Poker’s greatest allure of course comes from the chance to win big. In the last two years we have seen regular “Joe’s” take their seats at the world’s biggest poker event and walk away as millionaires. Jemal Hamilton cites his card playing grandfather and makes the brilliant yet simple point, “…you need money to play poker because that makes it important…the important thing is taking your hard-earned cash, this thing that measures our lives and time, then standing up and putting it on the line” (ctd in Hamilton 1). Money is the driving force behind poker. The betting is intense and occurs four times in each hand of hold-‘em. The chance to win big is there on every hand. If you go all in with $100 and three people “call” you, you will triple your money by winning that hand. Then there are the tournaments, where the real big money is. A person can enter a “satellite” tournament, which guarantees entry to a larger tournament (Mihailovhich 1). These satellite tournaments have a relatively cheap entry fee. The man who won the WSOP this year paid $150 to enter a satellite, and ended up winning $5 million (Mihailovich 1). Even an amateur cash game player such as Dustin Filloy has the chance to make a good bit of money. Just last week he turned his $100 into $600 spending two nights in Atlantic City poker rooms.

While poker has been around for many years, the last two have seen an explosion unlike any the game has ever seen. Poker rooms are filling at an incredible rate, and even the WSOP has seen the amount of participants almost triple, just in the past two years. The allure of this game is the same as how it was shown in old western films. The heart pounding adrenaline of a big bluff, staring down your opponent, holding four of a kind and praying someone calls your bet all points to excitement and entertainment. While the poker explosion may just be a fad, it is certainly a roller coaster ride on the most electrifying card game in the world.

Works Cited

Betchel, Mark. “Q and A Chris Moneymaker.” Sports Illustrated 12 Apr. 2004: 28.
Borgata Games. The Borgata. 7/28/2004. http://www.theborgata.com/main.cfm?Section=play01&TabType=A&SideNav=t ournaments&Content=play04d
Creswell, Julie. “A Poker IPO is in the Cards.” Fortune 12 Jul. 2004: 38.
Filloy, Dustin. Personal Interview. 26 Jul. 2004.
Hamilton, Jemal. “Romancing The Game.” Maclean’s 24 May 2004: 78.
Mihailovich, Steven. “Poker Series Draw Renewed Interest.” Las Vegas Business Press 14 Jun. 2004: 12.
Mihailovich, Steven. “Poker Draws Major Attention.” Las Vegas Business Press 16 Feb. 2004: 1.

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