LV Life

Poker enthusiasm sweeping ULV

A group of University of La Verne students gathered at an off-campus location Monday to play poker. The group also often meets on campus twice a week to play “Texas Hold ‘Em No Limits.” It is not uncommon for a game to last until 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. / photo by Adam Omernik
A group of University of La Verne students gathered at an off-campus location Monday to play poker. The group also often meets on campus twice a week to play “Texas Hold ‘Em No Limits.” It is not uncommon for a game to last until 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. / photo by Adam Omernik

Tom Anderson
Staff Writer

In case you spent most of this past summer under a rock, you might like to know that poker, the proverbial 800-pound gorilla of card games, has gotten even stronger of late, thanks in no small part to hit TV shows like “World Poker Tour” and “Celebrity Poker Showdown.” Poker’s surging popularity can be felt in more and more corners of America with each broadcast, and it has even invaded the University of La Verne, or at least the top floor of the Oaks F dorm.

Sophomore Duke Trinh has been playing poker since his junior year of high school, or about three years in all. Back when Trinh started playing, poker was typically played by either casino-hopping card sharks or senior citizens; the game rarely showed up on the radar screens of other, more abundant and culturally-influential sections of the population.

But once people started turning on the TV to see the likes of Ben Affleck, Martin Sheen, Shannon Elizabeth, Star Jones and Matthew Perry compete for both bragging rights and money for their favorite charities, poker quickly made the long and normally difficult jump from lame to cool.

For those who watch poker on TV but think they could not play very well themselves, Trinh is quick to argue that the game is actually rather simple.

“It’s honestly all about strategy,” he said. “You have to know when to raise, when to fold and when to bluff.”

Unfortunately, one cannot successfully address the game of poker without addressing the practice that is almost universally associated with it. That practice is, of course, gambling. Trinh was quick to point out that he does not find the prospect of financial gain and/or loss terribly enticing.

“Some like to win money, but I just play to get better,” he said, though he admits that he and his buddies occasionally play at venues such as Casino Morongo in Cabazon and Casino Viejas near San Diego. Trinh also said that money sometimes changes hands at the dorm games, though never more than “a couple of bucks.”

Fellow ULV student and poker player Keith Watabayashi, on the other hand, takes a much less passive approach to the monetary factor. Watabayashi claimed that he had won about $1,100 over a handful of visits to nearby casinos. What he neglected to mention was how much he started out with and how much, if any, money he lost. Regardless, four digits worth of winnings is an undeniably alluring proposition, moral discrepancies notwithstanding.

In addition to the money, poker also gets its appeal from its inherent accessibility. “In a sport like basketball, you start getting over the hill at 30 and quit,” noted Trinh. “But in poker the more you play and the older you get, the wiser you become.”

In other words, poker (along with most card games) does not put a premium on youthful exuberance and physical conditioning like stick and ball sports typically do; rather, poker emphasizes things like experience, cleverness and, occasionally, sheer dumb luck.

Players who want to gain experience and improve their abilities have two preferred avenues available for doing so: practice through playing or watch a professional at work. The recent invasion of poker-based TV shows has allowed more casual players to observe the masters of the game in action and, hopefully, pick up their techniques, all from the comfort of one’s own living room.

However, as with many games, amateurs do not just watch the professionals to learn from them; they also watch to cheer on their hero or heroes.

“I like Men the Master,” says Trinh of his favorite, Vietnamese refugee-turned-poker legend Men Nguyen.

Tom Anderson can be reached at tanderson1@ulv.edu.

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