Casino Buzz

SAN JOSE, Calif. - (KRT) - For generations, the poker room has been portrayed as a smoke-filled parlor where whiskey-drinking, tobacco-chewing gamblers would rather shoot you than let you take the pot with a pair of fives.

But recently, the Internet - and a guy aptly named Chris Moneymaker - brought new life to one of the oldest card games around.

Moneymaker, an accountant from Tennessee, qualified for the May 2003 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas - after honing his poker skills on the Internet. With only three years' experience in the game, he bested a lineup of professional players in the Las Vegas tournament, walking away with the $2.5 million jackpot.

His win, along with the popularity of the "World Poker Tour" TV show, have sparked a boom for online poker rooms.

Call it poker for the 21st century - and it's more than just a game.

It's a big business. More than a dozen poker Web sites drawing tens of thousands of players per hour - some playing for real money and others just for fun - have sprouted up in recent years. And because Internet gambling remains in a legal gray area in the United States, most of the sites are based in other countries.

Yet the online boom has started to affect offline poker. On the Las Vegas Strip, where poker tables were shut down a few years ago for lack of business, some casinos have re-opened poker rooms, giving partial credit to the Internet for introducing new players to the game.

The Internet also has tweaked the strategies for playing the game, replacing the art of reading an opponent's body language and facial expressions with pure analysis and statistics.

"Technology has completely changed the face of the game," said Vikrant Bhargava, general manager of PartyPoker.com, the world's leading online poker Web site, based in India.

Within a year of Moneymaker's win in Las Vegas, the average number of tournament contestants playing poker for real money online jumped from about 1,500 per hour to more than 14,000, according to PokerPulse.com, a Vancouver company that tracks people and money at 19 leading sites around the world. The average number of paying players in non-tournament games jumped from 2,500 to more than 11,000.

That has created a dot-com phenomenon generating an estimated $3.2 million per day for 19 leading sites, according to Pokerpulse.com. It tallies up to an annualized take of $1.2 billion a year for the industry.

A table for Texas Hold `Em, one of the most popular poker games, has an average pot of about $60 per hand and will see about 65 hands in any given hour, estimates PokerPulse.com. The site operator would take $3 out of every hand - or about $195 per hour.

Multiply that by the number of tables in the online room and it's easy to see how the industry is pulling in about $3.2 million per day.

"Imagine a stadium full of people playing poker," Bhargava said. "If we put all of those people at real tables, we'd need 15 or 20 stadiums. Technology has made it possible for so many people to play in one virtual room."

Even the free tables play an important role in the sites' success because they allow players to test their skills without risking cash.

For the past five years, Rich MacKanin, 24, of San Jose, Calif., has been playing in a weekly garage poker game. Last year, after hearing about Internet poker rooms and Moneymaker's win, he started spending more time at PartyPoker.com's free tables.

Eventually, he coughed up $50 for some real-money action. After three hands of play, his $50 was gone.

Playing the online, real-money game was a different experience for MacKanin, who over the years had become the type of player who often plays his hands based on opponents' body language, such as smirks or raised eyebrows.

"Half the game itself is staring down the person across the table from you, but how can you stare down a computer? You can't bluff over a computer screen," he said.

Now, he pays more attention to cards in his own hand and those played on the table. Playing online has taught him how to calculate the odds of drawing cards that will build a winning hand and showed him how to figure out opponent's habits by tracking how long it takes for them to fold, bet or raise.

In an Internet poker game, "you can go back at every hand and look at the hand history to see what everyone had," said Roy Cooke, cardroom manager at PlanetPoker.com. "That's the ability to learn from your mistakes. You can review everything."

There are even software programs such as Poker Tracker that let you analyze and track your hands. That's something you can't do in Las Vegas.

Still, poker tables are making a comeback in Sin City, and some casinos have re-opened the poker tables they had shut down.

"People keep asking for them," said Gary Thompson, spokesman for Harrah's Entertainment, which owns Harrah's Casino and Hotel and Rio, both in Las Vegas. "You don't really make a lot of money off of a poker room, but the customers want to play and we want to keep them happy."

The boom in online poker comes despite its murky legal status in the United States. Some legal experts say federal law gives the U.S. government power to prosecute some forms of online gambling, but state anti-gambling laws vary - leaving online poker trapped in a legal gray area. What's more, most online poker sites are licensed and regulated outside the United States, many in Canada.

"Even the United States federal government can't do much about it if the operators are sitting in foreign countries," said I. Nelson Rose, a professor of law at Whittier College in southern California and author of an Internet column dubbed "Gambling and the Law."

And in reality, state and federal authorities are more likely to prosecute gambling operators than players, said Rose.

Despite the legal murkiness, online poker rooms are operating like real businesses. An online site has the advantage of not having to buy real tables and chips or pay for a dealer like a casino or cardroom would - but there are other costs involved. The company's finances undergo audits, as do the software products and online security measures for its financial transactions.

"We don't have the overhead of pit bosses and dealers but we have a fair amount of personnel, people answering questions, watching the tables," Bhargava said. "We have people that are watching tables and software that's watching tables."

BILOXI, Miss. - Dead Money sat at a casino poker table, his first live game ever. Decked out in Dead Money casual - sunglasses, college logo cap, earring, jeans - he'd picked up poker only six months earlier, watching the pros on TV and playing on the Internet.

Dead Money isn't his name. But it does describe what many of the room's regulars saw when they spotted Wes Dopson, 27, a divorced bartender with two kids and a pile of bills back in Anniston, Ala.

"Dead money," explained Ken Warren, a Biloxi-based professional poker player, "is money put into a pot by a player who has no chance of winning that pot."

Young and inexperienced, but full of the bravado bred by too many TV and Internet games, Dopson is part of a new wave of aggressively inept players filling casino poker rooms along the Gulf coast and elsewhere, chasing riches like modern-day prospectors while raining money on regulars who haven't seen paydays like these since illegal gambling flourished here decades ago.

They've made the game both cool and profitable, prompting an explosion of youthful popularity in casino card rooms that just two years ago resembled retirement rec centers.

Mimicking players from televised tournaments - mirrored sunglasses, ballcaps, unlit cigarettes - they swell rooms like brigades of Poker Youth.

Not long ago casinos were replacing poker rooms with more profitable slot machines; now some rooms are expanding, with waiting times for a table often stretching for hours.

That's not all that has changed. Fueled by the flood of televised Texas hold 'em tournaments on the Travel Channel, ESPN and even the arts network Bravo, these young guns bring an edited-for-TV, risk-it-all style to a game that has long put a premium on patience and nuance.

It would be like basketball learned from a highlight reel of slam dunks, or guitar from an MTV music video. They treat the lowliest cards like lottery tickets - they bet on everything - infuriating purists even as the winnings of many old-line players have jumped as much as 50 percent.

"I love poker. I'm making money. But it's not poker anymore," said Claud Sigmon, a longtime Biloxi pro. "You have to play stupid."

Dopson didn't disappoint his first game's seasoned tablemates: Seven hands after being seated, he'd converted the $40 he couldn't afford to lose into "dead money." He exited 15 minutes after he arrived.

"I lost. I lost pretty damn quick, too," he said afterward, wandering among the slot machines. "I didn't even have time to soak it up. I got cocky in there. But if I had the money, I'd do it again.

"The money they win on TV," he mused. "It's any man's dream to make money by getting lucky without really having to lift a finger."

People have tried to make money without lifting a finger forever on this weathered coast. Illegal gambling was so rampant through the mid-1960s that some hotels openly housed 8,000-square-foot casinos. Authorities assessed a "black market tax" on beach bars that offered poker, blackjack and craps games.

"Gambling has always been a way of life down here," said Rip Poulos, 71, a local poker pro who once ran 37 dice games from Bay St. Louis to Pascagoula. "People here just grew into it."

That ended in the late 1960s, when the feds drove gambling underground after crackdowns sparked by complaints from nearby Keesler Air Force Base, whose recruits were regularly clipped in rigged games.

Legal, dockside casinos landed in Mississippi in 1992, transforming a fading beach resort into a kind of Bubba Vegas. Poker rooms thrived for a while, luring the tail end of an older generation raised on all-night kitchen-table games.

The Travel Channel aired weekly tournaments from exotic locations, other networks followed suit - and a phenomenon was born.

"Until a couple years ago, we spent a long time trying to cultivate new players," said Mike Smith, who runs the poker room at the Biloxi Grand Casino. "Then TV and the Internet did it for us."

Time is running out.

Five minutes. Play begins in five minutes.

Bradenton's Dennis Colletti Jr. has paid $10,000 for a seat at the World Series of Poker, and he's struggling to find it in a sweaty, jammed Las Vegas casino.

Four minutes. The tournament starts in four minutes.

Colletti, 36, grew up playing poker with his father, Dennis Sr., in suburban St. Louis.

"I've never played with anyone better," Colletti says about his father, a flamboyant owner of a trucking company and avid poker player. "He wears more jewelry than women who work at Tiffany's. And he's not afraid to play poker with anybody."

Neither is Dennis Jr., who in a matter of minutes is about to match luck and wits with more than 2,000 card sharks competing for the title of world's best.

If only he can find his table.

Three minutes. Cards are dealt in three minutes.

Colletti always has fared well in basement games with his buddies, some of whom had finished in the money at other popular big-money Vegas tournaments that have sprouted during the recent poker boom. Noting his friends' success, Colletti figured he might get lucky, too.

Now he's in the ultimate card game - $5 million and instant celebrity going to the winner. But where the heck is he supposed to be sitting?

Two minutes. We start in two minutes.

Now Colletti is starting to sweat. As vice president of Sarasota-based Azinger Golf Group, Colletti knows all about high-pressure situations. But this is a different deal. There are almost as many ESPN klieg lights and cameras as there are players packing Binion's Horseshoe Casino, a downtown Vegas landmark. Spectators are lined up outside, standing on their tiptoes and peering through smoked-glass windows.

Table after table is filled with players, some of them celebrities such as actors Tobey Maguire and James Woods. Everyone seems to have found their seat. Everyone, that is, except Colletti.

One minute. The main event starts in one minute.

Finally, Colletti spots his table. But, strangely, all the seats are filled. He checks his chair number. He checks it again. Sure enough, someone is sitting in his seat. But on closer inspection, that's not just anyone ccupying his chair.

No, it's none other than Doyle Brunson, the legendary Texas road gambler, two-time World Series winner and author of dozens of how-to poker books. The 70-year-old Brunson, the Babe Ruth of poker, has plopped in Colletti's chair to chat with a fellow pro.

The cards haven't been dealt, and already Colletti faces a nerve-wracking play.

"It's not like you tell Doyle Brunson to get out of your chair," says Colletti.

Eventually, Brunson departs for his own table. But there would be more brushes with fame for Colletti. Lots of them.

Colletti, wearing a wide-brimmed, Indiana Jones-styled hat, finds himself sitting at a featured table on the opening day. Sitting directly to Colletti's right is a well-known pro, Daniel Negreanu.

With the cameras rolling, Colletti jokes and sings and raises and folds as he outlasts Negreanu, who eventually goes bust and is eliminated. Much of the footage from the opening two days of the tournament, which was held in late May, featured Colletti and aired two weeks ago on ESPN.

By the fourth day, Colletti is still going strong. He's become a favorite of the show's producers and is shuffled from an outer table to center stage. This time, he's sitting between Chris "Jesus" Ferguson and Erik Seidel, two more poker superstars.

The most recent footage from the tournament aired Tuesday, and one segment quickly panned from Ferguson to Seidel. Sure enough, there was Colletti, sunglasses perched atop his hat, sitting in between.

