The guy with the paunch and the greasy brown hair is definitely trying to intimidate me. His face is inscrutable, his stare is steady, and he’s looking at me like I’m a piece of fresh meat. I’m convinced he’s holding at least a pair of aces. But I’m not backing down. I drop in five chips, and exhale a cloud of smoke as if I don’t have a worry in the world. Then I raise him 10 more. I bet he’s bluffing. But perhaps that smug stare is just a lure.

It’s Wednesday morning, and I’m sitting in the middle of the Mandalay Bay Casino for the daily Texas Hold’em tournament. But my $30 – the cost to “buy into” the tournament – has actually gained me access to something much larger. I’ve come to Vegas to experience firsthand one of America’s fastest growing trends: The revival of poker as a national pastime.

Already I’ve encountered a strange cross-section of American culture. There are a couple of frat boys to my left. To my right, there’s a man with an Eastern European accent, and a middle-aged Asian immigrant. They seem like amateurs – a little too eager and talkative. I think I can take them. But the elderly lady in a frilled blue vest and white cowboy hat is all business. I’ll have to watch her closely. And the greasy-haired guy seems like a Vegas local – nobody from out of town would pack a shirt so wrinkled and stained.

In recent months, TV viewers across the country have rediscovered the magic of the game my grandfathers played. The World Poker Tour now airs regularly on the Travel Channel. The World Series of Poker is on ESPN2. This year, the $10,000 No Limit Hold’em event grew fourfold – from 839 entries in 2003, to 2,576. More than 5,000 contestants are expected for next year’s event at the Rio Hotel. And the prize money has ballooned from $7.7 million a decade ago to more than $49 million this year. Poker has even become glamorous. You can catch Ben Affleck on “Celebrity Poker Showdown.”

Bally’s, Mirage, MGM, and Caesars Palace have all added more poker tables and poker “rooms,” or are planning to do so in the coming months. A number of new books recently hit the market. There are even DVDs of these events, and at-home video games. For the real deal you’ve got to visit Sin City, though, and get in one of the low-ante tournaments.

Las Vegas nowadays isn’t the seedy dump of the 1980s. The area itself is home to one of the nation’s fastest growing immigrant populations. The casinos are once again a trendy weekend getaway for the moneyed jet set. I stayed at a posh hotel called the Palms (4321 Flamingo Road, 702-942-7777, www.palms.com;r ooms $87-$119 on weekdays, $159-$329 on weekends). Owned by the Maloof brothers, who also own the Sacramento Kings basketball team, the place is packed on the weekends with Hollywood glitterati and women with silicone implants. On Saturday I actually rode down in the elevator with the star of the new HBO hit series “Entourage” – before he disappeared behind a velvet VIP rope blocking off a party I wasn’t invited to.

If you have the cash, there’s plenty to do. My friends and I dined on four-star steaks every night at the dimly lit restaurant N9NES at the Palms, and took in the city view while sipping martinis from the trendy Ghost Bar on the 55th floor.

But it’s impossible to go anywhere without passing through the casino. And unfortunately, I discovered I’m a pretty poor gambler. Straight off, I lost $100 at the blackjack tables, and about $50 at craps. It’s something I’ve got to watch. My grandfather Sid once had to hawk the family stereo to pay off his poker debts. And I promised my mother I would keep that in mind during my trip.

That’s where the appeal of Texas Hold’em really hits home for me. If you do it right, you can lose only a finite amount of money. Every day there are tournaments all around the city with buy-ins starting as low as $15. I’m willing to go a little higher. When I arrived at the Mandalay Bay, all I had to do was give some guy $30. He handed me a tray full of chips and somebody else led me to one of the tables. I will play until I lose all my chips, or I’ll win everybody else’s. No ATM machines, no cash advances, no doubling down to win back my lost paycheck. Heck – if I last just a couple of hours, I’ll probably save at least $200 in money I would otherwise blow on those ubiquitous blackjack tables.

For my $30 I get to square off with people I would never otherwise encounter, or want to for that matter. One of the frat boys has already gone bellyup. He never should have stayed in with a low card straight. Soon the dealers call a break – enough people have been eliminated to consolidate some of the tables. I bid goodbye to the greasy guy, and head to a new table with fresh faces.

The rules of Texas Hold’em are fairly easy to understand if you have ever played poker. The dealer shuffles a standard 52-card deck. Every player antes up. Then the dealer tosses each player two cards face down. I get a seven and a nine. The woman to my left with the big rock tosses in a two chip bet, and I decide to stay in. Bad move. Over the next hour, I watch my pile of chips slowly diminish and soon I’m eliminated.

As the woman with the rocks pulls a thick pile of chips to her – containing my last bets – I get up to leave. No one seems to notice. A new round is underway and the remaining players are too busy.

To join a Texas Hold’em tournament, ask any hotel concierge or poker room attendant for a list of the day’s tournaments, then simply show up. As tournaments fill up fast on the weekends, however, early arrivals are recommended.