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Copyright © 2006 Daily Press
HEADLINE: Virginia man is finalist in Poker
Dome Challenge
Body:
The Poker
Dome is no place for the faint or the flinching. It's a soundproof
pressure chamber where players are strapped with anxiety-tracking
heart monitors and have 15 seconds to make all-in or fold-'em
decisions that determine who plays on and who heads home.
Jerry Schrader, a locksmith from Woodbridge, trains for the dome
every day, in every spare moment, punching his keyboard, moving
his mouse, letting all the kings and queens and spades and diamonds
form patterns in his mind and triggers in his reflexes. He wants
to win a million dollars. He plays a thousand hands a day.
Part game show, part gladiator arena, the Poker
Dome Challenge is one of the newest gimmicks in televised
gambling. Every week, players enter the dome's aquarium-like inner
sanctum to compete for cash prizes and the right to move on to
the next round. Having won $25,000 in the first round and $50,000
in the second, Schrader is the third of six finalists from around
the world who will play in March for the $1million pot. He is
also the most successful of a trio of dome contestants from Woodbridge.
After winning the qualifying competition this month in Las Vegas,
the 36-year-old Schrader has earned a seat in the final round
of the 43-week Mansion
Poker Poker
Dome Challenge on Fox Sports Net.
"I want a shot at going pro," said Schrader, sitting
behind the counter of Baldino's Lock and Key, a small storefront
wedged between a Pizza Hut and an ethnic-foods market on Duke
Street in Alexandria. His new burgundy Dodge Durango sat in the
parking lot, a gleaming trophy from his recent hot streak.
Schrader's path to the Poker Dome began with a victory in a local
tournament organized by the National Pub Poker League, which runs
Texas
Hold 'em competitions in bars across the country. Regional
pub champs are sent to Las Vegas to enter the 216-player Poker
Dome series, joining online tournament winners from the Gibraltar-based
MansionPoker.net.
The Poker Dome format is "like Internet
Poker adapted to live play," said David Scott, the regional
manager for the Washington area pub leagues. Players get 15 seconds
to act on their hands and sit behind the glass of the dome's fishbowl
design, surrounded by TV cameras and unable to hear the audience's
reactions to their decisions.
"The big selling point is the technology," Scott said.
In addition to the heart monitors, computer sensors inside players'
cards and chips track their hands and cash totals for the TV audience.
Mood lighting and dramatic music pump up the suspense.
An estimated 23 million Americans wagered roughly $6 billion
online last year, drawing the attention of U.S.
lawmakers. This month, President Bush signed a law that forbids
placing or settling bets made over the Internet using checks,
credit cards or electronic fund transfers.
Schrader's rise from key-cutting to card-sharking has occurred
almost entirely online. He was a precocious poker talent in family
card games as a kid, but Schrader hadn't played for more than
10 years when he entered a free
tournament one night in 2003 at a Woodbridge sports bar--and
won.
"I instantly got hooked again," he said. "And
soon after that, I discovered the online sites."
Since then, Schrader has lost some and won more, leaving him
up $5,000 overall with his online habit, after pocketing $320
in two Internet tournaments Thursday. Minimizing losses is a question
of knowing when to walk away from bad luck, he said. "If
I drop $100, I quit for the day. There's a certain point where
you've got to say 'forget it."'
Woodbridge is something of a speed-poker incubator, having sent
two other players to the Poker Dome this year. The first, 25-year-old
Dan Weatherly, lost in the opening round, but a second, Stan Poczatek,
won $25,000 in the first round before he was eliminated in the
second.
"My kids were excited to see me on TV," said Poczatek,
35, a father of seven who used his winnings mostly to pay bills.
Poczatek and Schrader have played together at pub tournaments
throughout the region. "For me, it was like another chapter
in my life, something I'll be able to tell my grandkids about,"
he said. "But for Jerry, it will change his life if he wins
the million. I think he's got a good shot at it."
As with most card games, succeeding at speed poker
is both a question of luck and one's ability to maintain a steely
countenance when that luck arrives. "Tells" are subtle
indicators in body language that can betray a player's hand. For
example, Schrader said he'll check to see where players glance
once they get their cards from the dealer. "If they look
right at their chip stack, you've know they've got a monster,"
he said.
During his 14 years as a locksmith, Schrader has developed a
knack for opening safes, and he said that winning at speed poker
is a lot like cracking one.
"You have to have patience," he said. "When you
sit in front of a safe and try to manipulate it, you're going
to be there for one to four hours, so you have to follow a pattern,
follow the guidelines, and if you stray from it, it'll take you
three times longer. It takes discipline."
And experience. Schrader said he's played 250,000 hands of poker
online. "It's like anything," he said. "You've
got to do it over and over and over until you don't have to think
about it."
When Schrader won the $50,000 on Oct. 14, he advanced to the
final round by beating out a prosthetic-limb inspector from New
York named Marlon Delinois, who taunted him with insults during
the commercial breaks. Delinois had a 3 to 1 chip advantage at
one point, but Schrader risked everything to go all-in with just
an 8 and a 4, then slowly fought his way back into the game. When
he finally won the final round, Schrader's heart rate--normally
in the mid-70s--hit 156 beats per minute, as if he were running
a marathon. The game took 3{ hours.
"That was the most insane ride I've ever been on,"
Schrader said.
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