Colletti, who finished 185th and earned $10,000, has become something of a poker celebrity. During a recent trip to St. Louis, he went to a casino poker room, "and the first thing someone says to me is, 'Where's your hat?' "

ESPN's next installment of the World Series airs at 9 p.m. on Tuesday.

"You might be seeing more of me," Colletti says, explaining that, during one hand, neither he nor Ferguson looked at their down cards, raising and re-raising their bets despite having no clue what they were holding.

"I figured my hand was just as good as his," says Colletti, who has a lot of his father in him. "Yeah, I guess I'm a character."

As for who had the better hand, well, we won't ruin the surprise here. ESPN just might show it Tuesday. Colletti, The Character, against "Jesus."

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Source: OCR

Stonington -- After winning $5 million at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas in May, Greg Raymer has been riding a wave of celebrity, doing photo shoots, granting interviews and speaking at events. He has even been contracted to endorse poker products and write a book on the game.

But Raymer said all he is thinking about right now is that he is happy to be home. Shortly after winning the grand prize in the World Series, he anticipated doing a lot of traveling and quit his job as a patent attorney at Pfizer Inc.

Indeed, he has been on the road constantly, he said, doing guest speaking at poker tournaments around the country, and some anteing while on the road.

"At some point my celebrity will die down," Raymer said. "But I'll do what I can to milk it."

According to Raymer, of the $5 million he won, 40 percent has already gone to pay off his backers in the tournament and a portion of it, of course, will go to Uncle Sam. All in all Raymer said he walked away with winnings of about $2 million.

"It's not enough to last for 40 years. I've got to earn more money doing something," he said -- which is why he is focusing his time and energy on marketing and promoting himself as the World Series poker champion.

He foresees that he will probably go back to being an attorney one day, but for now has done interviews and photo shoots for ESPN and is in negotiations with a publishing company to write a book about his strategy in the game of poker, as well as a poker products company to wear a shirt with their logo on it while he plays.

Raymer began his hobby playing cards while in college, tossing nickel and dime bets through clouds of smoke on table tops dressed with sticky puddles of beer. It was a once-a-month thing that never amounted to much, he recalled.

After Raymer graduated, he received a gift that would ultimately change his life.

"An aunt of mine, for whatever reason, gave me a book on how to play blackjack," he said.

Raymer began playing at casinos in the Minnesota area, where he lived at the time while obtaining his graduate degree. His mathematical mind started to become bored with the idea of blackjack and he started looking at other games of interest.

"Blackjack was never fun. It was just something I did in college to make money," Raymer said. "As a law student it was better (money) than I'd make at a minimum wage job."

After he moved to Chicago, where he found his first job as a lawyer, Raymer attended charity gambling events. Finding the maximum bets were not worth his time at the blackjack tables, he decided to peruse the floor and found himself sitting at a poker table.

"They had a poker game there and I went and played for fun. I enjoyed myself and thought, 'Let's start looking into this poker thing a little more,'" Raymer said.

Figuring he had learned so much about blackjack from books, Raymer decided he would do the same with poker and began studying books on the game.

Through the years he would keep studying, joining Internet forums, playing in various tournaments, continuing his education at the game that had piqued his interest.

Raymer began visiting Vegas once a year to gamble in tournaments. In 2001, he started competing in the World Series of Poker.
Over the years, he said, he has seen a surge in the number of poker players joining the World Series tournament. Raymer remembers the tournament bringing in 600 to 900 players from around the world. This past tournament drew 2,576. Raymer believes ESPN's televising of the event over the past couple of years is the reason for the record number of players this year.

"The growth of it has been very rapid," Raymer said.
When asked if he thought he would wind up at the last table in the tournament, Raymer replied, why wouldn't he?

"I'm a very mathematical person. In my mind I don't say that (a player) is a shoe-in," he said.

ESPN is airing the World Series of Poker Tournament every Tuesday from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. This coming Tuesday, Raymer said, there will be a lot of face time for him as they draw down to the final table.
Raymer said recently a waiter in Paris asked him if he was the World Series poker champion while he was eating dinner with his wife. He believes once the main event is aired on ESPN he will start being even more recognized, something this modest man said he will have to take in stride.

"I'm going to be getting a lot more of this stuff," he said.

The boys of summer are gathered around two folding tables in 15-year-old Eric Hartman's airy living room for a no-holds-barred game of Texas Hold 'Em.

Except someone forgot the chips. Not the snack kind — Hartman's mother, Nettie, has provided those — but the betting kind that make a satisfying clatter when they're being dragged across the table after a winning hand.

''Do you want to use elbow noodles or marshmallows to start?'' Mrs. Hartman asks her son and his six buddies as she rifles the nearby pantry in search of substitute chips.

''My mom's on the way with the chips,'' Mark Grasso, a sophomore-to-be at Freedom High School, says as he shuffles the cards in a flash of blue and white. ''We're just going to warm up.

''Everyone know how to play?''

Easy grins slide across the faces of the teens who have been friends since middle school and have been playing the game in each other's homes for the past year — ever since televised poker with million-dollar jackpots and players who have become celebrities in their own right sparked a resurgence in cards.

Just deal, they tell him.

In the past, poker was the province of middle-aged men swilling beer and popping peanuts in smoke-filled basements. It was an escape from the wife and children, a chance to hang out with buddies and blow off steam.

But the popularity of the Travel Channel's ''World Poker Tour'' changed all that. ''World Poker Tour'' is the channel's most-watched program, with roughly 1.2 million households turning on their sets each week. Then there's ''World Series of Poker'' on ESPN, ''Celebrity Poker'' on Bravo and ''Late Night Poker'' on Fox Sports Net.

Networks aren't the only ones cashing in on poker's popularity. Stores that carry poker chips, cards and other accouterments of the game are having a hard time keeping the items on the shelves.

''We get them in and we just sell them,'' said Andrea Suvay, manager of Modell's Sporting Goods in Whitehall Township.

''Several times a week someone's asking for poker stuff,'' said Greg Sell, manager of the Sports Authority in Whitehall. ''We get a lot of requests for chips. We have people looking for tables, too.''

There's even a push to make poker an Olympic sport.

And why not?

Poker takes daring, guts and skill, and it's become all the rage among teenage boys.

''It's pretty big everywhere,'' said Dan Kennedy, a 17-year-old Southern Lehigh High School senior who converted a corner of his basement into a game room and painted ''The Poker Pit'' and playing cards on the wall.

Some teens are betting more than plastic chips, spending allowance and lawn-cutting money on a form of entertainment first popularized in the 1830s on Mississippi riverboats and originally referred to as the ''cheating game.''

''I've won anything from $25 to $60,'' Kennedy said. ''It's always nice not to have to take money out of the bank to buy a half tank of gas.''

Buy-ins — the amount needed to play — are usually $5, he said, and there's no shortage of places to play.

''Some weeks there's a game every night,'' said Kennedy, a lifeguard at a local swimming pool. ''It all depends on what people are doing or who's got money. I limit myself to once or twice a week.''

Gambling is illegal in Pennsylvania, and some parents didn't want their teens interviewed for the newspaper because they play with money.

But Kevin Harley, deputy press secretary for the state attorney general's office, said police aren't usually concerned with gambling unless it's large-scale sports betting or involves organized crime.

''Is law enforcement going to arrest anyone having a nickel-and-dime poker game on a Tuesday night at their brother-in-law's?'' he said. ''It's highly unlikely.''

Especially if the house isn't taking a cut, Harley said.

Sixteen-year-old Ricky Maderas said poker is also popular at Liberty High School, where students play on the sly in the back of class, he said. Most of the time it's for bragging rights, but occasionally someone raises the stakes.

''A kid bet his portable DVD player and lost it,'' he said. ''Some guys like to bet. I guess it's a manly testosterone kind of thing.''

It's hard to say how schools, which usually react swiftly to fads, are handling the pastime's growing popularity.

Students say they sneak in a few hands in school whenever they can, but several area high school principals said they weren't aware that games were taking place.

''It was really big at school,'' said Peter Cosgrove, a 16-year-old Parkland High School junior, who estimated 75 percent of the student body has played Texas Hold 'Em at one time or another.

Then someone lost a bundle of money at school and his mom called the principal to complain, Cosgrove said. After that, students weren't allowed to bring cards to school, he said.

Parkland Principal Richard Sniscak said that never happened and students are embellishing the game's popularity.

Kennedy's mother, Linda, said she's more bothered by the amount of time her son spends studying the moves of the professionals on television than what a few dollars waged during a friendly poker game could portend.

''I'll come home and he'll be watching them play'' on ESPN, she said. ''He knows the names of the players. I'm like, 'There's a lawn that needs to be mowed.'''

But can poker, despite the amount of money involved, lead to a serious gambling addiction?

Vivian Blanc, a counselor in Wormleysburg, Cumberland County, who specializes in compulsive gambling, said ''lots and lots'' of people can play poker and not develop a problem, but for roughly 5 percent of the population, the game's a slippery slope.

''It's not about the money or how much you win,'' she said. ''It's about the action. It's about placing the bet. That's the thrill.''

Blanc said adolescents and senior citizens constitute the fastest-growing population of compulsive gamblers, and a majority of her patients who are in their 20s started gambling in middle school.

''The truth is you don't normally introduce kids to alcohol and drugs at ages 5, 7 or 9, but we do introduce our kids to gambling at early ages so it becomes normalized,'' she said.

Nettie Hartman, whose Bethlehem Township home was the setting for last week's game, pooh-poohed the notion her son and his friends will become gambling junkies from playing poker.

''If anything, it's an opportunity to learn self-control under a watchful eye,'' said Hartman, director of human resources for a home health care company. ''These guys are so physical, it's nice they have something calmer to do.''

Hartman views poker nights as a good way for the guys to build social skills and have some fun.

''They bust each other's chops,'' she said. ''It's such a hard age. They don't drive, and they don't want me driving them to a local carnival.''

So why poker?

This is a generation, after all, that amuses itself by blasting video game monsters, jumping curbs on skateboards and conducting conversations in the virtual world of instant messaging.

''We get together and talk,'' said Jay Gambaccini, a red-headed Freedom High School 10th-grader. ''It gives us an excuse to just hang out.''

Leonard Green, a Washington University psychology professor who recently completed a study on the gambling habits of college students, said poker appeals to young men because it's considered a grown-up pastime.

''It's like going to an R-rated movie or doing something your parents aren't totally thrilled about,'' he said. ''There's a little bit of shadiness to it.''

Plus, males between the ages of 16 and 25 are inherent risk-takers and with poker there's always the danger of losing money no matter how great or small the amount, he said.

''Boys are much more likely than girls to play these games'' for that reason, he said.

But some girls play.

Southern Lehigh senior Julie Nadel learned as a child at her father's knee when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em. Now she's considered one of the best players in Kennedy's circle.

''It's nice to get together with your friends without having to go out,'' said Nadel, 16, of Center Valley, who watches the game regularly on ESPN2. ''There's not a whole lot to do around here.''

Poker's also an easy game to learn, Green said, unlike some games that require a huge investment of time to understand the complexities of play.

''With mah-jongg, you really have to know how to play,'' he said. ''With poker, it's easy and there's tremendous social reinforcement. There's lots of talking, lots of joking.''

Back at Hartman's house of cards, there was plenty of that going on.

Gambaccini emerges from the upstairs wearing horse jockey goggles so dark they conceal his eyes.

''Who wants in on this poker face?'' he postures, sitting back down at the poker table, where only four players are still in the game.

''OK, Smarty Jones,'' quips Mike Capofari, a 15-year-old Moravian Academy sophomore whose cheeks are swollen because he had his wisdom teeth removed earlier that day.

