OFF THEY GO again with their chips and their cards hanging in bags from their bikes, off again to another day of, uh, frenzied activity.
Off they go to their midafternoon poker game, off they go, rain or shine. Max, the guy they call "Facecard," he brings the chips. Xavier, "Sir Bluffington," he brings the cards.
"Sir Bluffington"?
"I've bluffed once in my entire life," he scoffed, without trace of a smile.
They are 13-year-old boys, about a baker's dozen of them. And their summertime pastime - this summertime - is poker.
"I'll see your two," I have heard Bluffington tell a character who goes by the name of "Scarface."
"And I'll raise you two."
This is their poker, as it is played by their newest heroes on ESPN, the ones with nicknames, the ones with quirky habits - like talking non-stop or never looking up from their cards. Heroes whose most noble attributes are characteristics that often get these young men in trouble with their parents and mentors: lack of facial expression, lack of emotion, hours of sitting in one place with a minimal amount of movement, focusing on the same thing, over and over again.
A picnic table, someone's house, the pool club, they meet in all kinds of weather, fight through all kinds of obstacles - chores, activities, sports. Every now and then, someone will jump from the table in triumph or disgust, an explosive motion sure to develop the quads and the calves - if repeated 100 times.
This could not be what JFK had in mind when he began his fitness program in the early 1960s. Yes, muscles are employed when resisting any facial expression while holding a full house, and maybe they will avoid carpal tunnel syndrome as adults with all that dealing and discarding they are doing now.
One of their heroes, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, can slice a pickle by flicking a playing card at it.
But again, that's probably not what President Kennedy had in mind.
It seems like just yesterday, they were building ramps in the streets and flying off them on their bicycles. Seems like only yesterday, I took the two boys to that brand-new skateboard park, then watched as they stood, frozen in fear, as other boys flipped and fell all over the place, mimicking another made-for-ESPN star from another made-for-ESPN sport, Tony Hawk.
Seems like only yesterday, they were pointing their bats toward centerfield like Jim Thome, only yesterday they were breaking each other down with faux Allen Iverson moves.
Wait a second...
It was yesterday.
They're still doing a lot of this stuff. They've just added poker into the pot, wedged it in, really, between the summer sports camps and the various teams they are on.
But play they do, emboldened by the fact that, on most days, they do not play for money.
Truth is, they don't have money.
And when they get it, it is almost immediately converted into the bad sugars.
Make no mistake, though, they are watching just as intently as they would watch Ken Griffey Jr. crash into a wall, as intently as they would watch a Game 7.
And they are not alone.
This week, the Palm Beach Post noted that ratings for ESPN's broadcast of the World Series of Poker on summer Tuesday nights are higher than they are for many regular-season baseball games, higher than most hockey telecasts, as well. Sometimes as high as 1.9 in Nielsen ratings, viewership is often twice as high for poker on ESPN as it is for the 11 p.m. "SportsCenter."
The attraction is understated cool. Some players come with nicknames. Some, like last year's champion, Chris Moneymaker, were born with them.
"I thought that was his nickname," said Kyle "Caesar" Sheehan, one of the 13s.
It's not just ESPN airing these poker faces. The Travel Channel's highest-rating last year was the World Poker Tour. Comcast SportsNet has anted in. According to the Post, celebrity poker on Bravo - which has featured actor Ben Affleck, among others - is the network's second-highest programming, behind "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy."
NBC, parent of Bravo, recently became the first of the big three networks to air poker. ESPN said this month it had reached its best poker ratings among men 18 to 34 this month.
And the future looks bright. Provided this is not just another of their passing fads, like the endless street hockey they played this spring.
"What would you be doing if you weren't playing right now," Sir Bluffington was asked yesterday afternoon as he and his mates waited for sodas to be delivered to their table.
"We'd be in gangs," he said, without trace of a smile.
Make that two times in his life.
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