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New game tables raise the stakes
Published: 2006-01-21
 Furniture makers try to cash in on poker crazeELAINE MARKOUTSASUniversal Press SyndicateOdds are good that the next time you go furniture shopping, you'll be drawn to a new player.
Time to deal. Make your move. The decorating focus in furnishings for home entertainment is shifting to game tables.
Designed for a game or family room or to slip into living rooms, libraries and even bedrooms, some are chameleons, crafted with beautiful woods that convert with a twist or flip to reveal a protective felt board for chips or safe tossing of dice.
Among the games people are playing, one of the hottest is poker, and that's because of huge exposure on television and the Internet. Shows like "The World Poker Tour," which feature celeb regulars like Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, draw millions of viewers weekly.
"If you'd have told me 10 years ago that one of the biggest new phenomena of the 21st century was people playing cards, I would have said you were absolutely crazy," says Robert Thompson, professor of pop culture at Syracuse University.
A recent shift in language from gambling to gaming lends more social acceptability. It's estimated that more than 50 million -- and as many as 80 million -- Americans play poker.
Furniture makers want to cash in. Former Denver Broncos quarterback John Elway, who in April introduced his own furniture collection for Bassett, includes a poker table packaged with Elway chips.
Even teens have found poker engaging. "Parents are now talking about kids staying home playing poker instead of going out to movies," Thompson says.
"It opened up this whole other area -- ancillary home furnishings," he says. "With people staying home to play poker, that begs other things people can do."
Such as cards, backgammon and board games. Classics are being revisited, including favorite card games like bridge, hearts, go fish, old maid, even solitaire. And board games like Clue and Monopoly, which in some homes never really went out of style, are gathering new fans.
Old-fashioned board games are back in favor in game rooms, the 21st-century appellation for the recreation room. The basic idea is the same.
"Like comfort foods, there are comfort rooms," says interior designer Barry Dixon of Warrenton, Va., who at the High Point furniture market in October included a couple of game tables in the collection he designed for Tomlinson. "You think of `Leave It to Beaver' and going down to the rec room to play games. That was a safe and wonderful place," he says.
The latest spin, though, goes beyond the game room. Some of the newer game tables at the High Point market were handsome enough to grace a formal living room. Even a Magnussen Furniture collection based on pieces at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville included a handsome game table that opens to a marquetry checkerboard.
That's not exactly without precedent. Fancy game tables have historical roots dating to the 16th century. They presented craftsmen with an opportunity to show off beautiful woods -- walnut, mahogany, cherry, satinwood and rosewood -- as well as carving and inlays.
Recently for sale at Leigh Keno, a New York antique shop, was an 18th-century Chippendale carved and inlaid mahogany table with cabriole legs.
While one English Edwardian handkerchief game table in walnut was tagged at $7,200, a similar "envelope game table" found in the Sincerely Yours catalog is considerably more affordable at $750. The 28-inch-square space-saving table has a gold swivel top that unfolds to expose a Chinese red surface and distressed black turned legs.
Today's styles are designed to go with a broad range of furnishings. On the Target Web site, there are 11 game table styles in mahogany, cherry, oak or walnut, from $79.99 to a $2,699.99 set that includes four chairs.
Features vary. Drawers are handy for game parts. Recessed or pullout holders cradle glasses or mugs. Some inlays create checkerboards for checkers or chess or surfaces for backgammon. For those who prefer to keep the card table under wraps when not in use, several manufacturers design flip tops.
"There's a whole kind of hip element to it -- now I need this," says Thompson, who finds the entire phenomenon curious. "Right smack in the middle of the 21st century, sophistication is marrying itself to a very old-fashioned notion of a table where you play games, long before television, video games and home computers. The deck of cards now has become cool again."
Just how long poker and game tables will be on the radar screen is anybody's gamble.
"Who knows? In five years we might laugh at the whole thing -- like pet rocks," Thompson muses.
