Poker fever is taking the world by storm. Will Binion's reap the rewards?

[clevfan]

Thursday, April 15, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Winning hand
Poker fever is taking the world by storm. Will Binion's reap the rewards?


By Bob Shemeligian


The game of poker is on a worldwide winning streak, and this surge in popularity promises to make this year's World Series of Poker as lively as an all-night game on a riverboat filled with gamblers, wealthy businessmen and booze.

The tournament, which runs April 22-May 9 at Binion's Horseshoe, is expected to set records for purses as well as the number of entrants. More than 1,500 players are expected to pony up $10,000 each to play in the final event--which would nearly double last year's record field of 838 entrants. Such a field would beef up the final prize to $3.5 million or more.

Live action in the Horseshoe poker room is fast and furious--and has been since April 1, when the casino reopened under the operation of Harrah's. The company purchased the Horseshoe name within the state of Nevada and the World Series of Poker after the landmark downtown casino was forced to close in January because of financial problems.

"I walk into the poker room and I see a lot of new faces in live games. I've never seen anything like it," says Bruce Meierkord, Horseshoe poker room supervisor. "A lot of them play in live games and act just like they're in a big tournament. They have Chris Moneymaker sunglasses on and they raise with all kinds of hands. It's really phenomenal."

Only a year ago, Moneymaker was a Spring Hill, Tenn., accountant, who played a little online poker. That was before he won the $10,000 entry into last year's World Series final event by taking first place in a $40 online poker satellite. Moneymaker parlayed that $40 investment into $2.5 million by winning last year's World Series championship event.

"Moneymaker--what a name! I would like to see his birth certificate," says Eric Drache, who in the past 25 years has run many of the largest card rooms and biggest tournaments in Las Vegas. "When I directed the World Series of Poker [in the early 1980s] we used to have to pay ESPN to put it on the air. I can guarantee you the arrangement is quite different these days."

While ESPN publicist Keri Potts declines to say how much ESPN spends on coverage of the World Series of Poker, she notes the price tag is well worth it. "When we aired last year's final event, the ratings were very strong--even higher than 'Sports Center' does on a nightly basis," Potts explains. "These poker players [who compete in the final event] are celebrities. Moneymaker is a star. I mean--what a great story."

ESPN had aired reports on the World Series since 1994 with moderate success, but last year producers at the cable sports network decided to produce an entire series on the world's most prestigious tournament, using tiny lipstick cameras on the rail to actually show each player's hand. "A lot of editing is involved. That's why we can't show the event live," Potts explains.

The hidden cameras as well as color commentary by ESPN staffers proved an immediate success. Now, viewers can see how each hand was played, and can try to read the minds of the world's best poker players. When ESPN began airing its seven-segment coverage of last year's World Series final event, network producers were astounded at the ratings.

"The average rating was a 1.2. That translates to just over a million viewers. The rating for coverage of the final table was 1.94--or about 1.7 million households," says Potts, who explains that the strong ratings continued even as ESPN aired repeats of World Series coverage at odd hours throughout the late summer and fall of last year. "We were getting almost a million viewers when we aired the program at 2 a.m. on a weekend. I remember thinking, `Who are these people watching this program in the middle of the night?'"

Not surprisingly, ESPN executives have decided to greatly expand coverage of this year's tournament--from seven to 22 episodes--and to include segments from several tournaments including seven-card stud, pot-limit Omaha, deuce-to-seven draw, and even the women's event, traditionally conducted on Mother's Day.


Poker TV

The success of ESPN's poker coverage gained the attention of executives at competing cable networks, who have quickly followed suit.

Earlier this year, Fox Sports Net began screening "Late Night Poker," a popular British program that airs championship no-limit, Texas hold 'em tournaments featuring top players from across the world. Not to be outdone, the Travel Channel is broadcasting the first season of the World Poker Tour, consisting of 13 nationally televised tournaments filmed in various casinos throughout the world.

Among the tournaments included in the World Poker Tour is the ongoing Five-Star World Poker Classic at the Bellagio. The annual tournament, conducted just before the World Series, draws the world's best players who compete for lucrative purses--some rivaling top prizes in the World Series. The final event of the Bellagio tournament, the WPT Championship, is the richest in tournament play with a buy-in of $25,000.

Doug Dalton, the Bellagio's director of poker operations, says participation and interest in the World Poker Classic is at an all-time high, which he credits to the tournament's organization, rich prizes and the increased interest in poker. "People are watching poker on television, and it becomes a reality show," Dalton explains. "They put themselves in the place of each contestant, and the follow the action. And many of them want to play."

