Columnist Melissa Schorr: Flush with a passion for poker

Melissa Schorr

Monday, April 26, 1999 | 9:45 a.m.

Lately I've become a poker fiend.

I've found myself gazing at the photos of poker champions hanging on the wall of Binion's Horseshoe card room. I'm addicted to my computerized version of Texas hold 'em. I even cheered at the end of "Rounders," when Matt Damon dumped his girlfriend and headed toward Vegas.

Instead of idolizing columnists such as Pulitzer Prize-winner Maureen Dowd, I seek words of wisdom from writers such as Susie Isaacs and David Sklansky in Card Player and Poker Digest magazines. Strange new phrases have entered my vocabulary, such as "the river" and "the flop." I've even had erotic poker dreams about getting "the nuts."

Yep, I'm hooked.

I've been winning, too. Don't ask me how. Something about my age/gender seems to throw my opposition, who can't figure out why a healthy young woman would choose to spend her time in a smoky room with unflattering lighting. "Is she a sap?" they wonder. "Or a shark?"

They're glad to see me, though, because some poker aficionados are worried about recruiting the next generation of addicts into the game. At a recent poker conference, one card room manager fretted that he had more players in their 70s than in their 20s.

"The old stream of poker players used to play in the service to pass the time," June Field, editor/publisher of Poker Digest, notes. "Since there's been no active war (lately), it hasn't generated as many young players."

Lack of disposable income is another factor. "A younger person can't (always) put up $2,000 to play in a tournament," she says.

Only 12 percent of Card Player magazine subscribers are ages 21 to 35, Editor Linda Johnson says. But she sees a respectable influx of young people to the game. "When we do poker cruises, 80 percent are under 40," she says. "It's also popular among college students."

With high-tech aids such as computer simulations and strategy books, the learning curve has been accelerated; 40 years of card room experience can be negated by a brash brainiac who's run millions of hands on his PC. "It's possible to reach 95 percent of your poker-playing potential within two years," Jim Albrecht, former director of the World Series of Poker, contends.

Youth can even be advantageous. Young players -- even pros such as Phil Hellmuth Jr., who became a world champion at age 24 -- find themselves being underestimated. "People tend to assume I don't know what I'm doing -- which, in poker, is a very nice thing," quips Hellmuth, now 34 and already penning his memoirs, "Poker Brat."

In fact, too much experience can be a negative. "A younger person has more courage, or lack of fear," Field observes. "And physically, they have more stamina." That's crucial, with tournaments that can run 16 hours long. "I don't know how people like (the late) Johnny Moss, (who last won money in 1992 at age 84) did it," Albrecht confides. "He said to me, 'Old folks don't even have a chance.' "

Poker experts predict we'll be seeing more young poker studs in the future. In the early days of the Horseshoe tournament (which begins this week at Binion's), most winners were middle-aged, while in recent years, at least four players in their 20s have won the big enchilada.

"Now it doesn't surprise any of the players when a young person wins," Albrecht notes, "whereas it used to."