Monday, February 14, 2005
A no limit Texas hold'em tournament with a top prize of $5,000 and a chance to play in the World Series of Poker will be held March 22 at the Ocala Hilton. The tournament is jointly sponsored by The National Association of Two-Year-Old Consignors and The Race for Education.
"We are very excited to be sponsoring this tournament, particularly with the escalating interest in poker across the nation," NATC Board member Michael Mulligan said. "The timing could not be better. People will be coming to Florida from all parts of the country, ready to have some fun, and what better way to do that than play no limit Texas hold'em poker and support a great charity."
Cocktails and a review of rules and draw for seating will run from 6:30-7:30 p.m., while the tournament will begin at 8 p.m. Buy-in is $500, with spectator donations running $50. Blood-Horse
Publications is the chip sponsor, and additional prizes include seasons to Songandaprayer, Omega Code, and Roar of the Tiger, who stand at Hartley / De Renzo, Walmac South.
Along with the $5,000 grand prize, the winner receives a place at the table in the "Showdown" round April 16, in Lexington. The Showdown winner earns a seat in the World Series of Poker Tour.
The Race for Education, established in 2002, is a national education scholarship foundation. For more information on the tournament call (859) 252-8648 or (352) 351-9797.
GAMBLING: NBC to air poker tourney
Network's sports division plans to film event at Golden Nugget
By HOWARD STUTZ
GAMING WIRE
NBC Sports plans to announce today that it will produce its own Las Vegas-based poker tournament -- a move that could be a prelude toward landing the World Series of Poker on network television.
NBC will film the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, a showdown between 64 players at the Golden Nugget in early March, just the latest in a series of new television programs aimed at capitalizing on poker's growing popularity.
The event, which features a $1.5 million purse and will air on four consecutive Sundays in May from 9 a.m.-10 a.m. (noon to 1 p.m. on the East Coast), prior to the network's telecast of the Arena Football League. The tournament will conclude with a two-hour finale on May 22 from 10 a.m. to noon. (1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Eastern time).
Unlike other televised poker events, the format will be head-to-head competition with a single elimination. Players will pay a $20,000 buy-in and play no-limit Texas Hold 'em. The overall winner will receive $500,000.
"It's almost like an NCAA (basketball) tournament format where you have 64 players and get them down to one overall champion," said Jon Miller, senior vice president for NBC Sports. "The most dramatic phase of each game is when it comes down to the final two players. It's in these heads-up matches that top players play their opponent more than the cards with a lot of bluffing and table talk."
Miller said an NBC producer who has worked on NASCAR and the Olympics came up with the idea for a tournament.
"Poker has found a tremendous audience with a great following. One of our top producers who has worked on NASCAR and the Olympics came up with this idea," Miller said.
Miller said the event would be filmed March 4-6 and players would be seeded into groupings.
Miller said NBC looked at other venues around the country, but decided Las Vegas was the right location for the tournament, which will include a recognizable field of players, including poker legends Doyle Brunson, Howard Lederer and Johnny Chan, and the two most recent World Series of Poker champions, Chris Moneymaker and Greg Raymer.
"Las Vegas gives this event a tremendous amount of credibility," Miller said. "This is where a poker championship should be held."
Rob Dondero, executive vice president with R&R Partners, said the time slot for the broadcasts and their national scope could be worth $500,000 in exposure to both the Golden Nugget and Las Vegas for each telecast.
"They may get fairly decent ratings for an early Sunday morning time slot," Dondero said. "The Nugget will get exposure from having its name on the table felt and the cards and through some property shots."
Miller said invites had been sent to players and he expects the field to be filled quickly.
"Poker has been exploding in popularity the last couple of years," Brunson said in a statement. "The only thing missing was having a tournament on a network TV. As a player, I couldn't be happier."
NBC has had success with two televised poker events shown the last two years opposite the Super Bowl pregame coverage, Miller said. This year's event, the Poker Superstars Championship, scored a 2.2 rating opposite an National Basketball Association game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Houston Rockets, which had a 2.0 rating. Miller said the Las Vegas event will add to NBC's poker credentials.
With Harrah's Entertainment announcing in January that it had retained the former president of CBS Sports as a consultant to renegotiate its agreement with ESPN to televise the World Series of Poker, Miller said NBC might want to get in on the bidding.
"When we got the U.S. Open and our golf package, we had to show we knew how to do golf," Miller said. "With what we've accomplished so far with poker, the World Series of Poker is something we'd like to take a look at. Poker has found a tremendous audience with a great following."
Harrah's obtained the rights to the World Series of Poker last year when it purchased downtown Las Vegas' Binion's Horseshoe. It sold the downtown casino to MTR Gaming Group last year, but retained both the Horseshoe name and the World Series of Poker.
Harrah's plans to hold this year's event at the Rio beginning the first week of June. The no-limit Texas hold'em main event will be played in mid-July with the final two days, scheduled for July 14-15, taking place at Binion's for the final time.
Plan could lead to selling lottery tickets on the Internet
February 14, 2005
BY DAVE MCKINNEY Sun-Times Springfield Bureau Chief
SPRINGFIELD -- Imagine being able to forgo a trip to the convenience store when the Mega Millions lottery game prize hits nine digits and buy your ticket for that drawing from the computer in your den.
No state sells lottery tickets over the Internet now. But a leading Senate Democrat and group of influential backers are urging Gov. Blagojevich's administration to embrace the concept, which could generate as much as $100 million annually for the state's cash-starved public school system.
"I think it's a great idea," said state Sen. John Cullerton (D-Chicago), who has introduced legislation authorizing a pilot study of an Internet-based lottery system. "I just wonder why we are passing up an opportunity to get money into the common school fund. It's not an expansion of gambling. It's legal, and it would appeal to wealthier patrons."
The group that approached Cullerton with the idea is led by Mark Doyle, a former aide to President Bill Clinton and member of Blagojevich's transition team. Also included are Dr. Steven DeAngelis, who is Mayor Daley's physician and first hatched the idea, and Chicago restaurateur Phil Stefani, who has donated more than $43,000 to Illinois politicians, including the governor and Cullerton.
The three are developing software that would enable the state to sell tickets over the Internet and be able to screen out underage buyers and cap purchases, among other things.
Besides the prospect of making money off the venture, the plan's backers say it would raise new resources for the state, reinvigorate stagnant lottery sales and, most importantly, shift the lottery toward those with higher incomes who aren't big users of the lottery.
So far, Blagojevich has been cool to the proposal, which is scheduled to be heard in a Senate committee Wednesday, the day of the governor's budget address.
However, the administration did grant an audience with Cullerton and the bill's backers in a fall meeting with Blagojevich's budget director, John Filan, and state revenue and lottery officials.
Blagojevich has flirted with the idea of more casinos during his first two years but consistently adhered to a campaign pledge not to expand gambling. The promise he made to the anti-gambling group Illinois Church Action on Alcohol Problems did not directly address the question of selling lottery tickets online, but activists say the spirit of Blagojevich's pledge should cover this proposal, as well.
"It's the third rail for lotteries when they move into electronic gambling. Once a state allows that to happen, they're putting gambling in every neighborhood," said the Rev. Tom Grey, a Rockford resident who heads the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling.
