Casino Buzz

Nicolas Cage managed to recruit veteran director Milos Foreman for his project on the life of Poker legend Amarillo Slim Preston. Cage has been developing the film for some time, through his Saturn Films production house.

Screenwriting pair Stephen Rivele and Christopher Wilkinson, who previously worked on 'Ali' and 'Nixon' will adapt Preston's own memoirs entitled "Amarillo

Slim in a World Full of Fat People: The Memoirs of the Greatest Gambler Who Ever Lived." The title says it all…

Famed director Foreman hasn't been behind cameras since 1999's 'Man On The Moon', which was snubbed by the Oscars.

TUNICA RESORTS, MS (Jan. 28)--He took a week off from classes at the University of Wisconsin to take in some side action at the 6th Annual Jack Binion World Poker Open. He didn’t know he would soon be swimming with some of the most aggressive poker sharks in the world last Thursday night.

Steve Stoltzman, only 23 and set to graduate from Wisconsin with a degree in philosophy this spring, shocked the growing world of poker with a stunning victory in the WPO named after the legendary Binion.

His victory in the Texas Hold ‘Em championship event, for which a record 512 players competed, came over one of the best final tables in the six-year-old tournament held jointly at GoldStrike and Horseshoe casinos here in the Mississippi Delta.

Only playing semi-professionally in live games and online for four years, Stoltzman had no intention of entering the $10,000 buy-in Hold ‘Em championship event but his dad, Steve, a fireman in Sheboygan, gave him the $1,000 he needed to enter a qualifying satellite event which he won. On the way to the title, he beat Phil Ivey, another championship caliber player. It was precursor of events to unfold.

On the final table eyeing him like live bait, were three of the most feared players in the world. Canadian Daniel Negreanu was the winningest player on the World Poker Tour. Scotty Nguyen and Chau Giang, both post-war escapees from Viet Nam, have won many big money events and live action games between them.

“When I saw those guys looking me over I suddenly realized this was the first time I would compete head on with the best in the game and it sent a shiver down my spine,” said Stoltzman. “I don’t think they took me seriously and perhaps this made them over confident because I was so young and inexperienced at this level of play. “There was no doubt in my mind and those of the audience watching that I was the underdog on the table.”

A key to his win, he said, was that he decided not to play their game but would try to hang around by winning small pots rather than the larger ones where they were trying to run over him. His patience paid off and on the way to the showdown with the tough and wily Giang, who once was a cook in a Chinese restaurant, he watched Nguyen go under on an “all in” hand against Negreanu. Stoltzman in turn then knocked out Negreanu, who appeared somewhat stunned by the turn of events.

But Giang was waiting and being the chip leader all night he appeared very confident he would walk away with the jackpot. It was old hat for Giang but new for Stoltzman who appeared calm and ready for the finale. After some fencing and a feeling-out period when both claimed significant ante and blind bets, Stoltzman brought the spectators to their feet when he said “all in” and put his big stack of chips at risk. Giang accepted the challenge and called Stoltzman’s king-10 with ace-jack, putting Stoltzman as the underdog.

When the flop, community cards placed face-up for all to see, showed the first three cards, Giang smiled when he paired his jacks and he appeared to be the winner when he picked up another ace on the river card, the last community card. But his two pair was not good enough as the ace gave Stoltzman a straight and he raked in nearly two million of Giang’s chips.

With about $5 million neatly stacked up in front of him, Stoltzman easily knocked out Giang with an all in ace-10 that beat his opponents jack-three and moved Ciang’s remaining $200,000 to his side of the table.

His father, Steve, and girlfriend Jade Tran, erupted from their seats in joyous celebration as Steve rushed over to hug them. While Steve shouted, “I can’t believe it,” his father said he had faith in him all along.

Stoltzman plans to invest his winnings and take off after graduation for about a year to play in various tournaments to see how far his skills will take him and then will probably enter law school after that. ‘We’ll see,” he smiled.

A record 8,702 total entrants played in the 20 events and the total prize money record was shattered with $12 million up for grabs. Dave Egleseder was the tournament director and co-tournament directors were Ken Lambert, Jr., of Horseshoe and Robert McGovern of GoldStrike. Lambert said the turnout was very satisfying for all involved and gave praise to the joint-committee and tournament staff for what he called “excellent planning and superb implementation.” He said he expected the field and prize money to be even bigger next Jan. for the 7th annual WPO.

The final table of the WPO will be shown on the Travel Channel’s series of World Poker Tour events this June.

FINAL TABLE PLAYERS, CHAMPIONSHIP EVENT
NUMBER OF ENTRIES: 512
PRIZE MONEY: $4,832,773

1. John Stoltzman, Madison, Wis., $1.51 million
2. Chau Giang, Las Vegas, $797,369
3. Daniel Negreanu, Las Vegas, $399,208
4. Scotty Nguyen, Henderson, NV, $346,682
5. Mike Mizrachi, Hollywood, FL., $297,156
6. Raja Kattamuri, Irving, TX. $247,630

It's a Friday night at Duke University, and all books and calculators are packed away in exchange for some Natural Lights, a pack of Parliaments ... and a deck of cards.
On any given night, the commons room is bustling as 11 guys crowd around a circular table.

The clicking of chips and the rustle of cards are the only noises to break up the nervous silence. The smell of spilt beer mingles with cigarette smoke. Conversation is light or non-existent as the young men - the group is conspicuously male - utter only what is demanded of them by the rules of the game.

The game is Texas Hold 'em, no limit

This scene has become increasingly common on college campuses. From Pennsylvania to California, poker has found a new breeding ground at the university level.

A convergence of factors makes the game both popular and highly competitive. Students play to escape, to compete, to socialize, and to make money.

Here at Duke, the popularity of poker has exploded.

Starting in fraternity sections and off-campus houses, a game of Texas Hold 'em can be found in dorms every day of the week.

Alex Guttler, a senior at Duke, has witnessed poker's jump in popularity.

"It's something the (fraternity) brothers had been doing for a couple of years. But then with the games on TV, the popularity of Hold 'em took off and now everyone wants to play," he said.

Mike Guadano, also a senior, got involved with poker as a freshman. For him the game is a release from the stress of academia.

"People like to play because it's competitive. It's no different from kids playing pick-up basketball at the gym. Poker helps get that competitiveness out."

At Bloomsburg University, senior Mike McGrath has seen Hold 'em attract a following.

"It's obviously growing everywhere," McGrath said. After learning Texas Hold 'em in the summer of 2003, McGrath returned to school to find a whole new poker scene.

"Games come together all the time. Usually just by word of mouth. There's a group of us who play a couple times a week, but you can find a game pretty much any night of the week," he said.

The residential structure of college is conducive to poker. In apartments and dorms, people who might not otherwise socialize will sit down for hours to try their luck with the cards.

At Penn State University, seniors Steve Schukraft and Aaron Goldfarb can always find a Texas Hold 'em game.

"We have about eight or nine guys who play together," Goldfarb said.

"The buy-in is never huge; we'll play for $5 or $10, and just have a good time," Schukraft said.

The internet has become a resource for college students looking to play poker. At sites such as PokerStars.com, PokerRoom.com or PartyPoker.com, players can log on and play against people around the country and the world. Fake money tables are popular, but with a credit card account, students can raise the stakes.

"I definitely play on-line the most," McGrath said. "You can log on and get a game in 30 seconds. It's a different game though; you have to play much differently. You can't see your opponent, so it removes a large part of the strategy of the game."

"When you know you can get into a new game right away, a lot of people play different. Players will make different calls then they would if they were sitting at a table," McGrath said.

Duke sophomore Jason Strasser plays on-line almost daily. He got serious about the game while working as an unpaid intern last summer.

"I considered (poker) as part-time work," he says. "I spent between 15 and 20 hours a week just playing on-line." Sitting at virtual poker tables on lunch breaks and at home after work, Strasser's winnings were in the thousands.

Some students venture off-campus to the higher stakes realm of casino poker. At school in Pennsylvania, only a couple hours from the bright lights of Atlantic City, N.J., McGrath estimates that he plays casino poker six times over the course of the semester.

With programming on ESPN, Bravo and the Travel Channel being marketed toward the college-age group, it is no wonder the game's popularity has taken off. Even the institutions of learning are getting on board with student governments, academic clubs and departments sponsoring tournaments. It's definitely become part of the fabric of college life.

* Jon Schnaars is a 2001 graduate of Penncrest High School and is now a senior at Duke University where he plays Texas Hold 'em in his spare time. He is the son of Debra and Doug Schnaars of Upper Providence.
©The Daily Times 2005

Imagine the sound of cards slapping together as they are shuffled. The chips are stacked in front of each player waiting to be played. The cards are dealt and the eyes dart down, merely flipping the cards to briefly see the hand. “I’m in,” everyone chimes as they each place their bet in the center.

The game is Texas Hold ‘em—one of the more commonly played versions of poker. It is a game which has been around for a long time but has only slowly become a trend, especially among college students.

While it’s difficult to find the exact starting point of this trend, the attention the game has drawn from the media through such shows as “The World Series of Poker” and Bravo’s “Celebrity Poker Showdown,” which gives celebrities money to play with (winnings ultimately go to charity) and alcoholic beverages of their choice, have added interest and energy to the growing trend.

“NewsRadio” alum Dave Foley commentates along with Phil Gordon, poker expert, from inside the “Loser’s Lounge” where each celebrity goes after they lose. Each season cumulates with a showdown of the best from each episode—“Saturday Night Live’s Seth Myers and Maura Tierney from “ER” have been among the ultimate winners.

Soon after the show became popular, stores began carrying all the necessities for anyone to host their own poker night. Most common was the all-in-one box that gives people the green felt, deck of cards, chips and instructions. This kit could be found at stores from Big Lots! to Borders, and has made a great holiday present for many people. A slew of books were published along with the kit, all dealing with the topic of poker, from learning different versions of poker strategies to mastering the Zen of poker playing.

The trend has taken college campuses by storm. The occasional poker game has turned into a weekly or sometimes nightly, event. In Bellarmine Hall there is a group that meets Thursday nights around 8 p.m. and plays into the early hours of the morning. There is another group of students who play in Xavier’s lobby every night and they have been observed playing until three in the morning.

The university has also cashed in on the trend. The Student Events and Activities Council (SEAC) sponsored two tournaments in the last year and plans on having a third in the spring. The most recent tournament was this past December in which there was a fairly large turn out of approximately 80 people. The original cut-off had been 70, but so many students wanted to play that they had to start a waiting list.

“There is no buy-in (i.e. it is a free game, but you can still win money). Players are all given a bag of chips, totaling the same amount upon signing in at the beginning of the tournament,” explained Late Night Co-Chair Gina Corsiglia, sophomore non-profit major. “There are betting blinds that go up every 20 minutes (the blind system forces players to bet a certain amount during the ante thus moving the game along faster), and people have to go all in to lose. We have 10 round tables with seven people at each table. Every table plays until there are three people left and then the three people move to other tables. This continues until there are eight people left; then that group moves to the “winners” table where they play until there is one winner,”

“There is one grand prize of $200, but we let the last three players decide whether or not to split the pot three ways or have one winner. Typically everyone agrees to split the pot, in which case first place receives $125, second gets $50 and third gets $25,” Corsiglia continued.

The winner of the most recent tournament, Josh Lipps, senior accounting major, is an avid poker player.

“I enjoy playing poker because, in my opinion, it is one of the only ways to gamble and have control over whether you win or lose. There is a lot of luck involved in winning a tournament, but at the same time you can decide when to play and when to sit out,” he explained. If you don’t like your cards you can throw them away, or you can bluff and try to make your opponents think you have great cards when you don’t. Poker is just an exciting game to me.”

Lipps participated in the tournament to prove to himself that he could make it farther than he did in the tournament in the spring.

“It was pretty cool to win the SEAC tournament because it was the first tournament I have ever won, besides ones with friends,” said Lipps. “It made me want to go out and play a lot more tournament poker, which I did over Christmas break. Then I found out that I have a lot of work to do if I want to be a real good tournament player.”

For those students who want to participate in a tournament but do not have the time to sit down and play all at once there is an online college poker championship at www.collegepokerchampionship.comsponsored by the Royal Vegas Casino. As long as a person is enrolled in an institute of higher education, he or she can participate. The tournament runs over an eight-month time span and awards scholarships to each week’s winners. The top 20 percent of the players in the playoffs will get to compete in the final round at the end of May. Anyone who places between 1st and 80th place will receive some amount of scholarship money. Also, first through tenth place gets to designate which charities should receive $10,000.

Only time will tell whether poker will continue to grow and become America’s new favorite pastime or if it will sizzle out like the way of pogs and rollerblading.

ROYAL VEGAS is offering new players a no deposit free cash bonus of $10. In addition you can get an additional $40 on your first deposit.

