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2005 World Poker Tour This week, six poker players will be battling for a first prize of $1,770,218 at the Bellagio Five Diamond World Poker Tour Classic Event
Published: 2005-04-20
 2005 World Poker Tour
This week, six poker players will be battling for a first prize of $1,770,218 at the Bellagio Five Diamond World Poker Tour Classic Event.The World Poker Tour consists of 14 poker tournaments each season and each tournament is held at different locatio...
Distribution Source : PRWeb
Date : Wednesday - April 20, 2005
(PRWEB) April 20, 2005 -- This week, six poker players will be battling for a first prize of $1,770,218 at the Bellagio Five Diamond World Poker Tour Classic Event.
The World Poker Tour travels all over the world and arrange big money poker tournaments for the best poker players in the World. The Travel Channel broadcasted the first event in March 2003 and it became an instant success. Approximately three million viewers a week watched the first WPT season. This made the WPT the highest rated program on the Travel Channel at the time, and the second highest rated show on the Travel Channel ever.
The World Poker Tour consists of 14 poker tournaments each season and each tournament is held at different locations around the world. Bellagio (Las Vegas), Foxwoods Resort Casino(Mashantucket), CT Aviation Club de France (Paris, France), and Borgata in Atlantic City are some of the casinos hosting the World Poker Tour.
The only game played is Texas Hold'em and the TV commentators are Mike Sexton and Vincent Van Patten. They call the play-by-play action and analyze the strategy while giving their personal insights into the player's abilities.
The main reason for the World Poker Tours success, is due to the fact that the viewers can see which cards each player is raising, calling, folding or bluffing with and at the same time listen to the commentary from Mike Sexton and Vincent Van Patten on the players' strategies.
Anyone can gain entry into a World Poker Tour event, but you will have to come up with $10,000, or you can try to qualify for only a few bucks, through online World Poker Tour super satellite events.
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Weekly tournaments Hollywood: Two tournaments each Monday, with one player per week going to the World Poker Tour
Published: 2005-04-22
 Players enjoy competing poker rooms
April 22, 2005
Weekly tournaments
Hollywood: Two tournaments each Monday, with one player per week going to the World Poker Tour. The 10 a.m. tournament is $60, and the 7 p.m. tournament is $310. Call (318) 220-5274.
Horseshoe: Tournament at 6 p.m. Tuesdays between May 17 and June 14. Cost is $120. Call (318) 741-7901.
Registration is two hours before each tournament at each casino. Both rooms offer Texas Hold 'Em, 7-Card Stud and Omaha. By Cristina Rodriguez
crodriguez@gannett.com
Just ask poker players and they'll tell you competition is pretty fun -- especially when it's between two casinos vying for their business.
A few weeks after Hollywood Casino expanded its poker room from 10 to 15 tables and Horseshoe Casino opened a new 11-table room, players say they notice better service and are hoping for more perks, such as comps for food.
Norman Seid, 53, of Longview said dealers at both properties are eager to open up new tables, even if there aren't enough players.
"It's good because you don't have to wait as long," he said. "I've waited for six hours for a seat at Hollywood. The wait was just a killer. But now there's no longer a wait."
Competing poker rooms are an oddity in the Shreveport-Bossier City market. Hollywood's has been in operation since 2002, and before that Horseshoe had one from 1998 to 2000. Isle of Capri operated one in the '90s.
But the nationwide poker craze fueled by televised tournaments pushed Horseshoe to reopen its room and Hollywood to expand. Each of the casinos offers weekly tournaments that give players a chance to go to a higher-level, televised tournaments.
Hollywood sends one player to the World Poker Tour per week following two tournaments every Monday -- a program they've started advertising, said Hollywood spokeswoman Markey Washington.
Horseshoe will have weekly tournaments for the World Series of Poker on Tuesday nights between May 17 and June 14 and send one winner per week to the tournament started by Jack Binion's father, Benny Binion, in the 1970s.
While poker rooms are springing up at casinos across the country, they involve strategy to make them profitable, because players are competing against one another instead of the house. At each local poker room, the casino takes a small percentage off the top of each pot --- and also hopes that poker players, their spouses or their friends will play more at other table games or at slot machines.
"I think we've already seen an increase in customers who we haven't seen before," said Pat Dennehy, regional president for Harrah's, which owns Horseshoe and Louisiana Downs.
Player Jim Davis, 47, of Forney, Texas, said he's been splitting his time in half between the Horseshoe and Hollywood rooms. He's been playing poker in casinos for about 20 years and started calling ahead to the rooms to check on the type of poker and the bet limits available at the time.
Sometimes players who want to be at the same table will choose between one casino or the other on a given day, he said.
Serious poker players are happy to see their game of choice get so much attention on TV and from local casinos.
"Five years ago (poker) was about to die," Davis said. "(Televised tournaments) are great for the poker game. It's revitalized it ... It's really cool because it's bringing a younger crowd it didn't have before."
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