July 23, 2004
Subservient Chicken
I hate to share things like this, but I have no choice. It's just too weird not to share.
It's a fucking Burger King ad campaign. WTF man!
The New Deal
("A Friend In Need" by C.M. Coolidge)
By Janna Chan for Seattle Magazine
It’s 9:45 a.m. on a gorgeous, sunny Sunday—the kind of day that’s great for hiking, a backyard barbecue or a morning walk around the neighborhood. It’s not the kind of day to sit inside a smoky room, playing cards. But that’s just what roughly 100 poker players are doing at Diamond Lil’s, a 29-year-old card casino in Renton. At oval-shaped poker tables, fresh-faced newbies mix with old school regulars, waiting for play to begin in the weekly No Limit Texas Hold’em tournament. Finally, as the clock chimes 10 a.m., backs straighten and the faint whisper of cards being shuffled and dealt sends a wave of excitement though the room. The tournament has begun.
Every Sunday for the past eight years, Diamond Lil's has hosted a No Limit Texas Hold'em tournament—aka, the Cadillac of poker and the “it” game of the moment, at least on TV. This poker variation entails a lot of bluffing, taps into players’ ability to “read” each other, and tests who has the nerve to go “all in” with their chips. It’s not about the cards in your hand; it’s about the cards that other players think you have. “No Limit allows people to lie or bluff, as a requirement of the game,” says tournament organizer, and longtime poker player, Dan Pekarek, 64. “There’s something extraordinarily fun about winning a big pot by bluffing someone out. It just makes you feel cool.”
In the past two years, Pekarek has witnessed a dramatic increase in the number of new players to the casino with the bulk of them coming on Sundays where his tournament frequently sells out. He attributes this popularity to TV shows that have cleaned up poker’s image, such as Bravo’s Celebrity Poker Showdown, the Travel Channel’s World Poker Tour and ESPN’s World Series of Poker (WSOP). Pekarek champions the idea that poker is an everyman game; it’s not discriminating about who can win and who can lose. He points out the new faces in the crowd that include stay-at-home-moms, clean cut students, married couples and people from a wide variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds. “Poker used to be something really shady and kind of intimidating,” says Pekarek. “But once people see it on TV, it’s one of those games where you say, ‘Hey, I can do that.’ You don’t get that kind of reaction with a game like football.”
The chance for monetary gain is part of poker’s popularity, but not its only appeal. Seattleites Andrew Muzzin, 27, a cook at Schultzy’s Sausage in the University District, and Jon Burg, 26, a consulting actuary, are new players who enjoy the skill and game savvy needed to do well at poker. “This game is intrinsically dramatic,” says Burg. “You’re betting it all, losing it all, staring down people and vice versa. It’s the ultimate way to test your skills and street smarts.” Muzzin adds, “It’s extremely challenging because it’s psychological, but at the same time it’s a great excuse to get friends together and just hang out. Winning a little money isn’t bad either.”
Their attitude has become the norm for many players after a 27-year-old accountant named Chris Moneymaker (yes, that’s his real name) shook the poker world when he took home $2.5 million after winning the No Limit Texas Hold'em tournament at last year’s WSOP. Moneymaker was an amateur player whose only experience came from playing online, and his underdog victory played a key role in the growth of WSOP from 839 entrants in 2003 to more than 2,500 players this year. Motivated by Moneymaker’s win, Muzzin and Burg, who were strangers before February, joined the growing home game circuit that has proved a popular way for players to hone their poker chops. Using Web sites such as homepokergames.com and pokermeetup.com, the two individually posted invitations to their weekly games and eventually established regular players. The two decided to combine their lists of interested players and within five months went from 30 people to more than 150. Muzzin and Burg, along with friend Tim Tinker, now host weekly games with room for 30 players at Tinker’s Pioneer Square loft. Luckily for players, the guys charge no rake, or fee, to play because they’re not a casino but the growing waiting list is a whole other story.
Another Seattleite closely watching the poker phenomenon is Bhu Srinivasan, 27, who publishes and funds ALL IN, the first full-color glossy magazine dedicated to poker. Srinivasan , an amateur player, was searching for a poker magazine to give him a leg up on the game; when he couldn’t find one, he dropped another magazine in the works to focus on ALL IN. “I was just watching something monumental growing before my eyes,” says Srinivasan. “There was such growth in poker’s popularity, on TV and online and in movies, that we ended up just going with the flow instead of paddling.” The bi-monthly magazine hit national stands in August with articles written by pros, tournament news, player profiles and pages of winning strategies. “We just think that poker is such a phenomenon,” says Srinivasan. “It’s the most democratic of all sports because any ethnicity, any gender and people from any class standing can play this game and be successful at it…You can’t say that about a lot of other games.”
