Sunday, July 18, 2004
New York Daily News - Sports - Poker Face: Gold Rush is on for Hold'EmGold Rush is on for Hold'Em
Colorado gambling towns strike it rich once more
BLACK HAWK, COLO. - Folks in these parts have gone from mining gold to mining gambling. And Texas Hold'Em poker has been riding the wave of prosperity.
The discovery of gold here in 1859 - a decade after the California Gold Rush - transformed this region 40 miles west of Denver into what is still called "The Richest Square Mile on Earth."
The phrase "Go West, Young Man" actually refers to Colorado, not California. An estimated 100,000 people journeyed here to pan for fortune. And while much of the gold is still in them there hills, the big money nowadays is in legalized casino gambling.
There are 22 casinos in Black Hawk - population 140; Central City - population 515 - sits just north of Black Hawk with seven. A third mountain town 150 miles to the south, Cripple Creek - population 1,115 - has 13 gaming halls.
Most are basically modest slots houses; many have names that honor a glorious time in the past - the Golden Gulch, the Golden Gates, Gold Rush, Gold Diggers, Eureka and Doc Holliday's.
Black Hawk, which generates about 80% of the state's gaming take, has a swiftly burgeoning Texas Hold'Em following, making it a logical stop on Pienciak's Poker Tour.
Mountain madness
A constitutional amendment approved by voters in late 1990 authorized limited-stakes gambling confined to the three hard-luck communities.
The plan was approved under the guise that tax revenue would finance badly needed historical preservation; the new industry also was supposed to produce an economic revival for the old mining towns.
Since then, the casinos have given the state more than $780 million in taxes. The money has gone to restore a lot of endangered buildings, as well as pay for highway improvements and tourism interests. One-fifth of the preservation/restoration funds goes to the three casino towns, with the rest distributed statewide.
But the financial windfall has not been without controversy.
Investigations have been conducted here into how Black Hawk officials have spent the restoration funds. Several casinos have encountered financial difficulties and recently were sold to major gaming companies.
Circumstances have not been kind to Central City, either.
It started out as Gilpin County's seat of power, missing being designated the state capital by just one vote. In 1889, Central City became the first town in the nation to have all electric outside street lights, and was one of the first to have telegraph and telephone service. In its heyday, the opera house, which still operates today, welcomed kings, presidents, princes, military leaders and other dignitaries.
But when the first trains made their way north from Golden, the tracks stopped at Black Hawk, 8,042 feet above sea level. The same can be said for modern-day gamblers: When they stop here, even though the road does not end, they often don't continue on to Central City.
"Gambling has been a mixed bag," says Neal Standard of the Gilpin County Historical Society. "It certainly has brought in a lot of jobs. And the money literally saved Central City from crumbling. But it has run out all the little shops. We don't have a grocery store, we don't have a car wash. We have no amenities."
Standard says the job improvement hasn't translated locally either. Most employees come from the Denver metro area, he says, noting the stagnant local population growth.
Still, business looks good. Ameristar Casinos, Inc. recently announced plans to build a 300-room hotel to go along with its recently acquired Mountain High Casino, the largest here. The Isle of Capri firm is already building a new casino/hotel complex that promises to be "the most spectacular gaming complex outside of Vegas."
There's even hope for Central City. A new eight-mile, $45.2 million link from Interstate 70 will offer an entryway that avoids Black Hawk.
Circumvent the rules
To get gaming approved, proponents proposed strict regulations. Only slots, blackjack and poker are permitted. A maximum bet is $5. Some slots require only single penny bets.
Alcoholic beverages are served, but casinos limit patrons to one drink every 45 minutes or so. If you are drunk, you legally cannot gamble.
Unlike casinos elsewhere, credit is prohibited. Gambling is barred between 2 a.m. and 8 a.m.
Casinos must be housed in structures that adhere to "the architectural styles and designs that were common to the areas prior to World War I," according to the Colorado Limited Gaming Act.
No more than 35% of the square footage of any building and no more than 50% of any one floor of such building, may be used for gambling purposes. The casinos that offer Texas Hold'Em have established poker rooms on the second floor.
The $5 maximum bet rule, however, is somewhat misleading. For example, there's a gimmick called Streak, where blackjack players bet whether they can win two, three, four or five hands in a row. The payoffs are, respectively, 3-to-1, 8-to-1, 18-to-1 and 38-to-1. A five-dollar bet on a five-timer pays $190 - plus the winnings on the five $5 hands.
