If you want to play in a Texas Hold 'em poker tournament in Atlantic City, N.J., get in line.
The gambling public's appetite for the game is so ravenous that the major Atlantic City casino poker rooms are holding daily tournaments and, in some cases, turning away would-be Chris Moneymakers by the score.
advertisement
Party Poker
The biggest online poker room with thousands of players.
Choose one of the following games:
Texas Holdem Poker, Omaha Poker, Omaha Hi,
Seven Card Stud, Stud 8 or Better.
Receive a 20% bonus of your first deposit up to a $100!!!
Party Poker
Moneymaker was the 27-year-old Tennessee accountant who went from poker unknown to a $2.5 million winner in the 2003 World Series of Poker. It was his improbable feat, televised dozens of times on ESPN, that helped make Texas Hold 'em the hottest thing going in a casino.
"We're scrambling to hire as many (poker dealers) as we can," said Tom Gitto, manager of the Trump Taj Mahal Hotel Casino's poker room. "It started in February with 50 people (wanting to play in tournaments), then 60 and 100; now the lines are outside the door. . . .
"Some people don't even know the name of the game. They say, 'I want to play that game I see on ESPN.' "
The Taj Mahal has Atlantic City's largest poker room, and plans to add 12 more to its 68 tables.
The Taj holds No-Limit Texas Hold 'em tournaments all week, ranging from a $50 buy-in plus a $15 fee to a $200 buy-in and $25 fee. As a rule, the higher the buy-in, the bigger the payoff. In tournaments, the buy-in money is returned to the highest-finishing players as prizes, and the fees are kept by the casino for dealing the game.
On weekends, the Taj Mahal holds preliminary events, called satellites, in which players can win entry into the Taj Mahal's premier poker tournament of the year, the United States Poker Championship. If players want to buy their way into the final U.S. Poker Championship, the combined buy-in and entry fee is $10,000.
The tournament -- run much like the poker World Series in Las Vegas -- is actually a series of events featuring various poker styles (such as seven-card stud and Omaha) and buy-in amounts (as low as $300). The USPC will be held Sept. 20 to Oct. 8, and of the 16 tournaments, 10 including the championship will be Texas Hold 'em games. The 2003 USPC had 100 players, with the winner collecting $388,000. This year, Gitto expects the field to triple and produce a $1 million first-place prize.
The poker explosion has prompted the Borgata, Atlantic City's newest hotel casino, to draft plans to triple the number of poker tables (there are 34 now) as part of an expansion that is to break ground at the end of this year and is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2006. The $200 million addition will also include more restaurants, table games and slots.
Bob Boughner, the Borgata's chief executive officer, said that his casino's poker business had doubled from a year ago, and that he expected the trend to continue.
Even before tournament poker reached a fever pitch, the Tropicana Casino in Atlantic City was offering a regular schedule of events. Currently the second-largest poker room in town, with 42 tables, the Tropicana is running daily No-Limit Hold 'em tournaments, with buy-ins ranging from $20 to $100. The Trop has other tournaments, but the Hold 'em variety has overtaken the old standby, seven-card stud.
Source: Bill Ordine, The Philadelphia Inquirer