But for now, game tables rock.
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Pocket Queens
Published: 2006-01-19
 Women ponying up to Texas Hold 'em tables
Thursday, January 19, 2006
By Mark Sauer
Copley News Service
It was her first time, and she was scared to death.
A stranger approached, promising to be gentle, to ease the young woman into it and explain everything she needed to know.
Relax, the stranger said in a soothing tone. Remember, it once was the first time for everybody.
She had almost chickened out in the car on the ride there. "I was dying to check it out, but I was so nervous.
"It's funny thinking back on it. I go all the time now. Certain regulars see me and say: 'Look out! Here comes the card shark.' "
Like 24-year-old Jessica Scott of San Diego, thousands of women are playing poker for the first time at casinos and card parlors across America as the poker craze that struck two years ago shows no signs of abating.
"I definitely see more women playing at the casino poker rooms than when I started two years ago," said Scott, who plays regularly at an Indian casino in Southern California. "I was in a tournament recently, and four of the nine players at the final table were women."
The aptly named "lipstick camera" - a tiny, fit-in-your-purse lens - got everybody into the game. TV viewers could suddenly see players' "hole" cards and play along vicariously in the high-stakes drama.
Millions who watched professionals win millions on the "World Poker Tour" (WPT) and "World Series of Poker" (WSOP) became enthusiasts overnight.
Many of those discovering the thrills and challenge of poker now are women, helping to shatter forever the game's traditional image as a smoky, backroom affair played by frontier he-men or riverboat gamblers.
"That's completely gone," said Steve Lipscomb, the WPT's creator and producer. "The antiquated movie image of poker in saloons with guns on the table wasn't reality anyway.
"Poker in America was always played in kitchens and basements, or in the Supreme Court chambers, the halls of Congress, or in regulated casinos. It was popular before, but almost exclusively among men."
Now women are hooked into no-limit, Texas Hold 'Em right along with their husbands and boyfriends. Highlighted by heart-stopping cries of "all in" (when players bet everything they have), the game has become an American favorite.
Several books have been published this year by top women professionals. Mixed in with tips on Hold 'Em strategy are the authors' anecdotes of how they rose to the top in a game dominated by men.
"Our research shows that 38 percent of our (WPT) audience is women," said Lipscomb. "I figured if we got 20 percent women, we'd be lucky. Guys say, 'It's the only show my wife and I can agree to watch.'"
(Success on television is a breeding ground. It seems like there are more poker shows on TV now - several featuring celebrities, of course - than reruns of "Law and Order" and "Friends" combined.)
The WPT, which airs on cable-TV's Travel Channel, staged a Ladies' Night tournament in each of its first two seasons where all competitors were women. It was the top-rated show each season, Lipscomb said.
"There are so many women who watch, yet who don't play, and really don't know the game," he said. "But they get caught up in the players as characters and in the drama of who's ahead and who's behind, and who comes through to win it all."
Plenty of women are getting in on the action, though, either at casinos and card rooms, or on the multitude of online poker sites.
A 2005 survey by the World Poker Exchange, a gambling site based in the Caribbean, reported that women are six times more likely than men to play poker online. Anonymity on the Internet is undoubtedly a large draw for women.
But the clink of chips on a green-felt table is an irresistible siren song for many women, even if most of their poker-room opponents are men.
"I'd say 15 percent of the players at any of our daily Hold 'Em tournaments are women these days," said Gary Taub, poker director at Sycuan Casino in El Cajon, Calif. "Go back five years, and that figure would not be 1 percent. They are coming out of the woodwork now; they aren't scared anymore.
"And women today are much better players," Taub continued. "The occasional woman you'd see in a game 20 years ago? That was a mark, someone with no chance to win. Not anymore."
SEX APPEAL
Cat Hulbert says sexual tension comes into play when women sit down at a poker table.