Wearing a cap emblazoned with ''Lady Luck'' and rhinestone-encrusted sunglasses, 15-year-old George Andriko plunks 10 chips in the pot.

''Oh, he's going big,'' says Grasso, the only one in the baby-faced bunch with a shadow of a beard.

''Raise him, raise him,'' Gambaccini urges.

Derek Applegate, wearing a black T-shirt and a heavy silver chain around his neck, sees Andriko's 10 and raises him five.

But their cards aren't enough to beat the flush 15-year-old Joe McIntyre spreads on the table.

''He won his dignity back,'' Grasso says of McIntyre, who sports an unruly mop of tawny curls.

In a victory swoop, Eric Hartman picks up McIntyre and dumps him on the couch like a bag of mulch.

''He got his manhood back,'' shouts Hartman, who looks like a displaced California surfer with chin-length blond hair.

The boys of summer break for glasses of iced tea and orange soda. Then it's back to the table for another fast-paced round.

The night is young, and so are they.

West Hollywood, Calif.-based WPT Enterprises Inc., which created the World Poker Tour, has signed a half-dozen licensing agreements to help it increase its brand presence.

WPT is a majority-owned subsidiary of Minnetonka-based Lakes Entertainment Inc.

Terms of the licensing deals were not released, but the big-name partnerships ensure that the company's brand will be seen everywhere from bookstores to boxer shorts, according to a statement.

• New York-based HarperCollins Publishers Inc. will market World Poker Tour poker strategy books, the first of which is expected to hit shelves in March to coincide with the tour's third season.

• Montreal-based Dorel Industries Inc., a manufacturer of home furnishings, will launch wood and metal-framed WPT poker tables for home use.

• Kirkland, Wash.-based Mforma Group Inc. will offer games, messaging, ring tones, images, icons and other applications for mobile phones.

• Hong Kong-based Radica Games Ltd. will create an electronic, hand-held Texas Hold 'Em game.

• Dallas-based Bioworld Merchandising Inc. will manufacture a line of WPT hats, leather wallets and other items for specialty stores, mid-tier department stores and mass merchants.

• New York-based Briefly Stated Inc. will manufacture a line of WPT-themed boxers and loungewear for a variety of distribution outlets.

When it comes to poker, Barb Tanner is no high roller. She prefers the lowest limit on betting. And she still bemoans her single biggest loss in three decades of poker - $120 - at Saloon #10 in Deadwood, S.D.

"I felt real bad losing that much money," says Tanner, a retired school nurse in University City. "I'm not a gambler, really. I'm a card player."

But Tanner is a true poker champion. She proved it this week by capturing the title in the Budweiser Poker Classic, becoming the first woman to win in the tournament's 23-year history. The finals were held at the Holiday Inn Southwest Viking Conference Center at 10709 Watson Road.

As the popularity of televised poker matches grows nationally, so too has the turnout at the tournament. Tanner was among 809 players to start off. That number dwindled through competition to a final table of seven in the last round Wednesday of seven-card stud.

She won in spectacular fashion, with a royal flush, the best hand in poker. She had an ace, king, queen and jack of clubs showing, and a 10 of clubs that had been dealt down.

Tanner, 63, tried to put on her best poker face.

"But I don't bluff well," she says, "so I just didn't look at anybody. They were betting crazy, saying, 'No way could she have it.'"

The next best hand was held by a man with three 9s. In the end, Tanner had nearly all of the chips, and the win was so obvious that officials didn't even bother counting them, said tournament director Glenda Bridges.

"Very smart poker"

Jerry Clinton, chairman of the tournament sponsor Grey Eagle Distributors, raved about Tanner's lucky hand.

"She was playing very smart poker, betting wisely," he said. "And I have no idea what the odds are of getting a royal flush, maybe 10 million-to-1."

Actually, the odds aren't that high.

"The probability of getting a royal flush using seven cards is only about 1-in-30,940," said Michael Shackleford, adjunct professor of gaming math at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. Shackleford is the man behind the Web site www.wizardofodds.com.

The tournament raised $23,277 for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Tanner gets no cash prize, but she does walk away with bragging rights and a trophy. She played nearly every year in the Poker Classic but had never won it. Her only other tournament win was at the Ameristar casino in St. Charles.

A trip to Vegas

Tanner's love for cards probably started with her grandmother, "a card shark" whose game of choice was rummy. Tanner's mother favors bridge. "It's in my blood," says Tanner, who started with hearts and spades and grew interested in poker when she visited Las Vegas in 1971 with friends.

"I watched them play for two hours, spent 10 minutes listening to the rules and sat down and played," she says. "I haven't stopped since."

She formed a women's poker group in 1987 that met monthly on Sundays until 1999. "I think my mother did shudder in those early days when I'd talk about poker," she says. "I was brought up in a minister's house."

Last year, Tanner and her partner, Linda Bethane, sold their condo in the Central West End, gave all their furniture to relatives and friends and decided to live full time in a motor home.

Every time Tanner travels into a new state by RV, camper or car, she scouts potential poker spots. She stops at the visitor information centers and picks up a casino industry newspaper that lists casinos, then calls ahead to make sure they offer poker.

"In all the years I've played, generally I'm the only woman at the table," she says. "There's something about this game - the intrigue about what's the next card going to be. Part of it is skill and part of it is luck."

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- EdgeTV, the first 24-hour
multi-platform entertainment channel dedicated to games of skill, strategy and chance, to be launched in early 2005, has added actor Tobey Maguire and poker champion Phil Hellmuth to its board of advisors, it was announced today by EdgeTV co-founder and president Keith Richman. As board members both Maguire and Hellmuth will assist the network in numerous capacities, including working with EdgeTV's executives to develop concepts that fit into the overall brand
they are trying to build.

EdgeTV co-founder and chairman Reagan Silber remarked, "We are ecstatic to be working with Tobey and Phil. With their passion for games, they will clearly help guide EdgeTV in the right direction and create new opportunities for us."

Further commenting on the relationship, Richman said, "We are working hard to assemble a team that will help EdgeTV be the first network to successfully blend entertainment and gaming. Tobey and Phil are both superstars in their fields as well as fans of our genre. We are very excited about their participation in helping create EdgeTV, and in making it a network that viewers will demand and operators will embrace."

Maguire enthused, "I have always been a fan of games, and I am excited to be participating in the development and direction of EdgeTV. I look forward to influencing the quality of the channel's programming and am thrilled to have the ability to affect its overall direction."

Phil Hellmuth added, "I look forward to sharing my expertise while
assisting EdgeTV in developing both its programming and production
capabilities. Through my experiences as a player, poker tournament
commentator and author, I know what fans of the game are most curious about and hope I can use this knowledge to help the network become successful."

Tobey Maguire, an inveterate poker player, is best-known for his acting
work in such feature films as "Spider-Man I and II," "Seabiscuit," The "Cider House Rules," "Pleasantville," and "Wonder Boys." Behind the camera, he has also served as executive producer of "Seabiscuit" and producer of Spike Lee's "25th Hour."

Phil Hellmuth has won nine World Series of Poker (WSOP) championships and no less than two titles during 2003. He is one of the top players on the WSOP money list with over $3.5 million in earnings. Hellmuth became the youngest WSOP champ ever, at age 24, at his first win in 1989, and his charisma and propensity for theatrics has helped him rack up myriad other honors since going professional in 1987. He is a coveted commentator for numerous poker tournaments and has been featured in over 20 television specials on poker and Las Vegas. Hellmuth writes a regular column for Card Player magazine and has
also written a best-selling book, "Play Poker Like the Pros" (HarperCollins).

The "Phil Hellmuth's Million Dollar Poker System" DVD and his second book, "Bad Beats and Lucky Draws" (HarperCollins) will launch in October 2004.

Today Project Fairdice announced the initial release of software designed to prevent the rigging of games by online casinos.

Spokesperson Douglas Reay said 'This will deal a bitter blow to conmen and criminals in the gambling industry, and clear the way for the honest online casinos who give their players a fair chance.'

Currently the only way the honest online casinos have to show they are trustworthy is to invite auditors occasionally in to check on things, and many players don't trust that. Too many get ripped off once and never come back. The problem is, when a casino says they've shuffled a deck of cards fairly, how can you know if they are telling the truth?

With the launch of this initial implementation of the Fairdice cryptographic protocol, Project Fairdice is offering casinos another way. We're saying to all the casinos out there, 'Come get involved in the project. Enable your websites to use the Fairdice Protocol. If you are not rigging your games, you have nothing to lose. This is your chance to really prove to your players that your random number generators are not fixed.'

Online gaming watchdog eCOGRA (eCommerce and Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance) require in their code of practice that the probability of any event occurring shall be as for the actual physical device except where deviations are clearly displayed to the players. Now eCOGRA and other regulatory bodies have their first opportunity to give real teeth to their laws. 'It's going to be very interesting to see who welcomes this breakthrough with open arms, and who ducks for cover or tries to ignore it.'

To find out more about Project Fairdice, come visit us at:

http://fairdice.sourceforge.net/

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica, Aug. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- CasinoWebcam and Home
Gambling Network today announced a settlement in their dispute regarding
CasinoWebcam's rights in U.S. patent 5,800,268. The terms of settlement are
confidential. However, subject to the terms of the Agreement, CasinoWebcam is
licensed to use CWC software and services and to sell CWC software and
services to prospective third party licensees and Home Gambling Network
retains all other rights to its patents and intellectual property.

"Dead money," explained Ken Warren, a Biloxi-based professional poker player, "is money put into a pot by a player who has no chance of winning that pot."

Young and inexperienced, but full of the bravado bred by too many TV and Internet games, Dopson is part of a new wave of aggressively inept players filling casino poker rooms along the Gulf Coast and elsewhere, chasing riches like modern-day prospectors while raining money on regulars who haven't seen paydays like these since illegal gambling flourished here decades ago.

They've made the game both cool and profitable, prompting a mini-NASCAR explosion of youthful popularity in casino card rooms that just two years ago resembled retirement rec centers.

Mimicking players from televised tournaments — mirrored sunglasses, ballcaps, unlit cigarettes — they swell rooms like brigades of Poker Youth.

Not long ago, casinos were replacing poker rooms with more profitable slot machines; now some rooms are expanding, with waiting times for a table often stretching for hours.

That's not all that has changed. Fueled by the flood of televised Texas Hold 'Em tournaments on The Travel Channel, ESPN and even the arts network Bravo, these young guns bring an edited-for-TV, risk-it-all style to a game that has long put a premium on patience and nuance.

It would be like basketball learned from a highlight reel of slam dunks, or guitar from an MTV music video. They treat the lowliest cards like lottery tickets — they bet on everything — infuriating purists even as the winnings of many old-line players have jumped as much as 50 percent.

"I love poker. I'm making money. But it's not poker anymore," said Claud Sigmon, a longtime Biloxi pro. "You have to play stupid."

Dopson didn't disappoint his first game's seasoned tablemates: Seven hands after being seated, he'd converted the $40 he couldn't afford to lose into "dead money." He exited 15 minutes after he arrived.

"I lost. I lost pretty damn quick, too," he said afterward, wandering among the slot machines. "I didn't even have time to soak it up. I got cocky in there. But if I had the money, I'd do it again.

"The money they win on TV," he mused. "It's any man's dream to make money by getting lucky without really having to lift a finger."

A game revived

People have tried to make money without lifting a finger forever on this weathered coast. Illegal gambling was so rampant through the mid-1960s that some hotels openly housed 8,000-square-foot casinos. Authorities assessed a "black market tax" on beach bars that offered poker, blackjack and craps games.