"Each of those wagers is considered a different, separate bet," explains a pit boss at the Lodge Casino. "It's a way to get around the law."
Then there's the Let It Ride card game, where a Royal Flush pays 500-to-1.
The Texas Hold'Em games are not necessarily low-stakes games, either.
Other casinos visited by the PPT have games as low as $1/$2. Here, poker is $2/$5 and $5/$5, with the latter meaning the minimum bet is $5 and the maximum bet is $5.
Two of the poker rooms have added another wrinkle to get around the "limited" gaming regulations.
Card games usually have four bets per round, the opening bet and up to three raises.
Players at the Lodge and Mountain High casinos can make five raises after the opening bet, at every point in the hand - pre-flop, at the flop, the turn and the river.
"Some of those pots go to $600-$700," says Marc Hoesel, 38, a poker floor supervisor at the Lodge. "These people come out raising and raising - and then at the end they have lousy cards. It's crazy."
And it's far from low stakes.
Hot poker rooms
Texas Hold'Em is essentially the only poker game in town. There's no 7-Card Stud, no Omaha, no draw, other than an occasional table on weekends.
There are Hold'Em tournaments almost every night during the week, split betweeen the Colorado Central Station (6 tables), Mountain High (12 tables, up from 6) and the recently-expanded effort at Fortune Valley in Central City (9 tables).
The Lodge, the largest poker room with 18 tables, does not offer tournament play.
"We don't need to," says poker room employee John Freeman, 27, with a wry smile. "Many nights we have 40-50 names on a waiting list."
When the Isle of Capri bought Colorado Central Station more than a year ago, management shut down the poker room. It reopened last month and has tournaments several times a week. It will host a three-day $330 buy-in tourney in September, with an estimated prize pool of $39,600.
Last Tuesday, Fortune Valley held its first Tuesday-night Texas Hold'Em tournament. After eight weeks, winners will compete for a seat at next year's World Series of Poker.
"The Tuesday tournament starts at 8 p.m. If you want a seat, be here by 5," a floor boss instructs potential contestants.
Hoesel says the Lodge is thinking of expanding to 26 tables. "There's also been talk of expansion to our sister casino across the street, the Gilpin," he adds. "If we follow through with that, then we'll have tournaments, stud and Omaha over there. It just keeps getting bigger."
Twists & turns on the tour
It's been an interesting week for Pienciak's Poker Tour - breath-stealing views of the Rockies, hairpin turns on mountain roads, a jarring middle-of-the-night fire alarm - and most harrowing of all, an extremely raucous night of Texas Hold'Em. I've never been so happy about losing 20 bucks.
The $5 maximum bet is most often the bet of choice. Back and forth re-raises are the strategy of choice.
Over a seven-hour stretch ending Friday morning, I lose and win countless thousands of dollars. At my nadir, I'm down $360, but miraculously claw my way back to down only $20.
Forget about logic in this game - there is none.
A match of the $2 single blind is often followed by five raises, a total of $27 - and this is before the flop.
More than several times, the flop is followed by a $5 bet and five $5 raises - $30 more from each player.
At first, I am intimidated by this strategy. But how good can these hands be, with only two cards dealt? A pair of Aces is a pair of Aces, certainly not invincible.
I conclude that the only way to beat this nonsense is to fight back.
You want to raise me $5, I'll raise you $5 back.
Lo and behold, the PPT gets a check the next round, as if the frenzied raisers' supposedly unbeatable cards have suddenly vanished in Black Hawk's thin air.
Five hours into the session, I come alive. I win a hand that includes a $27 pre-flop bet from five players; then I win another big hand. And a third.
I leave the Mountain High Casino relieved that a disaster has been avoided.
For this week anyway, with Colorado's 2 a.m. closing, there'll be no playing bleary-eyed until sunrise. But instead of peaceful sleep, the hotel fire alarms and emergency lights go on at 2:30 one morning, just as the eyes are closing shut.
A 20-minute stroll down five flights of stairs ensues, a good chunk of the time consumed while stuck behind a group of elderly people in their PJs and bare feet.
Talk about gambling - we actually beat the arrival of the fire engines.
Hundreds of us spend an hour milling around outside, until the alarms are reset.
