Thursday, August 18, 2005
Poker faces: Young, intelligent, serious
J. Michael Kennedy, Los Angeles Times
(Tuesday, August 16, 2005 1:00 am)
LAS VEGAS, Nev. — You could call them the young guns of poker.
Barely out of college and well before any midlife crisis, these 20-somethings elbowed their way onto most every table in the Mirage Hotel and Casino.
On this day, their fresh faces and average-Joe looks stood out in the crowd of high-mileage regulars playing in a warm-up tournament before the World Series of Poker in July.
Raised on electronic games, this generation of the young and the ruthless has discovered America's oldest game and mastered it with almost frightening speed.
Because of the Internet, they have crammed years of playing time into months. Some have eschewed mainstream careers and college educations for the lure of quick money.
Casinos nationwide have added poker tables to keep up with demand.
"It's a whole new clientele for us, and they take their games very seriously; it's a very intelligent crowd," says Tim Gustin, manager of the Commerce Casino, south of downtown Los Angeles.
"There are many very young players today," says longtime poker pro Linda Johnson, who arranges gambling cruises. "In fact, of all new players entering poker rooms these days for the first time, I would say 60 percent of them are under 28."
• • •
The young guns include David Williams, 25, who dropped out of Southern Methodist University two semesters shy of a degree in economics, with a minor in math.
There is Tuan Le, the 26-year-old son of Vietnamese immigrants, who dropped out of college before the end of his first semester.
Phil Laak, known as the "Unabomber" for his sweatshirt hood and aviator glasses that evoke the wanted sketch for convicted mail bomber Theodore Kaczynski, gave up mechanical engineering and tossed a high-risk Wall Street trading gig before opting for Texas Hold'em.
Antonio Esfandiari was 25 when he became the youngest person to win more than $1 million on the tour. He's also a skilled magician who once made his living with the art of illusion before turning to cards.
All make their living at the poker tables. All have become cult figures on the televised gambling circuit.
All are, well, kids.
• • •
The poker craze is attributable to several factors, perhaps none more prominent than the televised World Poker Tour, broadcast on the Travel Channel.
Now in its fourth season, the tour took a game that was about as interesting as watching paint dry and turned it into a showbiz success by allowing audiences a peek at the pair of "down" or "pocket" cards players are holding.
"Our television shows really play like 'The Young and the Restless': It has great, intelligent, good-looking men and women. You can't rig that," says Steve Lipscomb, a Los Angeles lawyer who created the concept. "The demographics have changed and that makes it fun."
The Mirage tournament in May was one of the last qualifiers for the World Series. It had some old lessons in store for the youngsters.
Williams was late showing up at the Mirage for the 11 a.m. sign-up, so his mother, Shirley, held a place in line for him.
Slim and handsome, Williams walked in a few minutes later, listening to an MP3 player. The college dropout is considered one of the game's young comers, earning more than $4 million in tournament play in the last two years.
Williams was carrying a 4.0 grade-point average at SMU when he dropped out after coming in second in the World Series of Poker last year.
Le, wearing a conservative striped shirt and dark glasses, already was seated in front of his $10,000 stacks of chips, the initial buy-in for all 317 players.
The 26-year-old, who has won more than $4 million on the tour, was in his first semester at California State University, Northridge, when he began playing poker in the student union between classes.
He almost always dominated the players, who included his economics professor.
One evening at the Hustler Casino in Gardena, Calif., Le staked his student loans and financial aid.
He lost big time.
But he quit school and kept on playing, sometimes as much as 70 hours a week.
Poker has changed his living habits, which often means sleeping through the day and playing at card clubs until dawn and beyond.
"I eat whatever I feel like when I wake up. Sometimes it's breakfast and sometimes it's dinner," he says. "You pretty much make your own schedule. Everything fluctuates, from your eating to sleeping habits."
• • •
Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, with his long hair, dark glasses and cowboy hat, is considered one of the game's finer players — he holds a doctorate in computer science from UCLA — calculating his odds deliberately, studying his opponents methodically behind dark glasses.
Ferguson has been a serious player for the past 10 years. He thinks the poker explosion has been good: There are plenty of novice "fish" — poker slang for inexperienced players — out there for him to pick off.
"I think there is a bubble effect going on," he says. "The question is: When is the bubble going to burst?"
Ferguson cautioned that the game is demanding over the long haul, and that playing on the Internet is a far cry from facing down real opponents.
"If you want to make money, professional poker is almost certainly the wrong field," he says.
"Professional poker players are all brilliant. Almost all of them could make money doing other things."
J. Michael Kennedy, Los Angeles Times
(Tuesday, August 16, 2005 1:00 am)
LAS VEGAS, Nev. — You could call them the young guns of poker.
Barely out of college and well before any midlife crisis, these 20-somethings elbowed their way onto most every table in the Mirage Hotel and Casino.
On this day, their fresh faces and average-Joe looks stood out in the crowd of high-mileage regulars playing in a warm-up tournament before the World Series of Poker in July.
Raised on electronic games, this generation of the young and the ruthless has discovered America's oldest game and mastered it with almost frightening speed.
Because of the Internet, they have crammed years of playing time into months. Some have eschewed mainstream careers and college educations for the lure of quick money.
Casinos nationwide have added poker tables to keep up with demand.
"It's a whole new clientele for us, and they take their games very seriously; it's a very intelligent crowd," says Tim Gustin, manager of the Commerce Casino, south of downtown Los Angeles.
