On a Saturday afternoon in early April, 47 boys and one girl, most of whom attend the elite Francis Parker High School, filed into the basement of a classmate’s Old Town home. The host’s mother collected $5 from each for pizza and soda. Bowls of popcorn were already scattered around the room, and a paper sign pointed the way to the bathroom. Each student also paid $20 for a bag of chips–the white were worth 25 cents, the green 50 cents, and the red $1. At 4 PM the poker tournament began.
The 48 players who bought in to the April tournament–six tables of eight players–created a $960 pot that would be divided among the nine top players. The last one standing at the end of three rounds would win $375. It wasn’t the biggest tournament ever organized by a Parker student. In January a senior held a 56-person tournament with a $1,120 pot. At the end of the third round a junior walked out with $450. He put most of it in the bank. “I’ll probably spend a lot on college or whatever,” he said.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
The host’s father said that poker could provide the kids with valuable life skills. He mentioned Blair Hull, who worked as a card counter in Vegas before starting an investment firm and making the millions that funded his Senate campaign. He said he’d told his son’s friends they could use what they learned from playing cards: “Look what he did with that knowledge.”
Players got knocked out of the first round quickly, some within 15 minutes. One Parker junior was out in 45. “I had a queen-ten suited,” he said, meaning that both his cards had been of the same suit. With luck that could have become a flush, but the flop had given him only a pair of tens. Thinking that was the highest hand, he’d “gone all in,” pushing all his chips into the pot. But another player had pocket jacks–a pair of jacks–and the junior lost. He still wanted to play, so he set up a side game with the Payton student and three other kids. Each bought in for $20, and the Parker junior said there was no doubt in his mind that he’d win his money back.
By the end of round two, at about 10 PM, the kids had consumed 20 pizzas and 10 cases of soda. Many of the players who’d been knocked out had left; others sat around the abandoned tables playing side games for $5 and $10 each.
“You’re an idiot,” a friend said.
