Kids and teens sucked into the Hold'em poker craze

“Anybody can learn to play cards,” said David Torres, 18, a College of Lake County student from Mundelein. “Girls are really good at it because they can hide their emotions. A lot of guys will teach their girlfriend how to play poker. They'll go to a party and everyone will think, oh, she's a girl, she can't play poker.”

And then, of course, they rake it in, said Torres, who has played for three years.

Liza Dickinson, 16, a junior at Mundelein High School, agrees. She plays every few days with a group of friends.

“With a bunch of guys, I always win,” she said matter-of-factly. “Guys are bad at lying.”

I played poker at the caddyshack all the time when I was a teenager. It was just part of what you did when you were sitting around, waiting to carry some old dude's golf clubs for 5 hours; sometimes I won triple what I made that day, other times I came home broke. If you were a bad player, you didn't play for long.

The game was different then, though. ESPN and the World Poker Tour have glamourized the no-limit style of play. We had pot limits and traded hands to pass time on a boring summer Tuesday morning. I didn't know anyone other than my family and other caddies who played cards. If I were in high school now, I'd be sucked in hard.

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