"There are many very young players today," says longtime poker pro Linda Johnson, who arranges gambling cruises. "In fact, of all new players entering poker rooms these days for the first time, I would say 60 percent of them are under 28."
• • •
The young guns include David Williams, 25, who dropped out of Southern Methodist University two semesters shy of a degree in economics, with a minor in math.
There is Tuan Le, the 26-year-old son of Vietnamese immigrants, who dropped out of college before the end of his first semester.
Phil Laak, known as the "Unabomber" for his sweatshirt hood and aviator glasses that evoke the wanted sketch for convicted mail bomber Theodore Kaczynski, gave up mechanical engineering and tossed a high-risk Wall Street trading gig before opting for Texas Hold'em.
Antonio Esfandiari was 25 when he became the youngest person to win more than $1 million on the tour. He's also a skilled magician who once made his living with the art of illusion before turning to cards.
All make their living at the poker tables. All have become cult figures on the televised gambling circuit.
All are, well, kids.
• • •
The poker craze is attributable to several factors, perhaps none more prominent than the televised World Poker Tour, broadcast on the Travel Channel.
Now in its fourth season, the tour took a game that was about as interesting as watching paint dry and turned it into a showbiz success by allowing audiences a peek at the pair of "down" or "pocket" cards players are holding.
"Our television shows really play like 'The Young and the Restless': It has great, intelligent, good-looking men and women. You can't rig that," says Steve Lipscomb, a Los Angeles lawyer who created the concept. "The demographics have changed and that makes it fun."
The Mirage tournament in May was one of the last qualifiers for the World Series. It had some old lessons in store for the youngsters.
Williams was late showing up at the Mirage for the 11 a.m. sign-up, so his mother, Shirley, held a place in line for him.
Slim and handsome, Williams walked in a few minutes later, listening to an MP3 player. The college dropout is considered one of the game's young comers, earning more than $4 million in tournament play in the last two years.
Williams was carrying a 4.0 grade-point average at SMU when he dropped out after coming in second in the World Series of Poker last year.
Le, wearing a conservative striped shirt and dark glasses, already was seated in front of his $10,000 stacks of chips, the initial buy-in for all 317 players.
The 26-year-old, who has won more than $4 million on the tour, was in his first semester at California State University, Northridge, when he began playing poker in the student union between classes.
He almost always dominated the players, who included his economics professor.
One evening at the Hustler Casino in Gardena, Calif., Le staked his student loans and financial aid.
He lost big time.
But he quit school and kept on playing, sometimes as much as 70 hours a week.
Poker has changed his living habits, which often means sleeping through the day and playing at card clubs until dawn and beyond.
"I eat whatever I feel like when I wake up. Sometimes it's breakfast and sometimes it's dinner," he says. "You pretty much make your own schedule. Everything fluctuates, from your eating to sleeping habits."
• • •
Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, with his long hair, dark glasses and cowboy hat, is considered one of the game's finer players — he holds a doctorate in computer science from UCLA — calculating his odds deliberately, studying his opponents methodically behind dark glasses.
Ferguson has been a serious player for the past 10 years. He thinks the poker explosion has been good: There are plenty of novice "fish" — poker slang for inexperienced players — out there for him to pick off.
"I think there is a bubble effect going on," he says. "The question is: When is the bubble going to burst?"
Ferguson cautioned that the game is demanding over the long haul, and that playing on the Internet is a far cry from facing down real opponents.
"If you want to make money, professional poker is almost certainly the wrong field," he says.
"Professional poker players are all brilliant. Almost all of them could make money doing other things."
WPT, which owns World Poker Tour, hires auditor
Wed Aug 17, 2005 9:06 AM ET
NEW YORK, Aug 17 (Reuters) - WPT Enterprises Inc. (WPTE.O: Quote, Profile, Research), the owner of the World Poker Tour television show, on Wednesday said it hired Las Vegas-based Piercy Bowler Taylor & Kern to serve as its independent auditor.
The Los Angeles-based company announced the hiring after former auditor Deloitte and Touche LLP resigned. WPT said on June 30 the resignation was prompted by WPT's involvement in an online gaming venture that "created audit risks that would require an inordinate investment in time and resources" relative to WPT's size.
In a statement, WPT Chief Executive Steve Lipscomb said the company "intends to quickly move forward" to file its second-quarter report with regulators. U.S. poker champion Doyle Brunson recently offered to buy WPT for $700 million, but last month said his unsolicited offer expired.
Wed Aug 17, 2005 9:06 AM ET
NEW YORK, Aug 17 (Reuters) - WPT Enterprises Inc. (WPTE.O: Quote, Profile, Research), the owner of the World Poker Tour television show, on Wednesday said it hired Las Vegas-based Piercy Bowler Taylor & Kern to serve as its independent auditor.
The Los Angeles-based company announced the hiring after former auditor Deloitte and Touche LLP resigned. WPT said on June 30 the resignation was prompted by WPT's involvement in an online gaming venture that "created audit risks that would require an inordinate investment in time and resources" relative to WPT's size.
In a statement, WPT Chief Executive Steve Lipscomb said the company "intends to quickly move forward" to file its second-quarter report with regulators. U.S. poker champion Doyle Brunson recently offered to buy WPT for $700 million, but last month said his unsolicited offer expired.