Free money is one of th ebest ways to try out a new casino online and with their all new VIPER software and over 110 games to choose from we are betting you will make this one of the regular place you will want to play at.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Drew Barrymore is getting lucky.

The actress has signed on to star opposite Eric Bana ("The Hulk") in "Lucky You," a comedy-drama set in the world of high-stakes professional poker.

She will play a struggling singer who meets a professional poker player (Bana) as he deals with his estranged father. Curtis Hanson ("8 Mile") is directing the Warner Bros. project from an original screenplay by Eric Roth ("Forrest Gump"), with additional writing by Hanson.

Shooting is scheduled to begin in March in Las Vegas.

Barrymore most recently appeared in last year's hit "50 First Dates," and stars in the Farrelly brothers' romantic baseball comedy "Fever Pitch," due this year.

A new casino ship that began sailing from Fernandina Beach on New Year's Eve is preparing for a boost in business during Super Bowl week.

The Escapade sails daily from Fernandina Beach. The three-deck, 185-foot ship can accommodate 350 passengers and offers 150 slot machines, eight blackjack tables and craps, roulette and poker tables.

"We expect a large increase during Super Bowl week and after as people learn about the ship and that it's sailing out of Fernandina," said spokesman George Palmer.

The Escapade is docked at the Fernandina Harbor Marina in downtown Fernandina Beach. It sails at 7 p.m. six days a week, returning at midnight Monday through Thursday and at 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday. There are also matinee cruises from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and 1 to 6 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $10 per person, with group rates available for parties of 25 or more.

Multi-Player Texas Hold 'Em Game First in a Series of World Poker Tour-Branded Mobile Applications MFORMA Will Bring to Market

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 24, 2005-- MFORMA Group, Inc. and WPT Enterprises, Inc. (Nasdaq:WPTE), announced the release of World Poker Tour(TM) Texas Hold 'Em, a new multiplayer mobile poker game that is coming soon to mobile phones everywhere and incorporates elements of World Poker Tour (WPT), the highest rated TV series in the history of the Travel Channel. World Poker Tour, one of the world's leading poker brands, and MFORMA, the world leader in mobile entertainment, are collaborating to capitalize on the current poker phenomenon and the accelerating demand for casino-style mobile games. World Poker Tour Texas Hold 'Em features real-time, six-player capability. World Poker Tour, which reinvented poker as a televised spectator sport, will launch its third season on March 2, 2005 and airs every Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET/PT on the Travel Channel.

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"We set out to make the best mobile poker game, and we are very pleased to be working with World Poker Tour to bring World Poker Tour Texas Hold 'Em to market," said Scott Jensen, vice president, head of licensing and brand partnerships for MFORMA. "The World Poker Tour has vastly increased the audience for poker and this game, associated with the leading poker brand, delivers the most realistic poker environment in mobile. This game incorporates the style of the popular TV show and each of our WPT-branded applications will allow interaction with the show or WPT events through promotions, on-air commentary, tournaments, and prizes."

World Poker Tour Texas Hold 'Em features superior graphics and a unique way of displaying the environment as the camera pans smoothly from side-to-side to follow the action. Gamers can play against five others at one time, simulating a real six-player-to-a table-game. Play against friends or foes and increase career chip counts or play in an online elimination tournament for prizes.

"The tournament play and weekly awarding of prizes will not only be fun, but will also keep users engaged on a continual basis," said Audrey Kania, executive vice president of WPT Enterprises, Inc. "Our collaboration with MFORMA has yielded a very exciting mobile multiplayer poker experience and we are very pleased to see World Poker Tour go mobile."

MFORMA and World Poker Tour are working closely together on marketing and are offering unique opportunities to maximize the user experience. Players can compete to win WPT-branded merchandise that will be awarded as prizes to winners every week. Unique grand prizes, such as trips to view a live taping or participate in a WPT televised tournament, will also be awarded. MFORMA and World Poker Tour will promote the prize offerings through many channels, including online and on-air marketing, and joint promotions with wireless operators.

World Poker Tour Texas Hold 'Em will be available beginning next month to leading wireless operators in North America, and then Europe and Asia.

The licensing relationship between MFORMA and WPT was developed and negotiated by Brandgenuity LLC, WPT's strategic product licensing and merchandising agency of record.

About WPT Enterprises, Inc.

WPT Enterprises, Inc. (Nasdaq:WPTE - News) is a media and entertainment company engaged in the creation of branded entertainment through the development, production and marketing of televised programming based on poker and other gaming themes. To date, operations have principally revolved around the creation of the WORLD POKER TOUR brand through the production and licensing of a reality television series exhibited on the Travel Channel that is based on a circuit of previously-established high-stakes poker tournaments that has been affiliated under the "WORLD POKER TOUR" brand. WPT Enterprises, Inc. is a majority owned subsidiary of Lakes Entertainment, Inc. (Nasdaq:LACO - News). Photos and media information can be found online at: www.worldpokertour.com.

About MFORMA Group, Inc.

MFORMA is a leading global publisher and distributor of mobile entertainment. MFORMA provides wireless operators and their customers with the world's best content and brands, and provides developers and brand owners with the shortest route to market. MFORMA's customers include more than 100 of the world's leading wireless carriers. In addition to the industry's most comprehensive catalog of BREW, Java, SMS, MMS, and WAP games, MFORMA also provides sports, lifestyle and information services subscription products. MFORMA's carrier-grade platform manages the delivery of downloadable games and applications for some of the world's largest carriers. With MFORMA, wireless operators can choose to utilize any or all of the MFORMA resources -- tools, platforms and/or content. MFORMA is headquartered in Bellevue, WA, USA with facilities in Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego; London and Bollington, England; Shanghai and Beijing, China; and Seoul, Korea. (www.mforma.com)

World Poker Tour is a trademark of WPT Enterprises, Inc. © 2005 WPT Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved

AmberBock to Stage "Go All-In Texas Hold'em Tournament" In Select Markets, with Two Winners Earning a Seat At the WORLD POKER TOUR(TM) Invitational Celebrity Pro-Am

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 24, 2005-- WPT Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:WPTE) announced today that Anheuser-Busch's Michelob AmberBock will sponsor Season Three of the WORLD POKER TOUR® (WPT) on the Travel Channel, becoming the official beer sponsor of the WPT. The brand made its sponsorship debut last month on the WPT Ladies' Night II special, which aired on the Travel Channel.

"The WPT has attracted millions of new fans to the sport of poker--both as participants and as viewers," said Peter McLoughlin, Vice President, Corporate Media, Anheuser-Busch, Inc. "We want Michelob AmberBock to be the beverage they enjoy while they play at home or root for their favorite players as they 'go all-in' on the weekly telecasts."

The sponsorship enables Michelob AmberBock to capitalize on an audience that already reached 25 million unique viewers last season. The WORLD POKER TOUR, which reinvented poker as a televised spectator sport, will broadcast tournaments filmed at leading casinos from Las Vegas to New Jersey, beginning with the launch of its Third Season on March 2, 2005. Airing every Wednesday night at 9 p.m. ET/PT on The Travel Channel, the WPT is the highest-rated series in the network's history.

Anheuser-Busch's Michelob AmberBock television spots will air on all of Season Three's Travel Channel broadcasts. Additionally, viewers will see the AmberBock logo on the televised table felt and on in-show graphics for the WPT's popular "hole card camera" segment. The winners of each WPT tournament will celebrate a toast with Michelob AmberBock as part of the WPT's traditional closing sequence.

Where legal, Michelob AmberBock will support the sponsorship with retail promotions which began in December and will run through February 24 with a "Go All-In Texas Hold'em" tournament, to feature a shortened elimination version of Texas Hold'em. Players will begin each round with an equal number of chips and play until they "bust out." Only the top chip winners will progress to the next round. Players will not pay or purchase anything to play at any level of the tournament. The top two players at the National Finals will secure coveted seats in the WPT Invitational, the WORLD POKER TOUR'S celebrity pro-am tournament boasting 300 players vying for a $200,000 prize pool. Last year, skilled celebrities such as Ben Affleck, James Woods, and Tobey Maguire joined the roster of WPT tournament winners and leading pros.

The sponsorship agreement was hailed by WPT's Executive Vice President, Audrey Kania. "Anheuser-Busch is the preeminent beer brewer and the WORLD POKER TOUR has clearly established itself as the leading force in poker. This association provides a further springboard for our mutual growth and success," stated Kania.

Using poker jargon, Kania added, "Securing Anheuser-Busch as our first sponsor is like hitting a Royal Flush on the 'river.' It can't get much better."

About WPT Enterprises, Inc.

WPT Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:WPTE - News) is a media and entertainment company engaged in the creation of branded entertainment through the development, production and marketing of televised programming based on poker and other gaming themes. To date, operations have principally revolved around the creation of the World Poker Tour(TM) brand through the production and licensing of a television series exhibited on the Travel Channel that is based on a circuit of previously established high-stakes poker tournaments that we have affiliated under the "World Poker Tour" brand. WPT Enterprises, Inc. is a majority-owned subsidiary of Lakes Entertainment, Inc. (NASDAQ:LACO - News). Photos and media information can be found online at: www.worldpokertour.com.

By Ivonne D'amato

STATE COLLEGE -- A deluge of snow Saturday could not keep almost 90 men and women from putting on their best poker faces for the Kards for Kids Poker Tournament at the Ramada Inn and Conference Center.

The charity event -- the participants anted up $200 registration fees -- raised more than $13,000. The money will benefit four local organizations, the Juniata Valley Council of Boy Scouts, the Centre County Youth Services Bureau, the State College YMCA and Kid Tech, a nonprofit agency that designs science- and engineering-centered curricula.

The grand prize, won by Tony Santalucia, of State College, was a weeklong trip to Hilton Head, S.C. Other prizes included a three-month car lease from McIntyre Chevrolet, a grill, a trip to Split Rock in the Poconos, a year of free cable from Adelphia and fly-fishing lessons.

But there was more at stake than money for charity and prizes: Bragging rights, too, were up for grabs, said Bob Murphy, who heard about the event from his brother-in-law and came all the way from Cleveland to take part in it.

"You always have the consolation it's for a good cause, but ... you don't want to be the first one out. So you try to hold on and make (it) through the first round. You just want to get through to the second round to be able to spend some time (at the table) and enjoy it," he said. "You can't lose."

Anne McQueary, participating in her second tournament, agreed.

"It's just for the fun of it, and it's for a worthwhile charity event," said McQueary, who was joined at the event by her husband and son.

There were three different types of poker games played during the tournament -- five-card stud, seven-card stud and five-card draw -- "to help change things up," said John Ford, one of the event's organizers.

As an added bonus, and because the inclement weather was keeping people in the building, a Texas Hold'em tournament was included.

During the daylong event, each player was given $100 in chips and placed at tables of eight. Once a player ran out of chips, they were out of the tournament. The final eight players received prizes, and donations to the local charities will be given in the name of the last four players, said event coordinator Joyce Hartsock.

What started five years ago with just 32 players included 87 players this year. The popularity of televised poker games has helped to bolster the interest in the annual event, said Joe Thomas, general manager of the Ramada Inn.

The event, themed "Have a Heart for Kids," was the brainchild of Thomas, along with fellow State College residents Ford and Ken Fogelman.

"It really has grown, and all our focus is always on the kids," said Ford, who won the tournament two years ago.

Wellington poker player Jamil Dia has played his best hand yet, beating 262 others to win a $1 million championship at a casino in Melbourne.

Mr Dia runs the Alamir Lebanese bakery and kebab shop in Miramar. He has been playing cards for 30 years but had never won anything like this.

After three gruelling days facing some of the world's best players, Mr Dia won the A$1 million (NZ$1.08 million) top purse at the Crown Casino's "Aussie Millions" poker championship yesterday. Each player paid A$10,000 to enter.

Mr Dia, 48, who came to New Zealand from Lebanon 15 years ago, has entered many competitions, winning up to $18,000.

"I have a large family, a wife and four children, and the $1 million will come in very handy. It is a little life-changing, but I won't be giving up the day job just yet," he said in Melbourne before flying back to Wellington last night.

There was joy at the family home in Miramar.

"It's very exciting," said his wife, Wafaa Dia, who was so stuck for words at her husband's triumph that she asked their son Ali, 14, to do the talking. He said his father had travelled as far as Russia to play in championships.

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 20, 2005--Myelin Media Inc., a publisher of interactive entertainment software, today announced STACKED(TM) with Daniel Negreanu, a Texas Hold 'em poker game that captures the look, excitement and drama of the phenomenon that has captivated America. With participation from poker's most dynamic and successful professionals, a breakthrough artificial intelligence solution, massive online tournaments, and professional broadcast design, STACKED promises to deliver the most full-featured Texas Hold 'em experience ever created. Developed by 5000ft, Inc., the game is slated for release on the Xbox® video game system from Microsoft Corporation, the PSP(TM) handheld entertainment system from Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. as well as the PC and other video game consoles in Summer 2005.