We survive, free to gamble again beginning at 8 a.m.
Colorado gambling towns strike it rich once more
BLACK HAWK, COLO. - Folks in these parts have gone from mining gold to mining gambling. And Texas Hold'Em poker has been riding the wave of prosperity.
The discovery of gold here in 1859 - a decade after the California Gold Rush - transformed this region 40 miles west of Denver into what is still called "The Richest Square Mile on Earth."
The phrase "Go West, Young Man" actually refers to Colorado, not California. An estimated 100,000 people journeyed here to pan for fortune. And while much of the gold is still in them there hills, the big money nowadays is in legalized casino gambling.
There are 22 casinos in Black Hawk - population 140; Central City - population 515 - sits just north of Black Hawk with seven. A third mountain town 150 miles to the south, Cripple Creek - population 1,115 - has 13 gaming halls.
Most are basically modest slots houses; many have names that honor a glorious time in the past - the Golden Gulch, the Golden Gates, Gold Rush, Gold Diggers, Eureka and Doc Holliday's.
Black Hawk, which generates about 80% of the state's gaming take, has a swiftly burgeoning Texas Hold'Em following, making it a logical stop on Pienciak's Poker Tour.
Mountain madness
A constitutional amendment approved by voters in late 1990 authorized limited-stakes gambling confined to the three hard-luck communities.
The plan was approved under the guise that tax revenue would finance badly needed historical preservation; the new industry also was supposed to produce an economic revival for the old mining towns.
Since then, the casinos have given the state more than $780 million in taxes. The money has gone to restore a lot of endangered buildings, as well as pay for highway improvements and tourism interests. One-fifth of the preservation/restoration funds goes to the three casino towns, with the rest distributed statewide.
But the financial windfall has not been without controversy.
Investigations have been conducted here into how Black Hawk officials have spent the restoration funds. Several casinos have encountered financial difficulties and recently were sold to major gaming companies.
Circumstances have not been kind to Central City, either.
It started out as Gilpin County's seat of power, missing being designated the state capital by just one vote. In 1889, Central City became the first town in the nation to have all electric outside street lights, and was one of the first to have telegraph and telephone service. In its heyday, the opera house, which still operates today, welcomed kings, presidents, princes, military leaders and other dignitaries.
But when the first trains made their way north from Golden, the tracks stopped at Black Hawk, 8,042 feet above sea level. The same can be said for modern-day gamblers: When they stop here, even though the road does not end, they often don't continue on to Central City.
"Gambling has been a mixed bag," says Neal Standard of the Gilpin County Historical Society. "It certainly has brought in a lot of jobs. And the money literally saved Central City from crumbling. But it has run out all the little shops. We don't have a grocery store, we don't have a car wash. We have no amenities."
Standard says the job improvement hasn't translated locally either. Most employees come from the Denver metro area, he says, noting the stagnant local population growth.
Still, business looks good. Ameristar Casinos, Inc. recently announced plans to build a 300-room hotel to go along with its recently acquired Mountain High Casino, the largest here. The Isle of Capri firm is already building a new casino/hotel complex that promises to be "the most spectacular gaming complex outside of Vegas."
There's even hope for Central City. A new eight-mile, $45.2 million link from Interstate 70 will offer an entryway that avoids Black Hawk.
Circumvent the rules
To get gaming approved, proponents proposed strict regulations. Only slots, blackjack and poker are permitted. A maximum bet is $5. Some slots require only single penny bets.
Alcoholic beverages are served, but casinos limit patrons to one drink every 45 minutes or so. If you are drunk, you legally cannot gamble.
Unlike casinos elsewhere, credit is prohibited. Gambling is barred between 2 a.m. and 8 a.m.
Casinos must be housed in structures that adhere to "the architectural styles and designs that were common to the areas prior to World War I," according to the Colorado Limited Gaming Act.
No more than 35% of the square footage of any building and no more than 50% of any one floor of such building, may be used for gambling purposes. The casinos that offer Texas Hold'Em have established poker rooms on the second floor.
The $5 maximum bet rule, however, is somewhat misleading. For example, there's a gimmick called Streak, where blackjack players bet whether they can win two, three, four or five hands in a row. The payoffs are, respectively, 3-to-1, 8-to-1, 18-to-1 and 38-to-1. A five-dollar bet on a five-timer pays $190 - plus the winnings on the five $5 hands.
