California Sports Journal

"Just last September, one of our regulars, El Dorado Bob, died of a heart attack right there at Table 3. I was dealing at Table 14, right next to him," the Oakland resident said, pointing into the thicket of players and tables and security guards on the club’s main floor.

But in all his years of dealing people their destiny, Blackburn can’t remember a time when poker was as popular as it is today.

"Ever since the World Series of Poker has been on TV, our business has noticeably increased, especially in the last year or so," he said.

Poker, for so long a game of myth and mystery, has become an accepted and legitimate part of pop culture. Evidence of this phenomenon can be seen just about any night on television, when stations like ESPN, the Travel Channel, Fox Sports and even Bravo broadcast their popular poker shows. And reaping the benefits of the poker explosion are card rooms like Oak’s in the East Bay and Bay 101, Lucky Chances and Artichoke Joe’s on the peninsula.

"Any card club you go to, the poker business, particularly hold ’em, has been picking up," said Stephen Fowler, a shift manager at Oak’s.

In Texas Hold ’Em, the game of choice these days among professionals and amateurs alike, players are dealt two cards face down and then five cards are dealt face up in the middle of the table. These five are "community cards," meaning everybody uses them in their hand. The first three of them are dealt all at once, called the "flop," and then the last two are dealt one at a time, called the "turn" and the "river." Players bet throughout, on each successive card in increments of $2, $3 or $6, and whoever finishes with the best five-card poker hand wins. The average hand can net the winner anywhere from $25 to $100, depending on how active the betting is.

Sounds simple, but many poker professionals have spent their career debunking the myth that anybody can do it. And for new players who watch poker on TV and think it is easy to master, the only way to learn is the hard way.

Erica L. from Oakland, who doesn’t consider herself a professional but who has been playing regularly at Oak’s for almost 10 years, said that she welcomes the newcomers.

"I don’t feel bad about (taking their money), especially because these kids have an attitude," she said. "They all think they’re these young bucks who can dominate the table, so it feels good to take their money."

Oak’s is not the dark, smoky back-room-of-the-bar one might envision a poker parlor to be. It more closely resembles a vast conference hall, with high ceilings, bright fluorescent lights, and more than 20 large gaming tables. Its storied history began more than 100 years ago, in 1895, when Conger’s Tavern opened up its card room for business. In the mid-30s, the gaming center was renamed Oak’s Card Club, after the old Oakland Oaks baseball team, and it has existed at the same site at the corner of San Pablo and Park ever since.

The crowd is not all grizzled poker vets, however, though it only takes one look around the room to see that they still exist. Instead, it is broader mix of ages and ethnicities.

"The explosion is good because it creates new players," Blackburn said. "You always need new players, because weak players eventually figure it out, or their wife figures it out for them, and they hang it up."

On Thursday night, Erika was introducing a friend of hers, Chris Wilder of Los Gatos, to the game at Oak’s. And even though it was his first time playing with anybody other than his buddies, Wilder was confident. He even felt bad for his opponents.

"I’m going to be taking their money and I don’t even know them," he said. "I don’t know if they can afford it or what."

According to Blackburn, there are many players who can’t afford it. He said they are easy to spot: always hanging on the rail surrounding the gaming area, the first ones there on payday and hitting up their friends for money once theirs runs out.

"It can be pretty ugly," he said.

Blackburn would know. He was once one of them.

"I used to be a sick railbird," he said. "I lost my wife, my house, my car."

The lines in his face and the white in his hair are indications of some of what he has faced in his life, though he still retains a friendly, affable nature that would seem more common among neighborhood bartenders. More telling are his mannerisms – like the way he fiddles with his keys while talking, shuffling them like poker veterans shuffle their chips – and the mathematical way he analyzes questions.

"I would say maybe 3% of poker players can support themselves just by playing," he said, revealing the poker player’s natural instinct to determine odds.

Blackburn said that he tried Gambler’s Anonymous, but that it didn’t work for him. The irony for Blackburn is that he didn’t solve his gambling problem until he got a job at Oak’s, the same place where he had lost all of his money.

"I got a steady income and I got a girlfriend," he said. "If you are an addicted gambler like I was, if you don’t find something equally powerful in your life, you can’t stop. I found my girlfriend."

He said that he occasionally tries to talk to and counsel some of the people he think might have a problem, but that most don’t want any advice.

"If you’re really into this thing, other people talking to you isn’t going to stop you," he said. "You’ve got to want to stop."

While poker can turn into a compulsion for some, most at Oak’s merely see it as entertainment.

"We had a blast," said Wilder after four hours at the tables. "Most of the night, I was up about $100, although by the end of the night I was only up about $15. But coming out with more money than I started with, that’s a successful night.

"I’ll definitely be back."