Matt Savage, tournament director for the World Series, also believes televised high-stakes tournament poker is the ultimate reality show. "When television stations began showing hole cards to the television viewer, it made the whole sport much more interesting," Savage explains. "People begin to imagine how they would play different hands. And some of them decide they want to play. And all you have to do to play in the final event of the World Series of Poker is put up $10,000--and you could become poker's next star."

Besides television, another powerful medium that has greatly helped increase the popularity of poker is the Internet. Membership in Party Poker, the world's largest and fastest-growing online poker room, has exploded from 2,000 two years ago to more than 40,000 today. The beauty of playing online, poker players explain, is convenience.

"You don't have to leave the house," says member Adam Oyston. "You can sit in your living room in your bathrobe and slippers at any hour and play as long as you wish on your computer."


Sweetening the pot

And while cable television and online poker rooms have enjoyed healthy profits, the sector that has benefited the most is the Las Vegas casino industry. After a decade of relatively flat returns from poker, the game has taken on new life in recent months in card rooms throughout Southern Nevada--even after the "rake" (the amount the casino takes in profits) has been increased to as much as $4 or $5 per winning hand.

Not long ago, the Mirage expanded its room from 24 to 31 tables, and the Bellagio plans to add another half-dozen tables to its 30-table room by the end of the year. Other resorts, including the Palms, Mandalay Bay and Sahara, have either expanded or are planning to expand poker rooms.

Moreover, the Golden Nugget, which a generation ago housed one of the largest and most prestigious poker rooms in Las Vegas, will reopen its room April 20--just before the start of the World Series, conducted just across Fremont Street at the Horseshoe.

"The poker room is going to be in the pavilion area, by the pool deck," says Drache, poker consultant to the Golden Nugget. Drache, a veteran high-stakes poker player and supervisor, says the planned location for the Nugget poker room will be temporary, but poker will be a permanent amenity at the downtown hotel. "Poker at the Golden Nugget was very successful years ago, and we're very hopeful and excited about the future," he says.

Also hopeful and excited about the future of poker are the players themselves. "The Internet has really helped," says tournament player Sam Grizzle. "It's increased the field."

Indeed, so popular is the game of poker and so prestigious are the major tournaments such as the World Series and the World Poker Tour that it's not uncommon for online card rooms to conduct tournaments in which the winner receives a buy-in as well as air fare to Las Vegas to play in the World Series or other major tournaments.

Among them is PrimaPoker.com, an online poker site that conducts satellite tournaments in which top prizes include seats in World Poker Tour events as well as the World Series. In addition, Prima Poker has announced a $1 million sponsorship of a group of British players known as the Hendon Mob. The poker website is backing the four players in several of the world's top tournaments, including this year's World Series championship event.

In addition, many small brick-and-mortar card rooms are conducting tournaments in which the winner receives a chance to play in the world's biggest tournaments. Among them is Parker's Casino in North Seattle, which plans the Groz with Gaz World Series of Poker Qualifying Tournament the last week of April. The winner of this tournament receives a $10,000 World Series entry as well as airfare and hotel accommodations.


Players club

All this translates to more players at this year's World Series of Poker. Travis Jonas, winner of the Casino Employees Tournament during the 2001 World Series, explains that a larger field doesn't necessarily mean tougher games--a scenario that interests any tournament professional looking to make a buck.

"There has been a huge increase as far as players--but as far as learning, I don't think so," says 33-year-old Jonas. "And so you have a lot of new players who have seen a few tournaments on TV, and who think they can play."

Sam Farha, who finished second last year in the World Series championship event to Moneymaker, agrees. "At the World Series you have more players, but not all of them are good players, so there are more opportunities," Farha explains as he plays a pot-limit Omaha game at the Bellagio.

Still, any player can get lucky--something Farha knows all too well. "Last year, Moneymaker--he must have made 20 mistakes, but he was so lucky," Farha explains. "And I made only one mistake."

Farha was referring to a successful bluff Moneymaker put on him late in the tournament when the eventual winner forced Farha to fold a pair of nines after he already committed $900,000 to the pot. That hand was the turning point in the championship event, and Moneymaker won the event and the $2.5 million top prize soon afterward.

In taking second place, Farha won a cool $1.3 million. Still, the money represented a bittersweet consolation prize for the professional player who knows he came ever so close to winning poker's top prize.

"I had the best hand. I should have called him," says Farha, a native of Lebanon, who adds that he has thought long and hard about that play.

"It still bothers me," Farha says with a half-smile and almost imperceptible shrug of his shoulders. Then he refocuses his attention on his latest hand, picks the cards up off the table, deftly cuffing them in his practiced hand and casually tosses four $100 chips into the pot.