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Poker fans bet the game's popularity will keep on growingNov 29, 2009 (The Miami Herald - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- With a little know-how, and a little luck, anyone can win. That simple poker truth -- combined with a few years of massive TV exposure -- has turned the annual World Series of Poker into an almost-Super Bowl type event. Celebrity sightings are commonplace. ESPN broadcasts the play-by-play to a national TV audience. The winner of this year's World Series, which concluded earlier this month, was invited onto the David Letterman show. "All of a sudden, poker is everywhere," Letterman quipped to World Series winner Joe Cada. "And in my mind, the winner of a big pot they find dead in a rental car." One South Florida resident, Coral Springs' Kevin Schaffel, came tantalizingly close to being a guest on Letterman. Schaffel placed eighth in the World Series, and might have captured the title had he not encountered a heavy dose of bad luck. In a huge pot that included more than 35,000,000 in chips, Schaffel held pocket aces -- the best possible starting hand in Texas Hold 'Em poker. Schaffel's lone opponent held pocket kings, the second-best hand. Poker is in part a game of mathematics, and the math dictates that four out of five times, Schaffel's hand will prevail after all the cards are dealt. This was that fifth time -- Schaffel's aces were cracked by four kings. "That's poker -- you're going to see hands like that over and over," Schaffel said. Schaffel nevertheless calls his World Series experience "just fantastic." He took home more than $1.3 million for eighth place. Although poker has spiffed up its image, the games of old did have some unsavory elements. Poker great Doyle Brunson remembers playing decades ago in the back rooms of Texas pool halls and nightclubs. Armed stick-ups were common. "The police never seemed to be too interested in pursuing somebody that robbed a poker game, so it made for a hazardous thing," Brunson recalled. Nowadays, Brunson is a household name in a game that's become unquestionably mainstream. Just how big poker can get is anyone's guess. Cada, at 21 years old the game's youngest champion ever, earned $8.5 million for placing first in a field of nearly 6,500 participants. Each paid $10,000 for their shot at poker fame. "We had 115 different countries have players represented this year," said Seth Palansky, a World Series spokesman. "It's just an astonishing amount -- more than the Olympics." To be fair, that's only more than the Winter Olympics. Poker still has a bit more work to catch the Summer games. Not everyone is happy with the poker boom. Gambling critics like the Florida Family Policy Council say the game's greater social acceptance is largely a result of aggressive PR efforts. "It's being promoted as something that's sexy and adventurous and cool," said council President John Stemberger. "All the big money is on the side of promoting it, not on the side of educating people as to why it's not a smart thing." Stemberger says poker leads to bankruptcy, divorce and increased crime. According to the Florida Council on Compulsive gambling, card-playing (which includes poker and blackjack) recently eclipsed slot machines as the game of choice among men who call Florida's problem gambling helpline. Cada, this year's world champion, disputes that poker belongs in the gambling category. "Yeah, you can get lucky and stuff like that," Cada said. "But a lot of luck is short-term . . . skill weighs in over time." Television might be the largest force in poker's renaissance. It's the third most-watched sport on cable television. The addition of "hole cams," which became part of the World Series in 2002, turned televised poker from a tedious, slow game into one filled with high-stakes drama. Allowing viewers to see the cards that players are holding -- information other players aren't privy to -- adds a voyeuristic element. The Internet was the other key component in the growing one-two punch of poker. Online poker sites allow novice players to play without having to step into a casino atmosphere they might find intimidating or uncomfortable. Players online can also compete for as little as pennies per pot, or play for free. In 2006, anti-gambling forces in Congress struck back at the online poker phenomenon -- passing the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. The law cast a cloud over the legality of Internet gaming, and prompted some websites to no longer accept U.S. players. Attendance at the World Series of Poker also dropped immediately following the new law -- as online poker sites could no longer purchase World Series buy-ins for their users. The poker community responded by forming the Washington-based Poker Players Alliance. The alliance has spent substantial time, and money, lobbying for clear legal status for online poker -- with the promise that government could then tax and regulate such games. The Democratic leadership in Congress has been more receptive to this message than when Republicans were in charge -- there are pro-poker bills filed in both the House and Senate. But so far, at least, no such bill has passed. In Florida, state politics have slowed, though not stopped, poker's expansion. Looser poker rules passed this year by the Legislature -- rules that would pave the way for higher-stakes games, and televised tournaments in Florida -- have yet to become law. The new poker rules have been delayed because they are linked to a compact deal being finalized between the state and the Seminole Tribe. Yet even under Florida's current poker rules, which limit player buy-ins to $100, new poker rooms continue to open. New poker rooms in Miami Gardens (Calder Race Course), Fort Pierce, and Ocala all opened in the past two years. There are more than 30 Florida poker rooms in total. Scott Long, publisher of Florida's Ante Up poker magazine, described the game's future this way: "You could survey 10 entrepreneurs who understand poker and I'd be surprised if fewer than nine of them wouldn't do whatever they could to open a poker room in the state right now." To see more of The Miami Herald or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.herald.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The Miami Herald Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. 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