"Women who know how to play the game have several advantages over men, but the biggest is that their sexuality is distracting," said Hulbert. She is a Los Angeles poker pro, poker instructor and author of "Outplaying The Boys: Poker Tips for Competitive Women" (Workman; $12.95).
"I have a friend who plays high-stakes games at the Bellagio (in Las Vegas) who says that whenever a woman sits down at the table, he immediately thinks about whether he could bed her," Hulbert said. "He says it doesn't matter how good-looking she is.
"This definitely affects a man's focus."
Jennifer Tilly can certainly be distracting.
Besides being a solid poker player, the Oscar-nominated actress (for 1994's "Bullets Over Broadway") is drop-dead gorgeous and not averse to wearing cleavage-revealing blouses and dresses at Nevada poker tables.
That might not have helped Tilly when she won a WSOP bracelet by taking the 2005 Ladies Tournament (advice from her boyfriend, poker pro Phil Laak probably had more to do with it).
But Tilly, 46, certainly employs her wiles and charms, belying her ditzy on-screen persona, in holding her own at Hold 'Em among the big boys of professional poker.
Lipscomb, who has played poker for years in addition to producing it on TV, said "player for player, women are better at poker than men."
The reason? Sex appeal.
"Particularly if there's a little bit of exposed cleavage; the eight other male players just stopped concentrating on poker," Lipscomb said.
High-level female players say that for women to successfully use their femininity as an edge, they must understand what motivates men.
Annie Duke, who has become rich and famous playing poker on TV, puts it this way in her book, "How I Raised, Folded, Bluffed, Flirted, Cursed and Won Millions at the World Series of Poker":
"A guy who wants to take you out for Jack and Cokes and some bouncy-bouncy isn't likely to want to take your money. It would get in the way of the real objective."
Scott, who also plays regularly in friendly games with her boyfriend's buddies, recalled that on that first knee-knocking trip to the Viejas poker room she didn't fear losing as much as the prospect of making a fool of herself.
"My girlfriend was driving, and I was reading 'Super System' by (Hold 'Em legend) Doyle Brunson right till we got to the parking lot," Scott said. "Once we were inside, a girl took us under her wing and told us how to register and bet chips and what the routine was. After that, we were fine."
Scott said women are typically underestimated by men at tables in local poker tournaments, and sometimes with good reason.
"I see a lot of women playing far too timidly - maybe that's because they are new at it and still pretty nervous. Some men believe women don't bluff and only play a hand when they've got (the winning hand)."
But in many ways, said Scott (who manages an acupuncture clinic), it pays to be a woman.
"Some men, if you smile at them across the table, they'll fold. Others seem angry that you are there, or play more aggressively against you than against other men," she said.
"Smart women can use all of these things to their advantage."
PERSONALITY TRAITS
Hulbert believes women generally are better observers and tend to be more patient and disciplined than men, qualities that can serve them well on the green-felt battlefield.
"Since we were teenagers, we have spent a lot of time trying to figure out what men are thinking: Is he going to call me again? Does he really love me?" Hulbert said. "Men generally throw up their hands and say they have no idea what women are thinking."
Whether professionals or local-tournament players, women poker sharps say that taking advantage of the attitudes of male opponents provides only a slight edge.
There is no substitute, they say, for knowledge of odds, developing sound betting strategy and experience in a game that takes minutes to learn and a lifetime to master.
Yet boys will be boys.
Along with fellow professionals Annie Duke and Toby Leah Bochan (author of "The Baddass Girl's Guide to Poker"; Adams Media; $10.95), Hulbert breaks chauvinistic male players into specific categories with advice on how to attack them.
Among Hulbert's male poker stereotypes:
- "The Macho Man. He can't stand to give up control. He'll try to overpower you and refuse to fold inferior hands. He will not be bluffed, so you need quality hands to play against him.
"Yet he is easily intimidated by an articulate, smart woman. If he wants to engage in a bantering game, laugh at him. They hate that. Don't show emotion if you lose to a macho man. It just gives them satisfaction."
