The popularity of televised poker tournaments has brought more players to the table, with some Iowa casinos planning to expand to meet demand.

Shows, such as the Travel Channel’s World Poker Tour and ESPN’s coverage of the World Series of Poker, have “totally revived” poker at the Meskwaki casino near Tama, casino spokeswoman Betsy McCloskey said.
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McCloskey said the casino’s planned $100 million expansion likely will include more poker tables.
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Before the upsurge in television poker, the casino’s tournaments were half-full, poker room manager David Corns said.
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Now, eight 12-player tables easily fill up for two tournaments, he said.
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“You see a lot of new players, and a lot of that comes from Texas Hold ’em on TV,” said Carla Reuter, 49, Waterloo, a regular at the weekly Meskwaki tournaments.
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Nancy Fandel, 56, Solon, said televised poker revived her interest in the game, which she learned watching over her dad’s shoulder at low-stakes family games.
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“I always wanted to go to a poker room,” Fandel said. “I won $500 my first time out. I was hooked.”
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Texas Hold ’em is a fast-paced, comparatively simple game in which players make the best five-card poker hand out of the two face-down cards in their hand and five face-up community cards.
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Televised poker is more engrossing than live poker because viewers can see every player’s hand and correlate that to the player’s facial expressions and body movements, said Tom Manning, marketing director at Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino in Altoona.
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Prairie Meadows recently paid the state $10 million for a license to operate table games and plans to add a nine-table poker room by mid-December, Manning said.
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Jim Livingston, 52, Newton, said poker gives him some control that other games don’t offer.
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“Poker allows for a higher degree of skill,” said Livingston, a regular at the Meskwaki tournaments.
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Elsewhere, four other state regulated gambling venues have poker rooms, said Wes Ehrecke, executive director of the Iowa Gaming Association. They are the Isle of Capri Casino in Bettendorf, the Catfish Bend Casino at Burlington and Fort Madison, Harrah’s Council Bluffs Casino & Hotel and the Lakeside Casino Resort in Osceola.
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The Bettendorf riverboat added a Wednesday tournament, in addition to its Monday and Tuesday contests, to meet the increased popularity, spokeswoman Kellie Hillis said.
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The Isle of Capri in Marquette operated a poker room but closed it because of a lack of interest, said Jackie Lee, the boat’s marketing coordinator.
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Two other venues, Argosy’s Belle of Sioux City, and Ameristar Casino Hotel in Council Bluffs, plan to open poker rooms within a year, Ehrecke said.

Source: Associated Press