keeps up by watching the professionals on the poker tour, playing online and hosting games, usually with a $10 buy-in. Players each put $10 in the pot, and the winner is the player who ends up with all the chips.
It's not as much as you think, Lorenz warns. The most he's won is $45.
Competing against the big boys
Barry Shulman plays for much bigger stakes. Shulman is publisher of Las Vegas-based Card Player Magazine, and he's in Tunica, Miss., getting ready for a tournament that has a $10,000 buy-in.
This is where the stars of the World Poker Tour are born.
Until recently, poker had never been much of a spectator sport. But since the Internet and the debut of the World Poker Tour, the number of players and spectators at tournaments like the one in Tunica has doubled.
"People on TV are so good," Shulman said.
But unlike professional basketball or other sports, there's a chance that regular Joes, with a lot of practice and luck, can compete against professionals. Hang out in Los Angeles, and you could find yourself across the felt-covered table from Lakers owner Jerry Buss.
"It's kind of a hoot," Shulman said. "There's no shot I could go to a golf tournament and play with Tiger Woods."
Odds are not in anyone's favor that they'll be rubbing elbows with the cast of "The West Wing," who did show up on an episode of "Celebrity Poker."
It couldn't have been too hard to get Martin Sheen, etc., on the show. Josh Malina, who plays Will Bailey on "The West Wing," is the executive producer of "Celebrity Poker." According to Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com), when Malina was a struggling actor, he paid the rent by playing poker.
Playing for fun
Aside from the "Celebrity Poker" loser lounge, where celebrities are feted after they fold, and the color commentary from actor Kevin Pollak and poker expert Phil Gordon, the scene isn't all that different from family-friendly games at Daryl Baumgartner's home.
Well, maybe it's a little different, since Baumgartner, 30, was unwilling to spend $2,000-plus on a poker table and built his own. It seats 12. He is, however, playing for fun, while the celebrities are playing for charity.
"You're not trying to hurt anyone or take their money," said Baumgartner, who watches both poker shows on television hoping to learn strategy.
While the games in Baumgartner's Milwaukee home can go as long as nine hours - one game ended at 5 a.m. - across town in Seeger's basement, "The Gambler" has concluded, and Seeger has put on some funky lounge music for the game.
"We play with the same group of guys. It's pretty much just a neighborhood nickel, dime, quarter thing," Seeger said. There's also pizza, chips, always a baked item, soda and beer.
"We get used to each other habits as far as raising and bluffing. We can kind of read each other," he said. "Mostly, we're there to talk and see what's going on with each other."
Which is exactly how Shulman, a documentary filmmaker before he started reviving poker, got started.
"I killed my poker game by creating 'The World Poker Tour,' " he said by phone, waiting in an airport security line in Las Vegas.
"I am my audience," he said. "I'm the guy who plays in his monthly game with his buddies."
Source: Kathy Flanigan, Journal Sentinel
