Shuffle up and deal!

J's World/Jeremiah Bartz

I never go for Billabong, Ocean Pacific and other wanker name brands. I hate top 40 music. I always route for the underdogs.

For the most part, if there is a trend I go the opposite direction. Call me a rebel without a cause.

But just as I pride myself on listening bands you've never heard of, watching athletes no one roots for and wearing clothing bought in places other than overpriced meat markets that second as clothing stores. I have jumped onto one bandwagon. Not only have I jumped on, I'm aiming to drive the train.

We're talking about poker.

Shuffle up and deal!

We're not talking about any type of poker. We're not talking about the kindergarten style of poker where half the deck is wild. I'm talking about Texas Hold'em.

If you have a pulse. I you have your eyesight. If you are within earshot of the Frontiersman newsroom, you have probably heard about Texas Hold'em, otherwise known as my obsession.

Maybe obsession is a strong word?

The average weekday night, when I am not at a local gym or rink taking in a prep event, I am normally sitting in my recliner in my Texas Hold'em poker T-shirt, sipping my favorite beverage from a chilled poker glass, trying to shuffle poker chips, while flipping back between World Poker Tour on the Travel Channel and the World Series of Poker on ESPN2.

Like I said, obsession may be too strong a word.

When the World Series of Poker re-runs are over, there is always Internet poker where it is not uncommon to see KingJay60 flushing an opponent out on the river or doubling the stack with a pair of pocket kings. And just as often as you see KingJay60 getting two top pair on the flop, you will see Woollybugger (aka Casey Ressler) trying to bluff his way to the big stack.

Woollybugger has gone as far as too build his own poker table. In fact, as soon as I am able to finish this column, I will be heading over to the Ressler Casino for the unveiling.

But Ressler is not the only newsroom poker star with his own table. For me, Christmas turned out to be one big poker victory. In addition to a flush of assorted poker gadgets, the mother of all my poker gadgets turned out to be a World Poker Tour poker table.

Whether my fiancee´ likes it our not, the poker table has not left the center of the living room since Christmas day and is considered, at least by me, as a member of the family.

Now if I sit on the recliner repeating, "Shuffle up and deal", repeatedly in my best game marshall voice, my fiancee´ will sometimes take a seat at the table for some head's up Hold'em. But this is just to get me through the night, get me through to the next time sit down at a tournament table, casually look down at my cards, then ask my opponent -

"How many chips you got?"

"'Cause I puttin' ya all in."

Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz hopes to one day represent Palmer, Alaska on the World Poker Tour.