STACKED features a comprehensive poker school in which the player can receive tips and strategies from Daniel Negreanu (2004 ESPN Player of the Year, World Poker Tour Player of the Year, Card Player Magazine Player of the Year and all-time World Poker Tour money winner). Daniel will teach players everything from the fundamentals of Hold 'em to advanced tournament strategies through full motion video, voiceovers and dynamic in-game features. As players progress through the game's career mode, they can apply Daniel's teachings to overcome some of poker's most renowned stars, including Josh Arieh, Jennifer Harman, Erick Lindgren, Carlos Mortenson, Evelyn Ng and David Williams.

"With more than 60 million Americans playing poker, Texas Hold 'em is emerging as a national pastime," said Gene Mauro, CEO of Myelin Media Inc. "Poker is as much a lifestyle as a game, and STACKED offers an immersive experience for those looking to advance their skill and enjoyment of the sport."

The Poki(TM) Artificial Intelligence system utilized in STACKED is the culmination of over ten years of research by the University of Alberta's Poker Research Group. Poki adapts its tactics in real-time to exploit the user's playing style, detecting tendencies and deploying appropriate counter-strategies to deliver a challenging and authentic experience.

In the STACKED League, gamers can go online to organize a casual game with friends or compete to qualify for sanctioned multi-table tournaments. Communicating via text messages, voice chat and context-specific character gestures, players will be able to bluff their way to victory, goad opponents into making mistakes and celebrate winning a large pot with style.

About Myelin Media

Myelin Media, LLC. is a privately funded entertainment software publisher headquartered in New York City. Established in March 2004, Myelin aims to bring unique game content to consumers by empowering developer creativity. Visit www.myelinmedia.com for more information.

About 5000ft, Inc.

5000ft, Inc. is a high quality developer of video games for home console and computer systems. Our staff has more than 20 years' experience with all past and current platforms. We continue to expand our horizons as the industry evolves. Our happy staff is located in Reno, NV.

About Xbox

Xbox (http://www.xbox.com/) is Microsoft's future-generation video game system that delivers the most powerful games experiences ever. Xbox empowers game artists by giving them the technology to fulfill their creative visions as never before, creating games that blur the lines between fantasy and reality. Xbox is now available in North America at the suggested retail price of $149.99.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 18, 2005--Poker Tour International (PTI) announces upcoming Texas Hold'em Poker tournaments for 2005. Dates are as follows: March 16-20, 2005 -- Circa's Hispanola Resort and Casino, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; and April 13-18, 2005 -- Norwegian Cruise Caribbean Spirit Ship. Rates for the trips, including buy-ins, travel, and accommodations, run $2,999. Re-buys are available at $500. Winnings include $250,000-$500,000 (depending on number of participants), seats to other PTI tournaments, and seats to the Semi Annual Multi Million Dollar Classic Finals.

PTI's production team includes Pro Players Lee Watkinson, who has won $1,453,573 from final tables this year alone and rated #1 in the World by Bluff Magazine, Ted Lawson, winner of this year's Las Vegas Omaha World Poker Series, "Unabomber" Phil Laak, winner of the WPT Invitation 2004, Humberto Brenes, known as "godfather of Costa Rican Players" and regular at final tables, Steve Kates, partner of Royal Oasis Casino, and Tournament Organizer Burt Kravette. Together the PTI team has set plans in motion for a series of multimedia poker events in the Caribbean, Central America, and South America sponsored in part by PartyPoker.com.

"Poker Tour International is a televised series of affordable high stakes tournaments for pros and amateurs to play together in South America, Central America, and the Caribbean," says Kates. "Most of the money goes into the pot," he continues. Satellite tournaments for winners to win all expense paid trips will be held on PartyPoker.com and in various locations around the U.S.

For information to participate in the tournaments and satellite programs, contact PTI at 1-866-79-POKER, 1-877-38-POKER, or 305-933-5256

LOS ANGELES, California -- (PRESS RELEASE) -- Many fans who watch the World Poker Tour (WPT) Wednesday nights at 9pm on the Travel Channel are looking for ways to enhance their poker skills. Now, they'll be able to pick up tips directly from the World Poker Tour on both radio and the Internet.

WPT Poker Corner, a 60-second audio feature with tips and trivia about the nation's favorite card game will include everything from betting strategy to the latest tournament news. The content will cover such topics as poker schools, player profiles, how and where to enter tournaments, poker etiquette, poker book reviews, poker magazines, poker news, playing strategy, and life on the WORLD POKER TOUR as well as interviews with players and commentators.

WPT Poker Corner will be exclusively syndicated by 4thStreet Media Group as a result of a licensing agreement it signed with WPT Enterprises, Inc. The audio feature will launch Feb. 1 on XM Satellite Radio and AudioFeast.com. Content is being made available to broadcast and satellite radio, subscription services, and Internet sites. Additional affiliations will be announced shortly.

"A day doesn't go by without someone asking us when WORLD POKER TOUR content will be available on radio and that includes the stations, the listeners, and the advertisers," noted Steve Lipscomb, founder and President of WPT Enterprises, Inc. "With the advent of filming for our Third Season, we felt now was the perfect time to start bringing WPT's high quality brand of poker programming to the audio media sector."

Network radio veteran Dan Forth is helming the effort – his 4thStreet Media Group is developing, producing, and marketing the features. Forth has more than 25 years of experience with national and local radio. He is former President/CEO of Sony Worldwide Networks, VP Content Licensing for Launch Media, and Vice President/Group Direct of ABC Young Adult Radio Networks. Along with his partners, Forth produces and distributes a variety of audio content for broadcast, satellite radio, and the web.

"Over 50 million people in the U.S. play poker… and probably another 50 million talk about it every day," stated Forth. "I look forward to working with the leading and most recognized organization in the game, THE WORLD POKER TOUR, to deliver powerful, entertaining audio content that will be both accessible to the beginner and compelling to the most experienced player."

National Sports Radio talent David Stein will host the audio feature. In addition to hosting radio programs for Fox Sports Radio and STUFF Magazine, Stein, an author and comedian, is also the creator and host of television's "It's Funnier That Way."

About 4thStreet Media Group, LLC

4thStreet Media Group develops, produces, and markets audio content for major media companies including Discovery Channel Radio, CNN, XM Satellite Radio, AudioFeast.com, and Harryman Lasley Corporation.

About WPT Enterprises, Inc.

WPT Enterprises, Inc. (Nasdaq: WPTE) is a media and entertainment company engaged in the creation of branded entertainment through the development, production and marketing of televised programming based on poker and other gaming themes. To date, operations have principally revolved around the creation of the World Poker Tour brand through the production and licensing of a reality television series exhibited on the Travel Channel that is based on a circuit of previously established high-stakes poker tournaments that has been affiliated under the "World Poker Tour" brand. WPT Enterprises, Inc. is a majority owned subsidiary of Lakes Entertainment, Inc. (Nasdaq: LACO).

WPT(TM) Commentators and Producer/Analyst to Top the List of Instructors

FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla., Jan. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- WORLD POKER TOUR(R)
commentators Mike Sexton and Vincent Van Patten, as well as the smash hit
television show's associate producer, Alex "The Insider" Outhred, have been
named as the first three instructors for the WPT BOOT CAMP(TM) designed to
provide enrollees a "Fast Track to the Final Table(TM)."
Sexton and Van Patten have been key to the success of the WORLD POKER TOUR
show on the Travel Channel that spawned the nation's poker boom. Their
experience, knowledge of the game, and insightful way of explaining the action
to everyone from neophyte to journeyman players has laid the foundation for
the WPT BOOT CAMP and inspired people worldwide to seek greater skills in the
game.
Each of the three possesses incredible insight into the inner workings of
WORLD POKER TOUR tournaments, which will be used as the basis for instruction.
Steven Berman, co-founder of the WPT BOOT CAMP, believes the combined
experience of the three individuals establishes a solid instructional core for
the program.
"Mike, Vince and Alex have all played the game of poker and been witness
to the skills of top players worldwide," Berman said. "Together they will
provide the kind of coaching necessary to help amateur poker players reach and
succeed at a WPT Final Table. They will be instrumental in selecting
additional quality instructors for WPT BOOT CAMP."
Sexton is one of the game's premier ambassadors. A former European poker
champion and winner of a coveted World Series of Poker bracelet, his complete
mastery of poker strategy makes him perfect for WPT BOOT CAMP. Sexton, a
25-year poker pro, has numerous championships to his credit, including titles
at the Legends of Poker, the LA Poker Classic, the Euro Finals of Poker, the
California State Championship, Reno's Pot of Gold, the Orleans Open, the Super
Bowl of Poker, America's Cup, and he captured four Best All-Around Player
awards. Sexton is also responsible for creating two mega events in the poker
world, the Tournament of Champions and the Party Poker Million, which
allows people to play tournaments online in order to win a cruise and entry
into a million dollar WPT tournament. His expertise is also clearly evident
as a featured columnist for CardPlayer magazine and Gambling Times, and a
contributing writer to Gaming Today, Casino Online magazine and Casino Times.
"I'm really looking forward to the WPT BOOT CAMP," Sexton said. "And
while high-stakes poker can be a pretty serious, stressful business, that
doesn't mean we can't have some fun with the folks we're teaching. Poker is,
after all, a game."
Van Patten has made his mark on the poker world with colorful commentary
and insightful card playing knowledge. His 30 years of poker experience began
in the early teens when his father taught him basic poker techniques. He
continues to play poker every week with buddies at a game in Beverly Hills,
and has been dubbed the "King of the Hollywood home game." He is also
considered a world-class poker player, having competed in several major events
including three World Series of Poker tournaments.
"When you think about it, Mike and I teach poker to people every Wednesday
night on the show," Van Patten said. "At WPT BOOT CAMP we're going to take
just 48 hours and make you a new kind of poker player. And not only are we
going to make you a good player, but we're also going to teach you to enjoy
the social aspect of the game."
Outhred is an associate producer who has worked on the WORLD POKER TOUR
for three seasons. His job is to review and scrutinize players' every card,
bet, critical decision and telling glance. As such, he has been dubbed "The
Insider" for his unmatched insight, which has been called upon previously to
train HOLLYWOOD HOME GAME celebrities such as Mekhi Phifer, William Shatner,
Michelle Clunie, David Sutcliffe, Bob Eubanks, Chuck Woolery, and Billy Burke.
He will be sharing that knowledge with WPT BOOT CAMP attendees.
WPT BOOT CAMP is designed to compress the poker learning curve into just
two days and employs an authentic instructional experience endorsed by the
WORLD POKER TOUR. WPT BOOT CAMP will be offered in cities throughout the
United States and features an integrated curriculum that includes live
lectures, archived WPT video, hand-on game play, and personal tips by poker
superstars. Only 50 students are accepted per camp session to ensure a
maximized learning experience.
"Our commentators and Alex have been educating the world at large about
overall poker strategies," said Steve Lipscomb, WPT Enterprises (Nasdaq: WPTE)
founder and president. "At WPT BOOT CAMP they will get down to the
intricacies of the game and be looking over the shoulders of the students to
give them real 'hands-on' instruction."
WPT BOOT CAMP is the brainchild of Ron Rubens and Steven Berman,
co-founders of River Gaming, LLC. The duo developed the program after years
of work in the gaming industry and prior experience producing instructional
seminars. River Gaming is a licensee of WPTE, which holds an ownership
interest in the WPT BOOT CAMP.
The current cost for enrolling in WPT BOOT CAMP is $1,495.00. Students
who refer a friend to the program will receive $25, and the friend will get a
$100 discount. For more information go to http://www.wptbootcamp.com or call
866-WPT-BOOT.

About The World Poker Tour(TM)
The WORLD POKER TOUR is a series of 16 high stakes poker tournaments
filmed in exotic locales and leading poker rooms. The show is the highest
rated series in the history of the Travel Channel and continues to increase
its viewing audience worldwide. With its mix of expert commentary, on-screen
explanatory graphics and 17 cameras -- including the revolutionary WPT cam
revealing the player's hole cards -- the WPT has transformed poker into a
televised spectator sport. It has also inspired the poker boom among fans and
amateur players, who play at home with friends, and others who are now coming
out to compete in WPT tournaments. Last season, the WPT offered more than
$35 million in prize money. Filming for Season Three has already begun and
prize money is projected to be $70 million. The Season Three shows will begin
airing in March 2005.

The Chinese government has launched a widespread crackdown on online gambling with websites and egaming marketing offices facing closure by the police.
Casinos offering live gaming are believed to be the main target of the move, which is part of a wider initiative designed to block Chinese citizens from engaging in cross-border gambling.

"The campaign will try to block the channels through which many Chinese go abroad for gambling,” Zhou Yongkang, a Chinese state-councillor and the Minister of Public Security, said.

