PHILADELPHIA - The Deaf Poker Tour held its first tournament in Philadelphia over the weekend. It’s a poker event for Deaf and hard of hearing poker players."Loud.
Very loud. And, when the competition becomes heated? Oh yeah, it becomes loud," Jay Levine, head of the tour for the past 15 years, signed as an interpreter spoke out-loud.Explosions of emotion are nothing unusual in a casino, but when the Deaf Poker Tour is in town, one listens with the eyes because hands do the talking."Gestures, hand cues and, sometimes, the difficulty with communication, especially with COVID, is that a lot of dealers are wearing masks, so the gesturing is a lot more important than it used to be," Levine explained.Levine has run the tour for 15 years.
It’s a hub for Deaf poker lovers like Andrea, grand champion of the last get-together."Good competition, definitely good. And, the Deaf people are crazy, sometimes, even more than the hearing people are.
It’s really enjoyable. The competition is crazy," Andrea remarked, through an interpreter.The Deaf Poker Tour is fun, at face value, but it’s become an amplifier to make the hearing world understand unique deaf needs at casinos anywhere.