Local nonprofit groups cash in on the card craze

At a room inside the Big Dog Sports Zone in Lynnfield, 120 players gathered around green-felt tables. They sat 10 to a table, and had paid $200 a head for the privilege. The vast majority were male, and some wore sunglasses and hoods, like their counterparts on television.

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This was Texas Hold 'Em Poker, for a good cause. The tournament was staged by Lynn-based Branch 7 of the National Association of Letter Carriers, to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Even with a $200 entry fee, tourney director Danny Angelopolus (known to friends as Danny Angel) said that after taking out a series of small ads in a Boston paper, it sold out quickly.

''The phone hasn't stopped ringing," he said. ''I have a list of people who still want to play, and I'll put them first on the list for my next tournament."

Poker is believed to have its roots in Europe circa 1520, but its resurgent popularity sprung from cable television. The game has become a staple of such diverse stations as the Travel Channel, ESPN, and Bravo. Interest from televised tournaments and celebrity games has created an increase in the number of neighborhood games, online Internet poker, and tournaments that are becoming increasingly popular as a charity fund-raiser.

''I've done casino nights for many years, but this is the hottest thing I've ever seen," said Angelopolus, whose tournament netted $13,000 after expenses. ''All over the country and not just in Massachusetts."

Andover's Tony Capone, whose company rents tables, chips, and other equipment to organizers and helps run tournaments with the aid of volunteers from the host organization, said the company has been involved in fund-raisers in Andover, Dracut, Lawrence, Methuen, Hanson, and Salem, N.H. Tomorrow night, it's scheduled to assist at a fund-raiser for Newburyport Youth Hockey, at Newburyport City Hall. ''I'm doing six this month," said Capone, who did his first tournament eight months ago. ''I've already started to book January and February."

John Licciardi, vice president of the United Way of the Merrimack Valley, has run two tournaments at the organization's Haverhill conference center. Both were very successful, he said, each drawing more than 200 players and together raising approximately $58,000 in gross receipts. He plans to run a two-day tournament Jan. 29-30 he'll call ''The Super Bowl of Poker," coinciding with the NFL championship game.

''The other night, it was on seven [television] channels," Licciardi said. ''Everywhere I flicked, it was the World Series of Poker."

After observing the game's popularity, Licciardi called the attorney general's office to check the legal requirements (similar to rules regulating casino nights) for running a poker tournament. ''The next thing you know, [nonprofit fund-raising tournaments] are everywhere," he said. He's received calls from many nonprofit organizations, he said, including the Salisbury-based Boys and Girls Clubs of the Lower Merrimack Valley, which ran a tournament earlier this month that drew 240 players and raised approximately $20,000 in net receipts, according to Danielle Salvatore, administrative assistant at the club. The organization has another tournament planned for March 5.

Fady Ghazal, 23, came from Providence to the Muscular Dystrophy tournament held in Lynnfield. Others traveled from as far away as Cranston, R.I., and East Bridgewater. The players' experience varied. Many had never played in a tournament, some played in neighborhood games or in the casinos at Foxwoods, and some played very little. One said she'd never played poker in a room with other people, just on the Internet. Every player who was interviewed had watched it on television.

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''A couple of guys at work are doing it, so I figured I'd give it a shot," said Lynn's Mike Marks, 42, who says he's played very little. ''It's a good opportunity for the charity to make some money, and a chance for guys to come and play some poker."

Many other players mentioned the charitable aspect, echoing the sentiment expressed by Middleton's Dolly Shapiro, 66, that ''it's a fun night out and it's going to a good cause." (Added Joe Monterisi of Methuen, a former Vegas casino dealer who helped deal at the MDA game, ''It's a write-off for people, too.")

Saugus's Steve Defilippo, 50, was one of a handful of players from a regular friendly game that calls itself the ''Ocean's 11" poker club. They were looking forward to the experience of playing in the tournament, in which players entered for a $200 fee and used chips -- they start out with $3,000 worth -- as points. As long as they have chips to cover their bets, they can continue to play.

''It's kind of exciting, and can't really hurt you, moneywise," Defilippo said. His friend Bruce Yochum, 47, of East Boston had jokingly devised his strategy, to take the $3,000 in chips he started with, ''and cash out right at the start."

Tournament play can be nerve-racking, particularly in the latter stages, when players compete for prize money. Derek Velevis, 29, of Bradford, went ''all in" (betting all of his remaining chips) more than once in the final hands of the MDA tournament, once drawing a straight on the final card of what would have been his final hand. He was bounced out -- in third place overall -- after drawing two kings when both remaining players drew two aces.

While it was exciting, he said, he didn't think he'd make it a habit.

''I'd like to play more," he said, ''but that would require me to be single."

The tournament began at 6:30 p.m. and ran until just after midnight, with players eliminated as they ran out of chips. The final eight players received cash prizes with the most going to the overall winner, Derek McCracken, 30, of Reading, who won $5,000. While he is required by law to report the winnings to the Internal Revenue Service, he is not married, so did not have to report them to his spouse.

It was McCracken's first tournament. He expects to play in more in the future, he said, but joked, ''I'm not going to quit my job and join the poker tour yet."

Source: The Boston Globe