Grassroots Poker

I pride myself as being a guy who looks ahead. Back in the 1980s, I had a number of discussions with Mike Sexton and others about what televised poker could do for the game. We knew it would be big. But what was not foreseen back then – at least by me – was what would happen when televised poker was combined with Internet poker. It is this marriage that is stoking the fire today. Both of them are contributing to poker's growth individually, but together, they are practically miraculous.

Just about everyone in the country knows that poker is booming these days. You can see it in the enormous number of entrants and huge prize money in the world championship event at the World Series of Poker. You can see it in the more than 200 Internet poker sites. You can see it in brick-and-mortar cardrooms spreading lots of no-limit hold'em money games and tournament events. You can see it in televised tournaments on several programs. But these eye-catchers are only the tip of a large iceberg. Poker is exploding in grassroots America like you wouldn't believe.

I would like to take a closer look at the base of that iceberg, the grassroots developments that are both pushing and being pulled by the poker explosion. A number of scenarios I will address are of uncertain legality; it is hard to know exactly what the law says. Frankly, if you have been around gambling for as long as I have, you pay attention to how the law is being interpreted and enforced by the authorities in judging what is OK behavior in a certain spot. From what I've seen, most poker events are being given little scrutiny these days, as long as you are not running a cardroom with money games and making them wide open for the public to play.

I just got back from a Florida visit (I have relatives in Bonita Beach, near Fort Myers). On the front page of Section B in the Dec. 11 Bonita Banner, there are several pictures of people playing poker, with the caption, "They know when to hold'em." The people are playing in a tournament at Breland Cues and Poker Supplies. There is a $20 buy-in event every Sunday at 2 p.m. The winners do not get cash, just gift supplies. Poker tournaments are far more popular than poker money games with the general public, and less susceptible to having their acceptability questioned.

Using a poker tournament to promote a business is very common. In Michigan, I know quite a few bars that run tournaments. No entry fee is charged, and prizes are awarded. These events are very popular throughout the state. I expect that they do not contravene any state law, because the player is not being charged to play. I have been told that the Michigan Liquor Commission frowns on them, but I do not know of any places running such tournaments that have encountered a problem yet.

I have heard that a large group of taverns in Colorado have come together to run a tournament league, with some entries to the World Series of Poker awarded to the leading players at the end of the season. I am sure that lots of other states would like to use this nice promotional concept.

In Detroit (and, no doubt, throughout the country), various poker clubs have sprung up. Perhaps the most prominent of these in my area is the Metro Poker Club. This association even has a website, www.metropokerclub.com, where you can see a picture of tournament star Phil Hellmuth paying them a visit. The club has a private membership, with a one-time fee of $100 to join. A blurb on the site says, "We are an elite, nonprofit, members-only sporting club registered with the state of Michigan." A little further, the purpose of the club is explained: "Our mission is to give area players (21 and older) a chance to compete amongst themselves to win seat packages (tournament buy-in, airfare, hotel, and so on) and represent the Metro Poker Club in WPT, WSOP, and other major events around the world." Private poker clubs featuring tournament events are springing up nearly everywhere like mushrooms after a rainstorm.

This grassroots kind of poker is now receiving national attention. Looking at the Dec. 21, 2004, issue of USA Today, we see poker as the centerpiece story. Just to be clear, it is not in the sports section or some other section, but on page one. There is a picture of a teenager playing poker, with the caption, "Poker at an early age. Not just another teen fad." It shows that more teenage boys say they have gambled than consumed alcohol or smoked. (Judging by the percentage figure given, this also exceeds the number who have admitted to having sex.) If something is more popular than drinking or sex with young people, it is popular, indeed! The article has a quote from someone who publishes a poker magazine, saying, "I get e-mails from kids all the time." (Yes, it is our own Barry Shulman being quoted.) I could say the same thing myself regarding poker rules, questions, and lesson inquiries.

There is plenty of poker action that is less organized than some we have been looking at. For example, there is a couple who cares for my two dogs when I'm away at a poker tournament. One day, the man, Mike, told me, "I'm going to play in a hold-it tournament tonight." One of their neighbors was having about 25 people over for a block poker tournament. It turns out that each person paid $50 to enter, so there was some decent prize money available. Mike took third place – and now knows the game is called "hold'em."

Frankly, I have far too much material of this nature to put in one or two columns. It is obvious that the desire to play poker has far outstripped the ability of anyone to try to stop it. We are creating the nucleus for a whole generation of poker players. But, to be frank, I am uncomfortable anytime there are laws on the books that could conceivably be used to prevent any of these harmless mainstream poker activities from occurring.

I still have items in my files that would shock many people. One shows police raiding some small poker game in a Florida mobile home park, confiscating less than a hundred dollars, and trying to charge the players with illegal gambling. (The net result was that the players calling themselves the "Largo Seven" appeared with Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show.) I still have an item in my files showing a police raid on a Dads Donut Shop in California because some people were playing chess for 50 cents a game. There still can be an isolated incident of police pettiness.

On the more serious side, there used to be a great poker tournament in Lafayette, Louisiana, in the late '80s called the Cajun Cup, which ran for three years with no problem. But in the fourth year, the organizers were forced to close it down about halfway through it, because otherwise there was going to be a raid by federal agents. I bring this up because the local district attorney had to work hard to convince the feds to let him close it down with a phone call, rather than a federal bust. This apparent willingness to risk lives in a raid is sometimes the mentality we poker players have to deal with on the part of law enforcement. So, let's change the laws, if need be, so that grassroots poker does not get bushwhacked. Let the poker boom proceed in peace, without having to worry about a nasty knock on the door. Change the laws.

Bob Ciaffone has authored four poker books, Middle Limit Holdem Poker, Pot-limit and No-limit Poker, Improve Your Poker, and Omaha Holdem Poker. All can be ordered from Card Player. Ciaffone is available for poker lessons: e-mail [email protected]. His website is www.pokercoach.us, where you can get his rulebook, Robert's Rules of Poker, for free. Ciaffone is the cardroom director for ChecknRaisePoker.com.