Ben Affleck, poker players group go all-in

[clevfan]

Ben Affleck, poker players group go all-in

By Andy Vuong
The Denver Post

Article Last Updated: 08/27/2008 03:03:12 PM MDT


About a half-hour into Tuesday night's charity poker tournament at Coors Field, actor Ben Affleck shoved all-in with a flop of Ace-Nine-King and two diamonds.

He cringes when he gets not one, but two callers.

"Re-buy," he yells.

The turn is a blank, a seven of hearts.

"Goddammit," Affleck mumbles when a jack of diamonds pops on the river.

Affleck sweated the hand even though no prize was at stake, thanks to Colorado's gambling laws, which don't allow such poker tournaments to award prizes based on play.

With the results inconsequential (Affleck held Ace-10 and chopped the pot), organizers would say the key to the event was the $100,000 that was raised for the Paralyzed Veterans of America.

But there's also the political agenda of the organizers, the Poker Players Alliance. Several politicians were on hand, including U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colorado.

The alliance is working to legalize online poker. As part of those efforts, the group wants to repeal legislation Congress passed in 2006 that prohibits U.S. banks and credit-card companies from processing transactions for gambling websites.

"Next year, we're going to have a new Congress, probably even a more broader democratic majority," John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance. "I think we have a real good opportunity to move toward the direction that we want."

Pappas said the group is pushing for a licensed industry.

"We're not saying that this should just be the Wild West where we have Internet gambling operators operating out of anywhere," Pappas said. "We want a licensed, regulated, safe industry that Americans can enjoy."

The alliance is pushing to license only online poker, not all Internet gambling.

"There are misconceptions about poker and about online poker," poker pro Andy Bloch said in between hands during the tournament. "Some people think that online poker is gambling like a slot machine, and it's not."

"We're fighting for the rights of people to do what they want in the privacy of their own home," Bloch said.