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| (From l.)
T. J. Cloutier, Howard Lederer, Richard Pienciak,
Doyle Brunson and tournament creator Henry
Orenstein at launch of Poker Superstars
Invitational Tournament. |
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| Poker
Face Pienciak goes one-on-one with Poker legends
Doyle Brunson ... |
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| ... and
T.J. Cloutier. |
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It is
the first hand of the star-studded night; Howard
Lederer, one of the best Texas Holdem players in the
world, has already folded his hole cards in the No.
1 seat.
When the betting comes my way in the No. 8 chair, I
call with two hearts, King-Seven.
No one bets the flop. I pair my Seven on the turn
and again no one takes the lead.
The river is a Six, so I raise. Sure enough, I win
the pot.
Lederer looks over at me, nods and says, "Good
call."
Howard Lederer, one of the best Texas Holdem players
in the entire world, has just given me the nod.
Pienciak's Poker Tour has hit the big time.
IN THE COMPANY OF GREATNESS
I look over at the next table and there - wearing a
big ol' white cowboy hat and an even bigger smile -
is Doyle (Texas Dolly) Brunson, one of the
granddaddies of Holdem.
T. J. Cloutier, who has won more major poker
championships than anyone, is sitting at a table
less than 20 yards away.
Also drawing cards in between the actors and Wall
Street types is Henry Orenstein - Holocaust
survivor, author, inventor (including the
"Transformers" toys), poker professional (won the
World Series of Poker's 7-Card Stud tourney in 1996)
and incredible human being from Verona, N.J.
Orenstein, 80, has more than 100 patents; among
them, he invented the technique that has fueled the
TV frenzy over Holdem - the camera-through-table
view that gives spectators a peek at players' hole
cards.
This is a golden opportunity for the PPT to spend
quality time with these four poker giants, who are
at the Time Warner Center on Columbus Circle to
promote tonight's premiere of the biggest Holdem
showdown of all time - the Poker Superstars
Invitational Tournament.
Ever the thinker, former chess player Orenstein came
up with the idea to assemble eight poker champions,
get them to kick in $400,000 each - the largest
tournament buy-in ever - and battle it out before
millions of poker fans on TV.
The six matches, already taped, will unfold the next
12 Sundays at 9 p.m. on Fox Sports Net; the finals,
where the winner walks away with $1 million, will be
broadcast Feb. 6, 2005 on NBC, immediately before
the start of Super Bowl XXXIX.
The eight participants, who also include Phil Ivey,
Johnny Chan, Barry Greenstein, Gus Hansen and Chip
Reese, have collectively won more than $100 million
in tournament play.
NO MORE TEN-DEUCE
Many starting hands are linked to a famous player.
Brunson, 71, has had to endure a connection to
Ten-Deuce, a hand that he won big with years ago,
forcing him to keep playing the dubious combo for
emotional reasons. "The losses were so bad, I quit
playing it. Common sense overcame sentiment."
Brunson, 71, helped lay the foundation for all the
good that has been happening lately in the world of
poker. He's the author of "Super System - a Course
in Power Poker," long considered the Bible of poker
instructional books.
He's played in every World Series of Poker. "In the
beginning (1970), there was six of us," he says.
This year's tournament, which carried a $10,000
buy-in and a $5 million first prize, had 2,576
entrants.
"I started playing when I got out of college in 1955
- and I've been playing professionally ever since,"
Brunson says. "In those days, we had to drive 500
miles to play. The game was played in the back of
pool halls and bars. You were looked down on like
you were a second-class citizen. You had to take
getting robbed, you had the police, you got arrested
a lot. It was quite a bit different than today's
environment."
Brunson doesn't play in many tournaments these days.
"It's just that there are so many players, it's hard
to win one of them," he says. "It's really not worth
your time unless you don't have anything else to
do."
He thinks the TV tournament will help poker's
profile because with the pros, he feels, "skill is
emphasized over luck."
Brunson also thinks poker's popularity has yet to
peak. "I think it's gonna get bigger and bigger.
I've always known what a great game poker is; I
think America is just finding out."
For Brunson, the big money is "still in the side
games, mostly in Las Vegas."
So what kind of stakes does he typically play for?
"Four thousand/8,000 Limit," he says without
blinking an eye. "Then we play No Limit with $1,000
ante and $2,000 and $4,000 blinds."
MORE WINS
Cloutier, 64, says proudly: "I've got like 57 majors
- and nobody's close."
Plus, he says, there are tons of titles in tourneys
with "$100, $200 and $300 buy-ins that we don't
count."
He too has been playing for decades, starting when
he was a kid caddying in California. Years later, he
was working in the oil fields and playing poker on
his days off. "I found out I was making a lot more
money playing poker than I was in the oil fields,"
he says, "so I just stayed with it."
His favorite starting hand? "Jack-Nine of clubs;
they call that 'The TJ' because I flopped a straight
flush to it three times in one year in a big No
Limit cash game in Dallas. And I got paid off all
three times, too."
From New York, Cloutier heads to Los Angeles for a
major tournament later this month at the Bicycle
casino. The PPT says he'll look him up if he makes
it there, too. Ah, the poker circuit.
FROM WEST SIDE TO VEGAS
"I've been doing this for 22 years. This is all I
know how to do," says Lederer, accompanied by his
sister, Katy, author of "Poker Face," a
highly-regarded family memoir. "I haven't held a
regular job since I was doing Kentucky Fried Chicken
in the summer when I was 14."
"No one could have predicted the magnitude of the
boom," says Lederer, 40, who grew up in New
Hampshire but learned to play poker in Manhattan's
private clubs. He lived on W. 60th St. for 13 years
before moving to Las Vegas in 1993.
"I think there will be a leveling off, but I am not
sure when that will be," he says of the game's
popularity, concurring with his professional pals
that playing in today's tournaments has become
difficult because of the tremendous influx of
amateurs.
Lederer thinks the TV All-Star tournament will help
build more interest in the game, though. "I think
championship poker featuring the best players
playing against the best players might be the
logical place where the best poker programming on TV
goes - and that might really bring in the biggest
audiences" he says.
But, he adds, tourneys like the World Series of
Poker, won by amateurs for the last three years,
will remain popular because of their appeal to "the
reality-TV, lottery aspect of what poker can be.
America loves a lottery, so I think a certain
percentage of the population is going to want to
watch the best poker. And there's always going to be
a certain percentage that wants to see these fresh
faces, and see how people handle the situations."
He emphasizes that he has no problem with all the
amateurs taking their shots at him and the other
pros. "I think it's great and I love playing in
tournaments that have all these players," Lederer
says. "But I think the World Series of Poker has
reached a tipping point, where that's the dominant
story. Now the underdog story would be if a pro won.
I think that's going a little bit too far."
BACK TO THE GAME
My celebrity game at the Time Warner Center with
Lederer has been going on for about 45 minutes; my
chip pile is starting to get low.
The flop includes a Five and two cards that help me.
I now have King, Queen, Jack and Ten. Hoping for a
high straight, I go all in.
I don't connect, but it doesn't matter.
The river is another Five; Lederer turns over his
hole cards - pocket Fives.
The crowd erupts in cheers and applause. Howard
smiles back. The look on his face says it all.
He's got four Fives.
He stands up and shakes my hand.
It's an honor and a privilege to lose to Howard
Lederer - poker champ, former New York City card
player and all-around nice guy.
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