And operators in the region said that the crackdown, which is being driven by central government, is likely to be high-profile and intensive.

It is a response to a national scandal involving government ministers spending millions of dollars gambling at land-based casinos in North Korea and Macau.

Reports coming from the region said the officials had taken money directly from state-run businesses and schemes and the amounts total hundreds of millions of dollars.

Communist party officials and executives from state-owned companies will face the heaviest punishments under the crackdown.

And the government is hoping that by preventing Chinese citizens from accessing any form of foreign gambling it will restore faith in the ruling Communist party.

But Tim Lame, CEO of Asian-focused sportsbook and casino Easybets, said the move was likely to be a short-term measure.

“This is mainly in response to the trend that a number of cross border Casino had been set up around the China Borders in Burma, North Korea, Russia and of course Macao,” Lambe said.

Lambe also said the online sites that would face the most pressure would be Burma-based live-dealer casinos.

Although gambling remains illegal in China, the authorities have recently adopted a more liberal attitude towards some forms of betting.

One high-profile Hong Kong-based firm, Citic Pacific, signed a deal with Irish betting exchange operator Betdaq at the end of last year to operate a Chinese language betting exchange.

THE EVERYONE’S invited/anybody-can-win hold ’em tournaments are all the rage, from sit-and-go tables to big buy-in events.

But there is another kind of tournament played annually in Europe that would seemingly appeal to television’s desire to crown ultimate champions.

The World Heads Up Poker Championship staged in Barcelona is structured like the NCAA basketball tournament, only doubled. You have 128 contestants divided into four brackets — drawn randomly, not seeded — and if you win, you play the winner of the match next to you.

Each player starts with $5,000 in chips each round. The blinds go from $50-$100 to $75-$150 after one hour to $100-$200 after two hours. But the blinds remain $100-$200, emphasizing skill and delaying desperation all-ins.

It’s like being one of the last two players at a final table. Win seven final tables, win it all.

But strategy changes in this kind of tournament, said “Miami” John Cernuto, the 2003 champion. “Starting out with the same amount of chips, there’s going to be a lot more hands that you need to play,” said Cernuto, who came to big-time poker after President Reagan fired him and his fellow air traffic controllers for going on strike a couple decades ago.

“Against a player who’s not showing me much aggressiveness, I’d be raising his big blind, I’d say, probably nine times out of 10, and it really doesn’t matter what the hands are. It’s just two pieces of paper at that point.”

Ultimately, a player has to make a stand. Mickey Wernick made one in a quarterfinal match last year and doubled up. After taking a small chip lead, Wernick made a big preflop raise as Cernuto picked up A-K.

“I don’t know whether it was the frustration of spending 2-3 hours with this guy and getting him down to nothing and watching him come back and win it all on a bluff, or what it was, but I made a huge reraise with ace-king,” Cernuto said. “I committed myself to this pot.

“He came back over the top. I said, ‘I’m in trouble. He’s probably got two queens or two kings.’ So, I called. I put all the money on the line.”

Wernick indeed had pocket Ks. The flop came 5-5-4. The turn came a 3. The river came a deuce. Cernuto hit a straight.

“I made a wheel with the ace-king,” Cernuto said. “Super lucky. I finished him off after that.”

CATOOSA, Okla. (AP) -- The Cherokee Nation plans to begin games of blackjack and poker with no-limit betting at its Catoosa casino next week, tribal officials said.

David Stewart, chief executive officer of Cherokee Nation Business Enterprises, said games should begin as early as Wednesday and no later than Friday.

The first cards in the no-limit games are expected to be dealt at the Cherokee Nation Casino Resort in Catoosa, an $80 million gaming facility which opened earlier this year.

''It is going to be mayhem and chaos,'' Stewart predicted about the first day of card playing in Catoosa. ''I don't know what the other tribes will offer, but they will eventually experience the same thing.''

Stewart said the Cherokee Nation is remodeling all tribal gaming facilities to accommodate card tables. At the Catoosa site, plans are to immediately open 12 blackjack tables and eight poker tables. However, the facility will eventually have 30 each of blackjack and poker tables.

The announcement of the card games by the Cherokee Nation would appear to make it the first tribe to offer card games among local Indian gaming facilities.

Such card games are allowed under a compact agreement with the state of Oklahoma. State Question 712 established the compact, which allows Indian tribes to compact with the state for card games.

Meanwhile, the Cherokee Nation has been preparing for the day when the tribe would cut its first deck of cards.

Stewart said the tribe has been training card dealers for all Cherokee casinos, including casinos in West Siloam Springs and Roland near the Oklahoma-Arkansas border.

Other tribes thinking about expanding their gaming operations into blackjack and poker are close behind the Cherokee Nation.

Gov. Bill Anoatubby of the Chickasaw Nation announced Friday at an intertribal council meeting that his tribe's gaming compact was approved Thursday by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

''I think you will see some very positive results from the compacts, which would not have been possible without the support of our people and the legislative councils,'' Anoatubby said.

Before the first card is even dealt, casino patrons are anticipating the addition of the new gaming opportunities.

Bo Vaughn of Tulsa said he would be one of the first in line when the Cherokees deal their first hand of cards.

''It is probably the excitement of cards that will bring me in,'' Vaughn said.

Former NBA superstar Michael Jordan will be a major component in the latest Las Vegas megaproject, a $600 million, 825-unit luxury hotel-condo-casino called Aqua Blue.

The complex will feature two Jordan restaurants - Michael Jordan's Steak House and Michael Jordan's 23.sportcafe - as well as a 65,000-square-foot Michael Jordan Athletic Center.

The resort will be built on the site of the current Ellis Island casino, where an existing Super 8 Motel will be razed to make way for the project. The Ellis Island casino will be at the center of the Aqua Blue complex. Construction will commence in the fall, with a completion date scheduled for 2007.

In a town constantly remaking itself, poker is the latest phoenix to rise in Las Vegas.

Poker rooms waned in the late 1980s and '90s. But with an unprecedented craze fueled by televised tournaments and online gambling sites, casinos are responding.

Last year, the Golden Nugget, Harrah's, Bally's and the Imperial Palace all re-established poker areas. And Caesars Palace and the MGM Grand have announced plans to get back in the poker game this spring or summer.

"Caesars has a history of having a great poker room, and that's going to come back," said spokesman Michael Coldwell.

In fact, the return of poker has been so popular at Bally's, also run by Caesars Entertainment, that the hotel has already expanded the number of tables from 14 to 20.

The MGM Grand, too, saw the increasing success of poker rooms at sister casinos Bellagio and the Mirage and decided to open 25 tables in late March or early April.

With so much proliferation, gamblers have their choice of setting and stakes. Most rooms, however, are dominated by Texas Hold 'Em, the variation that has all but taken over poker, in many cases crowding out 7-Card Stud and Omaha, the next most popular games.

At all but a few casinos, the low end of hold 'em starts in structured $2-to-$4 games, meaning that bettors can initially wager $2 before and after the flop and $4 after the turn and the river, also known as fourth and fifth streets. The casinos offering $2-to-$4 hold 'em include the Orleans, the Palms, Gold Coast, Harrah's, Bally's, Imperial Palace, the Golden Nugget and famous poker destination Binion's Horseshoe downtown.

A few cheaper games are also available. The Luxor offers $1-to-$2 stakes while Excalibur and the downtown El Cortez run $1-to-$3 games. At the other end of the spectrum, stakes in high-end rooms such as the Mirage start at $3 to $6 and can reach $40 to $80. At the Bellagio, the wagering starts at $4 to $8 and can climb to $30 to $60. Some casinos will put on even richer games if there are willing players.

Most casinos also offer no-limit games – the most common form of hold 'em on television – with minimum buy-ins ranging from $60 to $200. And no-limit tournaments are a growing phenomenon.

The Luxor may be the most budget-conscious, with $25 buy-in tournaments at 10 a.m. weekends and noon daily. The Orleans also has $27 buy-ins several days and nights a week on not just hold 'em but also Omaha Hi-Lo.

Bigger no-limit action prevails at Bellagio and the Mirage, which along with the Palms' high-stakes room are considered the nicest poker settings in Las Vegas. No smoking is allowed at Bellagio and the Mirage. With about 30 tables each, they are the biggest Vegas poker rooms besides the Orleans, with 35 tables, and Binion's, which has about 45.

The Golden Nugget also prohibits smoking in its poker room, and the Nugget and Palms display horse racing and other sporting events on plasma TVs.

Bellagio's Friday-evening tournament has a $1,060 buy-in, a Wednesday afternoon event commands $540, and the Mirage's range from $130 to $330.

For pros and those who want to take them on, January brings two big hold 'em tournaments: the Memorial Championship of Poker at the Orleans ($5,000 buy-in) and the All-In Texas Hold 'Em No-Limit $70,000 Poker Challenge at Imperial Palace ($299 buy-in), both Jan. 27-29.

Poker, which just five years ago was considered taboo by many, is fast becoming one of the biggest sporting attractions out there.

More than 150 of the best Triangle players met Thursday for a chance to play for millions in Las Vegas.

"Once I started playing online for play money it just dragged me in,” said poker player Douglas “Moose” Jones. “I haven't been able to stop since."

Jones is the number one player in the World Tavern Poker Tour. He's been raising and folding at poker tables for three years. For the past two he's seen a considerable jump in interest of this centuries-old card game.

“It's grown 100-fold,” he continued.

A prime example is the number of players at the champions tournament at Jillian’s in Raleigh.

“We've seen it go from 20 people a night to over 100 people a night,” Jones said.

Many people see an unlimited potential for this game of chance and skill. But the real question is why?

"It started from a guy named Chris Moneymaker who won the World Series of Poker two years ago and was just sort of your average guy who played poker at a house and he won it,” explained Mike Matsinger of the World Tavern Poker Tour.

Players sas when a person sits down and feels the rush of winning or losing it all they're all in.

"Poker's unique among other games and sports in that anybody can sit down with the best in world and play it,” said poker player Ken Wexel. “You have to condition yourself for 25 years to challenge the pros."

In North Carolina it's illegal to gamble with money so instead of winning a big pot of cash, these players are eyeing card tables and poker memorabilia. The ultimate prize is a paid trip to Las Vegas and a chance to win millions in the World Series of Poker.

Jones adaded, “We'll worry about the millions I could win on TV once I get past tonight."

It costs $10,000 to enter the World Series of Poker. The winner of the Tavern Tour gets a free flight, hotel, and the $10,000.

High-stakes poker lovers and Yankee-haters, it's time to ante up.
In the latest incarnation of the television poker craze, the New England Sports Network and the YES network in New York plan to bring the Red Sox-Yankee rivalry to the poker table.
Six players from Boston will be picked to square off against six players from the Big Apple for a Boston vs. New York Poker Challenge, a nine-episode original series slated to be shot in February and air in the spring on the two cable sports networks.
And instead of keeping the usual poker face and checked emotions, players will be expected to talk some smack to opponents on the other side.
Casting agents will be holding casting calls next week in both cities, looking for players who have what local casting director Angela Peri calls ``the three p's.''
``We're looking for people with poker ability, passion for sports, and personality,'' Peri said.
Players also have to have money. It will cost $5,000 to buy into the no-limit Texas Hold 'Em game. In addition to prize money, the winner gets 10 tickets to a luxury suite at either Fenway Park or Yankee Stadium.
``They can't just have the $5,000 and want to get in on the game,'' Peri said. ``We need real poker players and people who really love the Red Sox.''
These days it's hard to flip through cable channels without stumbling onto a poker game. The Travel Channel has the ``World Poker Tour.'' Fox Sports has the ``Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament'' ESPN runs the ``2004 World Series of Poker'' and the new ``Tilt'' poker drama.
Ashley Adams, a local poker expert and tutor, says the card game's renaissance has been sparked by a full house of factors, including the rise of Internet poker sites. He said American Indian-run casinos brought poker to people who hadn't seen it.
``Two years ago, the introduction of the poker camera into this country, which had already been used in England, allowed for live coverage of poker games in a way that people found interesting,'' Adams said.
While it would seem like a boring spectator sport on the surface, the inherent drama of poker, combined with wagering psychology, provides the excitement, he said.
``There's also something quintessentially American about the game,'' he said. ``It combines skill, luck and, for lack of a better term, moxie.''
Peri's Boston Casting will hold auditions next Tuesday and recommends interested players visit its Bostoncasting.com Web site for information.
She also plans to look for candidates at a poker tournament at The Place on Broad Street Monday night.

Around noon at Harrah's last Friday, it seemed everyone wanted a spot at the table.

It was the first day of the first World Series of Poker Circuit, and it was being held in Atlantic City, of all places. That's right -- the tournament that created poker legends has gone on the road, making stops at a casino near you on the way to a Tournament of Champions that will be held in Las Vegas later this year.

