APP.COM - TV coverage draws 'em to poker

APP.COM - TV coverage draws 'em to poker A boom box blares alternative rock in the background as a teenager deals cards to himself and six friends for a round of Texas Hold 'Em -- a poker game growing in popularity since being glamorized on television. Nolan Horowitz, a 17-year-old senior at Middletown High School South, has a pair of kings. He makes a big bet, trying to force out the remaining player who hasn't folded. But that player, 15-year-old schoolmate Joe Sonatore, recognizes Horowitz's semi-bluff and matches his bet. Sonatore wins the $25 pot with a flush -- five cards of the same suit -- beating Horowitz's pair. Horowitz, smiling, acknowledges that one of his poker buddies might have had a flush, but he rationalizes the loss. "I tried to buy the pot," he says. On this recent Thursday evening, the boys are gathered around a professional-looking poker table built by South graduate Tony Stoble, 18, in the basement of his parents' Middletown home. The friends, most of whom play on the high school's ice hockey team, started playing Texas Hold 'Em at a pre-game pasta party last year. They've been hooked ever since, they said, and in doing so, have joined the growing number of teens across the country who play poker. "It's addictive," admitted Sonatore, a sophomore who plays about two days a week and has dreams of one day competing in the annual World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, the granddaddy of all poker tournaments. "I can sit here for hours." Chances are, many high school students play or have friends who do. Some casino industry experts call these teens the next wave of casino gamblers. But some compulsive gambling experts warn that television's glamorization of the game could create a new generation of problem gamblers. Call this new trend a hip youth movement or a fad, or call it the changing face of card playing. These adolescents effectively are squashing stereotypes that poker games are reserved for cigar-chomping, visor-wearing men in a smoky parlor. "These are the kinds of games your grandparents played," said Robert Thompson, a professor of popular culture at Syracuse University in New York. "It's now been discovered by this generation." Experts credit the poker explosion in America to the hours and hours that cable television stations, such as Bravo and the Travel Channel, now devote to the game. But it was as a result of ESPN's coverage last year of the World Series of Poker -- when 28-year-old accountant and poker amateur Chris Moneymaker of Tennessee took home a $2.5 million grand prize -- that Texas Hold 'Em earned a place in the social itinerary of teens. "There's a poker renaissance going on right now," said Thompson, also the director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television. "They have figured out a way to make poker and card playing good television." Through player interviews and tiny cameras that reveal players' hands and their odds of winning, television stations have created a ratings gem, Thompson said. State experts on compulsive gambling are worried, however. Terry Elman, education coordinator for the Hamilton-based, nonprofit Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey, said poker is now the No. 1 form of adolescent gambling in the state, pushing sports betting into the No. 2 spot. The third most common form of youth gambling is playing dice, traditionally reserved for urban areas, Elman said. He defines adolescents as peo-ple ages 13 to 21. "We believe it's (poker) a major problem," Elman said. "It's causing more young people to gamble. Because it can be orga-nized with friends, more people are losing money." Although the game is "glamor-ized" on television, teens can end up losing a lot of money, Elman said. He estimates one-third of teenage boys actively play poker. "If you're in one (poker) tourna-ment a day for a week, and you have a buy-in at $20, and you're a loser, you've lost $100 a week," Elman said. "What kid can afford to lose $100 a week?" The council is producing a vid-eotape detailing the conse-quences of gambling on poker. It hopes to distribute the tapes to school districts across the state before the Feb. 6 Super Bowl, the most heavily wa-gered sports event in the world and a popular day for teenage gambling. Area teens interviewed said they practice their poker skills on online Web sites. While at school, they schedule games to play at someone's house after classes are over. Rarely do they play in school because a game such as Texas Hold 'Em requires too much time to play, and they don't want to risk getting in trouble, the teens said. "We don't mess around with that," said Scott Anacker, 17, a senior at Allentown High School who regularly plays poker. Wall High School Principal Steve Genco, for example, said card playing has not been an issue in his school. The teens said they often play after school until dinner time, but on weekends, the sessions last much longer, sometimes until the wee hours of the morning. For most, Texas Hold 'Em is their first foray into betting money. Some parents said they don't necessarily support the idea of their child gambling, but if it means their teens are staying off the streets, are under parental supervision and aren't drinking or doing drugs, they might as well shuffle up and deal. "They do put a limit on it," said Jackie Stoble, 54, the mother of Tony Stoble. "They never do it on school nights. If they do, they're out by 6." Each participant in Texas Hold 'Em typically "buys in" for $10 or $20, and the big winner sometimes can walk out $200 ahead, the Middletown teens said. "As long as you tell your parents you didn't lose, they don't care," said Brendan Keelen, 17, a senior at Middletown South. Anacker, the football team's quarterback at Allentown, said he and his friends started playing poker at the end of last year after watching broadcasts on ESPN. It was the first time they seriously gambled. Now they play cards so much that their female classmates are getting jealous. "They want to spend time with us," said Anacker, an Allentown resident, laughing. "We pick poker over them sometimes. Instead of hanging out with the girls, we just do the guy thing." Jillian Nelson, 17, of Millstone, a senior at Allentown High, agreed. "The guys are like, 'Should we go out tonight with the girls or play poker?' And it's play poker," she said. Teens interviewed said the game can be risky in terms of losing money, but they argued Texas Hold 'Em requires critical thinking and mathematical prowess, just as much as it does luck. "Your chance of winning in this is a lot better (than other casino games) because there's skill involved," said Matt Bruncati, 16, a Middletown South junior. Players need to correctly read their competitors and must calculate how much money is in the pot to justify holding 'em or folding 'em, the teens said. "There's a huge element of skill," said Jared Mesznik, 21, of New York, a senior at Brown University in Providence, R.I., who has designed a course on poker theory that will debut in the spring semester. "Luck will create short-term (wins), and skill will produce long-term profits." Thompson, the Syracuse professor, said playing poker is fun and fits well into a teenager's life. "Poker is perfect," he said. "It's perfect for the geographical and physical limitations that many high school kids have." And once these teenage poker players reach 21, the casino card rooms will be waiting. "Five years ago, the average age of a poker patron was in their 50s," said Stan Strickland, the poker room manager at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City. "That has changed. It's probably averaging 30 now because of the college student coming in and playing." Even some teenage girls are finding themselves drawn to the poker table. "It's so popular," said senior Samantha Cotler, 17, of Bradley Beach, who attends the Monmouth County Academy of Allied Health and Science in Neptune. "Everybody plays it. It's weird." Cotler got interested in poker this summer while participating in a Governor's School program at Monmouth University in West Long Branch. She said now she plays just about every Friday night, and the game is rotated among friends' homes. "It just became popular all of a sudden, out of the blue," she said. "I'm teaching my grandmother how to play."