- "Mr. Nice Guy. He likes women. He gets a big ego boost out of being admired by women. The more you compliment him, the more truthful he will be. Ask him, 'Are you on a straight draw?' in a demure voice, and he will generally tell you the truth.
"He will check the bet, rather than raise at the end of a hand, just to be nice."
- "Daddykins. He views women as little girls with empty brains that need filling. You can easily figure out his strategy because he's constantly telling you, lecturing you about how he'd play if he were you.
"The way to play him is to listen and learn what he's about to do and then say, 'Oh, you're so smart!'<0x0082>"
- "The Straight Shooter. He is someone who does not view women as inferior players. He realizes our competitive strengths and plays us just as tough as he does the other men.
"Fortunately, this is a minority category."
There are also mother issues for men, Hulbert said, when it comes to the significant minority of older women - including many retirees - who frequent poker rooms.
"An older woman player can be unsettling for some men. They don't suspect she might bluff, for instance," she said.
"I have a friend whose mother is 70 and plays every day. She's not a very good player, but she has a good winning record because she bluffs so much and gets great value out of lousy hands."
Scott, who said she has read every poker book she can find and is taking classes to be a dealer, said she'd be lying if she said that becoming a professional player has never crossed her mind.
"Poker is a great game for me because I love studying people and I love psychology," Scott said. "Poker is such a great way to learn about life, about how men treat women and how women relate to men. I'd spend all day at the table if they'd let me.
"And to beat a bunch of smug boys - that always feels good."
Texas Holdem Poker Lingo
Getting started with poker lingo:
Pocket pairs: Any pair that you are dealt.
Pocket Rockets - also known as American Airlines, refers to holding two Aces as your private, pocket cards.
Flop - In Texas Holdem, each player has two cards dealt to them, and then share five community cards. These five community cards, however, do not all get dealt at the same time. There are rounds of betting at certain intervals during the deal. After the first two cards are dealt to each player, there is a round of betting. Then, three of the five community cards are dealt at one time on the board. This is what's known as the "flop" - the first three cards being dealt on the board. The fourth card is called the "turn", and the final, fifth card is known as the "river."
Turn - The "turn" is the dealing of the fourth card of five community cards dealt in the game of Texas Holdem. The "turn" is also referred to as "Fourth Street." The turn card would be the fourth card on the board.
River - The "river" is the dealing of the fifth and final card of the five community cards dealt in Texas Holdem. The "river" is also known as "Fifth Street". The river card is the fifth and final card on the board.
Blinds - Texas Holdem Poker uses what's called a "blind" structure, meaning that two people on the table must post a bet prior to seeing their cards. Since they are forced to bet without seeing their cards, they are playing "blind", thus the name of those bets are called "blinds". There are two blinds, the big blind and the small blind. The small blind position must post half the minimum bet and sits immediately to the left of the dealer. The big blind must post the full minimum bet, and sits immediately to the left of the small blind, two seats to the left of the dealer. As the deal rotates around the table, each player takes turns posting the small blind and the big blind bets. This blind structure forces the action on the table since there will always be a pot to win. So, for example, if you are seated at a $1-2 limit holdem table, the small blind must post $.50 and the big blind must post $1 bet. As play rotates around the table, each player may choose to call that $1 bet, raise, or fold. When it's the small blind's turn, that player only needs to call $.50 to play the hand.
Flop - In Texas Holdem, each player has two cards dealt to them, and then share five community cards. These five community cards, however, do not all get dealt at the same time. There are rounds of betting at certain intervals during the deal. After the first two cards are dealt to each player, there is a round of betting. Then, three of the five community cards are dealt at one time on the board. This is what's known as the "flop" - the first three cards being dealt on the board. The fourth card is called the "turn", and the final, fifth card is known as the "river".
Courtesy of Flopturnriver.com. For a larger glossary, visit www.flopturnriver.com/start_glossary.
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