Did You Hear the Big Bang?

Did you hear the big bang, the sonic boom, the percussive cannon's roar, the ear-splitting, thunderous clap of poker exploding all over the globe? If you didn't, you might be the only one. Poker is big. Poker is blowing up. In tournaments, on the Internet, on television, in the movies, in books – no matter where you go, poker is huge. It's as big as all outdoors and life its own sweet self, and impossible for mainstream America to ignore.

All things come into and go out of fashion with predictable regularity, like long hair, short hair, and Nehru suits. Here today and gone tomorrow, one craze after another, and so it is with all things. But every now and then society is confronted with a real change, and where poker is concerned, that time seems to be now. Maybe it's a harmonic convergence of sorts, some coming together of cosmic forces that no one really understands and few had predicted, but a cultural explosion that cannot be ignored once it looms over the horizon, like that rough beast, slouching toward Bethlehem to be born.

While poker has been growing steadily for more than a decade now, it's only now that it's really been booming. After all, there was a time not so long ago when poker could legally be played only in Nevada, California (where only lowball and draw poker were permitted), and a few other Western states where, for the most part, one found small, mainly one- and two-table rooms and games tucked into corners of bowling alleys and taverns where poker was a side offering and not the menu's main fare.

The growth of Indian casinos and the development of riverboats in the Midwest spurred a wave of legalized poker, but even with this growth it still wasn't mainstreamed. Poker had its adherents, to be sure, but it was a niche activity – like playing the bassoon or watching lacrosse – and many people were unaware of its existence. "So, you play poker" is usually a prelude mumbled by people I meet socially to this follow-up statement, "I guess you go to Las Vegas all the time, huh?" When I tell them I play right here in Southern California's card casinos, many of them are surprised to learn that poker rooms abound – even though they pass right by Commerce Casino and The Bicycle Casino on two of the area's busiest freeways. Who knows, I suppose the casinos have been hiding in plain sight all this time.

But now poker is mainstreaming, and it appears to be a confluence of events that's causing it to happen. Certainly, the World Poker Tour on the Travel Channel and the World Series of Poker on ESPN have had a lot to do with it, never mind the fact that one can now see a player's holecards, and that allows the casual viewer to imagine himself playing those same hands and making decisions that will either win him a million dollars or put him on the rail. And it's easier for him to do this than it is for the players who are actually in the game. After all, on television one sees all the players' cards, while the competitors see only their own.

Two poker players have had a hand in this, too. Jim McManus went to Las Vegas in 2000 to write a magazine piece about the World Series of Poker, but he took his advance, used it to get himself into the tournament, and made the final table. If that weren't enough, he turned his magazine article into a book that weaves together the WSOP and the Ted Binion murder trial, and he did it so well that his book, Positively Fifth Street, jumped way up the New York Times bestseller list – something unheard of for a book about poker.

If the 2000 WSOP produced a best-selling book, 2003 produced poker's feel-good story of a lifetime when Chris Moneymaker won a $40 buy-in satellite on the Internet and parlayed that into victory in the largest World Series to date. Not only did he win, but the $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold'em event at the WSOP was the first live-action tournament he had ever attended. All of his experience until then was in cyberspace, where he competed in online poker tournaments while sitting at home in front of his computer.

All of these events have created an explosion of interest in poker. How do I know? I can measure it. And it's measured not only in TV ratings, but in book sales, too. It's not only me, but every poker author I know is selling more books now than they ever have before, and the royalty checks that come in the mail reflect it.

People are interested in poker, and they're laying money on the line to learn how to play. I guess that's a good thing, too, because many of the new players who have been bitten by the poker bug have learned about it only by watching live-action poker on the telly. And guess what? They're learning wrong. I've seen more than a few new faces jump into a $20-$40 game and fire in a raise with Q-7 simply because they saw Doyle Brunson try to steal a pot with that same hand on the World Poker Tour. What may work at the final table of a no-limit tournament when it's shorthanded isn't necessarily going to succeed in a ninehanded limit hold'em cash game, where one or two opponents have already called before the flop, are likely to have a better hand than Q-7, and aren't going to throw their hands away in the face of a single raise.

While the casual fan may learn something by watching poker on television, a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing, and it's clear that a lot of nascent poker players have yet to learn the difference between full and short games, between tournaments and cash games, and between limit and no-limit play. And that's a good thing. Although some novices will never learn and will lose all of their money in a hurry, others will grow and their games will develop. Some will become very good, others merely average or even below average, but as long as they enjoy the game, that's good for poker because it means more players, more games, and an overall "greening" of poker as it mainstreams its way through the general population.

It's happened before. Pool was once considered disreputable. So was bowling. But not any longer; they are mainstream family sports, and no one casts a cold eye your way when you tell them you're going bowling or you grab your cue and go off to play a little 9-ball with the boys. Even chess experienced a sustained growth in the United States during the cold war, when Bobby Fisher defeated the Soviet Union's Boris Spassky for the world championship.

And poker has one advantage that none of these sports and games offers. Anyone can win at the poker table. After all, neither McManus nor Moneymaker were household names when pokermeisters were discussed, but if you get a little lucky at the right time, anything can happen. While you can't draw out on Bobby Fisher at the chessboard or Allison Fisher at a pool table, you can draw out on the best poker players in the world, and that's the lure for every recreational player. Sometimes they win.

As for me, I'm a happy man. Poker needs new blood, and this infusion of folks who ran across the WSOP on ESPN quite by accident – or dialed in the WPT on the Travel Channel, or overheard it while fueling up at the office coffee machine – is good for the game. These folks can sit at my table anytime, and if they buy my books, so much the better. I'll make them feel welcome, and you should do the same. Once you realize they are there to draw out on you, and accept it as gospel that they'll do just that from time to time, you're in the right frame of mind and you won't chase the novices away, as boorish, arrogant players who think themselves a lot better than they really are so often do with their supercilious attitude and snide remarks. In the long run, new players are not only good for the game, they're good for your game, too. So, welcome them and make them feel at home. Explosive growth like this doesn't come around all that often, and you might as well enjoy it while you can.

My newest book, Internet Poker: How to Play and Beat Online Poker Games, is available through Card Player and at www.ConJelCo.com, and all of my books can be found at major bookstores and online at www.Amazon.com.