SIGOURNEY - On the surface, watching a card game on television sounds about as interesting as golf or tennis on TV. Some people will watch, but most will quickly change the channel.
But poker, specifically Texas Hold Em, thrives. ESPN airs the World Series of Poker. Poker shows up on the schedule 23 times between July and October.
Need another barometer for the game's popularity? Type "Texas Hold Em" into Google and you get about 5 million returns. Type poker into eBay and more than 19,000 items pop up.
That helps explain why the Sigourney Main Street Chamber held a poker tournament Saturday night. Most gambling in Iowa is illegal, but organizer Sue Martin said the chamber falls under an exemption for charitable organizations or non-profit groups. It's the same exemption used for church bingo.
"We can only do one of these gambling tournaments once a year," Martin said.
She said the chamber already had a two-year license for raffles. The cost for adding on a license for a poker tournament is nominal, Martin put it at $25, so they figured they might as well try it out.
The tournament had a 90 percent payout to the final table. Any money raised over that went into the fireworks fund. A similar tournament last fall had 25 people.
"If we get that, it would be nice," Martin said. "If we get more it would be nice."
Turnout appeared to be just under last fall's numbers. Of course, the tournament was rescheduled from January, when a snowstorm forced its cancellation. Most players came from the area. One came from Coralville. Martin said the chamber tries to advertise widely, knowing that serious poker players are willing to drive an hour or so to get to a tournament.
Steve Coleman was one of the people who had a shorter drive. He's a big man clad in overalls. Coleman has a big laugh and was relaxed before the tournament started.
He's from Packwood. "Suburban Sigourney," he laughs. Coleman is relatively new to poker tournaments, though not the game itself.
"I just started a couple months ago," he said. "I watched a lot on ESPN. I've been playing poker quite a while, so I thought I'd try one of these."
The first tournament wasn't too bad, Coleman said, though he didn't say where he came in. The most recent tournament was even better - he won that one.
"I got lucky," he said. "Got good cards at the right time."
Luck plays a part in Texas No Limit Hold Em, but strategy does, too. Each player gets two cards, dealt face down. Only the player knows what's on them.
Players make bets based on those two cards. It's not uncommon to see players fold right then and there, knowing they don't have enough to make a run at the pot.
Then comes the flop. That's when the dealer puts three cards face up in the middle of the table. Those cards go with the two the players already have. Players can fold or bet more, based on the strength of their hand.
If more than one player is still in after the flop, the dealer puts another card face up on the table. That's the turn. Again, players can fold or bet.
If two players are still around after the turn, the dealer plays the river. That's the final card placed face up. Players make the best possible five-card hand out of their two cards and the five community cards. The high hand wins.
Luck plays a role. But good players can bluff everyone else out of a round before they even get to the river. That, along with knowing how much to bet and when, is where strategy comes in. A player has to have both good luck and good strategy to win.
Coleman likes tournaments along the lines of Saturday's. The buy-in for the tournament was $25. That got a player $1,000 worth of chips.
"I think the attraction for this is you get in for a nominal amount and get to play with a lot more chips," Coleman said. "If you're playing with $3,000 of your own money, you'd play a little differently."
Coleman prefers these tournaments to the games that involve four or five friends on a Friday night. It's too easy to take things personally when someone wins, even when those games have a $1 limit.
"It made a lot of hard feelings," he said. The tournaments are a bit different. "It's still competitive. Everyone hates to lose."
Coleman was right at home among the tournament's players. It was a loud, gregarious bunch. There was a lot of talk back and forth; predictions of victory and, inevitably, humiliation were tossed around as people waited to get started.
The tournament finally started at about 7 p.m. It wasn't all that easy to get things settled down. Finally, a loud "Everybody, shut up!" broke through the babble.
It was a different setting once cards were dealt. The talk died away, leaving only the occasional quip for others at the table. The rattle of cards being shuffled and the clink of chips far outdid the sound of voices.
Two tables started. Coleman took the second hand at his table. He was out by the flop on the third hand, when everything lined up right for a big pot.
The flop drew a king and two queens. Coleman couldn't resist a low commentary.
"Oh my God, this is going to get expensive," he said quietly.
He was right. The hand saw the first $100 bets. A hand a few minutes later was even bigger. The dealer put out two kings and an ace.
This time two players stayed in right through the river. Each player had a good hand. But two pair, aces and kings, beat two pair, kings and 10s.
It was a big pot, but no one seemed too put out as the cards were dealt for the next hand. There was, after all, a lot more poker to go.
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Matt Milner can be reached at (641) 683-5359 or via e-mail at mwmilner@mchsi.com.
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Texas Hold 'Em terminology
The blind - The first bets of each hand, made on the strength of players' first two cards.
The flop - The first three common cards, dealt face up on the table.
The turn - The fourth common card, also dealt face up.
The river - The final common card from the dealer.
The best five-card combination from the players' two cards and the common cards wins the hand.
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