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Side Bar:
For more information on where to play check out homepokergames.com, pokermeetup.com and seattle.craigslist.org for a comprehensive list of local home games and tourneys. For a more comprehensive intro to the game, poker professor Larry Zeldner offers several beginner to advanced classes every quarter and a schedule can be requested at lzeldner.com. Diamond Lil’s weekly Sunday tourneys begin at 10 a.m. and first place takes home more than $2000 every week (361 Rainier Ave S, Renton; 425.255.9037; diamondlilscardcasino.com).
Brief Contributor Bio:
Janna Chan is a Seattle-based freelance writer who has been published in the Seattle Weekly, Village Voice, Northwest Home + Garden and West Coast Performer. She prepared for this article by playing weekly 50 cents home games with friends and took 11th place out of 98 players at Diamond Lil’s July Fourth No Limit Texas Hold’em Tournament. It was her first tournament.
LOST BOYS OF SUDAN (Not of the vampire variety)
The IRC is co-sponsoring the Seattle premiere of an excellent documentary on the Lost Boys of Sudan. We hope you can join us! Details are below:
LOST BOYS OF SUDAN: AUGUST 6 AT 7:00PM
ON OPENING NIGHT, FRIDAY, AUGUST 6 AT 7:00PM AT LANDMARK'S VARSITY THEATRE IN SEATTLE. MEET SOME OF THE LOST BOYS AND LEARN MORE ABOUT HELPING THE LOST BOYS IN SEATTLE FROM THE INTERNATIONAL RESCUE COMMITTEE (IRC). (FILM OPENS EXCLUSIVELY AT LANDMARK'S VARSITY THEATRE FOR LIMITED ENGAGEMENT ON AUG. 6!)
Please join us for a special screening of the award-winning documentary, LOST BOYS OF SUDAN, on opening night. The 7:00 show on Friday, August 6 at Landmark's Varsity Theatre will be followed by a panel discussion and Q&A with local Lost Boys, and representatives from the International Rescue Committee (IRC). The evening is designed to raise public awareness and support for the Lost Boys living in Seattle. Normal ticket prices apply. Open to the public. Donations to the IRC will be accepted and go towards programs that support the Lost Boys and other refugees.
LOST BOYS OF SUDAN follows two Southern Sudanese Youth ("Lost Boys") on an extraordinary journey from Africa to America. Orphaned as young boys in one of Africa's cruelest civil wars, Peter and Santino survived lion attacks and militia gunfire to reach a refugee camp in Kenya along with thousands of other children. From there, they were chosen to come to America. Safe at last from physical danger and hunger, a world away from home, they find themselves confronted with the abundance and alienation of contemporary America (www.lostboysfilm.com).
Co-directors Megan Mylan and Jon Shenk received the IFP/Independent Spirit Award (Truer Than Fiction) presented to "...an emerging director of non-fiction features with unique vision and talent." LOST BOYS OF SUDAN also received top honors at the San Francisco International Film Festival and Heartland Film Festival in Indianapolis.
Running Time: 87 minutes. Rating: Not Rated. Distributor: Shadow Distribution. A co-production of Actual Films and Principe Productions in association with American Documentary, Inc. In English, Dinka, Arabic and Swahili with English subtitles.
LOCATION:
Landmark's Varsity Theatre
4329 University Way NE
Seattle, WA 98105
TICKETS:
General Admission: $9.00
Seniors: $6.00
Indie dudes in tight shirts=gross
So, everyone loves the Three Imaginary Girls, and I definitly give them props for what they do, but isn't it wrong to worship really gross boys in tight shirts? You see, they posted their 2nd anniversary party pics and they consist of pasty, buddy holly-glasses wearing, dyed black hair sporting, out-of-shape "rawk stars" in really really tight shirts. I mean super little. As a female, I take special care to not ascentuate the softness of my belly with tight fitting shirts. I expect the same from other wo(men). But, when chicks expose a globular belly struggling against confining cotton people boo and hiss. No really, I've done, I mean seen, it happen. For some strange reason the indie rocker with a penis is exempt from this rule. It's gross. Don't wear your kid brother's shirt. Don't go to the Value Village and rob poor kids of what could be their normal fitting Ninja Turtle's shirt for your own tight fitting needs. It's so wrong.
I must return to the fact that these guys aren't even in shape. Soft, pale bellies enclosed in stressed-out cotton seems to be an indie girl aphrodisiac. I support that inner beauty can be found in everyone but these same tight-shirt-wearing "rawk stars" are the same dorks who were spit at in grade school and spent high school masturbating...a lot! Don't fall for it girls. The tight shirt is a bad bad thing!