"Each of those wagers is considered a different, separate bet," explains a pit boss at the Lodge Casino. "It's a way to get around the law."
Then there's the Let It Ride card game, where a Royal Flush pays 500-to-1.
The Texas Hold'Em games are not necessarily low-stakes games, either.
Other casinos visited by the PPT have games as low as $1/$2. Here, poker is $2/$5 and $5/$5, with the latter meaning the minimum bet is $5 and the maximum bet is $5.
Two of the poker rooms have added another wrinkle to get around the "limited" gaming regulations.
Card games usually have four bets per round, the opening bet and up to three raises.
Players at the Lodge and Mountain High casinos can make five raises after the opening bet, at every point in the hand - pre-flop, at the flop, the turn and the river.
"Some of those pots go to $600-$700," says Marc Hoesel, 38, a poker floor supervisor at the Lodge. "These people come out raising and raising - and then at the end they have lousy cards. It's crazy."
And it's far from low stakes.
Hot poker rooms
Texas Hold'Em is essentially the only poker game in town. There's no 7-Card Stud, no Omaha, no draw, other than an occasional table on weekends.
There are Hold'Em tournaments almost every night during the week, split betweeen the Colorado Central Station (6 tables), Mountain High (12 tables, up from 6) and the recently-expanded effort at Fortune Valley in Central City (9 tables).
The Lodge, the largest poker room with 18 tables, does not offer tournament play.
"We don't need to," says poker room employee John Freeman, 27, with a wry smile. "Many nights we have 40-50 names on a waiting list."
When the Isle of Capri bought Colorado Central Station more than a year ago, management shut down the poker room. It reopened last month and has tournaments several times a week. It will host a three-day $330 buy-in tourney in September, with an estimated prize pool of $39,600.
Last Tuesday, Fortune Valley held its first Tuesday-night Texas Hold'Em tournament. After eight weeks, winners will compete for a seat at next year's World Series of Poker.
"The Tuesday tournament starts at 8 p.m. If you want a seat, be here by 5," a floor boss instructs potential contestants.
Hoesel says the Lodge is thinking of expanding to 26 tables. "There's also been talk of expansion to our sister casino across the street, the Gilpin," he adds. "If we follow through with that, then we'll have tournaments, stud and Omaha over there. It just keeps getting bigger."
Twists & turns on the tour
It's been an interesting week for Pienciak's Poker Tour - breath-stealing views of the Rockies, hairpin turns on mountain roads, a jarring middle-of-the-night fire alarm - and most harrowing of all, an extremely raucous night of Texas Hold'Em. I've never been so happy about losing 20 bucks.
The $5 maximum bet is most often the bet of choice. Back and forth re-raises are the strategy of choice.
Over a seven-hour stretch ending Friday morning, I lose and win countless thousands of dollars. At my nadir, I'm down $360, but miraculously claw my way back to down only $20.
Forget about logic in this game - there is none.
A match of the $2 single blind is often followed by five raises, a total of $27 - and this is before the flop.
More than several times, the flop is followed by a $5 bet and five $5 raises - $30 more from each player.
At first, I am intimidated by this strategy. But how good can these hands be, with only two cards dealt? A pair of Aces is a pair of Aces, certainly not invincible.
I conclude that the only way to beat this nonsense is to fight back.
You want to raise me $5, I'll raise you $5 back.
Lo and behold, the PPT gets a check the next round, as if the frenzied raisers' supposedly unbeatable cards have suddenly vanished in Black Hawk's thin air.
Five hours into the session, I come alive. I win a hand that includes a $27 pre-flop bet from five players; then I win another big hand. And a third.
I leave the Mountain High Casino relieved that a disaster has been avoided.
For this week anyway, with Colorado's 2 a.m. closing, there'll be no playing bleary-eyed until sunrise. But instead of peaceful sleep, the hotel fire alarms and emergency lights go on at 2:30 one morning, just as the eyes are closing shut.
A 20-minute stroll down five flights of stairs ensues, a good chunk of the time consumed while stuck behind a group of elderly people in their PJs and bare feet.
Talk about gambling - we actually beat the arrival of the fire engines.
Hundreds of us spend an hour milling around outside, until the alarms are reset.
We survive, free to gamble again beginning at 8 a.m.