"Gambling has always been a way of life down here," said Rip Poulos, 71, a local poker pro who once ran 37 dice games from Bay St. Louis to Pascagoula. "People here just grew into it."

That ended in the late '60s, when the feds drove gambling underground after crackdowns sparked by complaints from nearby Keesler Air Force Base, whose recruits were regularly clipped in rigged games.

Legal, dockside casinos landed in Mississippi in 1992, transforming a fading beach resort into a kind of Bubba Vegas. Poker rooms thrived for a while, luring the tail end of an older generation raised on all-night kitchen-table games.

But as they died out, so did the game. Then came a modern confluence of cable TV, the Internet and the most fittingly named high-stakes poker player of all time: Chris Moneymaker.

An unassuming Tennessee accountant who often plays wearing a ballcap and sunglasses, Moneymaker, 27, qualified for the 2003 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas — his first live tourney ever — after paying $40 to enter an on-line satellite tournament. He won the whole shebang and its $2.5 million pot. ESPN televised it. Millions watched.

With time-lapse editing, cameras peeping under cards and a game called No Limit Texas Hold 'Em — in which players can push forward every chip and announce "All in!" — each hand made viewers feel like Steve McQueen in the dramatic finale of the classic card film "The Cincinnati Kid."

The Travel Channel aired weekly tournaments from exotic locations, other networks followed suit — and a phenomenon was born.

"Until a couple years ago, we spent a long time trying to cultivate new players," said Mike Smith, who runs the poker room at the Biloxi Grand Casino. "Then TV and the Internet did it for us."

For the most part, the poker room is the same as it ever was: a bazaar of felt tables ringed by 8 to 10 players, filled with smoke (except the new non-smoking rooms), small-talk and the constant, cicada-like click-clacking of chips being stacked and restacked.

But rooms now stop more often for those adrenaline-charged moments when one of the new "kamikazes," as some call the newbies, slides all his chips into the pot.

"They just like the action. It's about pushing it all in and seeing what you have," said Louie Marino, 27, a New Orleans longshoreman who learned to play long before poker was televised. "They like to hear that 'All in.' "

An expensive education

Fearlessness distinguishes these new bad players from the bygone variety, veterans say. Like a scratch-off Lotto player, they do occasionally get lucky, and when their outsized bets match their outsized luck, woe to everyone else at the table.

"I won't sit down when there's six of them at a table. You can't run 'em all down," said Herb Bollinger, 61, who drives to Gulfport from Mandeville, La., to play tournaments twice a week. "I can't bluff someone on a hand if they aren't experienced enough to know I'm bluffing. You have to pick your spots."

Plenty of players here are doing just that.

Victor McLean moved to the Mississippi coast last September from Blowing Rock, N.C., to play cards. Before that, he made his living as a sculptor.

"Just say I haven't had to sculpt anything lately," he said. Added Steele Catching, assistant poker room manager in Tunica, Miss., "A lot of these young guys come in with a pocket full of money wanting to become a poker star or something. But they're playing with people who've played a long time. They're getting a good education. Sometimes an expensive education."

Dopson sensed players salivating when he sat down for his first live game.

"I seen the experience at the table," he said. "But my bills are up on me. And when you watch someone like Moneymaker on TV, you think, 'I could be like him.'

"Before I came down here, I thought I was pretty damn good," he added. "Well, I just found out I'm not pretty damn good. I had to lose to learn."

And somebody else had to win.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Following the success of televised poker in cable, the card game is ready to place its bets in syndication.

"The Ultimate Poker Challenge," a one-hour weekly show set for a Sept. 4 launch, will feature amateur and professional poker players competing against one another in 23 individual no-limit Texas Hold 'Em tournaments. The players will be whittled down to eight finalists, who will compete for the ultimate prize of more than $1 million.

The show, hosted by Chad Brown ("As the World Turns"), is taped before a live audience at the Plaza Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

"Over 50 million people are estimated to play poker in the United States, yet no nationally syndicated show has opened its doors for the masses to take part in until now," said executive producer Dan Pugliese. "What 'American Idol' did to music, 'The Ultimate Poker Challenge' hopes to do with poker. Anyone in this country has the chance to be a champion and walk away with $1 million or more."

"Ultimate Poker Challenge," from distributor Passport Entertainment, has been cleared in more than 80% of the country on such Viacom-owned stations as KCAL in Los Angeles, WBBM in Chicago and WPSG in Philadelphia.

Such cable networks as Travel Channel, ESPN, Fox Sports Net and Bravo are already enjoying success with their respective poker telecasts.

Switching gears used to mean nothing more to me than the excitement of riding my first 10-speed.

These days, however, switching gears helps me build mountains of chips.

Any time you change your style of play at the poker table, you're switching gears.

If you're folding everything that comes your way, reluctant to pay for a flop unless you have pocket aces, you're playing tight.

If you're in every pot, always willing to see what comes next, your game is loose.

If suddenly — but strategically — you go from one extreme to the other, you've just switched gears.

For example, if your loose play has cost you most of your chips, you may want to hold off for a while.

On the other hand, if you have yet to win a pot because you have yet to play one, your opponents will nickel-and-dime you out of the game.

That was the case when I made my first final table at a free tournament.

Striving for survival, I played just enough to pay for blinds. Though I was one of the last two standing, my opponent's chips towered over me after he eliminated most of the table. Inevitably he swept me aside as well.

I vowed not to make the same mistake last week when I was among the elite eight after playing fairly tight most of the night.

After folding the first few hands of the final table, I had outlasted two players. The following hand, I moved in decisively and knocked out two players at once, giving me the chip lead. I used that advantage to eventually knock out two more players.

When two of us remained, I had a 6-to-1 chip lead over Marian, who had already survived several all-in hands.

On the first hand dealt to us, the flop gave me a flush draw (Jocelyn can fill you in below). So I bet enough to put Marian all-in. The flush never came and she doubled up.

Trying to regain the momentum two hands later, I went all-in on a gutshot straight draw.

She called with a pair, and I flinched a bit when the turn didn't help. But my aggressive play paid off when the river completed my straight and brought me a title.

That's why these free tournaments are great. They give you the perfect chance to practice switching gears. And it's less work than riding a 10-speed.

Moneymaker in KC

Chris Moneymaker, the aptly named 2003 World Series of Poker champion, is in town. A few lucky patrons at Harrah's will be selected to play some cards with the guy they've been watching on ESPN reruns for the last year.

I've been asked to play some warm-up hands with Moneymaker just for fun. I've been told that fans can watch him play at 5 p.m. Sunday in the Harrah's poker room.

Source: KC Star

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A few years ago, casinos across the United States were closing their poker rooms to make space for more popular and lucrative slot machines.

But the improbable triumph in 2003 of a 27-year-old accountant from Tennessee, who beat some of the world's greatest professional players on national television, has sent the nation into a poker frenzy — and casinos looking to cash in have been quick on the draw.

Anybody who watches ESPN probably already knows the story: A man named Chris Moneymaker wins a $40 Texas Hold 'Em poker tournament on the Internet, qualifies to play in the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, then outlasts a colorful cast of characters to win $2.5 million.

"When the World Poker Tour got into television and used technology to show the hole cards, it sparked enormous interest in poker," said Gary Thompson, spokesman for Harrah's Entertainment in Las Vegas. "Americans are very competitive people. You can't compete with Tiger Woods on a golf course, or a heavyweight boxer in the ring, but you can compete at a poker table and knock out a world champion."

Harrah's rode the wave of popularity, buying Binion's Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas earlier this year, and with it, the rights to the World Series of Poker. Thompson said Harrah's, which owns 28 casinos nationwide, recently opened poker rooms at three of its Midwestern casinos. It plans to adds four more at other casinos.

Harrah's has capitalized on Moneymaker's star status by giving poker players around the nation a chance to compete against the former world champion. Moneymaker is scheduled to be at the Kansas City casino on Aug. 22, and recently played at a similar event at the Harrah's in St. Louis.

"Even after I won the tournament, I didn't believe it would do what it's done," said Moneymaker, who four months ago quit his accounting job and made poker his profession. "I had several people tell me I'm going to change the face of poker."

He did more than that: He became the face of poker. Several Harrah's billboards near interstate highways in Kansas City feature up-close pictures of Moneymaker during the penultimate moments of the 2003 tournament.

Harrah's Kansas City casino opened a poker room on July 15, two weeks after the Isle of Capri opened one at its Kansas City property. Both casinos had poker rooms when they opened a decade ago, but Harrah's shut its live poker tables down in June 1998, and Isle of Capri closed its room in 2000.

"In Kansas City, the poker room is packed on weekends, with 100 to 150 people playing, and on a typical weeknight, we have upward of 80 to 100 people," said Tracy Owens, spokesman for Ameristar Casinos, which operates a casino in Kansas City.

There are signs that poker may have staying power.

A Wichita, Kan., company earlier this year created the Amateur Poker League, which provides cards, poker chips, table tops and a uniform scoring system to bars for about $225 a night. Participants get the same amount of chips — for free — and play until one person wins them all.

Shawn Riley, one of the owners of the Amateur Poker League, said there are about 14,000 registered APL players at 150 locations in Kansas, Missouri, Texas, Chicago and California. He said about 150 to 200 new members are added each day.

"We were a little concerned about how this would take off in casino towns like Kansas City," Riley said. "But it's doing very well. It's a good place to practice, and you don't lose your rent."

The bars make more money from increased food and drink sales on nights that typically were slow before the poker was offered.

Similar types of games in other states, though, have faced legal problems.

In Minnesota, a bowling alley offered free poker games in which patrons could win prizes such as hats and T-shirts. But the games were found to be illegal because organizers profited from increased food and drink sales. Bar owners in South Dakota, Connecticut and Wisconsin also were warned that hosting poker games violated state laws.

In all of those cases, businesses were offering the games in response to demand from customers.

"There's a whole new generation of poker players out there," said Phil Maggio, a pit manager at Harrah's in Kansas City. "A lot of them only know about no-limit hold 'em because that's what they see on TV."

Dave Folks, 55, of Kansas City, who was playing an afternoon game of Texas Hold 'Em recently at Harrah's, said he welcomes the new players who think they can win at the casino after watching the game on television.

"Anybody who watches poker on TV and tries to copy how they play is extremely misled," said Folks. "They don't realize that you probably fold 70 percent of your hands if you're a good player."

What is the deal with the sudden popularity of poker on television? Faster than you can say "Deal me in!" Texas Hold 'Em has taken a permanent seat at the programming table. Tournament poker is now showing up on the Travel Channel, Bravo, Fox Sports Net and ESPN, where a digital clock on the crawl bar does a countdown showing when the next tournament will be aired. "Five hours, 31 minutes and 28 seconds" it reads. Obviously somebody is having trouble waiting.

"Celebrity Poker," is second only to "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" in viewer popularity on Bravo. The 2003 World Series of Poker is being shown for the third time on the Travel Channel. Fox Sports Net debuted "Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament" on August 15. Early play in the 2004 World Series of Poker is being aired even though the tournament is long since finished and the winner crowned. NBC has announced a two-hour special to follow the Super Bowl Sunday on February 1. "The Travel Channel World Poker Tour Battle of Champions" will feature top players shuffling for a six-figure grand prize. Poker is everywhere.

The question is: "Why?"

The answer is easier to get than a bad hand in a big pot. A lot of people play. As my accomplished poker playing friend, Domenic, pointed out: "Poker is an intriguing game. It's been around since the middle of the 19th century." Game historians have connected it to the 18th century French game poque, the German game pochspiel, the Hindu word pukka, and the magicians' term "hocus-pocus."

