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POCKET ACES

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Maryann Guberman has been a writer and editor with many gaming publications, including Sports Form, Card Player, Poker World, Player's Panorama and Systems and Methods. She also has written and edited numerous books on gambling.

Feb. 24, 2007

I'll be Seeing You at the Real Tables

God does not play dice with the universe; he plays an ineffable game of his own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players, to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time. -- Terry Pratchett

The squeeze is on in full force as major online poker rooms continue to cave in and turn away their American (here used to define citizens of the democratic 50 states more correctly known as the United States) players.

So be it.

Luckily the initial few years of the poker surge created positive results for those of us who live close to legal poker rooms. In the past, a person had to find a poker game on her own then pick up a free poker magazine to find other games in Las Vegas. Life is much easier today. We can just walk into a casino, scan the perimeter, and in no time find a poker room. If we want to get game, we certainly can, even though most of the game is hold'em.

An even better outcome of the poker spotlight is the appearance of abundant tournament offerings. Except for a handful of hardcore poker managers, most employed by casinos that catered to locals, few understood the value of the tournament until the TV viewers put down their remotes and headed for the action.

Today, tons of tournaments abound in Las Vegas and I'm sure around the rest of the country which, unfortunately, I can't experience being I have to do the nine-to-five routine to support my poker habit. Again, the choice of poker variety generally comes down to limit or no-limit hold'em but it's poker and it's out there and it's easy to find.

If you're halfway computer savvy (which we assume you are, since you're reading this), just Google the words poker tournament and then search within the results by indicating the closest metropolitan areas to your residence. For example, I tried the first step and followed up with Des Moines. (I have no clue why I chose that city. I've never been there.) Google said there were 141,000 potential hits but I know many of them were not germane. However, a couple of clicks took me to the home page for Terrible's Lakeside Casino where about 50 miles from Des Moines they offer $25 buy-in poker tournaments every Monday.

You get the picture. If you want game, you can get game, without turning on your computer.

Of course you won't be playing in your skivvies or bathrobes but heck, summer's coming, you might be ready for a little vacation and what better way to spend it than playing a little poker.

Now on the subject of poker tournaments, I suggest you do use your computer to print out and take with you a set of tournament rules as laid down by the Poker Tournament Director's Association (http://www.pokertda.com/rules.htm). Luminaries of the industry (Matt Savage, Linda Johnson and Jan Fisher along with David Lamb and Douglas Alexander comprise the Board of Directors) put this short three-page 40-item list of specific rules every tournament overseer should abide by to help standardize decisions. You might never need to fish it out of your pocket but considering the fact that few of the people who supervise the large number of tournaments now available have a clear-cut understanding of how to handle routine procedures, why take a chance?

While you're at the site, click on the blog link where you'll find myriad articles about proper poker decisions.