That means with as little as $500, some luck and a lot of skill, maybe, just maybe, you could enter into the circuit and score high enough to make it to the big show -- and the $2 million in prize money.

Oh, yes, and the television exposure. ESPN will be at Harrah's filming the finals Sunday. And on Monday, they'll hold tryouts in A.C. for the next "poker face" to star in upcoming World Series commercials.

All of which explains why last Friday, at the start of the five-city circuit, 517 seats at Harrah's were taken almost immediately. And nearly 100 more would-be players were put on a waiting list to get in.

But, wait a minute. Wasn't the World Series of Poker that venerable tournament held in the cramped, smoke-filled Binion's Horseshoe in Las Vegas, where only the best had the guts to try their luck?

Wasn't it that other tournament, the World Poker Tour, that traveled to gambling venues around the world, turning back-room players into celebrities and making poker must-see TV?

Yes, it was. But the World Series is fighting back. If the World Poker Tour brought poker to the masses, the World Series wants to reclaim its spot as the premier tournament.

RAISE, AND RE-RAISE
Besides kicking off the circuits at casinos in San Diego, Lake Tahoe, New Orleans and Las Vegas, World Series owner Harrah's Entertainment has hired a sports television consulting firm to help develop programming and negotiate a new broadcasting agreement with ESPN. Kind of like the one the World Poker Tour has with the Travel Channel.

Representatives of Harrah's, which bought the World Series brand a year ago, and WPT Enterprises, which owns the World Poker Tour, do their best to downplay the rivalry between them.

"Everyone in the world wants us to be enemies we're not," insisted WPT's chief executive, Steve Lipscomb.

But dig a little deeper and it becomes clear, at the very least, a healthy competition exists.

"With regard to the World Poker Tour, there are (16) prestigious poker venues that all have a strong poker history and culture that were joined together for a truly international tour," said Bob Boughner, chief executive of Borgata -- one of the stops of the World Poker Tour, along with Foxwoods in Connecticut, the Bellagio in Las Vegas and the Aviation Club de France in Paris, among others.

"Now you look at the World Series of Poker," Boughner said, "which is a long-standing, prestigious annual tournament that is now being laminated on top of rather average properties, none of which has a strong poker culture or strong poker product."

Ouch.

Bring up the World Poker Tour to World Series tournament director Ken Lambert, and he replies, "the World Poker what?"

One thing most can agree on is that Harrah's bought the World Series just as poker's popularity was taking off ... thanks to the World Poker Tour.

ESPN had broadcast the World Series for years. But it wasn't until the World Poker Tour came along, with the idea of showing players' cards, that poker went prime time.

The story has become part of poker lore: Lipscomb, a TV and film producer, came up with the idea to turn poker into a spectator sport. He teamed up with Lyle Berman, chief executive of tribal casino manager Lakes Entertainment. The two lined up a dozen high-stakes poker tournaments around the world -- the number is now up to 16 -- talked the Travel Channel into broadcasting it, and the World Poker Tour was born.

After its debut in 2003, ratings went through the roof. And that, the gurus say, was the start of the poker craze.

A NEW PLAYER
Now, Harrah's wants in. With the circuits, it turned the World Series into a yearlong event. It expects to draw 6,000 people for the final no-limit Texas Hold'Em in Vegas, more than double from last year. Much of the tournament will be moved from Binion's to the Rio to accommodate crowds.

As more people play, the money grows. Harrah's believes the top prize this year will be well above last year's $5 million, which was double the prize of 2003.

In contrast, the top prize at the World Poker Tour Championship, which is held at Bellagio in Las Vegas, grew from $1 million in 2003 to $2.7 million in 2004 -- and until last year's World Series, it was the highest poker prize ever, Lipscomb said.

While there is some overlap, the tours try to accommodate each other. And in a somewhat embarrassing predicament, the World Poker Tour is stopping at the Harrah's-owned Horseshoe Casino in Tunica, Miss., this month.

Harrah's spokesman Gary Thompson said the reason is that Harrah's agreed to abide by existing contracts when it bought the Horseshoe. The one with the World Poker Tour doesn't expire for another seven years, Lipscomb said.

To be sure, poker is a new game for Harrah's. Until it bought the World Series, Harrah's was known for catering mostly to low-rolling but regular-playing slot gamblers. In Atlantic City, the Harrah's poker room was an after-thought, a tiny room in an out-of-the-way place.

Now, it's been opened up, its size doubled to 16 tables. Dave Jonas, who heads Harrah's A.C. operations, said he may expand it some more. And there are plans in the works to open a 45-table poker room at its sister casino, Showboat, later this year.

Ironically, poker doesn't make a lot of money for casinos. It is the one game in which a gambler doesn't play against the house. Instead, casinos typically charge players for the time they spend at the table.

But while the $53 million the A.C. casinos made from poker in 2004 is a drop in the bucket compared with their overall $4.8 billion in revenue, it was a 63 percent leap over the 2003 poker figure. And most casino bosses say they are in the poker business because it gets people -- especially younger gamblers -- in the door.

TILT. A new dramatic series about high-stakes poker players is set in Las Vegas but, unlike some other prime-time series we could name, it's not something the Chamber of Commerce will adore. Premieres tonight at 9 on ESPN.

The only high-stakes poker I ever played was while I was in college. Please note that I use "high-stakes" as a relative term, shorthand for "How much can you afford to lose?" One night in the dorm I had to cough up what remained of my monthly living expenses in a match-the-pot game and spent the next 2 1/2 weeks acquiring useful life skills such as how to scrounge crackers and ketchup packets from the student union to make soup.

Mmmmm-mmmmm, good.

ESPN's new series "Tilt" is about hard lessons, too, but it's also about revenge. It first introduces three young poker sharks - Eddie (Eddie Cibrian), Clark (Todd Williams) and Miami (Kristin Lehman) - who initially seem to have nothing in common other than perhaps some mutual contempt. But, as we're gradually shown, they're a team, and they're on a mission. Each has some sort of grudge, in some cases dating back to when they were children of people who should have been in Gamblers Anonymous, against a big-time professional card player, Don Everest (Michael Madsen). In Las Vegas and international gaming circles, he's known as "The Matador."

Everest plies his trade at the Colorado Casino, a fictional Las Vegas gaming hotel. The "Mod Squad"-like trio is determined to settle old scores with him, and so is Lee Nickel (Chris Bauer), a small-town cop who makes a clumsy attempt at trying to play at the same high-roller table with the Matador and catch him cheating. The poker legend apparently took Nickel's brother to the cleaners at some point, underhandedly the lawman believes.

Now, vaguely intrigued potential viewers well may ask, what, beyond the payback plot, does "Tilt" have to offer that NBC's Monday night hit "Las Vegas" doesn't?

For starters, a less romantic view of Sin City. Some might even call it a seamy view, what with casino management routinely referring to patrons as "suckers" and houses doing whatever they can to improve their odds.

The executive producer is Orly Adelson, who served the same function on "Playmakers," an ESPN dramatic series that met a premature demise because NFL officials were livid at its intimating that professional football players used illegal substances, tomcatted around and acted overindulged. Luckily for her this time, Vegas doesn't have a commissioner or a players' association.

Masden's character takes full advantage of his reptilian qualities, the hood eyes and cobra stare, and Don McManus plays casino manager Bart "Lowball" Rogers like a human oil slick. And they're just the tip of a lowlife iceberg in this show.

Along with its favoring of underbelly over glitz, the other seductive thing about "Tilt" is the way the writing-directing team of Brian Koppelman and David Levien take viewers into the thick of the poker games.

Television often has been called a medium of close-ups, but rarely has its natural bent been so adroitly exploited. Tight head-shots, expressively inexpressive faces and masterful editing turn bluffs and raises into "High Noon" showdowns.

Whether Koppelman and Levien can sustain the tension of tonight's premiere is anybody's guess. "Taking down" the Matador seems like a limited premise. But given that there are millions of people watching celebrity wannabes play cards, I wouldn't bet against the vastly more compelling "Tilt" keeping card-obsessed viewers so inclined at the table for a while.

Tony Bloom is nicknamed "The Lizard" because he has the characteristics of one.

No emotion. Cold blooded.

That's what makes him Australia's poker champion.

The 34-year-old Englishman is in Australia to defend his title during the Aussie Millions tournament currently being held at Melbourne's Crown Casino.

The winner will pocket $1 million, but the stakes are not the primary objective of the multi-millionaire, who already heads the giant UK punting organisation, Premier Bet.

Bloom says not relying on his winnings at the poker table is the secret to his success.

"I do this for fun, but I wouldn't like to do it for a living," Bloom said.

"That would take all the fun out of it."

Players in the Aussie Millions tournament go through qualifying stages, with the top 54 getting to the main event final.

In the final, players are given $10,000 in tournament chips to play the style of poker known as No Limit Holdem.

In No Limit Holdem, players are dealt two cards face down and the table is given five "community" cards.
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The player's hand is formed by taking the best possible poker hand by using any five out of the seven cards.

Play continues until there is just one person remaining, with that person declared the Australian champion.

Bloom has spent 15 years on the circuit, and said anyone wanting to play poker for a living needs to have themselves fairly well set financially before doing it.

"It's a difficult thing to spend a week or even a month losing money, and it takes a special kind of mentality to be able to do it," Bloom said.

"Even some professional gamblers can't handle it.

"Once you've seen success (as a poker player) to give it up can be tough - it can be hard to go back to a normal job."

Bloom and his hard-nosed style have won lots of fans on the professional poker circuit, including the most successful poker mind in the country, Keith Sloan.

Sloan - known to all as Bendigo - says Bloom is a natural risk taker at the table.

"Money means nothing to him, because he's got plenty," Sloan said.

"If other players were in a tournament where first prize was $1 million and second prize was $250,000 and they started to get into a bit of trouble, they might just hope they can hang on for the $250,000.

"But he'll just go for the million."

Sloan was a professional player himself for 20 years before becoming a tournament promoter and a poker consultant to casinos worldwide.

He compared poker to the professional tennis tour because of the frequency of tournaments in all corners of the globe, adding that the best poker players all have several attributes.

"They need balls, for starters," he said.

"They also need to be patient and have an innate ability to read their opponent and know when to make a move (and) when to hold back.

"It's just like Kenny Rogers said - you've got to know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em."

Bloom says he is a natural gambler attracted to poker because of the player's opportunity to turn the odds in their favour if they are good enough.

"You can get the odds in your favour because there are no machines and no house to beat," he said.

"It's player against player and over the course of a year or so (on the tour), the best players come out ... it can be pretty glamorous."

Poker rooms could open in Salem bars, restaurants, coffee houses and other businesses under a proposal being considered by the city.

Councilor Brent DeHart wants to change city law to allow "social poker games" at private businesses and clubs. On his motion, Salem City Council voted 8 to 1 on Monday to have city staff research the matter and report back.

Poker is enjoying a surge in popularity, prompted by televised Texas Hold 'em tournaments featuring celebrities and top players, DeHart said.

Salem businesses would not be allowed to profit directly from the gambling but could make money providing food and drink to players attracted by the fad, he said.

"We're just going to allow a few games while the popularity is high," DeHart said.

The owners of Lefty's Pizzeria approached DeHart to request the law be changed. Current Salem law allows social gambling at private homes or charitable, fraternal or religious organizations but only if the "house" receives no profit from the games.

"Poker is a very hot game right now," Lefty's owner John Graham said. "We look at it as an opportunity to get people out of the house and in a social environment where they can have some fun. This can be a real hoot for everybody."

Graham said he would like to run a weekly tournament at Lefty's, which also regularly features concerts and other entertainment.

West Salem resident Janet Boley said Tuesday that she is uncomfortable with the idea.

"I think gambling is a problem," said Boley as she studied over a coffee at The Beanery. "It's too easy to suck people in. You don't realize you have a problem until it's too late."

Boley echoed the thoughts of Councilor Bruce Rogers, who cast the sole vote against having staff research the law change.

"Gambling, alcohol, drugs, each can become an addiction which creates a social problem," Rogers said. "We need to think carefully about where we want to go here."

The Salem Police Department has been put in charge of researching the proposal, City Manager Bob Wells said. The city will see how other places in Oregon and Washington have handled the issue and bring back options to the council.

Wells could not say when the city will come back with a staff report.

Several other Oregon cities already allow poker games at businesses.

Portland allows bars or social clubs to run social games if they purchase a $500 permit, although bets are limited to a dollar and winnings to a dollar per person at the table.

Only nine Portland establishments have a permit, and none run poker games, said Anne Holm, a regulator in the city's social-games-program office. These groups play gin or other games.

However, the poker fad has brought pressure to allow games with larger stakes, Holm said. The Portland city attorney is reviewing what can be allowed under the current law -- for example, whether nonmonetary prizes such as sports bags can be offered in poker tournaments.

"It's so popular," Holm said. "People are watching it on TV, which just boggles my mind."