"It takes just a few minutes to learn but a lifetime to master," is the mantra of one popular show.

Domenic noted that "Hold 'Em is a pretty simple game, and that's why it works so well on TV, because people can follow it."

Secondly, the rising popularity of poker seems intrinsically tied to the constantly increasing thirst for gambling in our culture. We notice the distance between highway exits to Indian casinos shrinks every summer. Lotteries are booming. Sports betting is everywhere. Did you check your soda pop cap for a winner? Online poker "casinos" for beginners and experts continue to proliferate.

Thirdly, and perhaps most important, is a simple technological wonder. "It has become so telegenic with the cameras under the table that allow you to see the hole cards; that makes it very exciting," said Domenic. Imagine it. The defining skill of poker is a player's ability to know what cards the opponent has, while, at the same time, through strategic betting and theater -- more often than not stoic mime -- disguising his own hand. The viewer is treated to the same voyeuristic component that infuses excitement into reality shows. We know the reality but they don't!

Lastly, in live poker, most hands are not good enough to play; they are thrown away, or "mucked." Televised poker is highly edited to treat the viewer to only those hands that have the most action and built-in suspense.

Nowadays Domenic plays online almost exclusively. There are hundreds of sites with untold thousands of players. He likes online poker because it is fast, convenient, and lucrative. Aren't those the defining qualities of success in our American way of life? Are we talking about the real "national pastime" here?

Speed counts. "In a live game you get maybe 30 games an hour," said Domenic, who sometimes deals at the S&K Card Room in Old Town. "Online you get 45-50 hands an hour." A "pook pook pook," sound springs from the computer as animated cards fly into place on the green felt. Players don't have to stare across the table to decipher the opponent's intentions, divine his inner thoughts. They see betting position and the amount of chips held by the opponent. Bam!, A bet. It moves fast.

But get this: "What I do a lot of times is play three or four games at once," said Domenic. He doesn't have to wade through long spells of boredom. He is usually holding at least one good hand, playing in one thrilling game. Or, if he plays in just one game, he can "wash the dishes or something while playing." That's fast AND convenient. Start and stop play when you want, and if you lose, "You don't have that long, disheartening drive home."

For a skilled player, online poker can be very lucrative and lead to appearances in televised tournaments. Small buy-ins ($20 - $40) can lead to victory in a "satellite" tournament that qualifies you for a seat in a tournament as huge as "The World Series of Poker."

In 2003 Chris Moneymaker, a Tennessee accountant, parlayed a $40 online tournament buy-in into 2.5 million dollars first prize at the World Series of Poker, televised. This year, married patent attorney Greg Raymar won the $5 million first prize after first qualifying in a satellite tournament. Viewers of the poker boom on television think: "If they can do it, I can do it! It looks so easy." Don't quit your day job.

Just when it seemed as if every brand imaginable had made it to the Strip, along comes Hooters -- billing itself as delightfully tacky, yet unrefined -- with plans to plant its high-profile brand on one of the quietest little hotels in town.

The world's first Hooters Casino Hotel will debut in Las Vegas next year, following the recent sale and planned renovation of the 711-room Hotel San Remo on Tropicana Avenue just off the Strip, the companies said Tuesday.

"Isn't that the best. Hooters Airline seems to be doing real well flying out of Atlanta so I'd imagine a Hooters at the corner by the airport might fit right in," said Jim Medick, chief executive officer of MRC, Nevada's largest public-polling firm.

With a total project cost of $120 million, San Remo Executive Vice President Michael Hessling, a partner in the new ownership group, said the renovated property will be positioned to compete across the demographic spectrum of visitors to Las Vegas.

Hooters President Neil Kiefer acknowledged that his company's brand has often proved controversial, but he said its high visibility, combined with the location of the San Remo, should spell success.

"We think we have a winner in bringing the notoriety and wackiness of our brand together with this great location and the experienced ... folks of the San Remo," he said.

Hessling said the current ownership group, led by the Japan-based Izumi family, brings its prime location to the table.

He added that the renovation project will erase all other traces of the San Remo as it now exists.

He said four new dining and entertainment concepts are being added to the property.

A Dan Marino's Fine Food and Spirits, a fine dining concept that Hessling said will equal the haute cuisine chef restaurants on the Strip, is intended for quality- and price-conscious visitors. Marino was a star quarterback with the Miami Dolphins in the 1980s and 1990s.

An accompanying Martini Bar, another Marino concept, is intended to appeal to high-end customers and compete with the Ghost Bar in the Palms and The Bar at The Hotel at Mandalay Bay.

A Pete & Shorty's Tavern, Book and Bar, a Hooters concept that is popular in the Midwest, is intended to attract midrange visitors.

And a Hooters Restaurant and expanded pool area, triple the area of the current pool, will be designed to appeal to the standard Hooters clientele and compete with the likes of the Hard Rock Hotel.

The four new concepts, combined with a complete renovation of the hotel rooms and public areas, are designed to give the property an entirely new brand identification, Hessling said.

Medick agreed that the brand name's power should give the project a marketing kick when it opens late next year.

"It's a hot brand backed by hot names. Dan Marino and Hooters on the Strip is not a bad combination and I think I've found a new place to have my business lunches," he said.

Hessling said the Eastern and Western Hotel Corp., which owned and operated the San Remo for 15 years, started looking at opportunities last year for growing the hotel when it was approached by Hooters with a proposal for a joint venture partnership to redevelop the property.

The new ownership group includes Hessling, two members of the Izumi family, and nine partners in Hooters of America.

Hessling said the 600 current San Remo employees will be retained and 400 new positions will be created by the renovation and rebranding project.

Hooters operates 375 restaurants nationwide and Hooters Airline, primarily on the East Coast.

Hessling said it is too early to know whether the airline with add flights to Las Vegas, but he said it would be beneficial for the airline and for the new Hooters Hotel Casino.

A once-a-week poker player long before it got consecrated by cable television, Melbourne's Jeff Kaplan never dreamed he'd actually plop down in front of the boob tube and watch other stiffs play a sedentary game. But last year, a strange thing happened.

Intrigued by incisive commentary, omniscient graphics, card-shark personalities and playing tables ringed by cameras nifty enough to peer into the gamblers' hidden hands, Kaplan got sucked into an unlikely reality-TV drama -- the World Poker Tour, sponsored by the Travel Channel.

"They really hit a home run with this one," concedes Kaplan. "You've got all these different characters with baseball caps pulled low and sunglasses so you can't see their pupils dilate when they've got a good hand. But you know something nobody else does -- you know who's bluffing and who isn't. It takes the game to an entirely new level."

But it's not just the Travel Channel. Lately, you can catch televised poker on prime time every night: Celebrity Poker on Bravo, the World Series of Poker on ESPN, Championship Poker at the Plaza on Fox Sports. Whether it's the Hollywood allure of Ben Affleck, Don Cheadle and Star Jones, or the appeal of underdog nobodies bidding high-stakes wagers, the ripple effect is pervasive.

"I'd say every third customer who walks through this door is asking about poker supplies," says Joe Cagnina, president of Aurora Road Billiard Supply in Melbourne. "We used to carry 3,000 poker chips. Now, we've got 30,000 chips in stock. We're seeing a lot of newbies."

"A month ago, we didn't sell any of these, not a one," says Alan Prescott, owner of Sun Fun Amusements in Rockledge, as he sweeps his hand at his shelves full of poker chips and carrying cases. "Now we're selling four to six sets a day. And it's all because of Texas Hold 'Em poker on TV. That's the catalyst."

Texas Hold 'Em -- one of poker's most aggressive games -- has been the centerpiece of the WPT since it debuted on the Travel Channel in March 2003. The attraction is its simplicity. The dealer issues two face-down "hole" cards to each player, then deals three face-up "community" cards to the center of the table. Before the dealer drops a fourth and fifth card into the community pool, players wager on their prospects of getting the best five-card hands by the end of the game.

Organized competitive poker has been around since 1970, when the late legend Benny Binion invited the nation's best players to Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker. But thanks to its recent TV coverage, interest in poker's World Series, open to those who ante up $10,000 for a seat at the table, has exploded. Last year, 839 players, amateur and professional, competed. This year saw 2,756 contestants, and winner Greg Raymer raked in $5 million, twice the take of 2003 champion Chris Moneymaker. In fact, this year's huge purse ensured that the top six finishers would become millionaires.

But that pales against the World Poker Tour, whose current season -- featuring no-limit Texas Hold 'Em -- runs through April and draws 5 million viewers to the Travel Channel for a new two-hour installment every Wednesday night. Founder Steve Lipscomb predicts its purse will swell to $70 million by spring 2005, a seven-fold increase from its $10 million prize debut in 2003.

Featuring jargon-deciphering commentary from popular Mike Sexton, Vince Van Patten and Shana Hiatt, graphics that show viewers which cards each contestant holds and player biographies, the WPT revolutionized televised poker and set production standards for ESPN, Bravo and everyone else. It harvests its players -- pros and amateurs alike -- from $5,000 to $10,000 "buy-ins," or from qualifying rounds at satellite tournaments around the country. Its venues cover casinos from Paris to Reno to Costa Rica.

"Poker is the great American game. There are anywhere from 50 to 80 million Americans who play recreational poker," says Lipscomb, an attorney/documentary filmmaker, from his office in Hollywood. "When the World Poker Tour branded this game, we knew we were looking at a huge number of people who were passionate about it. We knew it was a great social activity that wasn't anywhere near as big as we thought it could be. There was poker on television, but it was unwatchable. We changed all that."

Lipscomb says the appeal of WPT coverage is the way it teaches rookies how to become better players without boring veteran gamers. Sun Fun Amusements' Prescott says retail traffic among first-time players bears Lipscomb out.

"I think what the World Poker Tour does best, particularly with Texas Hold 'Em, is that it takes away the embarrassment," Prescott says. "You may not be very good at other games, but with this, you can walk into a casino, sit at a table with a bunch of experienced players and do well, because the game isn't that hard to learn."

Strangely, the 9/11 attacks may have also contributed to poker's growing niche. Both Prescott and Aurora Billiard's Cagnina report they've seen dramatic changes in consumer buying patterns since terrorism came to America.

"People nowadays are spending millions more in home entertainment," says Cagnina, who adds that his typical customers are white-collar white males, age 35-55. "Over the last two to three years, they've been staying closer to home and gathering at friends' houses rather than going to bars."

Prescott says you can get into the culture for as much or as little as you want. Whether you're wagering for chips (plastic? a plastic composite with a metal strip? a clay composite with a metal strip?) or money, ample accessories will accommodate any lifestyle. You can grab a poker table with eight plush chairs for $7,895, or a simple octagonal table-top fold-up for $59. Don't forget that fine wood carrying case, your dealer button or a six-deck dealer shoe.

Kaplan, like most poker players, didn't need television to pull him into the game. But now that it's apparently here to stay, he and his buddies who convene twice a week are getting some big ideas about the World Poker Tour.

"I've been itching to go," says Kaplan, who owns Executive Catering. "We've been talking about 20 of us getting together and sending the winner to one of the tournaments. They look like a lot of fun."

A NEW televised series is about to hit the national TV markets.

The ULTIMATE POKER CHALLENGE

will start a 26 week television run. Shown from The Plaza Hotel in downtown Las Vegas.

THE ULTIMATE POKER CHALLENGE is the first nationally syndicated poker series ever , with celebrity hosts adding their own brand of fun and excitement to the show. Taped before a live audience at the world-famous Plaza Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas , the top poker players from around the world compete for weekly prizes and a chance to win the grand prize of over one million dollars!

