Sadly or not so sadly, it's my last column this term. I've had some interesting requests. I was asked to write more as a horse. I was asked to highlight the positive side of steroid use. I was even asked to discuss the reasons a woodpecker pecks trees (if you're curious, they do it to "echo-locate" insects). But undoubtedly, the most valuable request came from a friend who asked why I didn't write about "something, you know, like better."
I started this spring writing about Gary Sheffield's near-explosion at Fenway, which, I think it's safe to say, ended up being somewhat of a non-event. Basketball playoffs are winding down, another dramatic football season is shaping up and hockey is still absent from the headlines. A woman just made a big splash in the Indy 500. After 142 tournaments, Tiger finally showed the chink in his armor. An American just bought the most revered soccer franchise in the world. Change appears to be our only constant. A retrospective would follow logically here.
But instead of focusing on what's behind us, let's turn our gaze forward for a second and exchange sentiment for excitement. And what could be "you know, like better" than poker? This Thursday marks the beginning of the 35th World Series of Poker. It doesn't have the mass appeal of the Super Bowl, but for gamblers, this is the Holy Grail. Before July is over, a new poker hero will rise from blue-collar or Internet obscurity to collect a few million dollars.
I remember playing five-card stud for matchsticks before money had value. I remember getting a crash course in the ways of Texas Hold 'Em. Now, I'm supposed to know how to play online against other "people." The past two World Series of Poker champions qualified in $40 online tournaments and went on to win $2.5 million. The face of the game is changing.
On a grander scale, however, poker's most recent evolutionary leap pales in comparison to those that have preceded it. The game has an interesting history, which is often termed speculative because so little documentation exists. The name "poker" has roots in both German and French. The French played a game called "poque," whose name is derived from the German word "pochen," which means "to knock." Interestingly, it is commonly believed that neither of these games is actually the one upon which modern poker is based. Some sources even hypothesize that the name "poker" came from the term "hocus-pocus" because many early players managed to win with sleight-of-hand skills that amateurs thought resembled magic.
Poker most closely resembles a Persian card game called "As Nas," which shares a common ancestry with the Renaissance game of "primero." Persian sailors taught "As Nas" to French settlers in New Orleans in the early 19th century, originally playing with only 20 cards -- the 10 through the Ace. This early era saw the birth of the professional gambler, and poker became his game of choice. Settlers carried it west, and many attribute the increase in cheating of this era to the fact that professional gamblers were often dislocated from their families. With no stigmas to carry, these unscrupulous individuals were free to cheat without the burden of shaming their family name.
By the Civil War, the game had spawned a number of varieties. It was during this period that people began to play with the standard 52-card deck, adopted the use of wild cards and introduced the concept of the flush and straight. Texas Hold ' Em developed from community-card games, which became a popular variety in the 1920s. The game has also become popular in Asia, and many attribute its global proliferation to the U.S. military.
Poker has come a long way and is quickly becoming one of our generation's favorite forms of competition. This year's World Series of Poker should prove as exciting and unpredictable as the last two. Now that anyone can qualify online, the field is open and the competition is stronger. So if baseball or the NBA finals don't provide enough entertainment for you in the upcoming weeks, tune in to ESPN for over 30 hours of nail-biting poker coverage. Even if you don't enjoy the drama, at least check it out to see how much the game has changed.
Sports are not everyone's favorite topic, but I hope something in the variety I addressed this term interested you. Thus concludes my attempt at covering " something you know, like better." I hope you enjoyed it.
