Do you watch ESPN? I don't. Thus, it was a surprise to me to learn that poker had made a world-wide entry into the list of sports a couple of years ago. So it seems no profile of the Raleigh sports scene (which includes hockey with the Carolina Hurricanes, baseball with the Carolina Mudcats, football and basketball with the Wolfpack and the Tarheels, not to mention golf, soccer, and more) would be complete without a survey of the sport of poker.
I'm a complete stranger to the poker world. My card-playing experience has been limited to the occasional round of rummy and the solitare game on my desktop. Therefore, it was with a bit of reluctance that I agreed to accompany a friend of mine to a local 'bar league' poker tournament.
It's not gambling in the true sense. It doesn't cost any money to play, and the only prize is a gift certificate to the bar (and a point-based scoring system, but I learned about that later). My friend drove us to a place called Mojo's, in downtown Apex, and we strolled into the bar.
It was a private club, so I paid a guest fee, and got in line for a set of chips. All around me, the people were chatting away, talking about the super bowl, the upcoming Daytona 500, and the previous games that they had played. I quickly got lost in the chatter of 'suck outs', 'blinds', 'outs', and 'draws'.
My friend introduced to me to a few of the people, and let them know that I was new to the poker world. I braced myself for the inevitable shunning, but to my surprised, several of them immediately began offering tips.
"Don't call unless you have two high cards".
"Watch the table around you, see what everyone else is doing."
"The blinds go up fast here, so you'll have to play quickly if you want to win."
The advice, delivered in a friendly-if-rapid-fire fashion, was appreciated, but even so, I felt bad asking 'What's a blind?'
They laughed, and my poker education began. They sat me down at a random table in the bar, explained the values of the chips, and walked me through their practice of shuffling and dealing. Then, after a few bar announcements, they 'aced up' (Which involved turning over cards until one player got an Ace, who then got to deal), and began playing.
It really wasn't that hard to follow, once the game got going. There were a few guys that were obviously there for the beer, with poker being a secondary entertainment, one extremely flirty woman who had to be in her 70s, a gentleman that seemed to take every hand as if it was his last, and another lady about my age. I was surprised to see as many women there as I did; there were about 50 people playing, and at least 10 of them were women.
If you'd never played Texas Hold'em, it goes something like this. You get dealt two cards, then have to pay to keep playing. Then the dealer puts three cards face up, and everyone gets a chance to bet. This repeats for a fourth card, and then a fifth card, with the theory being that the remaining people after the fifth card show their two cards, and the best hand wins.
I had a few mis-steps. I had to learn to wait until my turn to throw my cards away, I learned what 'checking' meant, and I found myself folding. A lot. I'm told that this is a good thing, a sign that I could be a great poker player. "Patience is a virtue". I'm not sure that it's true, yet, but I did play for a long time, and I watched a lot of other players slowly file out of the bar.
Periodically, they called out 'blind raise', which meant that it was more and more expensive to continue playing. After about an hour of watching, folding, and occassionally playing along with the other player's comments, I felt that I had a pretty good idea of how to play this game. The bad news was that I also had very few chips left. With two 'good cards' (An Ace and a Jack), I found myself putting all of my chips into the pot. One of the gentlemen called me, and turned over and Ace and a King. "I'm sorry" he said, sounding like he truly meant it.
What it meant to me was that I was heading home. With a resounding 'I hope you come back' from the remaining players, I got up from the table, and looked for my friend. I found him leaning against the wall.
"Not bad," he said. "You outlasted me."
He explained on the way home that the bar league had a points system, one where you played once or twice a week, and got your points added up. If you did well enough, you got invited to a regional tournament; do well enough in that, and you get a trip to Las Vegas or Atlantic City for a national tournament. Win THAT, and you got to go to the World Series of poker. Which is apparently broadcast on ESPN weeknights. The chance to be on T.V.?
I'm not much of a camera person, but I wouldn't mind trying poker again. He explained that if I wanted to participate, all I had to do was sign up at http://www.worldtavernpoker.com/, and find myself a bar close to home.
If you'd like to try the tavern poker experience yourself, or if you're already a poker fanatic, but are relocating to the Raleigh area, here's some tavern poker locations throughout the Triangle. It's a fun activity, and a good way to meet people.
Napper Tandy's Irish Pub - 126 N. West St, Raleigh, NC 919-833-5535
Upper Deck Sports Club - 329 N Harrison Ave #H, Cary, NC 919-460-9977
Brown's Billiards of Raleigh - 5500 Atlantic Springs Rd Ste 107, Raleigh, NC 919-878-9092
O'Dwyer's Irish Sports Pub - 3325 Rogers Road, Shoppes at Heritage, Wake Forest, NC 919-562-8368
Shooter's - 106-13 Bratton Drive, Garner, NC 919-773-1525
Mojo's Billards & Pub - 1400 Vision Drive, Apex, NC 919-387-3500
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Nice localism post. It brought back memories. My Grandfather taught me to play Texas Hold'Em and Gin Rummy! I also like th use of Google maps. I'm just starting to use them myself. I like them, but don't create the best maps yet.