THE ULTIMATE POKER CHALLENGE is truly The Ultimate Reality Show – a series of 26 one-hour live poker tournaments with over five million dollars in estimated prize money for the winners! There are 25 weekly winners, plus that final, grand-prize winner of over one million dollars!

This exciting new series is being produced by television veteran SAM RIDDLE , best known for producing STAR SEARCH and SHOWTIME AT THE APOLLO, amongst many other programs.

http://www.ultimatepokerchallenge.com

The lead attorney for President Bush in the 2000 Florida vote count is challenging the U.S. Justice Department's crackdown on Internet gambling.

Attorney Barry Richard of Greenberg Traurig LLP, filed a federal lawsuit Monday on behalf of Louisiana-based Casino City Inc., alleging the government's year-old crackdown on advertising by Internet gambling Web sites was a violation of commercial free speech.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana, is the second major challenge this year to U.S. enforcement efforts against online gambling. The United States earlier this year lost a case before the World Trade Organization to Antigua, which licenses many Internet casinos. The United States is expected to appeal.

The Casino City suit said letters sent last year by the Justice Department to the National Association of Broadcasters, the National Newspaper Association and others threatening prosecution of companies that carry advertising for Internet gambling operators have had “a chilling effect upon the exercise of free speech.”

The suit claims Internet gambling operations are “lawful overseas companies” and “legally operate in the jurisdictions in which they are located.”

The Justice Department had no comment on Monday.

The government contends that Internet gambling sites may not legally conduct business with customers in the United States, and advertising may constitute aiding and abetting a criminal activity.

A noted expert in constitutional law, Richard gained a national reputation following his representation of Bush in the 2000 presidential election litigation before the Florida and U.S. Supreme courts. Casino City also is represented by the Taylor, Porter, Brooks & Phillips LLP law firm.

When an offshore web gaming casino in the Caribbean put Senator John Kerry as a slight favourite to win the United States presidency in November, it thrust the multi-billion industry and its fight with the United States into the spotlight.

With Antigua and the United States set to begin talks later this month on a deal that can make or break what was a flourishing economic sector in the Eastern Caribbean nation’s economy, Internet gambling executives are betting that in the end the United States would drop its efforts to drive offshore gambling out of business or into the back alleys.

As the Republicans prepare to have their political love-fest in New York to crown United States President George Bush as their standard-bearer in the election, BetWWTS.Com (Bet World Wide Tele-Sports) in Antigua made Senator Kerry the odds-on favourite to win the election.

The betting spread was 10/13, meaning that bettors would win (US)$10 for every (US)$13 wagered if Kerry defeats incumbent President Bush who stands at even money or one-to-one odds.

Bet World-Wide Tele-Sports is a leading offshore gaming company that offers Internet and telephone wagering facilities to customers around the world and it’s part of an industry that has global revenues of almost (US)$6 billion.

Many of the web casinos rely on Americans to keep their businesses afloat. For example, BetonSports, a London-based operation made about (US)$27 million in profits for the year ended January 31. About 98 per cent of its customers are in the United States

But the Bush Administration and the United States Congress have spent the past three and a half years trying to shut down the operations of companies that cater to the gambling habits of Americans.

Lawmakers and regulators in Washington have used the 1961 Federal Wire Act to seek to cripple the offshore web casinos.

United States law makes betting on sports over the Internet and the telephone illegal in the United States but the Justice Department has been unable, so far, to prevent Americans from using their computers to place wagers overseas.

And that’s where countries like Antigua, Costa Rica and Australia come in.

Four years ago, the Justice Department hauled the chief operator of a web casino in Antigua before the courts and gained a judgement against him. In 2002, Eliot Spitzer, the New York Attorney-General, moved against Citibank for allowing its credit cards to be used to pay for gambling bets.

The upshot: most credit-card companies don’t process online gambling debts.

Just last year, the Justice Department warned the National Association of Broadcasters in the United States that money earned from advertisements about gambling on the worldwide web could be considered as “aiding and abetting” a crime. But the United States didn't stop there.

A few months ago, federal authorities targeted Discovery Communications and seized (US)$3.2 million after it accepted ads from a web casino in Costa Rica.

But while it was fighting offshore web casinos, the United States was allowing gambling to flourish in Las Vegas, Nevada, Atlantic City in New Jersey, on riverboats that ply the Mississippi River and in casinos on Indian reservations in Connecticut and other places across the country.

In the case of Antigua, Washington’s actions have put a serious dent in the island’s Internet gambling sector. Five years ago, Antigua was one of the world'’s most popular centres for on-line gambling.

It had more than 110 companies licensed to do business on its shores and they employed as many as 3000 people. Today, the business is a shell of its former self. Only 31 companies remain and they provide work for about 500 people.

That was why Antigua took the unusual step of filing a complaint against Washington with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Geneva, charging that while the United States was allowing domestic gambling operations to do business, it was harassing offshore casinos that accept wagers from Americans.

To the surprise of many people, the WTO ruled against Washington and for Antigua, showing once again that David can defeat Goliath.

But not only that. Antigua’s victory has forced the Bush Administration to seek a negotiated settlement of the trade dispute and the two sides are due to sit down on August 23 to try to work out an agreement.

In an interview with a United States newspaper, David Carruthers, whose BetonSports company went public and its shares are now traded on the Alternative Investment market in London expressed the hope that the United States would remember the lessons of the Prohibition era when it tried to stop the sale and consumption of alcohol.

Back in the 1930s, Prohibition gave birth to a successful illegal liquor business that eventually died after Prohibition was repealed.

“Nobody wants this business, which is flourishing offshore, being pushed onto the streets and the back alleys of the United States,” Carruthers told the paper.

Web casino executives hope he is right and that's why they are watching the development between Antigua and Washington.

It's 5pm on Friday afternoon and Jennifer Mason finally sits down to breakfast. The 24-year-old graduated from Oxford University two years ago but has shunned more traditional career paths. Since leaving Oxford, Jennifer's main source of income has come from internet poker.

Almost every night, Jennifer sits up in her north London flat until at least 7am, betting cash online against faceless poker players from across the world. Over the past two years, her winnings have topped £20,000. "I guess I've become nocturnal," she says, settling down in the big faux-leather chair in front of her console. "It's quite geeky really, but it's very addictive."

The amount of money staked worldwide on online poker games has risen seven-fold over the past 12 months alone, with the industry now worth an estimated £15bn. The growth has been so rapid that an independent regulator - PokerPulse - has been set up, to track and monitor the games taking place each day.

The move comes as the Government prepares new legislation to bring the sector under much stricter controls.

Tessa Jowell, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, said the emergence of a regulator was a step in the right direction. The Government is planning to legalise online gambling sites in the UK to gain tighter control and reap the tax benefits. Currently, the majority of online card rooms are hosted in countries such as Costa Rica and Antigua, to circumvent legal restrictions.

"Our gambling laws are out of date, in some cases going back as far as the 18th century", Ms Jowell said. "We need to update them so online poker rooms can operate from the UK, giving players the choice to gamble in a properly regulated environment.

"I want to insist that these sites carry out proper age checks and that they don't encourage problem gambling."

Many fear that online poker has already reached epidemic proportions, and have welcomed the arrival of initiatives like PokerPulse, which will analyse sites, verify wins and report suspected cheating.

Around £40mis staked daily across 210 sites, and around 13 million Britons have tried online poker.

Matt Robinson, the UK marketing manager for the world's biggest gaming site, 888.com, said that female customers account for a significant part of this growth.

"Poker has been a male-dominated game. Now women have realised they can play without feeling threatened," he said.

The majority of these players are positive about the new measures.

"It does need to be regulated, because there is a lot of money involved," says Jennifer Mason. "You have to be able to make absolutely sure nobody is scamming the system in any way - like colluding in a room full of computers for example."

As her friends make their plans for a Friday evening out, Jennifer prepares for a big night at the table once again.

"The best time to play is between 4am and 7am," she explains, "because the Americans are playing - and they're drunk."

Poker is more of a game of skill than of chance, but a little luck never hurts.

A lot is even better. Ask Joe May, who got on a roll that landed him smack in the middle of the mother of all card games — Texas Hold 'Em at the World Series of Poker.

On May 19, three days before the World Series began, May and his pal Donnie Sinkhorn of Louisville stuffed a few thou in their trou and flew to Las Vegas to take a stab at qualifying for the world's most lucrative poker tournament.

May, 36, not only qualified, he made it to the third round — outlasting the guys who finished 1-2 in last year's World Series, the pinnacle of what might be the fastest growing game in America, not to mention one of the hottest shows on cable TV.

Bryan Dillon, a 49-year-old lawyer from Prospect, Ky., fared even better. He parlayed a $75 entry fee in an online tournament into a $10,000 payday at the World Series, where he finished 192nd.

"It's the most physically grueling experience I've ever been through," said Dillon, who played 25 hours over three days. "You can't imagine how fatiguing it is to concentrate that hard for that long."

Only 226 players earned a check, less than 10 percent of the total entrants — a pool that tripled in size this year.

"Poker is getting ridiculously huge," said Sinkhorn, 28. "I know hundreds of guys from around here who play on a regular basis. I play once a week with nine or 10 friends, and once a month we have a 54-player tournament. It's a phenomenon that's really taking off."

Is it ever. More than $100million is bet every day in online poker games, according to pokerpulse.com, an industry Web site. The total purse for this year's World Series of Poker was a staggering $49 million.

The poker boom has been the subject of recent stories in Time, Forbes, Sports Illustrated and The New York Times, and it has been mined for hit TV series by Bravo, the Travel Channel and ESPN.

It's impossible to precisely measure the game's popularity at the grassroots level, but anecdotal evidence abounds. Texas Hold 'Em is the game of choice not only in the World Series of Poker and Bravo's "Celebrity Poker Showdown," but also for local fund-raisers staged by St. Therese Catholic Church and the Center for Women and Families.

The game's explosive growth is perhaps best illustrated by a few key stats from the World Series on ESPN.

Last year ESPN broadcast seven hours of tournament play. This year: 22.

Last year the World Series drew 814 players. This year: 2,576.

Last year the winner took home $2.5 million. This year: $5 million.

The final round of the 2003 World Series of Poker drew nearly four times as many viewers as ESPN's National Hockey League broadcasts — and the hockey games were aired live. The World Series finale was shown on tape delay. A four-month tape delay. The tournament is played in May, but the finale isn't aired until September.

Fans don't seem to care. An average of 1.2 million households watched the World Series telecasts last year, and the audience increased with every rerun.

Watching the World Series piqued the interest of May and Sinkhorn. It wasn't terribly hard to do. Both men like to make an occasional wager.

Sinkhorn has a computer science degree from the University of Louisville but earns his living as a professional pool player.

Blackjack is May's game. A few years back, May said, he won $11,000 at Caesars Indiana, then returned a week later and took home another $7,000.

A professional photographer, May has played poker seriously for only 10 months, but he's no "fish" — poker lingo for novices and fools who from their money are soon parted. In January, May won a 472-player tournament at partypoker.com that paid $6,000.

Yet when Sinkhorn first floated the idea of flying to Vegas, May demurred. He's a prudent fellow disinclined to blow his hard-earned dough.

"But when the Golden Nugget (casino) 'comped' our rooms and a buddy lined us up with a cheap flight, I figured it would be silly not to go," May said.

Roughly 48 hours before the World Series of Poker was scheduled to begin, May and Sinkhorn paid $225 to play a 480-person tournament in which the top 20 or so players would earn the $10,000 entry fee required to play with the pros.

Sinkhorn was sunk from the start.

"You can't afford to catch a bunch of bad hands early on," he said. "They only give you $500 in chips to start with, so you need to get hot right away."

