2005 October 31 Poker News, Events and Happenings

The first ever Vince Neil’s Off The Strip Poker Tournament will be backed in part by The Small Town Poker Tour (STPT). The event’s proceeds will be donated to the T. J. Martell Foundation, which researches life-saving treatments for leukemia, cancer, and AIDS.

The television show that prompted a poker boom in the United States is coming to the United Kingdom. The World Poker Tour, a weekly poker program that televises some of the biggest no-limit poker tournaments around the world, will debut on the new ITV4, a channel that will target male viewers in the UK.

After being eliminated from the World Poker Tour event in Aruba, I was contractually committed to stay another five days. Normally, the minute I’m eliminated from a tournament, I’m looking to hop aboard the first flight home. But this was Aruba, and my wife was with me, so I was more than happy to hang out. Meanwhile, I decided to play some poker in the side games for a few hours a day, both at the Holiday Inn and at the Radisson. Late one night, at about 3 a.m. when my high-limit, lowball game …

LAS VEGAS - I was a poker virgin in Vegas. Poker is big here in the gambling epicenter of the universe. Huge. This is where movie stars play in those popular TV tournaments and casinos throw daily competitions for the public. And poker rooms, once a staple here, are coming back to casinos along the Strip, where tourists sit elbow-to-elbow with professional players, sipping free cocktails. Fold, sip. Check, sip. Call, sip.That’s the come-on. Poker fans say mere mortals will never shoot hoops with …

On May 18, 2004, after providing some personal cases in point for my friend Andy Glazer as he worked on “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Poker” (Alpha), I finished fourth in the World Series of Poker limit hold ‘em championship at Binion’s Horseshoe, the last time it would ever be played there. During the televised final-table action, a wrangle broke out between me and Ellix Powers, a player from Los Angeles. Powers had been taunting T.J. Cloutier and David Chiu, two of the greatest players alive.

On a night when other teens are anywhere but home, Kenny Totten is spending his Saturday inside in his socks, pajama pants and a T-shirt. But he isn’t alone. The 17-year-old Old Bridge High School student and a crew of close friends are gathered in the basement of his parents’ house for poker night. They sip soda and munch on nachos as the cards are dealt on top of a pool table. Several players sport sunglasses as they attempt to bluff their way to victory in an activity that, at one time, brough …