Poker, a game that used to be played in casinos and card rooms, is now showing up everywhere including bachelor parties, birthday parties and baby showers because of the increased media coverage within the past five years.  Poker is now the subject of books, magazines, movies, instructional DVDs, Web sites and most of all television programs.  This recent media blitz surrounding poker has turned it into America's latest craze complete with winners and losers.

The televised game

In 1997 Harry Orenstein, the inventor of the popular children's toys Transformers, patented the hole card camera¹.  This camera allowed television viewers to see a player's cards while he was playing. For the first time, the audience was given all of the information regarding a hand and they were able to see when players were bluffing or sitting on a monster hand.  Five years after his patent, the Travel Channel, a startup spin-off of the Discovery Channel, premiered The World Poker Tour (WPT)--the first program to take advantage of the hole-card camera². 

WPT is considered the first series devoted entirely to televised poker. WPT focuses on tournament-style play of no limit Texas Hold 'Em. This game is a derivation of seven card stud that allows players to bet all of their chips at any time – a bet known as “all in”. The new show instantly became the network's highest rated offering and now averages more than three million viewers per week³. 

Popularity of the game

A search of the upcoming Directv programming schedule revealed ten networks offering poker-related programs(Appendix A) reflecting a common media mantra, copy whatever works. These shows are cookie-cutter versions of the WPT.  Many of them use the same exact format including the popular conventions:

• Hole-card camera
• Displaying the calculated odds of winning for each player
• Only showing high-action hands
• One announcer to provide play by play analysis while another offers expert commentary
• Putting actual cash on the table when the final two players remain

In effort to put a new spin on televised poker, Fox Sports produced Poker Million '05 which used a heart rate monitor for each player and showed the audience their normal and current heart rates during high-stress situations.

Engineering the craze

Many of the original players on WPT are now celebrities. By turning the players in to household names, the networks have been active in developing a salable product to the audience. The producers of media surrounding poker have tried to change the ideological poker player into a glamorous celebrity type. Gus Hansen, a Dutch-born poker and World Champion backgammon player, was named to People Magazine's 2004 Sexiest Man Alive List. The reality is most poker players are not fashionable, cool or witty. Further, many poker players develop a dangerous addiction to gambling.

To grow interest in poker, some programs even invite celebrities to participate in the tournament.  Appearances by Ben Affleck, Toby McGuire, James Woods, Gabe Kaplan and Mimi Rogers are commonplace.  However, a recent rise in celebrity-only tournaments has really developed. 

E! Entertainment Television debuted Hollywood Hold 'Em (HH) this year in which a celebrity hosts a poker game at his or her home and invites their (hopefully famous) friends. This season of HH included appearances by the cast of That 70's Show and games hosted by Macaulay Culkin, Shannon Elizabeth and Patrick Warburton (David Putty from Seinfeld). Bravo Network's celebrity only poker television program is called Celebrity Poker Showdown and has featured big name stars such as Ray Romano, Chevy Chase, Amy Poehler, Mena Suvari and Norm MacDonald. Bravo's implementation of televised poker is by far the most loosely based poker game.  It is more hamming for the camera by the celebrity players than anything else. However, it does serve to introduce viewers to the craze that may have no interest in poker but are merely tuning in to see their favorite stars.

Dominating all media

Poker has infiltrated many different media channels including magazines, books, movies, dramatic television, instructional DVDs and Web sites. The company that produces WPT, WPT Enterprises, is a shining example of this horizontal integration.  It produces the television program, runs local “satellite” tournaments, produces and sells the official WPT card and chip set, books and DVDs.  Some other examples and statistics for poker's cross-media domination follow:

Magazines: There are more than 10 magazines dedicated to poker or the gaming industry.  Of these magazines, Card Player is the largest distributing more than 150,000 copies of each bi-weekly issue⁴.

Books: Amazon.com lists 106 books about Texas Hold 'Em and another 1000 on poker in general.

Movies: Lucky You is currently in post production and is set to be released in March 2006 and stars Eric Bana, Drew Barrymore, Robert Duvall, Robert Downey Jr. and Debra Messing.  The movie chronicles a poker player's (Bana) attempt to win the World Series of Poker⁵.

Dramatic television: ESPN's original series Tilt stars Michael Madsen who works with a band of gaming pros to take down a poker legend.

Instructional DVDs: Buy.com lists more than 20 titles about poker including the ubiquitous Dummies series entry, Poker for Dummies.

Web sites: According to SI.com “Five years ago there were perhaps a few dozen online sites. Now that figure is racing toward 300”.

The effects

Poker's rise in popularity over the past five years may have contributed to the larger social problem of gambling addiction. In a 2004 survey of callers to their 1-800-GAMBLER addiction helpline, The Council on Compulsive Gambling in New Jersey found a rise in card (including poker) and dice addiction from 4 percent to 28 percent in just one year. 

A recovering gambling addict and Gamblers Anonymous (GA) meeting coordinator, Ara H. said he has noticed a rise in meeting attendance corresponding to the popularity of poker.  Ara noted that the number of GA meetings being held in the Los Angeles area has grown from roughly 50 to 80 in the past four years.

The National Council on Problem Gambling, Inc. estimates that 2 million Americans meet the criteria for gambling addiction within a given year. Additionally, they estimate another 4 – 8 million would be considered problem gamblers.

These numbers have prompted many unsuccessful state-level calls to regulate gambling advertising and nation-wide efforts to regulate the online gaming industry.

Summing it up

This year ESPN will distill more than 9000 hours⁶ of videotape to air 32 hours of coverage from the World Series of Poker⁷. Additionally, CBS just announced plans to air a new poker series beginning Christmas day⁸. These new offerings are just the tip of the iceberg for poker in America.  Poker is infiltrating the social network of our lives. Akin to the game Trivial Pursuit in the late eighties poker is now played at every type of event. I have personally played poker at my five-year-old nephew's birthday party, a male-only baby shower and my parent's wedding anniversary party.

The media has created hysteria around poker and has turned it into a craze complete with celebrities, instruction manuals, movies and television shows. Considering the negative affects gambling can have on a person's life, perhaps poker should have stayed were it was a few years ago; in casinos where the winners and losers are known. Instead, it has become a game where, despite the winners and losers of the hand, real winners are the media making huge profits from the craze they worked to manufacture.

1. http://poker.about.com/od/pollsquizzesandfun/f/holecaminventor.htm Toby Bochan, Who Invented the "Hole Cam" for Poker?

2. http://www.pokergazette.com/ Michael Tsai, 'All in' for a round of poker

3. http://www.worldpokertour.com/media/mediakit.php?id=20 A Brief History of the World Poker Tour

4. http://www.cardplayer.com/mediakit/circulation.php?page=ci Card Player Magazine's Media Kit

5. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338216/ Internet Movie Database listing

6. http://www.detnews.com/2005/moresports/0507/20/sport-249818.htm Steve Wilstein, Behind the curtain: ESPN expands inside look at World Series of Poker, July 16, 2005

7. http://www.detnews.com/2005/moresports/0507/30/sport-264233.htm Bill Ordine, For ESPN, it's all in the presentation, July 30, 2005

8. http://www.mediaweek.com John Consoli, CBS Sports, ProJo Poker Ink Deal, July 06, 2005

Appendix a – Two week listing of poker-related television programs