Poker News

Byron Liggett

Poker tournaments are like movies. Both offer drama, excitement, exhilaration, shock, sadness, and silliness. There are expensive epics like the WSOP and serials like the World Poker Tour. A people’s favorite, the “Fall Pot of Gold Tournament”, is currently being played at the RENO HILTON to large crowds.

Most aspiring poker stars test their talents in smaller productions. The GOLDEN PHOENIX has scheduled a tournament “short” in its new poker room for a three day engagement Oct. 21-23. A Friday night thriller, No-Limit Hold’em, opens the flop festival. Tickets are $30+5 with one rebuy (if you want to see it again).

The Saturday and Sunday 11am matinee and Saturday evening performances are $50+5. “The Championship” will be shown Sunday at 6pm and attendance is $100+15. Usher John Willis will show you to your seat.

If you like a good Western, don’t miss the “Fall Poker Roundup” being shown at the WILDHORSE Resort & Casino, Nov. 2-12. Poker Manager Roland Waters may get an Oscar for Best Director. Poker star Vince Burgio has a leading role as Celebrity Host.

Like a Sam Peckinpah movie, the “Fall Poker Round-up” is popular because there’s lots of action. Everybody is in it - The Magnificent Seven, The Professionals and the Wild Bunch. They’re all looking for a few dollars more. The “Round-up” has it all - ambushes, showdowns, snipers, victims and victory, heroes and zeroes. But in the end, when the smoke clears, the good guys get the chips. “The Fall Poker Round-up” is shot on location, in Pendleton, Oregon. This IS the American West. If you’ve ever wondered where “God’s Country” was, this is it!

Wildhorse is a complete resort with plenty of outdoor sights and activities. When you’ve had your fill of flops, you can ride off into the sunset on a horse or a golf cart. If you can’t have fun here, you’re dead.

The PEPPERMILL will premier its luxurious new poker room when it holds the annual “Fall Poker Tournament” this Nov.11-20. The tournament is an oldie-but-goodie, while the poker room is a New Millennium luxury theater. There are no bad seats in the house. Every chair is comfortable, contoured and capable of being raised up and down. The lighting is good for action and actors. Like the bridge of the Star Ship Enterprise, large screen, digital TV monitors surround the room, keeping the chip crew tuned into sports, tournament standings, and seat lists. You can even turn to the poker channel in your room and relax until your name comes up! The Peppermill tournament includes a ladies-only No-Limit Hold’em feature at high noon on Saturday, Nov 12th. Every poker actress hopes to play the lead in “Queen of the Flop”. The ladies who star in this production all know that the weaker sex is anyone with the second best hand.

Similar to a theater complex that houses multiple movies, some principal poker rooms between north Seattle and Everett are organizing a multi-cardroom tournament extravaganza for sometime in November, according to Steve Schechter, Marketing Director for the NEW GROVE Cardroom.

A clever poker tournament device called the “DB Dealer” is about to be introduced by a Portland, Oregon firm. The round, high-quality plastic gadget serves both as a dealer button and timer that indicates blind increases.

An audible alarm warns players of a blind increase at the one-minute mark and again to signify the end of the round. At the end of each round, DB Dealer resets itself. The timer can be stopped and started again at any time during the round. Clearly, this is a product whose time has come.

Filed under: Poker News