The Golden Nugget had two games running - $3/6 limit and $4/8 limit. I play both games in the Detroit casinos every once in awhile, but I generally start low until I know more about the place and its players. This place was nice enough - it's a poker room, afterall. It's players, however, not so much. I was playing from seat 2, not a bad spot to see the cards and everyone playing. The woman in seat 3 was completely uninterested in talking to anyone she didn't know (she knew one of the dealers and her husband across the table). She spent most of her time playing crazy tight poker and slurping barbecued pork chow mein. No, I've never been to a casino that brings Chinese food to you at the table. None of the players were chatty, which is odd for a poker table.  Of course, we were playing almost 40 hands a hour, so maybe we just didn't have time to chat.

Near the end of the night, the guy who always folds a hand that would have one (if you ever play poker, you know this guy), sat down next to me. I'd rather not talk at all than listen to "What? jack, deuce? I had jack, three. That woulda been my pot," when two pair - jacks and twos - win, and "Man, if I hadn't folded my 3-6" when the flop comes 3-King-6. If he were ever telling the truth, I'd care what he had to say because then I'd know more about how to play him. But, since he announces every single hand that he had a better one and folded it, no information is gained, but I get annoyed.

You know what's a good cure for annoying, though?  $1.25 ice cold drafts of Miller Genuine Draft.  I kid you not.  $1.25.  That was a nice glass to end a very long day.

Project Outline: Poker
I’m interested in poker as a form of leisure and profession. I’m also interested in how it has changed over time and how technologies and situations affect poker players and how they think about the game and themselves.

What do I want to know?
• How do poker players of various kinds identify themselves? And how does that identification interact with the type of poker they play (e.g. home game, casino, online)?
• What does the community of poker players look like? Is there one? Are there many?
• How has online poker changed the way poker player use information about the game and about each other?
• How has online poker changed the way poker players identify themselves to others and to themselves?
• How have the expansion of casino poker rooms and online poker affected the professional lives of players?
• How have the expansion of casino poker rooms and online poker affected the professional lives of players?
• Do Hayano’s findings about professionals and the social organization of the card room still hold? (references an ethnography conducted in the mid 1970’s and published in 1982)
• How does the way a player identifies himself interact with the type of poker he plays, the amount of money he bets, and the people around him?

How will I find out?
• Hours of ethnography in poker rooms, home games, and online (follow Hayano’s model)
• Interview willing members of various categories (as identified through the ethnography)
• Analyze behavior that can be observed and captured in online poker games/tournaments