Social games also are allowed at businesses in Coos Bay that obtain a permit from the city, said Linda Mitchell, police records supervisor.

"There aren't too many businesses in town that are licensed for social gaming," she said. "We run background checks on applicants, and the City Council has the ultimate approval."

Keizer passed an ordinance on social games last year, but the change made its laws only as permissive as Salem's current code.

The Keizer ordinance came up when the Oregon Department of Justice shut down card games at the Keizer Eagles' club. The city law did not allow such games at fraternal groups, something Salem's law does allow.

The city considered allowing social games at businesses but decided not to allow it, City Manager Chris Eppely said.

"We were concerned about a rash of poker houses opening up all over the place," Eppely said. "It engenders some real debate."

LAS VEGAS, Jan. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Malin-Maria Teal from ####, Georgia, is the winner of $15,000 tonight as the lucky home viewer selected to participate in GSN's live series finale of POKER ROYALE: THE WPPA CHAMPIONSHIP. As the grand prize winner of the $10 Million Poker Sweepstakes, Teal was partnered via telephone with the series' poker champion James Van Alstyne, who was present in Las Vegas along with host Kevin Nealon and play-by-play commentator Robert Williamson III. In front of a packed crowd at the Fremont Street Experience, Van Alstyne was dealt a five card hand and if he had received a full house or better, he and Teal would have split $10 million. Van Alstyne drew an ace of hearts, nine of hearts, 10 of hearts, nine of spades and a six of spades which equaled to a pair. The pair netted each of them $15,000 and a year's supply of Pizza Hut pizza per the sweepstakes rules.

Teal was chosen in a random drawing as the grand prize winner following her entry into the sweepstakes, which required entrants to log onto poker.GSN.com and enter one of the designated passwords that were revealed during each of the six episodes of POKER ROYALE. Teal and Van Alstyne could have won additional money if they had drawn one of these other combinations:

* If they drew a full house or better they would have split $10,000,000 * If they drew three of a kind, a straight or a flush, they would have each received $25,000 * If they drew two pairs, they would have each received $20,000

Van Alstyne had to defeat a strong field of competitors to become the champion of the series and victor of the tournament bracelet. Lee Markholt, Paul Wolfe, Kathy Liebert, Carlos Mortenson and Amir Vahedi were a few of the other top players that he faced in the network's first poker series. The network will premiere a second poker series, POKER ROYALE: BATTLE OF THE SEXES on Friday, January 21 at 9:00 PM ET/PT. The series will be hosted by nationally syndicated radio talk show host Tom Leykis and game show host Kennedy.

Teal, 33, an equine massage therapist, is an avid poker player and says it is the only card game that she plays. Teal attributes most of her skill to tips learned from watching GSN's POKER ROYALE. As for what she plans to do with her new winnings, Teal said, "I'm either going to buy a motorcycle or better yet go to Vegas and play poker."

(Note: Grand prize winner is subject to verification of eligibility.)

GSN, the Network for Games, is the only U.S. television network dedicated to game-related programming and interactive game playing. The network features game shows, reality series, light sports, documentaries and casino games. GSN is the industry leader in interactivity and as such allows viewers a chance to win prizes by playing along with GSN's televised games via GSN.com. Reaching 56 million Nielsen homes, GSN is distributed in the U.S. through all major cable systems and satellite providers. The network is jointly owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment and Liberty Media Corporation. For further media information, visit GSN's press website at corp.gsn.com.

SPEED poker, the newest, made-for-TV variation of the grand old card game, made its Australian debut at Melbourne's Crown casino yesterday - and it's all thanks to Keith `Bendigo' Sloan.

The new game, which pits six players against two dealers and a 15-second clock, with up to 100 hands dealt an hour, is the brainchild of the former Bendigo resident - better known to some as Mr Poker.

Mr Sloan lived in Bendigo for 20 years, and loved the city so much he adopted the moniker as he travelled the world as a professional poker player.

He was involved in setting up Crown Casino's poker facilities and is responsible for writing the rules of the game in Australia and New Zealand.

The new game has attracted plenty of interest ahead of this weekend's inaugural World Speed Poker Championship at Crown this weekend.

It is being held as part of the 2005 Australian Poker Championship, which began last Thursday, and continues until January 20.

Almost $300,000 worth of prizemoney will be available in the World Speed Poker Championship, including $100,000 for the winner.

For the first time Australian poker will be filmed for television and delivered into lounge rooms across the globe.

Eight one-hour episodes filmed during the world championship will be screened on the Fox network in the United States and the Nine network in Australia, with Mr Sloan to act as one of the key commentators.

Billed as a Poker Roller Coaster Ride, the speed version of the game aims to combine the pace of Internet poker with the thrill of the live game, where face-to-face, the elements of bluff, strategy, psychology and showmanship all come into play.

Games typically last for four to five hours, with up to 100 hands per hour played in that time.

Yesterday's initial demonstration match was won by a new player on the block - and one of the rising stars of the game - 25-year-old Melbourne woman, Rosa Bennett.

Bennett, who only began playing poker eight months ago during a trip to Las Vegas with her husband, said she had enjoyed her first game of speed poker, which had required greater decisiveness and risk-taking than normal poker.

She also admitted she was still learning the game from watching more experienced players such as Lesnoy.

"That's the way poker works, to sit there and let people eliminate themselves," she said.

"I like to just sort of sit back and learn from how the other players are playing and once I got a good read on them, then I could make a play myself." The concept looks set to be successful internationally as it is televised across the world.

Nic Szeremeta, managing editor of Poker Europa magazine, said poker on television and the Internet had encouraged new players into the game.

"Before the Internet came along there was nowhere people could learn the game for small stakes," he said.

"Now people can learn to play play for money or for free."

LAS VEGAS – (PRESS RELEASE) -- Card Player magazine, 'The Poker Authority,' today announced that Daniel Negreanu has captured its prestigious 2004 Player of the Year title on the heels of a thrilling final shoot-out at Bellagio's Five Diamond World Poker Classic. Negreanu, one of professional poker's most formidable and respected players, surged past last-minute point leaders David 'The Dragon' Pham and John Juanda to take both the Bellagio event and the Player of the Year crown, along with over $4 million in 2004 poker earnings.

Negreanu had been leading in the Card Player rankings for most of 2004, but had fallen behind going into the Five Diamond Classic. Facing an uphill challenge against a 376-player field, the 30-year-old Canadian battled his way to the final table of the No-Limit Hold'em championship. He went toe-to-toe against Humberto Brenes, Vinny Landrum, Nam Le, Steve Rassi, and Jennifer Harman Traniello at the table to win first place at the event, scoring overall winnings of $1.8 million.

Negreanu's 2004 finale at the Bellagio Classic not only earned him Player of the Year honors, but also made him the all-time top money winner on the World Poker Tour. As a fixture on the championship circuit for the past eight years, he has won more tournaments than any other player to amass record cumulative winnings. He has also become one of the game's most visible and articulate spokespeople as the author of over 90 articles in Card Player magazine.

Along with the Player of the Year title, Negreanu will receive an award bracelet from Card Player magazine as well as a $10,000 buy-in to any upcoming 2005 event.

"Daniel is a good friend, a legendary competitor, a great ambassador for the game of poker, and well deserving of our 2004 Player of the Year title," said Barry Shulman, publisher of Card Player magazine. "He helped make 2004 a great year for poker overall, and helped pave the way for important new developments in 2005."

Those developments are expected to include a number of refinements in the formula leading to Card Player's 2005 Player of the Year title. As part of an ongoing effort to create the fairest and most competitive poker challenge of its kind, the magazine expects to add point awards for making any of the three final tables in $10,000 buy-in events, and establish minimums for the number of players required for an event to qualify for point awards.

A complete explanation of 2005 Player of the Year criteria, along with a cover story on Daniel Negreanu, will appear in the January 2005 issue of Card Player, due to hit newsstands on January 19.

MESCALERO, N.M., Jan. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Nestled in the mountains of southern New Mexico lies the new Inn of the Mountain Gods Resort & Casino. Opening March 15, 2005, the destination resort, owned and operated by the Mescalero Apache tribe, encompasses the beauty and splendor of the Southwest.

The newly constructed resort includes 273 luxury rooms and suites; state-of-the-art convention and meeting facilities; world-class golf and recreation; and thrilling entertainment. The resort's Native American and Southwestern heritage is honored throughout with regional decor. Bronze statues of Apache Crown Dancers and a breathtaking view of sacred Sierra Blanca Peak greet visitors as they enter.

Features include:
* Luxury rooms and suites ranging from $129 to $399 per night
* 38,000 sq. ft. casino with 1,000 slot machines and 34 table games
including poker, blackjack, craps, and roulette
* Fast-breaking greens and breathtaking views on Inn of the Mountain
Gods Championship Golf Course
* From Thanksgiving through Easter enjoy the 55 trails and 11 lifts of
Ski Apache
* Wendell's Steak and Seafood Restaurant -- Fresh seafood, aged steaks
and a world-caliber wine list
* 40,000 sq. ft. of meeting and convention space including an exhibition

hall
* Indoor pool and workout facilities
* Nightclub, Piano Bar/Lounge and Big Game Sports Bar
* Gathering of Nations Live-action Buffet

Other resort activities include big game hunting, horseback riding, sport clay shooting, hiking and biking activities. The resort also encompasses the Casino Apache & Travel Center, Smokey B's Grille, and the Apache Tee Bar and Grill.

The Inn of the Mountain Gods is served by the Albuquerque International Airport 200 miles north and the El Paso International Airport 125 miles south as well as Ruidoso's Sierra Blanca Regional airport.

The resort is located in Mescalero, NM just minutes from the shopping, dining and recreational opportunities of popular Ruidoso, NM.

The Inn of the Mountain Gods Resort & Casino is owned and operated by the 4,000 member Mescalero Apache Tribe. Other tribal enterprises include: Ski Apache, the Casino Apache Travel Center, Inn of the Mountain Gods Golf Course, Mescalero Fine Art Gallery and more. For more information: www.innofthemountaingods.com or call (800) 545-9011.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa, Jan. 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Council Bluffs City Council today cleared the way for work to begin on the region's largest casino and its only land-based full-service gaming destination.

Horseshoe Council Bluffs -- which will boast 68,000 square feet of new gaming space, 36 live table games, including a 20-table poker room, and 1,900 slot and video poker machines -- is slated to open during the first fiscal quarter of 2006. Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. , which owns the Horseshoe brand and also operates a Harrah's-branded casino in Council Bluffs, is investing $85 million in its existing Bluffs Run Casino to create the new facility.

The city council unanimously approved the Horseshoe project, ensuring it moves forward. The city's planning board and the state's racing and gaming commission approved the plan previously.

"We're very pleased with today's vote, and we're looking forward to bringing a second premier casino brand to Council Bluffs," said Gaye Gullo, senior vice president and general manager of Horseshoe Council Bluffs and Harrah's Council Bluffs. "The new Horseshoe will be an excellent complement to Harrah's Council Bluffs, allowing us to offer our customers the Midwest's broadest entertainment experience".

The Horseshoe name is recognized throughout the casino industry for offering gamblers the best odds and highest wagering limits, The new casino will employ 300 additional workers and increase dedicated gaming space 69 percent, to a total of 68,000 square feet. In all, the facility will measure more than 100,000 square feet. The Horseshoe also will add 250 slot and video poker machines.

When finished, Horseshoe Council Bluffs will be the region's largest casino, both in terms of square footage and gaming positions. It also will be the area's only land-based full-service casino, with all gaming devices and tables located on a single contiguous floor. Harrah's estimates the casino will generate more than $50 million in new tax revenue for the state through the end of fiscal year 2010.

"Harrah's investment in Council Bluffs speaks volumes about the business climate we have created here," said Council Bluffs Mayor Tom Hanafan. "This project will serve as a major economic catalyst in the region, creating jobs and strengthening our tax base as the city continues to reap the rewards of its well conceived growth strategy.

"Our citizens will benefit not only from the enhanced entertainment experience this project will offer but also from the tremendous infusion of tax revenue it will generate."

In addition to its gaming prowess, the Horseshoe name is recognized throughout the industry for providing big action, exciting entertainment and excellent dining experiences. Horseshoe Council Bluffs will hold to that model, offering a 400-seat buffet featuring live-action food stations from around the globe; a 140-seat Jack Binion's Steak House with a private dining area; JB's Cafe, an 80-seat venue featuring colossal sandwiches, salads and desserts; and a 300-seat bar and entertainment venue - expandable to 500 seats for special events - located just off the casino floor.

Bluffs Run Greyhound Park, the popular racing venue located on the current Bluffs Run grounds, will continue to operate under its current name. Combining the track's wagering offerings - on live greyhound races as well as on simulcast horse and dog races from across the country -- with the full- service Horseshoe casino will provide gamblers with the Midwest's most diverse gaming experience.

