A passion for Pokemon

“I still have so many Rescue Heroes,” Minooka resident Rose Ruettiger said about one of her son’s collections. He had also taken a liking to Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Cards at one point.

Over the past several years, however, the desire for Rescue Heroes and Yu-Gi-Oh! Cards has been taken over by Joey’s latest passion and collection — the Pokemon Trading Card Game.

“We went to Target one day and I saw a pack (of Pokemon cards) and thought they were really cool,” Joey, 10, said about the beginning of his new collection.

In March 2009, he brought the Pokemon cards he had at the time to the Joliet Public Library, where a tournament was to be held. He arrived only to find out the cards he had were not qualified for competition.

Jimmy Ballard of Top Cut Comics in Plainfield was hosting the contest that day, Rose said, and had to tell Joey he couldn’t play with the cards he brought. But Ballard had a beginner’s deck and gave it to Joey to use instead.

“He came home and he was all excited because he had won a game,” Rose remembered. “Then he said, ‘I’m going to build myself a deck.’”

From then on, Joey began building his decks and practicing Pokemon with his mom so he could compete. He has 13 boxes containing about 250 cards each at home and many binders full of cards, too.

Playing Pokemon has been described as a cross between poker and chess.

“You need to be able to bluff,” Rose said about Pokemon’s connection to poker. Joey’s math skills also help him in the game.

Since that first contest in 2009, Joey has been working his way up in the Pokemon world. He is a part of Pokemon leagues on Wednesday and Friday nights, and competes in city competitions, regional competitions, state competitions and has been in the world competition, too.

The Pokemon season runs from September through the following August. Joey is currently competing in the autumn battle rounds and will head to Fort Wayne, Ind., Oct. 13, for the regional championships.