May did.

In Texas Hold 'Em, each player is dealt two "hole" cards that only he can play. May started the first game with a pair of nines. He started the second with a pair of aces.

"It doesn't get much better than that," he said. "I was very lucky in the beginning, and you definitely need some luck to do well in tournament poker. But you also have to know what to do with the cards when you get them."

May parlayed his fast start into a top-20 finish — and a coveted seat in the World Series.

"We were both ecstatic," Sinkhorn said. "I was about half asleep when he told me, but I jumped straight up and gave him a big high-five."

About three hours into the World Series, May's luck went sour. He got a good hand — two pair, aces and eights — and bet it aggressively. Alas, another player was holding aces and jacks. It was a classic "bad beat," and it cost May $7,200.

With only $1,200 left, May got conservative and underplayed a pair of aces. Then with just 10 minutes remaining in the third round, the dealer threw May a king and a queen of the same suit. May went "all in," betting his last $600.

The five "community" cards on the table were no help, and May was eliminated by a measly pair of 10s.

"That's not exactly the way you want to finish, but it was still a blast," May said. "I guarantee we'll be back next year — and I guarantee we'll have a bunch of our poker-playing buddies with us. Everybody wants to give it a try now."

(CNN) -- Your cell phone rings to the tune of "The Gambler." You think Ben Affleck's best performance wasn't in a movie but in his winning hand at the last celebrity poker event. You couldn't care less about politics, but you can argue for hours whether you should play or fold an unsuited Ace/6.

Might as well face it: You're addicted to poker. And if you can't make it to a casino, or it's one of those rare nights when ESPN is showing something other than a poker tournament, there are a number of Web sites that allow you to play poker online for a lot of money, very little money or no money at all.

"You're not going to believe this, but I've never played poker in a land-based poker room," says Vikrant Bhargava, general manager of PartyPoker.com -- which bills itself as the "World's Largest Poker Room."

Bhargava says he finds the high-stakes atmosphere of traditional casinos intimidating. Who can blame him? With the rumbling cacophony of slot machines, screaming gamblers and fast-talking dealers -- not to mention the ever-present risk of losing all your money -- a casino isn't exactly a welcoming environment for novices.

But when you go online, it's a whole new card game. At Pokerhut.com, you'll find listings and descriptions of various poker Web sites. Some of them offer "play money" games that have no buy-in fees; all you're playing for are bragging rights and skills you can some day take to a real game.

Online poker can provide valuable, and free, lessons on when to bet, when to raise, when to hold 'em, when to fold 'em, when to walk away, when to run ... well, you get the idea.

For traditionalists who feel it isn't really gambling unless you're ... well, gambling, you can certainly play for real money online. But be warned: If you start losing too much too quickly, many poker sites will crack down with the vigilance of a watchful bartender who cuts you off after you've had one too many. PartyPoker.com's Bhargava says players who rack up big losses are contacted by customer care agents or in some cases blocked from making the deposits required for "real money" play.

Whether it's for play money or real money, online poker is not quite like the real thing. For one, it's impossible to check your opponents for "tells" -- body language that indicates who's playing with a good hand and who's bluffing. But that limitation cuts both ways -- sometimes to your advantage. If you fidget, giggle uncontrollably or turn three shades of purple when you lie, you can still bluff effectively behind the safety of online anonymity.

All told, online poker can be a low-risk way to learn the game -- which is ironic, as poker is inherently about risk. But it's also about gaining an advantage on your opponents. And what better way to do that than to practice your skills cheaply, conveniently and online?

Judging by the traffic on sites such as PartyPoker.com, that idea is certainly catching on. Who knows? Internet poker may become so popular that in the future, instead of showing 20 hours a day of poker, ESPN will start showing 20 hours a day of online poker.

David Carruthers of UK based online betting site, BetonSports, has released comments regarding the predicament US authorities face in trying to police internet gambling activities. The US is currently being challenged in its attempts to enforce the illegal status of online gambling within the states by Antigua Barbuda via the WTO (World Trade organisation).

Like many within the industry, Carruthers is keenly awaiting the end result of the action, as a loss by the US could mean it faces more litigation from other countries. Antigua and Barbuda have claimed that partially due to the US’s actions against the industry, (which has included seizing funds from US based companies who held advertising contracts with offshore internet gambling operators), and allowing US owned companies to offer gambling within the country (albeit not online versions) but forbidding off shore operators to do so, meant the US was violating the General Agreement on Trade in Services.

So far in the case the WTO court have found in favour with Antigua and Barbuda, and a settlement is to be reached by 23 August. Observers are worrying that Antigua and Barbuda will succumb to US pressure, and not pursue the complaint any further.

It is this kind of action that has prompted Carruthers’ assertion that the US will have to eventually drop its outlaw of online gambling activities. He likens the situation to the prohibition of alcohol back in the early twentieth century. As he said: “What happened with alcohol was a disaster...Nobody wants this business which is flourishing offshore, being pushed back onto the streets and the back alleys of the US”. He also added that “there’s a huge missed opportunity here” in terms of revenue lost by the US in its persistence with the illegal classification of online gambling activities.

Several sources reported this week that the notorious Australian and Costa Rican based Real Time Gaming operator Warren Cloud has taken over another group of RTG-powered casinos.

Cloud took over the infamous JC Jones "The Vegas Strip" group last year, adding four casinos to his Crystal Palace, High Roller Lounge and Vegas Riches casino group.

Reliable sources now report that Paul Jurgens's IPI Media group has been taken over by Cloud, too reportedly for a healthy seven figure price. The group underwent radical brand changes last year and currently comprises Lucky Coin (Onluck) Lucky Pyramid (Fortune Towers) Golden Nile (Golden Comps) American Grand (Five Roses) and Royal Circus (Riviera Gold)

Cloud aka Don Fortune aka Mr. X aka Richard Brooks has a colorful if not exactly popular past and has been previously involved with the (failed) Rated Player Casino and more recently the Casino Extreme group.

A Real Time Gaming spokesperson confirmed that the Jurgens group has changed hands but declined to identify the new owner or give any information on whether Jurgens and IPI are to leave the industry. He gave an assurance that all outstanding player payouts would be honored.

Infopowa news

More Than 100 Have Already Qualified for $12,600- Buy-In Package Aboard Holland America’s ms Oosterdam. The Largest Cruise Ship Ever Chartered Solely For Poker Will Tour The Mexican Riviera

CURACAO, NETHERLANDS ANTILLES (PRWE August 1, 2004 -- One whale of a tournament is waiting for the 700 fortunate souls who will make the field in the 2005 Partypoker.com Million, setting sail from San Diego harbor on Saturday, March 19, 2005. The prize pool for the world’s largest limit Texas Hold ‘Em poker tournament is likely to reach $7 million. The tournament will be filmed for airing on The Travel Channel’s World Poker Tour.

Partypoker.com Million IV will shatter the record set in the PartyPoker.com Million III earlier this year--a tournament that had a $3.82 million prize pool and 546 players.

PartyPoker.com Million IV will again pay the winner a million dollar prize, but with such a hefty prize pool, many others deep into the field can expect to see a handsome return.
Cruising to a victory is only half the fun. All the participants will enjoy the luxurious amenities of Holland America’s ms Oosterdam and the charms of the two ports of call—Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta.

The ms Oosterdam is one of the premium cruise ships in Holland America’s elegant fleet. Guests experience a dazzling array of restaurants, nightclubs and entertainment options. The ship features a spa and salon, a fully-equipped fitness center, Internet connectivity and spacious staterooms. Condé Nast Traveler and Travel & Leisure give it five stars.

More than 100 players have already earned a spot in the The PartyPoker.com Million IV by going to PartyPoker.com and competing in preliminary tournaments. Winners who qualify in those preliminary satellite tournaments receive a $12,600 package—which includes the $10,200 buy-in to the finals, a cruise for two and spending cash. PartyPoker.com hosts over 100,000 online poker players daily, offering them a safe, secure and friendly environment to play poker.

Players will begin the tournament on the first day with $10,000 in chips and play till they lose or until they make the Final Table on the fifth day. That final table of six players will be filmed for airing on the hugely popular World Poker Tour television series. Players closing in on the PartyPoker.com Million IV championship will be sweating out bets and bluffs that risk hundreds of thousands per hand.

The PartyPoker.com Million IV is the fourth installment of the fabulously successful tournament. In March, Erick Lindgren vanquished the field and used his $1 million victory in the PartyPoker.com Million to springboard into position as the World Poker Tour’s Player-of-the-Year and leading money winner for 2004. A construction worker from Olympia, WA, Chris Hinchcliffe, took third place for more than $400,000 in what he termed a “life changing” experience. Both players entered the tournament by winning PartyPoker.com satellite tournaments.

Howard Lederer, of Las Vegas, a World Champion and two-time winner of 2003 World Poker Tour tournaments, captured Partypoker.com Million II and the year before, Kathy Liebert of South Gate, CA, became the first woman ever to win $1 million in a single poker tournament by conquering the inaugural event.

Launched in August 2001, PartyPoker.com is the world’s largest multi-player poker room offering players a safe, secure and friendly environment to play poker. With more than one million satisfied users, PartyPoker.com is the market leader in the popular and fast growing online poker games market. PartyPoker.com is fully licensed and regulated by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, Quebec, Canada. The site typically hosts more than 45,000 simultaneous players playing an assortment of live classic poker games including Texas Hold’em, Omaha, Omaha Hi/Low, and Seven Card Stud and single and multi table tournaments.

I shuffle it up with the panoply of amateurs, professionals and celebrities who have increased in numbers during the last several months since poker has become a staple on cable television.

Before the card game was converted into a TV phenomenon with the help of additional cameras and graphics, we learned to play the variations of draw and stud poker amongst family and friends in the privacy of homes.

That learning curve is a lot smaller nowadays, what with Internet Web sites plus, just as important, the popularity of niche cable TV shows such as "World Poker Tour," "World Series of Poker" and "Celebrity Poker Showdown."

The competition has not only gotten more intense among players, but in the cable business as well, as the Travel Channel, ESPN, Bravo and Fox Sports Net have been jockeying for position and their share of the profit pie.

2000 "World Series of Poker" champion Chris Ferguson has said that since the improvement of translating the game for a wide audience, "poker is being revolutionized." Even professional players have had to refine their games.

"It's much easier to pick up the tells (those telltale facial and gestural tics) of my opponent by watching (their play on TV)."

This, Ferguson says, "definitely is going to raise the level of play," as more people come into the game with a better sense of strategy, due to the expanded TV coverage. In a few years, the number of truly excellent players could double.

And with more games comes mo' money, mo' money, mo' money in tournament play.

The "World Poker Tour" premiered on the Travel Channel on March 30, 2003, and has since drawn an average of 5 million viewers (big numbers for cable programming), making it cable's highest-rated show. These numbers haven't been lost on the channel's competitors.

Sports channel ESPN extended its coverage of the annual high-stakes "World Series of Poker" that emanates from Binion's Horseshoe casino in Las Vegas. NBC's Bravo cable channel used the Hollywood home games of the "World Poker Tour" as a jumping-off point for its "Celebrity Poker Showdown," now in its second season. The inaugural season championship finale reportedly drew more than 1.7 million viewers.

Even Fox Sports Net has tried to become a player, with "Late Night Poker," a British show that began back in 1999, using fixed cameras under a glass table to reveal players' cards. The channel recently aired "Showdown at the Sands," which was televised less than 24 hours after the winner was crowned, making it more timely than ESPN's telecast of this year's "World Series of Poker," the main events already held back in late May.