Harrah's finalized its purchase of Horseshoe Gaming Holding Corp. in July. The new Council Bluffs property will be the fourth Horseshoe casino in operation. The other Horseshoe casinos are located in Hammond, Ind.; Tunica, Miss; and Bossier City, La. The renovations of the new property will include a 1,000-space parking garage immediately adjacent to the casino.

Harrah's entered the Council Bluffs market in 2001 with its acquisition of Harveys Casino Resorts. Harrah's re-branded Harveys Casino and Hotel to the current Harrah's Council Bluffs but maintained the name of the Bluffs Run property, which was acquired as part of the same transaction.

Various subsidiaries of Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. own or manage 28 casinos in the United States, primarily under the Harrah's and Horseshoe brand names. Founded 66 years ago, Harrah's Entertainment is focused on building loyalty and value with its valued customers through a unique combination of great service, excellent products, unsurpassed distribution, operational excellence and technology leadership.

Additional information about Harrah's Entertainment is available at http://www.harrahs.com/.
Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.

LAS VEGAS — Apart from being a mecca for gamblers, entertainers and those seeking one last fling before entering into matrimony, Las Vegas now sits at the white-hot center of the reality-based-TV industry.

Not counting the plethora of poker tournaments and travel-destination shows that air around-the-clock on cable, Sin City has provided a home to such docudrama series as "The Casino," "American Casino," "The Club," "Vegas Showgirls: Nearly Famous," "Taxicab Confessions," "Showgirls: Glitz and Angst," "Real World: Las Vegas" and, of course, "Cops," among others. Shows based on such real-life Las Vegas success stories as Wayne Newton, the Maloof Brothers (Palms Casino, Sacramento Kings) and the Hunt & Huntington tattoo artists also are on the boards.

Nevada tourism officials are behind the "Survivor"-like series "Nevada Passage," while the British export "Double or Nothing" reportedly is seeking Yanks willing to sell everything they own to finance a single-go-for-broke spin at the roulette wheel.

Tonight, one of the world's best-known resorts is opening its door to A&E in "Caesars 24/7." Next month, on Bravo, soft-core maestro Zalman King ("Red Shoe Diaries," "9½ Weeks") will document Ivan Kane's efforts to transplant his celebrity-rich L.A. striptease lounge to the capital-S Strip, in "Forty Deuce."

"The audience for all-things-Vegas seems insatiable," observes Discovery's Mark Finkelpearl, executive producer of "American Casino," which survived a mano-a-mano battle with Fox's "The Casino." "At Discovery, our prism is multifaceted: gaming, lifestyle, travel, leisure, opulence and sin. Las Vegas lends itself to an infinite number of possibilities."

The producers of "Caesars 24/7" got extraordinary access to the inner sanctum of the 2,400-room hotel and landmark casino. For its first 35 years of existence, the use of cameras was forbidden on the floor of the casino, but, suddenly, they were everywhere.

"Almost none of our high-end players allowed their faces to be shown," allowed floor supervisor Joe Comastro, one of the key players in the series. The TV producers "were very lucky to get what they did."

Among the noteworthy things captured by A&E's hi-def cameras were such singular moments as watching a high-rolling singer from Miami, Mindy, hit three "0s" in one long session at the roulette wheel. The odds against that happening — while wagering $5,000 a roll — on camera are astronomical, yet it happened.

Mindy's great good luck couldn't prevent her from the reality of losing $60,000, however, before heading to the blackjack tables.

Hina Reed, director of slot development, had to rouse a camera crew from its single day off to chronicle the saga of a customer who hit the $500 Red White & Blue machine for a million-dollar payoff, then capture her trying to wrangle the Presidential Suite for the big winner. Oh, yeah, that customer also just happened to be a gentleman diagnosed with terminal cancer; even better, he returned to a $100 machine, where he grabbed another $70,000 of Caesars' money.

Although cameras weren't rolling when he hit the big jackpot, Caesars supplied video from the eye-in-the-sky surveillance cameras, verifying the achievement.

Another one of those too-good-to-be-true moments, however, actually was a bit too good to be true. It involved a hip-hopping panhandler who was encouraged to wager his meager earnings on the possibility of striking it rich at the blackjack tables. He busted out but was encouraged by the gorgeous dealer, Michelle Adams, to seek the counsel of the piano player in the lounge, who just happened to dig the lad's act and allowed him to perform.

Fact is, the kid did lose the money. But he did it at a $5-minimum table — as rare as hens' teeth at Caesars — to a dealer who was recruited from the high-limit pits, who hasn't dealt a $5 game in memory.

Made for great TV, though.

Over at the Forty Deuce, Kane admitted there were many stressful moments in the construction, budgetary and auditioning process when he wished the cameras weren't rolling. As an executive producer with "final cut" privileges, however, most won't see the light of day.

"Zalman is a very special artist, and he intuitively wouldn't let people come across as looking bad," said Kane, of his producing partner. "Still, I had to be willing to reveal my dark side. Without conflict, there's no drama, and, without drama, there's no television show."

Kane emphasizes that Forty Deuce, unlike dozens of other venues on and off the Strip, doesn't allow any nudity on its compact runway stage, and 65 percent of his customer base is women. There will be a "European version" of the show, in which some discreet backstage nudity will be aired, but American audiences will have to wait for the DVD package for the Full Monty.

One of the odder developments in television - and this is a medium that has found fame for volunteer castaways and the workplace stylings of Donald Trump, among other freakish things - is the popularity of poker shows.

Yes, poker shows. You sit and watch other people play cards. You don't participate in any way, other than watching. Which, in truth, is pretty much what you're doing when you're watching a football game.

Still. Poker? It seems so bizarre.

But if there's any doubt that it's a popular trend, here comes ESPN with Tilt, a drama series about poker and the people who play it. That the network made Playmakers, a dramatic series that took a dark look inside the NFL, wasn't a surprise. That it would make a dramatic series about poker is something else, and speaks to the popularity of the game. Apparently the network - which televises the real-life World Series of Poker - believes there's enough interest to justify a show chronicling the away-from-the-table lives of card players.

And who knows? Maybe ESPN is right.

Not because the show is so great. Weighed down by overacting and clichés, it isn't. But the interest in the game is definitely there, because the real-life poker shows have tapped into the secret that NASCAR discovered. For years, NASCAR marketed itself as car vs. car - Ford vs. Chevy, Chevy vs. Dodge, whatever. Unless you spent large chunks of your weekend changing oil or switching out spark plugs, who cared?

At some point the people behind the sport decided to market personalities instead. So races became Dale Earnhardt vs. Jeff Gordon or Mark Martin vs. Dale Earnhardt Jr., and the fan base exploded.

The popular notion is that the use of tiny lipstick cameras, which allow viewers to see the cards players are holding, is what made the World Poker Tour an influential hit on the Travel Channel. While that helped, nothing drives the show's popularity as much as building its episodes around the personalities of the people playing. Doyle Brunson vs. Chris Ferguson or Jennifer Harmon vs. Annie Duke is a lot more compelling than full house vs. straight. Watching someone shuffle isn't all that interesting. Watching someone you feel like you know sweat out a bluff is.

Tilt taps into personalities, too, but not the relatively clean-cut ones you'll find competing on the Travel Channel. Instead, we find the likes of Don "the Matador" Everest, (Michael Madsen) an aging, grizzled player whose aggressive, possibly dirty reputation - he has also written a bestselling book about the game - intimidates everyone in the city. He's also given to ridiculous bon mots such as, "A set of deuces is kind of like a mackerel in the moonlight. One minute it's real shiny, the next it stinks."

Noted.

The Matador has fleeced plenty of people; three (Eddie Cibrian, Kristin Lehman and Todd Williams) have banded together to get revenge. Tilt follows their complicated setup to take the Matador down. There's also a small-town sheriff (Chris Bauer) who's sure the Matador is playing a dirty game, one that ruined his brother. Then there's the upcoming World Poker Championships, which the Matador needs to win to prove he's not over the hill.

It's difficult to make a show about the inner workings of Las Vegas. How do you reflect a place that's already an overheated parody of a city in any meaningful way? Las Vegas, NBC's drama, tries by not taking itself too seriously, an effective approach if you're aiming to make a guilty pleasure.

Tilt, on the other hand, goes for heavy drama but is sunk by clichés. The poker is intriguing. The pros win when they have to, but some strategic losing goes on as well. And the show assumes a certain amount of knowledge of the game, wasting little time explaining terms and hands.

But every character is practically a caricature, Madsen's included. Cibrian and Williams have a particularly juicy exchange, after (again) challenging each other, even as they're working together to bring down the Matador.

Williams' character, Clark, stares Cibrian's Eddie down and says, "When this is all done I can't wait to go head to head with you like Creed and Rocky at the end of III."

"Ding, ding," Eddie replies.

Whew. Rocky III references. You don't hear those every day. With good reason.

The game everyone plays here, day and night - apparently no one sleeps - is, of course, Texas Hold 'Em. As one character puts it, "That's all anybody wants to play since they put it on TV."

That's just one of several references to the popularity of the game. Bart "Lowball" Rogers (Don McManus), the owner of the Colorado Casino, says, "People act like poker's a new game. It ain't. Same game it's always been. The zeros are just different."

But the zeros are only different - more of them, he means - because of the popularity brought on by the TV coverage. Good thing for Lowball and the actor who plays him. Tilt couldn't have existed without it.

Eight people sit around a table, many of them nursing beers, nervously shuffling chips with their hands or coolly staring down their opponents.

Some wear berets, baseball caps or sunglasses to keep others from reading their faces. Each one is trying desperately to fool everyone else.

The players all hold two cards and look intently at the five cards laid out before them on the table -- the community cards everyone shares. Chips are carefully placed in the middle as the players show their two cards in the hole.

"I've got a flush," says Ed Carr from beneath his black beret as he flips over two spades.

His cards combine with three spades out of the five community cards to give him five cards of the same suit -- a flush, the fifth highest hand possible in standard poker. It's a good hand in Texas Hold 'Em.

Carr, who hails from Sikeston, Mo., is participating in what has quickly become a popular American trend. He and over 20 others entered a tournament at Show Me's restaurant and bar in Cape Girardeau Thursday night to benefit the March of Dimes.

In homes across America, people are doing the same thing, either for money or just for fun.

Poker's popularity has grown exponentially in just the past few years. Cable TV bears witness.

ESPN was the first to get in on the action with its "World Series of Poker," which went through its second season this year. The network was quickly followed by The Travel Channel and Bravo, which capitalized on the growing craze with shows like "Celebrity Poker Showdown" and "World Poker Tour."

This year the "World Series of Poker" finals were watched in more than 2.5 million households.

And the infection has spread beyond viewing. Internet poker has become a huge draw, with scores of sites attracting those who want to hone their skills playing for cash by using credit cards or with fake digital money.

The 2003 winner of the World Series of Poker, Chris Moneymaker, an accountant from Spring Hill, Tenn., did just that, beefing up on Internet poker before taking home $2.5 million. He qualified for the World Series by winning an Internet poker tournament.

Carr is from the old school.

"My grandmother sat me down at the kitchen table and taught me to play when I was 6 years old," he said. "I like the competition."

An ex-Navy man, Carr said he once won $500 in 30 minutes playing with buddies in the service. He's played all types of poker, but his new favorite is Texas Hold 'Em.

It's by far the popular form of poker today, which is why it was chosen as the game for the charity tournament at Show Me's.

"It was just something new that was around," said manager David Dickmann. "A bunch of my friends and I had been playing it online, so it was just something I kicked around with the owner to maybe start a poker tournament here."

One of Dickmann's poker buddies works with the March of Dimes, so it was the perfect opportunity to have fun and help a good cause, he said.

Dickmann and his friends played a lot of poker in college. The objective was not to win money, he said. They only played with small amounts and penny antes. The objective was simply to have the kind of fun the charity tournament provided.

"We usually just play games, no money, just chips," said Colin Patterson, Dickmann's friend with the March of Dimes and a participant in the tournament. "We like the camaraderie of the whole thing."

Stakes too high

Most people who play are like Dickmann and Patterson. But for a very few, it could lead down a dangerous road.

A recent study by Harvard researchers said about 39,000 Missourians had a serious gambling problem in the past year.

Increasing the amount of bets and lying to cover up losses are two warning signs that someone may be developing a problem.

But the incidence of problem gambling is very low among the general population.

"The prevalence in any sort of population of becoming a problem gambler is generally about 1 percent of the population," said Nora Bock, manager of the Compulsive Gambling Program for the Missouri Department of Mental Health. "For 99 percent of people it's not an issue. For most it's just a form of entertainment."

Teens have hopped on the poker trend. An estimated 85 percent of high school students have gambled, according to statistics cited by the Missouri Lottery Commission. Some experts say they are more susceptible to gambling problems. Estimates are that up to 8 percent of teens who gamble are at risk.

