Resident cast in NESN's poker reality show

Beginning March 20, the New England Sports Network in partnership with New York's YES Network, will air a reality show featuring poker players who are both card sharks and baseball nuts for nine Sundays straight.

The two networks had been on the lookout for a joint programming venture for at least a year, and poker fit the bill in light of the popularity of card shows on cable stations. But it was Sox co-owner Tom Werner who came up with the idea of intensifying the card game with a baseball rivalry second to none.

Casting companies in Boston and New York vetted scores of poker-playing and Red Sox and Yankee fan hopefuls from those two areas for the competition.

Sharon's own Fred Kaplan, a commodities trader, was one of the dozen selected - the 10 men and two women chosen as much for their passionate advocacy of their home baseball team as for their poker skill.

In a recent phone interview, Kaplan's wife, Marcy, said her husband is under strict contract not to discuss "anything concerning the games" until after they're aired - and the pair isn't about to jeopardize their children's college education.

Both John Filipelli and Bill Borson, president and vice president of programming at YES and NESN networks, respectively, said in a news release they were looking for a spirit of competitiveness in the contestants that would make the game fun for viewers to watch.

"This one-of-a-kind format combines individual competition with team play, which results in exciting poker action and lively table discussion," Borson said.

Participants will face off at New York's Turning Stone Resort & Casino near Syracuse for individual and team cash prizes in rounds of no-limit Texas Hold'em poker, a variation of the game even beginners can understand.

The New York team members hail from New Jersey as well as towns near the Big Apple and will wear Yankee blue shirts.

Boston team members will wear Red Sox red and be traveling to Syracuse from Sharon, Melrose and Newton, Mass., and from Seymour and New London, Conn. Some members play poker professionally, but there's also a restaurant manager and owner, entrepreneur, Wall Street trader and accountant among them.

According to PokerTips.org, "The exact origins of poker are unclear. It seems to have originated from a 16th century Persian card game known as As Nas. This game was played with 25 cards with 5 different suits. The game played in a similar fashion to modern 5 card stud and possessed similar poker hands rankings, such as three-of-a-kind. When Europeans began to play the game, they called it 'poque' or 'pochen.' While poker's origins may lie in Europe and Persia, it truly developed in the United States. Poker was first widely played in New Orleans in the early 1800's."

More than 100 years later, the game spread across the Atlantic.

Sharon resident Albert Sibley recalls a particular time while serving in the British Army during World War II.

When the troops set sail for a six-week voyage to India, he found the canvas hammocks on board uncomfortable for sleeping, so he'd pull his two Army issue blankets over him and settle down on one end of the mess table. Between 7 and 8 in the evening a poker group would set up at the other end.

"I slept quite comfortably through the night, even though on waking in the morning they'd still be playing, keen as ever," he said, for whatever pot a soldier's pay back then would allow.

Not all Boston-area poker players, however, are Red Sox fans. Dave Godfrey grew up playing five-card stud and jacks-to-open with his friends for nickels and dimes a few hours from Syracuse. Although he's been living in Quincy for years now, he remains a diehard Yankee fan. His great uncle, Wally Schang, though, played for both teams - he was the winning catcher for the Sox in the 1918 World Series, then was traded to the Yankees in 1921, two years after teammate and pitcher for some of those games, Babe Ruth.

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