Why Play Texas Holdem?

Time was when gambling was a frowned-upon activity in cities and towns and civilized societies. Time was when the games were restricted to taverns and roadhouses, where players would look surreptitiously behind their shoulders after dealing every card, in case anybody from their rival camp or from the law stood at the door, gun in hand. People who were attracted to gambling in general and card games in particular, were people with a spirit of adventure, opportunity and risk-taking in their blood. Merchants, traders and farmers would, after a hard-won day at their respective centers of action and with a stash of cash in their pockets would stop by at their favorite haunts for a quick dash of fun on the side. At the tables, of course.

Like everything about civilization, times have a-changed and man has evolved from those primitive times. And how! When Nevada’s governing fathers permitted corporate America to enter their state’s gaming industry in 1969, Las Vegas went on from an “illegal gambling den” status to “Temples of Chance” status almost overnight. Immediately next year, Benny Binion, the owner of the Horseshoe gambling club hosted the first World Series of Poker, which after two decades and half is now considered a pilgrimage event by all aficionados. Such events, initially happening in small spurts all over the country, started snowballing over the years, and now a crescendo has been reached when the games are now considered a standard part and parcel of the present generation’s growing-up kit. Clearly, the perception that gambling is as much a business as playing in the stock market or betting on crude going up one point has taken deep roots.

Today, any person with enough dough in their pocket can enter any casino in forty-eight of the fifty states of the USA, and play to their heart’s content, day-in-and-day-out, without let! (Utah and Hawaii are the only exceptions, as of now – the controversy surrounding the Akaka bill notwithstanding.) The largest casinos in the world are located in the country, the crown being taken by Mashantucket Pequot Nation Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut. With its majestic towers, sprawling greens, six casinos, 7,400 slot machines and 388 table games, the 300,000 square feet of gaming space is big enough to make the undecided and nervous-at-heart to make a go for their luck at the games – at least once! How big this really is, can be appreciated when one compares it with a standard American football field, all of 57,600 square feet, or an international soccer field, stretching to a puddle-sized 84,766 square feet! Elsewhere, casinos with exotic themes and locales are sprouting up in a hurry, all of them vying with each other with unique selling propositions to entice the die-hard players and the amateur wannabes. States such as Nevada, New Jersey, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Illinois take the lead in attracting money in the form of capital from entrepreneurs for building infrastructure for gaming, as well as money in the form of gambling stakes from the real heroes of the game – the players themselves.

It is out of all these developments that Texas Hold’em has evolved as the darling of the gambling community. Consider this. Ever since Binion bought over his gambling hall in Las Vegas, Texas Hold’em has occupied pride of place in the scheme of things. Today, the flagship event of WSOP, Horseshoe’s “pilgrimage” tournament, is the $10,000 buy-in no-limit Texas Hold’em tournament. Winners of the event get to pick up the largest prize of the tournament and golden bracelet, and also have their picture placed in the prestigious Gallery of Champions. The 2005 WSOP Texas Hold’em event had prize money of $7,500,000, which definitely are not peanuts! The total prize money that champions stuffed in their pockets - $52,818,610. Now, you can very well imagine the size of them pockets! Today there are 445 commercial casinos in the US which have generated $29 billion in gross revenue alone.

The same WSOP event began being covered on national television by ESPN, which also attracted unprecedented viewership with their lipstick cameras that allowed television audiences to see the players’ hidden cards for the first time. The games being played – Texas Hold’em. Not to be left behind, the WPT and Celebrity Poker Showdown debuted soon after on TV. Their popular games? You guessed it. Texas Hold’em.

2004 also saw the advent of the Ultimate Poker Challenge (UPC) series of 26 – what else, but Texas No Limit Hold’em! – tournaments that anybody with $1,000 + $60 can walk in and join. These tournaments are now televised across the nation. If you thought that was the end of it, you don’t’ know innovation and creativity yet. Fox Sports Net (FSN) began televising poker tournaments “live” from 2004 onwards (there is a gap of five minutes in the telecast, to avoid any cheating). With effect from this year, every player at the final table wore a heart monitor, which showed their inner feelings to the entire world.

Britain has taken poker, and with it, Texas Hold’em to the next level. March 2005 saw the launch of a dedicated, exclusive, poker-only TV channel in that country.

With so much poker on TV, it is impossible not to be infatuated with the game.

Online gambling was unheard of in circa 1995. Cut to 2005. Today it is more than a $6 billion industry. Target estimates: $16 billion by 2009. Game most played? Texas Hold’em. Only the innocent, wide-eyed would not know of the Cinderella-turned-princess story of Chris Moneymaker who epitomized what Online Poker can do for your life, by winning $2.5 million by staking just $40 out of his pocket and moving up in the satellite games. The game he played – Texas Hold’em.

Quite a few online magazines have been launched in the internet space, that focus on poker in general, and Texas Hold’em in particular.

With so much money sloshing around in the game, waiting to be had by you, don’t you think you should enjoy a part of the action, too?

If you aren’t already a diehard Texas Hold’em fan, it’s time you moved up in life … as they say in the advertisements.