October 11, 2005

ATLANTA - Years ago, ESPN tried showing the World Series of Poker, and someone said that poker was as exciting as watching bears hibernate. Now, it's World Series of Poker time again, but now it's glitz city, baaaaay-bee: hyped-up announcers, high drama, wacko nicknames, huge prizes, everything but cheerleaders. And you won't have to wait long for them, probably. The difference, introduced a mere two years ago, was the little hidden camera at each player's seat that shows the hidden "hole" cards, the ones the other poker players can't see. Originally called a "lipstick camera" because of its size and shape, ESPN now calls theirs the "Milwaukee's Best Light (Beer) Pocket Cam." Same device, mucho more macho name. And any outcry that they're over-commercializing poker has been drowned out by the coast-to-coast ka-chinging of the poker craze. Poker is now the third-most-popular sport on cable TV, after football and cars driving in a circle real fast. It airs on at least six different cable channels with a dizzying variety of shows. Internet poker sites have ballooned to way over $1 billion a year (despite that pesky illegality), and you can't drive down a major road anywhere without seeing some bar advertising Texas Hold 'Em Night. All because of that little lipstick cam, which lets the home audience see what the others can't, and figure out who's bluffing and who has a real hand. With all the televised poker, now poker is the main event. The TV ratings of the 2005 World Series of Poker which air thru November prove it, even though the event took place in July and the the winner is widely known.