He knows when to holdem when to foldem

Kevin Kalthoff has learned the art of reading poker faces. The way somebody's eyebrows raise slightly when he's dealt a good hand or the stoic bluff somebody throws out when trying to raise the bet -- they're all clues to the cards held in a player's hands.

He's seen plenty, but Kalthoff, a 35-year-old card dealer at the Cat's Paw on North Seventh Avenue, said he'll never know it all.

Nobody ever does when it comes to playing poker.

"It's a continuous process, learning how to play poker," Kalthoff said in an interview at his Bozeman home. "You need to learn something every day to get better."

He gets plenty of practice.

Kalthoff watches poker nearly every night while on the job. And he's grown into a pretty good poker player himself -- good enough to earn a spot last month in a nationally televised tournament.

Kalthoff qualified for the UltimateBet.net World Poker Challenge through on online tournament that narrowed a field of more than 2,200 players to six.

The six players met in Los Angeles for a live poker tournament that was broadcast on Fox Sports Net.

The game was Texas hold 'em, in which players are dealt two cards down, without the field seeing them. They have to build the best hand they can with those cards and five community cards, with a series of bets as the cards are dealt.

The tournament was winner take all for $10,000, and players were eliminated when they ran out of chips. Kalthoff didn't win -- he was the third player eliminated -- but said it was a good time and hopefully not his last tournament.

The trip was free, he got to be on television and he had a crack at $10,000.

He has that same easy-going attitude toward the game. He's willing to lose some money, but players have to set some limits, he said.

"I don't gamble with the rent money -- that's rule No. 1," he said. "If you're going to put it in play, you can't need that money for other things."

Kalthoff, at just under 6 feet tall and wearing a goatee, said the other perk to dealing for a living is learning how players change their behavior during a game. Maybe it's a few beers, or how they're doing, but often people change their tactics throughout the game.

The key, he said, is to pick up on the change, whether a player becomes more risky or starts trying to bluff his opponent.

"If somebody's stuck $300 into the game, they might start playing kind of crazy," he said. "At the same time if they are $500 up, they might start taking chances they wouldn't otherwise."

Kalthoff taught himself how to play poker in high school in Kansas, where he grew up. As a bartender who has lived throughout the country, he's been around poker a lot. He started dealing cards two years ago.

His finance, Natalie Barota, said Kalthoff has gotten plenty of experience. But his personality and attention to detail has helped his poker game, too.

"He's very calculated, and he just has better attention than most people," she said. "A lot of people just pay attention to the cards, when they should be paying attention to the other players."

By NICK GEVOCK

News Added: 18 July, 2005

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