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East Valley Life Many factors boost the game’s popularity
Published: 2005-04-26
 East Valley Life
Many factors boost the game’s popularity, experts say
By Jeanette Tallant, Tribune
April 26, 2005
No-Limit Texas Hold’em — tagged "the Cadillac of poker" — is everywhere. In bars and restaurants, on college campuses, on television and online. Men, women, students and celebrities are all throwing in their chips for a piece of the action.
Brad Daugherty, the first World Series of Poker champion, says television’s glamorization of the game and the accessibility of Internet poker have boosted national interest in Hold’em.
Lipstick-sized Hold’em cameras allow the television audience to get in on the game with professional players and celebrities, like Ray Romano, Ben Affleck and Heather Graham, who are making poker hot.
The cameras show players’ pocket cards, so viewers can try to predict how they will play their hands and watch the game unfold.
"It brought it out of the back room. Everybody wants to play," says Daugherty.
He predicts the next step for Hold’em is primetime, mainstream television. Celebrity Poker Showdown is now shown on the Bravo cable network, while the World Poker Tour can be seen on the Travel Channel.
Online poker allows players to hone their skills anonymously before sitting down in a casino with live opponents. Some sites, like Empire-Poker.html>EmpirePoker.com, even offer free games and lessons.
Daugherty, dean of the Empire Poker School, says this eliminates the intimidation factor, allowing people who might not have otherwise taken a shot to play for real money.
"People can get as much experience online in one year as I did in 10 years," he says.
Almost 7,000 people are now enrolled in Empire Poker Arizona’s college, an increase of about 2,000 players since October.
"It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen in my life, and I’m 66," says Don Hulen, founder of the Arizona Council on Compulsive Gambling. He says the game’s rise in popularity isn’t likely to set off a boom of addicted gamblers.
Gamblers who develop a problem use the games to escape reality, just like any other addict, says Hulen.
"We haven’t yet had any staggering numbers of people (call the hotline) that have become recently addicted to playing poker," he says.
And Hold’em, this generation’s game of choice, is here to stay, says Hulen.
"There are too many people talking about it, and it’s an unbelievably fun game to play," he says. "Blackjack is boring to most gamblers, but Texas Hold’em is not."
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World Poker Tour (WPT) Championship Comes to Close
Published: 2005-04-26
 World Poker Tour (WPT) Championship Comes to Close, Crowns Tuan Le
26 April 2005
Sunday's World Poker Tour Championship final event saw Tuan Le take home the title of WPT champion, along with a heaping $2.9 million. And it "only" took seven hours of laborious, gut-wrenching poker maneuvers for him to claim it.
Although past WPT championships have seen online qualifiers make great strides in the competition, this year's final table featured veteran land-based casino players only. Runners up include second place winner Paul Maxfield, who took home a neat little $1.7 million, Hasan Habib in third, winning $896,375, forth place winner John Phan, with $518,920, Dutch import Rob Hollink coming in fifth, with winnings of $377,420 and Phil Ivey in sixth, nabbing $264,195. Money was awarded to the top 100 players, with the minimum prize equaling a not-too-shabby $30,000.
Marking its third year at Bellagio, the WPT championship attracted a record 450 players, up from last year's 343. Despite the increase in attendance, the WPT's hundreds of players pales in comparison to the thousands contending for the World Series of Poker title in recent years. The WPT's $25,000 buy-in might have something to do with it. The WSOP's buy-in, in comparison, is a "mere" $10,000.
Fans who were unable to make the live tournament can still catch the televised version, which will air June 29 on the Travel Channel.
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