Poker Face

Gone are the iconic old greasy poker players – green visors, cigars and all. Now, poker is glamorous. Heck – it’s televised, and even celebrities like Ben Affleck, Tony Hawk and Angela Bassett aren’t ashamed to say they play it. Poker is hot, and teenagers are flocking to it with open arms.

ESPN started televising the World Series of Poker a little over a year ago, and since then, poker popularity’s taken off like gangbusters. The Travel Channel, Bravo and Fox SportsNet have also taken to televising poker tournaments.

The young players on the televised tournaments are one reason the sport’s really taking off with teens and young people. Whether it’s “The Crew,” a group of 20-somethings headed up by phenom Dutch Boyd, who earned a law degree at age 18, or Phil Ivey, a 27-year-old who’s been playing poker professionally for 10 years, there are plenty of young success stories to latch on to.

Emily Biondo, a senior in high school from Maryland, says that while she started playing poker with her family when she was in sixth grade, she didn’t come out of the “poker closet” until last year, when poker became mainstream in her school. She estimates that about 90 percent of her school knows how to play poker, just from watching the shows. And, she said, about 60 percent play regularly,

Studies in the United States and Canada have indicated that about 80 percent of teenagers have reported gambling in the past year. While sports gambling used to be the most popular way to take a risk, in the past year, all that attention has switched to poker.

While many teens might not bet any money and play just to have something to do in the suburbs with their friends on a Friday night, others lay down around $20 a game. One teen told WireTap that their friend cashed their entire paycheck each week, around $200, and used it to play poker until the next check came in. The phenomenon has even sparked an urban legend in the Philadelphia area about a freshman who was so indebted to upperclassmen because of poker that he sold his laptop.

While most players are just into the game for some fun with their friends or family, some parents are having a hard time teaching their kids the value of money when millions of dollars might be won or lost on an average televised event. One parent asked ABC News, “How can I teach [my son] to earn his allowance of $10 per week when he sees people betting tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars?”

The idea that poker, or gambling in general, is a "get rich quick" game might truly be a myth, according to Jackie Lapin, media relations coordinator for the World Poker Tour. “One lesson to be learned in poker is hard work,” she said. “The guys at the top of this game work very hard. They read all the books and study the opposition. They are always, always learning. The people that we deal with are people who have done well, and it’s because they’re very serious students. It’s like anything else. If you work hard and practice long enough, you will get better.”

With so many young people spending time on the Internet in their free time, it makes sense that online poker is especially popular. Many sites offer players free credits to play against people all over the world. The last two World Series of Poker winners have qualified online. In fact, most big poker events like the World Series have seen dramatic increase in numbers of players who have qualified online, sometimes for no money at all. Because some players buy their way into the big events for fees of up to $10,000, this is an appealing option, especially for new players.

Vikrant Bhargava, general manager of partypoker.com, one of the Internet’s most popular and well advertised poker sites, says that online poker has grown almost 15 times bigger in the past 18 months. At any given time, partypoker.com hosts about 65,000 players simultaneously. “The market has just exploded with people becoming less shy about playing poker with others outside of their close friends circle,” Bhargava says.