County Council member Allan Kittleman isn't much of a poker player. 

"I do terrible at it," he admits, adding that a running joke among fellow Republicans, with whom he sometimes plays, is that he should just show up and turn over his money. 

Kittleman's poker face _ or lack of it _ was on display Dec. 3 as the council's newly elected chairman, C. Vernon Gray, cast and then re-cast the deciding vote on a plan to draw council district boundaries for the 2002 elections and beyond. 

Gray, a Democrat in his fifth term on the council, said later that Kittleman's expression told him his initial vote gave the Republicans an advantage. 

Gray had watched another Democrat, Mary Lorsung, join the council's two Republicans, Kittleman and Chris Merdon, in amending a map approved in a 4-3 vote by members of a bipartisan redistricting commission. The four Democrats on the commission, including the chairman, voted together. 

Citing months of work put in by commission members, and noting that the original map would become law if the council could not agree on amendments by March 15, Gray voted against the amended version. 

Kittleman smiled broadly. 

"I bet my mouth was touching both ears," he said later. 

Gray realized that disapproving the amended version opened opportunities for Republicans to gain an advantage in future versions. 

Council member Guy Guzzone, a Democrat, consulted with Gray, then with Barbara Cook, the county solicitor, and then with Gray again. 

Moments later, Gray changed his vote to the side of his fellow Democrats, resulting in approval of the amended map. 

When the dust had cleared, Gray acknowledged that Kittleman's response to his first vote had caused him to reconsider. 

That, he continued, made him realize that in the three and a half months before March 15 Kittleman and Merdon might be able to come up with a viable alternative, or _ at the least _ make trouble for their Democratic colleagues. 

"He got me exactly right," said Kittleman. "I thought, 'My gosh, he's given me an opportunity to write the plan.' It certainly was something I was relishing." 

Dec. 3, he said, "was almost a banner day for the Republican Party." 

Instead, it was a day for small deals among three council members _ Kittleman, Merdon and Lorsung _ to shift district lines here and there. Kittleman represents the west county's District 5 and Merdon represents District 1, which includes Ellicott City and Elkridge. Lorsung represents District 4, west Columbia, and is not seeking re-election. 

Districts 2 (east Columbia, Jessup) and 3 (Savage, North Laurel and a portion of southeast Columbia), which Gray and Guzzone represent, were not affected. 

In Ellicott City, a wedge-shaped area bounded by Interstate 70, Route 29 and Route 99, was returned to Kittleman's district from Merdon's district, where the redistricting commission had proposed shifting it. 

About 400 people live in the neighborhood. One of them is Bill Thies, Kittleman's legislative assistant. 

Also in Ellicott City, Merdon's district again includes all of the Font Hill community. The commission had proposed putting a section with about 500 residents into Lorsung's district. 

At Lorsung's request, about 1,200 residents of neighborhoods along Homewood Road, northwest of Columbia, were returned from her district to Kittleman's. In exchange, nearly 1,700 Fulton and Highland residents were moved back into Lorsung's district from Kittleman's. 

The net change was a 100-vote gain in Merdon's district, to about 51,000 residents, and a 90-vote loss, to about 49,800 residents, in Lorsung's.