Fair Holdem

Since poker is thought of as the great American pastime, considered by foreigners to be the quintessential American game, it is ironic that playing poker is illegal in most of the fifty states. Of course it is only illegal if you bet money, but as any poker player will tell you, poker isn't poker without money. Although a few states are considering legalizing poker cardrooms, poker is perhaps the least exploited source of government revenue from gambling.

The folly of this oversight is dramatically illustrated by the case of Gardena, California, a small community twelve miles from downtown Los Angeles. It hosts six legal poker cardrooms: the Eldorado, the Gardena, the Horseshoe, the Monterey, the Normandie, and the Rainbow. These clubs are open twenty-four hours a day, six days a week. Each club closes on a different day of the week so that a poker addict can always find action.

Poker was legalized in Gardena in 1936. Draw poker was considered not to constitute gambling because it is a game of skill, a verdict with which any poker player will agree, at least when he is winning. Surprisingly, stud poker, a game requiring greater skill, was classified as a game of chance. Today it is the one form of poker that is illegal to play in Gardena.

All the clubs offer versions of draw poker and lowball and some also have high-low. The clubs have no house dealers so the players take turns dealing, as in a private game. In fact, the only thing to remind you that you are not playing in a private game is the young lady who comes over every half-hour to collect the house's fee. This fee ranges from one to five dollars, depending on the size limit of the game you are playing. This fee is the only charge for playing and gives the player a better break than the Las Vegas practice of cutting each pot.

As in Vegas, all the clubs hire house players. Their only purpose in doing so is to help fill empty seats to keep a game going. In Las Vegas, shills are officially called "game starters." Although this term isn't used in Gardena it aptly describes their function. These players are on their own as far as winning or losing. So if you discover such a house player, don't jump to the conclusion that the club is engaged in some dark conspiracy to defraud you.

Unlike Las Vegas, Gardena does not have games with really high stakes. There are many one and two dollar games, and the highest legal bet in any game is twenty dollars. There are some professional poker players who frequent these cardrooms, but most of the players are retired persons who play daily or working people who play several evenings a week to relax, the way some people frequent the corner tavern. But don't let that make you overconfident if you find yourself in a game with them. The frequency with which they play together along with their familiarity of the rapid style of play usually followed in these clubs makes many of the regulars' stiff competition for an outsider.