State puts poker on table

Taken from NewsTimesLIVE:

HARTFORD - Restaurants in the state might be able to cash in on poker's popularity under one legislator's proposal.

The bill would allow restaurants to sponsor poker and other card games or tournaments to draw customers. The establishments could use the card games only as a way to attract new customers and not for direct profit.

"It's a good way to get customers," said Jim Farrel, spokesman for the Connecticut Restaurant Association that supports the legislation. "The restaurants won't be benefiting from the gambling, but will be benefiting from new people coming in. As we know, poker is now a trendy thing."...

Reading that whole article just makes me sick about the blatant hypocrisy that takes place with gambling. You have government officials and other advocacy groups claiming that we must get rid of gambling to protect our communities. To a discerning reader, in this case ME, I read it as "We think all people are stupid and don't know how to be responsible, so we should make laws to restrict their freedoms so they don't do anything that we don't want them to do." Also, don't be fooled into the notion that these beliefs aren't for anything other than their own monetary gain, they have their lotteries and other government-sanctioned (aka Taxed) venues to look after. Keep in mind, I don't have a problem they make money on it, but saying that they should be the only ones allowed to make a buck, and lying and distorting the truth about why they want it that way is downright offensive.

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NBC to air heads-up poker tournament

reviewjournal.com writes:

NBC Sports plans to announce today that it will produce its own Las Vegas-based poker tournament -- a move that could be a prelude toward landing the World Series of Poker on network television.

NBC will film the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, a showdown between 64 players at the Golden Nugget in early March, just the latest in a series of new television programs aimed at capitalizing on poker's growing popularity.

The event, which features a $1.5 million purse and will air on four consecutive Sundays in May from 9 a.m.-10 a.m. (noon to 1 p.m. on the East Coast), prior to the network's telecast of the Arena Football League. The tournament will conclude with a two-hour finale on May 22 from 10 a.m. to noon. (1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Eastern time).

Unlike other televised poker events, the format will be head-to-head competition with a single elimination. Players will pay a $20,000 buy-in and play no-limit Texas Hold 'em. The overall winner will receive $500,000....

This is the event that NBC announced during its coverage of the final table of the Poker Superstars Invitational on (INSERT NAME OF BIG PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL GAME HERE) Sunday. I will post some more thoughts on the event later, but to sum it up, NBC may be missing the boat here with it's timeslot. How many poker players you know would consider themselves "Morning People"?

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Soaring Eagle Poker

The Saginaw News has a story about the recent poker tournament at Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort in Mt. Pleasant, MI. This story is good news for poker players because this appears to be the first of many tournaments that Soaring Eagle will be putting on.

I took a trip to the casino last weekend, and I can safely say that anyone with a strong poker game will have no problem paying the bills. The only reason I left after a couple hours was the incredible amount of smoke in that room. Hopefully they will follow the trend of other poker rooms across the country and get rid of the smoking, because they aren't going to attract many regular poker players who don't smoke.