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Poker peek piqued TV interest
Published: 2005-05-20
 Poker peek piqued TV interest
Friday, May 20, 2005
By MARC SCHWARZ
STAFF WRITER
Henry Orenstein invented the poker table with card cameras.
NATIONAL HEADS-UP POKER
CHAMPIONSHIP
3:30 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday, NBC
Sometimes the biggest ideas are the simplest.
The transformation of big-money poker from a backroom game to a national obsession can almost be laid at the feet of one man.
Henry Orenstein, an 81-year-old inventor-entrepreneur and Nazi concentration camp survivor, had already invented a slew of toys including: Dolly Surprise, Baby Magic, Johnny Lightning 500 die cast race cars and Transformers, the '80s blockbuster model robot line.
It was while watching an ESPN airing of the World Series of Poker more than 10 years ago that he came up with his most successful idea.
"Hand after hand after hand were shown, and no cards were shown, so it became very boring," says Orenstein, a Verona resident since 1956. "The thought struck me that if I could show to the public the closed cards, what a difference that would make."
Immediately he went to work and within "about six or seven months" he had built the first poker table with card cameras. The ability to see the two down (or hole) cards each player holds transformed poker.
"Before [the card camera] it was like watching bears hibernate and smoke. It was great poker and terrible TV," says Jim McManus, author of "Positively Fifth Street: Murderers, Cheetahs, and Binion's World Series of Poker."
This weekend, Orenstein's handiwork can be seen as NBC concludes the National Heads-Up Poker Championship. The eight remaining players, including World Series of Poker champions Chris "Jesus" Ferguson and Phil Hellmuth, will go head to head in an NCAA basketball tournament-style tournament. What began with a field of 64 players competing in one-on-one matches will end Sunday with two players facing off for a top prize of $500,000.
Orenstein, an accomplished player and the creator of Fox Sports Net's Poker Superstars, was eliminated in the second round of the tournament, filmed earlier this year at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas. Orenstein won the $5,000 Seven-Card Stud event at the 1996 World Series of Poker.
"I've had my share of different things happen, but poker's the one that's translated into the most fame," Orenstein says.
The turning point in his remarkable life, which is chronicled in the autobiography "I Shall Live," was surviving a death march from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp 60 years ago this month. His mother, father and sister were killed by the Nazis, and Orenstein and his two brothers were able to live by first volunteering for the "kommando," consisting of imprisoned Jewish mathematicians overseen by German professors seeking to avoid combat who were supposedly trying to help Germany win the war. The elaborate ruse kept Orenstein alive, and he was later rescued by Soviet troops as he was being marched toward the Baltic Sea, where the Nazis planned to load the prisoners onto boats and sink them.
After arriving in the United States in 1947, he opened a grocery store in Irvington. In addition to the 100 toy patents he's registered and books he's written, his Henry and Carolyn Sue Foundation helps thousands of disadvantaged elderly people in the metropolitan area.
But it's the card camera that may have brought him lasting fame.
"I play at the Taj [Mahal] in Atlantic City," Orenstein says. "This one guy came over and said, 'Thank you, thank you for all you've done for poker.' I'm telling you, it borders on the ridiculous."
E-mail: schwarz@northjersey.com
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Extreme Poker Announces Marketing Campaign for 'The Great Canadian Poker Tournament'
Published: 2005-05-20
 Extreme Poker Announces Marketing Campaign for 'The Great Canadian Poker Tournament' Launched
Distribution Source : Market Wire
Date : Friday - May 20, 2005
LAS VEGAS, NV -- (Market Wire - May 20, 2005) -- Extreme Poker Ltd. (OTC: EXTP) is pleased to announce that its wholly owned subsidiary, The Great Canadian Poker Tournament Ltd., has begun the launch of its marketing campaign for "The Great Canadian Poker Tournament." Along with national and international corporations inclusive of "poker.com type" beverage and clothing endorsements, "The Great Canadian Poker Tournament" marketing department has contacted, with extremely positive response, demographically consistent companies.
"The demand for television product cannot meet the insatiable appetite by the public. Our show, 'The Great Canadian Poker Tournament,' the first of its kind in North America, offering the largest pay-out against a 'NO-FEE' buy in, has had incredible reception in its first week of marketing," says Adam Feldman, president, Extreme Poker Ltd.
"Our reality television series, encapsulating the poker genre, is targeting the fastest growth sector in North America. Just this week, reported on national cable television... As reported by Kelly Wallace, CNN correspondent, Friday, May 13, 2005, on wrapping up the story, '...Texas Hold 'em has taken the country by storm. And get this, Americans now spend more money on gambling than they spend on movies, music, sports and amusement parks combined. Incredible!' We are well positioned and excited by the response we have received to date," says Adam Feldman.
Episodes 1 through 11 of the reality/poker television series encapsulating the poker theme will be filmed at venues to be announced. Pear Pillow Productions, a highly sophisticated and mobile production company, is capable of filming at sponsors' locations throughout North America. Pear Pillow Productions has already completed the pilot for "The Great Canadian Poker Tournament."
Extreme Poker Ltd. (OTC: EXTP) is an event coordinating and entertainment company.
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