The National Council on Problem Gambling says children may be more likely to develop gambling problems than adults. The council also says that adults who seek treatment for problem gambling report having started gambling at an early age.

Technically, unlicensed gambling is illegal in Missouri. But according to Jim Gardner of the Missouri Attorney General's office, police probably won't bust down anyone's doors for playing a friendly game of Texas Hold 'Em with some friends or over the Internet.

"It's often up to local law enforcement and at the discretion of local prosecutors," Gardner said. "Playing with pennies and nickels may or may not rise to the attention of the local authorities."

Cape Girardeau police have busted craps games on the street, but they say in-home poker games haven't presented a problem.

Gardner said games in which all the money goes to charity, such as the one at Show Me's where the $25 registration paid by each contestant goes to the March of Dimes, are just fine. The winner received tickets to a St. Louis Cardinals game, with smaller prizes going to the runners-up.

He does caution those playing online games that they could be taken advantage of because the state can't regulate those Web sites, which often operate out of foreign countries.

"Anybody participating in online gambling is taking a significant risk," Gardner said. "They really have no legal recourse if something goes wrong."

Whether poker is a fad or something that will continue its popularity is anybody's guess. Or bet. The Show Me's manager thinks poker's attraction is no gamble.

"I really think it will get big here," said Dickmann, whose employer plans to hold more no-money tournaments. "It's something anybody can have fun with."

NIAGARA FALLS, Ont. - The poker craze is catching on at Niagara Fallsview Casino.
The new casino and resort will open a new room Monday featuring eight poker tables with space for up to 80 players and offering games including Texas Hold 'Em and Seven-Card Stud.

Located next to the 365 Club on the 200,000-square-foot gaming floor, the poker room also will be equipped with plasma television screens to let players watch sports events from the tables. Fallsview will hold a charity poker tournament next Saturday featuring sports and media celebrities.

"Poker is very hot," said Larry L. Lewin, Niagara Casinos president.

January 07, 2005 - We're not here to challenge the popularity of poker. That's a given with the growing number of casual and professional players, celebrity tournaments and television programs centered on the ancient gambling game. What needs to be discussed, however is poker's place in the world of men of all ages in America. For a great many guys the powerful trinity of forces that shape our lives come from the very short roster of sports, beer, women, sleep, money and chicken wings (food). That is to say, if you want to know what three things take up the most brainspace of the dude in question, you'd do well to pick a few from that list. Of course there can be exceptions and all sorts of variants like mortgages, ninjas, skateboards, bikinis and what have you. But the point is finding poker's place is important because it can't quite stand on its own yet as an institution and therefore must be considered under the meta-category of sports.

And that is the question we must answer here: is poker a sport?

ESPN Original Entertainment is debuting its brand new show TILT Thursday January 13 at 9PM PST and thus the stakes are high, if you'll pardon the pun.

Because science is often boring and has no place here, we'll use anecdotal evidence and refutations here by taking the two strongest arguments for poker as a sport and the two strongest arguments against it.

Poker is a sport because:

….they air tournaments on ESPN. If showing up on ESPN was the only standard an activity had to live up to in order to be considered a sport, then some hefty, loafer-wearing toy poodle trainer from Nova Scotia is as much of an athlete as Carmelo Anthony.

Sorry, poker, you don't get to be a sport until the kids on SportsCenter are breaking down highlights of Chris "Jesus" Ferguson with some regularity. And that's not going to happen because watching some pasty dude in sunglasses staring at a pile of chips just isn't compelling theatre. Stuart Scott can't drop a "Boo-YAA" on Phil Ivey catching his fifth diamond on the river. We love ESPN but they're really letting the game of poker considering there are no jersey numbers or specialized shoes for the competitors.

….it takes concentration and strategy to succeed. That's a fairly compelling argument. At the highest level of any sport, physical abilities aren't as important as mental focus and game-specific intelligence. Michael Jordan would be as ferocious at a poker table as he was on the hardwood because of his ability to dial-in. Plus poker is all about keeping your cool and keeping your wits about while under pressure, something that all guys can appreciate. The big piles of money supply the weight that's placed on the participants' shoulders and the silence during a tense moment can be deafening.

We'll have to allow this argument to stand in spite of the fact that this is still a game of chance where a significant piece of the outcome is completely out of your hands.

Poker is not a sport because:

…..there are no balls involved and there's no sweating. We invite you to sit down with some of the professionals in Nevada and see how much you sweat. And experience also tells us that while there are no inflatable or rubber filled balls involved like in many conventional balls, you'd better have something down there when it comes time to put another player to the test for all of his chips. The poker rule book can't tell you when it's time to man-up and draw a line in the sand daring somebody to make a move on you.

This argument is rejected. Poker may be about nothing more than sweat and balls.

…..the best players are not athletes. This is true. There's nothing obvious about Johnny Chan's physical abilities that makes you want to hop up and become a pro poker player so you can emulate him. That is unless you consider sitting at a table sipping cocktails and flipping chips around to be something graceful and amazing.

We're not ones to point fingers about doughy physiques, but it's pretty much a fact that a sport has to have athletes for it to be the real thing. Baseball, bowling and golf barely make the cut because at least some of those athletes have well developed body parts and coordination to help them get by.

This argument stands. If they ran around the table after every hand they lost, then poker players might be able to up the athletic quotient of the "sport"

So in the final judgment we'll allow poker to barely be a minor, niche sport because of its extremely competitive nature. If track and field and boxing are the original sports because the first things humans did on this planet was run and fight, then poker can squeeze in there too because the next thing we as a people did was take each other's money.

(PRWE January 7, 2005 -- The Small Town Poker Tour a new poker tour dedicated to raising money for charity will offer original episodes of the tour at NATPE Convention January 24 at the Mandaly Bay Hotel in Las Vegas. “NATPE seems to be the best place to showcase the Tour and show,” stated Mark Fracalossi Executive Producer. “We feel the exposure we get will be good and lead to the right placement of the show” Fracalossi said. The Small Town Poker Tour will travel all fifty United States in search of the best amateur player in America, along the way featuring a unique blend of characters that make for some very exciting action.

The Poker Show will be different from the rest, "We put more on the people aspect and feature unique locations." The Tour comes to town everyone who lives in that state is invited out to play, 100% of the money is given to a local charity. All of America will get to vote on the Towns the tour visits .The Small Town Poker Tour is the first Charity Poker Tour to travel the country. The tour works with local charities. When you sign up to play, you pick a charity to play for, and the top three finisher’s charities are paid. The top three players are that state's Small Town Poker Tour Champs.

"We want to make this the finest traveling fund raiser in the world," Fracalossi said. Make It Happen Productions of Los Angeles will produce the show. A European Tour is set for the spring of 2005.

"We are going to take poker back to where it all started", Fracalossi said. "Everyone views the shows now with their high stakes, and flashy sets, but the roots of Poker games can be found in every small town in the USA." The show will add a new grass roots look to the nations fastest growing card game Texas Hold'em. "Our goal is to make this a fund raising machine for the towns we visit", Fracalossi said. You can find out more about the tour at www.smalltownpokertour.com. The next few months the tour will travel the East Coast before hitting the mid west in late spring. Any one can nominate a town, simply by visiting the web site.

One of the biggest mistakes that new players make is playing too many hands. One of their next mistakes is showing too many hands down to the river. You need the courage to lay down a good hand if you don't think it's good enough.

Second place gets you nothing, except maybe broke. Take it from Dewey Tomko, a veteran poker pro who folded a hand that many players would bet their stack on.

With the blinds at $100-$200, Tomko limped in with a pair of 9s. "The guy in the little blind only raises $350, not a bunch," said Tomko, a Runyanesque character who used to teach kindergarten and now owns a casino and a Florida golf course. "If he raises $700 or $800, I think he's probably got ace-king, ace-queen, trying to find out where he's at. At $350, I'm automatically aware."

The flop comes Q-9-2, rainbow. Tomko flopped a set of 9s. His opponent bets only $400.

"Most of the time I would raise in this pot," said Tomko, runner-up in a couple of World Series of Poker main events. "I just call. I want to trap him, first of all, or find out what he's got."

The turn comes an ace. Most players holding a set would raise an opponent's $650 bet. "I just called," Tomko said. "I'm hoping he has ace-king and he's going to raise it, so at the end I'm going to win some more money, and if I'm beat, I can get away from it." The river comes a blank. Tomko's opponent bet $1,000. Tomko raised $1,500. His opponent moved all in. Tomko folded _ folded a set of 9s.

"Because it wasn't any good," Tomko said. "I studied and I studied and I threw my hand away. He showed up three aces.

"He made four bets on that hand, and I'm getting a read on all four bets. The first bet, when he only raised $350, was the key raise because if he had ace-king or ace-queen, he'd have bet more.

"Everybody was telling me they couldn't believe I threw my hand away. They said, 'What are you doing? What are you doing?' My son was next to me. He said, 'Why'd you throw that hand away?'

"When you think it ain't no good, no matter what it is, you're supposed to throw it away."

Some call it a sport; others call it a hobby or an addiction.
Finance sophomore Brandon Ressler calls it his job.

The North Dakota native said he spends 20 hours a week playing online poker. He said that he started in February after figuring he could beat the majority of online players he observed.

Since Ressler started playing, the 19-year-old said, he has made approximately $10,000 before taxes, money he diverts to his Roth IRA retirement account and uses for day-to-day expenses.

But Ressler said his sizeable winnings are no big deal.

“There aren’t any long-term benefits to having this sort of job,” he said.

After saving $100 he won in poker games on campus and around the Twin Cities, Ressler said, he opened a cash account with an online poker site, despite his friends’ efforts to discourage him.

“They all tried to talk me out of it … they thought I was going to lose everything,” Ressler said. He said he doubled his buy-in, or the amount of money a player starts a game with, on the first day.

Twelve days later, Ressler said, he had $1,000 in his account.

Poker as a part-time job

Ressler said he puts approximately 20 hours a week into gaming, earning approximately $300 per week. He said that figure is approximately double the hourly rate of what he made working at a grocery store, McDonald’s or the Bismarck, N.D., Parks and Recreation District.

Ressler said his success encouraged two of his friends to join within a month, but a third friend was skeptical.

“I figured that after a couple of big wins, the site would take all of your money, like the slots do,” said Casey Litchke, a University student and Ressler’s friend.

In response, Ressler offered to bankroll Litchke for $50. Litchke has won $2,300 since.

Ressler said he had to convince himself to play online. While he usually comes out ahead, there are times when he questions whether he should play at all.

“All the times I had bad beats, I would have quit. It’s so depressing, and you can’t shake off a $200 pot very quickly,” he said.

Ressler now charts his performance so he can see patterns and trends in his play, he said. It also helps take the sting out of bad luck because he can see how much he has won in the past week at any time, which often dwarfs the pot he could have lost, he said.

By doing this, Ressler has been able to distinguish between luck and skill.

“Short term, it’s gambling, because the outcome is uncertain. But over time, everybody gets the same hands, and the player that makes the least mistakes gets the money,” he said.

Illegal winnings

Online gambling is a criminal activity, said Jim Arlt, of the state Department of Public Safety’s Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement division.

Arlt said that because of the Federal Wire Act, anyone who gambles online is committing a state and federal crime, and any credit card company used to pay online gambling Web sites or Internet service providers used to access them might be guilty as accomplices to the crime.

Steve Johnson, deputy police chief for the University Police Department, said that because there aren’t many complaints filed, there is no reason to investigate gambling on campus.

However, he said he is concerned for students who gamble online.

“That person was gambling with more than his money,” Johnson said.

He said giving personal information to any Web site, including online casinos, could easily lead to a person being scammed or having his or her identity stolen.

Ressler said he is concerned about the legality of his winnings but does not plan on quitting.

“I know it’s illegal, but I pay taxes on what I win, and it’s a victimless crime,” he said. “Some people pay to be entertained, and some people do the entertaining.”

Ressler’s passion for poker goes beyond cards, and he said he is “very lucky” to get paid for doing what he loves.

His room is full of crates containing poker books, statistic sheets on the wall near his computer and a painting of two aces, the best starting hand. Ressler said he rarely watches television unless poker is on, and his favorite movies are about poker.

But he said playing cards isn’t always fun.

Ressler remembers a two-month dry spell in which he went without any significant earnings. He said even the best players go through rough times, such as Phil Hellmuth, 1989 World Series of Poker No Limit Hold’em champion, who dropped out of the University of Wisconsin to play poker professionally, saved $100,000 and went to Las Vegas, where he lost it all — twice.

Ressler said he does not respect professional poker players.

“What do you talk about with someone that plays poker for a living? I don’t know what service they provide for society,” he said.

“I’ll work a 9-to-5 job, even if it means having to put up with the boss every day. At least I’ll be doing something.”