Pioneer Square on a drizzly Sunday night is an awfully quiet place, compared with its usual Thursday-through-Saturday night Jäger-fueled mayhem. Aside from the Beyoncé song thumping out of Larry's hiphop "Throwback Night," First Avenue is looking and sounding downright abandoned. However, the landmark J&M Cafe is a warm exception to the ghost-town ambience. We stroll through tall, ancient- looking front doors and are greeted by the doorman and bartender--two friendly characters engaged in a game of dominos. There's a freshly infatuated couple gazing into each other's rain-streaked faces underneath a lovely old mural of a Rubensesque nude, and two overly-friendly longshoremen who take an instant liking to my female companions, but it quickly becomes clear that old-fashioned gaming is the primary nature of the bar's Sunday night business. There are a handful of folks at the end of the antique wooden bar nursing pints and playing cards, while three jubilant fellows are gathered around a poker table in back winding up a spirited game of Texas Hold'em. It turns out that these guys are regular participants in "Win Your Way In," a local competition and a logical extension of poker's wildly resurging popularity. Participants in the national tournament are playing games like this all across the country in neighborhood bars, eliminating other players and earning points through "chips" that will eventually earn them a chance to compete for a $10,000 seat in the World Series of Poker, taking place in Las Vegas this July. "We're like two old prizefighters in the 15th round, flailing around!" says one as the table erupts in laughter. "It's good to laugh," agrees his amiable opponent, throwing down his cards in surrender. HANNAH LEVIN