The people behind the ESPN and Travel Channel poker shows put their own spin on how their particular shows have helped with the explosion of popularity of Texas Hold 'em.

Bob Chesterman, coordinating producer for ESPN Original Entertainment, said the network has been airing the "World Series of Poker" since 1994, although not in consecutive years, and using independent producers.

"Last year, we decided to take over the production ourselves and put more money and time into it, and ramped up the production a lot," he said. "ESPN used to cover only the final day of the tournament. Last year, we covered all of the main event that led to the final. And this year, we covered the entire month's worth of the tournament, making a total of 22 shows.

"We were going into the TV production of 'World Series of Poker' before the 'World Poker Tour,'" Chesterman claimed. "It was really serendipitous that we both were starting around the same time. Truthfully, I think poker's boom in popularity happened when last year's WSP champion, Chris Moneymaker - an online player that won a seat in the series through a $40 online tourney buy-in - won the $2.5 million final pot."

Chesterman thinks the 2 million viewers who watched the first show of this year's "World Series of Poker" will build in number, leading up to the two-hour finale on Sept. 14.

"Since anybody can enter the WSP, there's a big appeal with our audience. Anybody can sit down at a table and play, even guys like me who mainly play with friends. This year, there were around 2,500 entrants."

ESPN's contract with Binion's Horseshoe casino and the "World Series of Poker" runs until 2007.

Steve Lipscomb gives ESPN credit for what it's done with the WSP. But the president and founder of the "World Poker Tour" - plus its show's creator and executive producer - wants to talk up his own baby. The former attorney working out of Los Angeles relates how his move into the documentary field and 10 years' worth of low-stakes poker games with his buddies led to the formation of the tour and TV show.

"I originally directed and produced a documentary for the Discovery Channel on the 1999 'World Series of Poker' tournament, and its audience numbers doubled the night it aired. While I was on hiatus from a show I was doing with Comedy Central, I thought about the untapped audience that would watch poker on television, so I wrote a business proposal in September 2001 and took it to investor Lyle Berman, of Lakes Entertainment, a month later.

"I was glad that he got my idea right away, but I admit I was surprised when his board got it as well. So we were in business starting February 2002. We signed up the who's who of professional players and got the classy casinos around the world to sign long-term deals with us.

"You have to realize that when we started production in June 2002, at that time nobody thought poker would be interesting on TV. None of the hotels and casinos were ever approached to sell their poker tournaments to television."

To Lipscomb's credit, he helped create a whole technical production process (one that he hopes he can get a patent trademark on in the near future) that made the game, specifically Texas Hold 'em, intriguing and exciting to watch on TV.

"In a way, we created a language of poker on TV," he said. "It was only afterward that other shows copied what we'd done. We were smart enough to document the whole process, and we'll see how it turns out, patent-wise."

Lipscomb acknowledged that the use of "hole" cameras to show viewers the two cards each player is dealt is an important element in the success of "World Poker Tour." But, he said, "the WPT cam, while part of the formula, is not a large part of the whole nut.

"The game on TV plays like it's live and plays as a sport. The graphics come out and track what the players have, so viewers can play along. Our graphic package has been copied in every possible way. We also took poker commentary to a more accessible level. Earlier on, listening to game insiders talk about the game on TV was incomprehensible, the equivalent of talking about nuclear physics, which only dumbfounded the larger community.

"To make the game accessible as part of our overall plan, it literally took eight months to edit our first show. It was a relief when the graphics came through, because so many of the previous permutations didn't work.

"It's become this great spectator sport on television. I tell my producers that the first objective of the show is to have viewers feel like they're sitting in a seat on the table, and to feel like the poker gods have struck them down when they lose a million in chips on the turn of the river card. It's the ability to tap into the 50 to 80 million players at home. ... That's human drama, storytelling representing the human condition."

Lipscomb sees nothing but an exponential growth in the "World Poker Tour," which has started its third go-round at the Mirage in Las Vegas. (The third season of the WPT starts airing on the Travel Channel in late February or early March.)

And there's the attraction that anybody, ANYBODY, can win it all. Will a future Chris Moneymaker come from the islands? All you need is the bucks for a small fee to enter either a satellite "World Poker Tour" tournament or to buy into the 2005 "World Series of Poker" at Binion's in Vegas.

Feeling lucky?

Texas Hold 'em poker has come from grassroot beginnings – back rooms of saloons, parlors and bars – to become a game anyone with a home computer can play and anyone with a TV can watch.

Televised tournaments have brought the game to the forefront of gambling, and it has turned unknowns into household names.

What started with the World Series of Poker on ESPN has spawned programs for a number of cable networks. It has introduced poker players such as Chris Moneymaker, Phil Ivey and Howard Lederer to mainstream America. And it has made celebrities such as Ben Affleck and Toby Maguire into renowned poker enthusiasts.

"The boom couldn't happen without television," said Norman Chad, commentator for the World Series of Poker. "The hole camera [which allows viewers to see a player's hand without exposing it to the other players] was the key technological element. People like to see money pushed back and forth. They don't care much about the poker; they like the characters that play with a lot of money."

Locally, Texas Hold 'em has allowed organizations such as the McHenry Lions Club to offer something different than the normal fund-raisers.

"We can only hold so many pancake breakfasts or pork chop dinners," McHenry Lions Club director Carter Belrose said. "I'm a big fan of poker. All I did was take something that I love and turn it into an event."

Belrose, who has organized Texas Hold 'em tournaments for the McHenry Lions Club, says TV has made it possible for his organization to raise money using poker. ESPN's presentation of the World Series of Poker last year drew a 1.2 overall rating, the highest ever for the series, with an average of more than 1 million viewing households.

"It all started with the World Series of Poker," Belrose said. "But with the celebrities getting involved, it brought a lot of attention to the game. It's going through the roof. We're trying to ride that wave."

The McHenry Lions Club has received a license from the Illinois State Gaming Commission to stage four poker tournaments a year, with the first in May. Fifty-seven people participated in the tournament, Belrose said, and each of those players told Belrose they would be back for the next tournament scheduled for Oct. 16 at the Moose Lodge in Richmond.

The field will be limited to 100 players, and the entry fee is $100. Prizes and cash payouts are given to the top five finishers.

Texas Hold 'em is different than other forms of poker because of the "No Limit" aspect of the game. At any point during a tournament, players can go "all in," meaning they are betting all the chips they have on that hand. This is also the aspect of the game that is most attractive to the TV audience.

"People feel like that they're playing with 'Monopoly' chips," Chad said. "The viewer doesn't differentiate between the chips and the actual money."

In the first World Series for which cable sports network ESPN decided to expand its coverage, Chris Moneymaker won the tournament and might have started a trend that will change No Limit Texas Hold 'em forever.

At one time it took years of playing Texas Hold 'em poker to put yourself in position to win the World Series of Poker.

Now, all it takes is $40 and a computer. Moneymaker won a $40 tournament on an Internet poker Web site called Pokerstars.com in order to gain entry into the $2.5 million World Series.

"It was an angel from heaven that Chris Moneymaker won the first show that ESPN decided to expand coverage on," Chad said. "All the [2004 World Series] events were doubled, and the main event tripled. Card rooms across the country have seen a boom in tournaments. In the last year, the poker room I go to [in Los Angeles] has gone from not existing, to having seven tables."

For two consecutive years, online poker players have won the World Series, a tournament that has taken place since 1970 at Binion's Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas. Moneymaker (2003) and Greg Raymer (2004) both won the highest honor in Texas Hold 'em poker after qualifying for the event through their home computer.

Chad says the Internet's impact on Texas Hold 'em is almost immeasurable.

"[The Internet has] had a massive impact," Chad said. "Ten years ago you couldn't play. People that necessarily wouldn't get into a game any other way can sit at home. The learning curve is so much smaller on the Internet. It allows these 20-somethings to play more hands in two years than what it took others 20 years."

Moneymaker and Raymer might have started a trend that is unlikely to end anytime soon. Online poker is a sensation that has transformed the game from something played in organized private games to the comfort of your own home.

The battle lines have been drawn between the young Internet upstarts and the grizzled veterans of poker. Chad says there is still something to be said for playing face-to-face with another person.

"You need to learn how to read people," Chad said. "It's the smoky back room against the newbies. You're not going to roll over these veterans. But, you do have an advantage over them being able to see so many more hands."

The State of Illinois Gaming Commission's public information officer, Gene O'Shea, expects that public demand for more games at local casinos will force more casinos to offer the game.

"They could do it if they wanted to," O'Shea said. "They don't need our permission. They're going to offer games that people want. With the games on TV, they may start offering it."

As of right now, only one Illinois casino – Hollywood Casino in Aurora – offers Texas Hold 'em.

"It's kind of neat to see all the new players," said Lisa Little, the poker room night supervisor at Hollywood Casino. "[Texas Hold 'em has] been very, very popular. When colleges are out, a good 60 percent of our players are new players. I notice at night it's a much younger crowd, between the ages of 21 and 30, with a focus on the 21- to 26-year-olds."

Hollywood Casino offers six tables of Texas Hold 'em, and often players must be put on a waiting list to get onto one of the tables.

"People are playing out in the casino while they're on the waiting list," Little said. "By us offering poker, it gives us that special touch because it's a different crowd of people that are coming in. I notice people that normally play blackjack coming into the poker room to play poker."

The 28-year-old wife of a Douglas County man in state prison for stealing gaming chips from Harveys Casino is scheduled to appear in court Monday.

Michelle Lawrence is charged with felony grand theft, the same offense that sent her husband, Jason Lawrence, 29, to prison for four to 10 years.

According to an affidavit, Michelle Lawrence told her husband as well as her brother, Stephen Johnson, 22, how much to steal and to begin stealing more because she wanted more money.

Michelle allegedly cashed about $189,000 in chips at Stateline casinos. Her husband was a pit manager at Harveys. Her brother, who had recently moved to Nevada from Oregon with his fiancee and worked with Lawrence at Harveys, is serving two to eight years in prison for grand theft.

On July 27, District Court Judge David Gamble allowed property belonging to the Lawrences, Johnson, Johnson's fiancé, Melissa Watts, and Jason Lawrence's friend, Glenn Bindley, to be seized to make restitution.

Harveys said nearly $1.6 million may have been taken from the casino.

Included in the order is an allowance for $44,344 in property belonging to Jason Lawrence to be taken toward restitution.

The order allows a $4,316 Lady Rolex 18k gold jubilee watch, a $6,050 President 18k gold Rolex watch with a diamond dial and bezel, a $13,448 50-inch Sony plasma television and $20,530 from 13 pieces of David Miller artwork, ranging in price from $795 to $3,200 to be used toward restitution.

Additionally, the casinos are seeking $10,000 that Lawrence invested Jan. 8, 2003, in a Carson City company called Kennel Kovers Ltd. The company incorporated weeks later. Plaintiffs are also seeking $19,750 from a Carson City bail bonds company that was paid with a 2002 Toyota Sequoia belonging to the Lawrences.

Watts and Bindley are facing prosecution in district court for involvement in the theft that occurred between December 2002 and June 2003. Watts, a 23-year-old Dayton woman, is charged with attempting to compound a crime. She reportedly redeemed about $115,000 in chips.

Bindley, 29, of Crystal Bay, allegedly redeemed $309,000 in chips and will be sentenced Aug. 24 for a felony forgery.

Lawrence reportedly worked for Bindley at a Ramada Inn in Topeka, Kan. According to court files, Lawrence's ex-wife told investigators Bindley was Lawrence's best friend and moved to Nevada to be close.

Kansas investigators are looking into $100,000 that Bindley supposedly invested in a computer business there.