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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Guide Weather Subscribe Contact Us January 29, 2005 Ante up By Jennifer Squires and Ezra Mannix Ashland Daily Tidings It's psychological warfare. It's employment. It's socializing with friends. The obsession with poker, especially Texas Hold'em, keeps ratcheting up. With television coverage and online games, the hands of poker that had once been reserved for serious players and casinos are dealt nightly in homes, on the Internet and in private clubs. Tyson Jennings, center, deals a hand of Texas Hold 'em at the Xochipilli poker club in Ashland. Photos by Orville Hector | Ashland Daily Tidings "It's competition that just about anybody can do," said Doug Honse, a 21-year-old Southern Oregon University student. "Anybody can play it." Honse got caught up in the Travel Channel poker coverage about a year ago. He started playing cards with some buddies and at Seven Feathers Casino in Canyonville. Now he finds a game just about every night. There are the $5 buy-in games with friends, the bigger $30-$40 buy-ins and the games at clubs with $2 or $4 betting increments that can land a pay-out of more than $200. "I'm making as much money playing poker as I am working as a chef," Honse said. "But it's just the innate desire to compete. It's a way to test yourself." Honse says it's the game, not the money that draws him to play and he wouldn't consider quitting school and work to go pro. The game draws all types - college kids, professionals, retired folks, men and women. Games usually happen casually at a kitchen table or in a living room, but in Ashland, poker found a public presence in August. The Xochipilli Game Club is only noticeable from the outside by the pepper-red Christmas lights adorning a doorway on Will Dodge Way. It's the only gaming room of its kind in Ashland and, according to owner Dan McDonley, the only one in Oregon. McDonley and co-founder Laurel Taytroe wanted some way to get around the Oregon law that prohibits gambling as a business. "Dan and I were looking to do something fun after work," said Taytroe. "I was curious to break through the mystique of poker and then just started learning to play." The duo broke into the gaming market by opening a non-profit. Xochipilli is under 501(c)(7) tax exemption. It can legally hold gambling card games if it does not take a percentage, or rake, of the pot. A rake can also be a flat fee when the money is taken off of the bets placed. To sustain itself, the club charges a membership fee, which does not violate state law. Religious and other charitable organizations may also hold such games, though they are also forbidden from raking the pot. McDonley and Taytroe took advantage of Oregon Revised Statute 167.121, which permits "a game [between players] where no house player, house bank or house odds exist and there is no house income from the operation of the social game." The 1974 statute also allowed cities and counties to pass local ordinances regarding gambling without house cuts. The same year, the Ashland City Council passed Ashland Municipal Code 10.010 which allows for social gambling in religious, charitable or fraternal organizations, according to city attorney Mike Reeder Making it Of course, poker isn't just a game for everyone. NBC will air The Travel Channel's "World Poker Tour Battle of Champions" next weekend, and the professional poker players who make their living from the game have become major celebrities. In Ashland, the stakes are a little lower. Osiris, perhaps the person closest to being a "rounder" - a professional poker player - in Ashland busted in the January $25 buy-in tournament at the Ashland Elk's Club. He took off the Oakley sunglasses he wears when he plays and rested them on top of his blond hair knotted into a ponytail, indicating he was out of the game that had drawn more than 60 people to the $800-plus pot. "You can see the adrenaline shoot into the whites of someone's eyes when they get a good hand," said Osiris, explaining a good player can also catch nervous eye twitches and rubs that mark a winning hand and why he dons the Oakleys to play. "Some people can tell. I can tell." He busted at the Elks but his night was not over. No matter. As a full-time player - Osiris claims someone has to play professionally for at least a year to be considered a rounder - he knows the odds of making money, or at least breaking even, on this night are still pretty good. He headed out, on to a more intense game. But it's not enough to get rich. Osiris grew up and learned poker in Las Vegas, so this is the small time. The stakes are far too small to make a good living in Ashland. Nevertheless, poker isn't just a hobby for Osiris to blow off steam from work. "This is my day job," he said. On this night, the rest of his gaming happened at Xochipilli Game Club. A new type of social club, Xochipilli (pronounced zoch-i-p�l-ee) is named for the Aztec god of games and flowers, according to Taytroe, who co-founded the operation. "The club needed something unique that would also emphasize the members-only aspect," said Taytroe. "It conveys the celebration of gaming, friendly competition and community celebration." A beer and wine license came this month. But alcohol, like gambling, is not going to be a focal point of the club. "What's special here is the strong sense of community," McDonley said. "We are members-only so there is no riff-raff. You don't see that sometimes in casinos." Something for everyone As a full-time gambler, Osiris is the exception to the variety of ages and professions who walk into Xochipilli. Locals of different ages and creeds are part of the membership core. One Ashland grandmother, Judy Corallo, who describes herself as a "staid moral woman who likes to gamble," doesn't come across to her fellow churchgoers as someone who plays poker twice a week. Corallo has been seriously playing since 1986, when she won a large all-women tournament in Reno. As a veteran, Corallo appreciates the professional atmosphere of Xochipilli. "I've met people from all walks of life there - doctors, lawyers and Indian chiefs, you could say," Corallo said, although she had her doubts about the viability of a poker club in Ashland. "When he started it, I thought 'poor Dan�' but he's doing okay. We thought Dan was nuts, but we wanted to support his dream." While a harmless pastime for many, gambling can become an addiction for others. A study released by the Oregon Department of Health and Human Services estimates that about 35,800 adult Oregonians are "problem gamblers," with another 23,000 labeled "pathological gamblers." The study estimates a cost to society of about $3,000 for each problem gambler and $11,000 for each pathological gambler - more than $361 million in Oregon alone. "There are many sins," said Corallo, a practicing Catholic. "If you are hurting your family through gambling, you are sinning. If you hurt someone else, you are sinning. I don't encourage people to gamble who can't afford it." Before co-founding his social club, McDonley was an avid aikido expert. But tendinitis slowed him down. "When I got that, even walking was difficult. So I needed to find a new hobby or sport I could do," McDonley said, explaining he picked up poker in nickel and dime games before deciding to jump into the business scene. "There are a lot of players in town. When I started playing a year ago, I immediately started finding home games everywhere." That was early in 2004. Xochipilli had its grand opening on Aug. 7 and has more than 60 members. The club is open evenings Tuesday through Saturday. On weekends, the two red felt poker tables are packed with limit and no-limit games. "Poker can be a wonderful thing or people just trying to take each others' money," McDonley said. "One of our themes is good sportsmanship. Sometimes you win; sometimes you lose or break even. That's the cost of good entertainment." 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