Poker News

Byron Liggett

Little more than twenty years ago, Interstate 80, one of this great nation’s east/west main veins, was tiedoff at Reno. It stopped on the outskirts of town and pick-up again on the other side.

Casino operators in “The Biggest Little City” were afraid that if they allowed West I-80 and East I-80 to be joined, nobody would stop. While handsome, wide, new freeways were being built from every direction to Las Vegas, such was not the case in reluctant Reno.

Eventually, of course, even Reno had to join the 20th Century. It just took 80 years! When the link through town was completed, it ignited the greatest growth in the city’s history.

This story illustrates the kind of culture and attitudes poker faces around Reno. There are 14 poker rooms in the area, and yet only a couple of casinos do anything more than run weekly grinders for locals.

Poker is here to stay. It’s swept this country and gone global. Players are filling poker rooms and flooding tournaments. It’s all over TV and the Internet. In addition, there are two dozen print publications, 17 radio shows, several major tours conducting televised events around the country, and a couple of new movies about poker.

The Heartland Poker Tour (HPT), third largest of the televised tournament tours, is setting participation records all across the Mid-West. In just its third season, HPT is broadcast to 50 million homes per week and recently signed to televise shows to more than 119 million European and Asian households! The Wildhorse Resort & Casino, in the remote northeast corner of Oregon, had as many as 850 participants for just one event during its recent “Spring Poker Round-up.” Most of its other events attracted well over 500 entries every day.

The Cherokee Casino, in Tulsa OK, set new participation records in nearly every event during the “Oklahoma State Poker Championship” two months ago. The WPT Championship in Las Vegas saw639 players each put up $25,000 to compete for a record prize pool of $15,495,750 at the Bellagio.

Yet in their provincial short-sightedness, most Reno casino operators have adopted a “don’t-ask, don’t-tell” approach to poker. There are poker rooms out there, but unless you know where the closet is, you may miss ‘em. Most Reno casinos want you to find satisfaction at the slots.

The former Reno Hilton was until recently an exception to the Reno rule. It had a world class poker room staff and a program that featured several hugely popular annual tournaments, including the WPT. Now called the “Grand Sierra,” poker is a mere shadow of its former self.

The only other property in town to have a long established, popular poker program including major annual events is the Peppermill Hotel/Casino. It’s Reno’s most progressive and active poker palace. Whereas poker may be comatose around much of the town, at the Peppermill it’s a lively feature. Indicative of the Peppermill’s commitment to Poker is the addition of the new “Summer Poker Tournament,” June 8-17. Poker Manager Mike Gainey also has a couple of other major new tournaments in the works. And it’s just been announced that the Peppermill will be a key participant in the biggest poker tournament in history - the $100,000 buyin “Heavyweight Poker Championship,” slated to begin next spring.

While the whole world is jumping on board the Poker Express, most Reno casinos are still discussing whether or not it was a good idea to let I-80 go through town. As for poker, it’s too new. Come back in 80 years.

Filed under: Poker News