WPT Enterprises, which produces World Poker Tour events that air on the Travel Channel, has created a new venture, the Professional Poker Tour. Unlike World Poker Tour events, which can be entered by anyone with money to spare, PPT entries are earned by qualification.

Around 200 players qualified for the PPT. Players are given exemptions of different lengths based on performance. Ron Rose, a Dayton resident and professional poker player, was given a three-year exemption to the PPT, the longest available.

"It's something like the PGA," Rose said from Mashantucket, Conn., the site of the first PPT event. "Not just everybody can buy in, you have to qualify. I think that would make it more fun to watch, knowing that you're watching the best in poker."

While WPT Enterprises has not yet announced where the PPT events will air, it already has started filming. The tournament at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket will finish with the final table today.

The PPT will be a five-event tour with a $2.5 million total purse.

There are several criteria that automatically qualify players for the PPT: making the final table at a World Poker Tour event or championship, scoring in the Top 10 on the WPT points list, winning or placing "highly" in the $10,000 buy-in event at the World Series of Poker, earning a spot on CardPlayer Magazine's Card Player of the Year Top 10 list or Poker Europa's Top 10 or being a member of the Poker Hall of Fame.

Rose won the WPT's Battle of Champions, which aired on Super Bowl Sunday last year.

"This qualifying process ensures that the television audience will have a chance to consistently see the most exciting, skilled poker player and the sport's all-stars," said Steve Lipscomb, president of WPT Enterprises, in a statement. "The PPT will be a league of poker titans."

The numbers of people playing poker and watching it on television is exploding. The immense popularity of shows like the Travel Channel's World Poker Tour and ESPN's The World Series of Poker and the growth of card rooms and online gambling sites offering No-Limit Texas Hold'em are proof that a significant portion of the American populace is buying in to the poker craze.

The buy-in is about more than just a seat at the table, however. Poker players, fans, and their indulgent significant others are fueling the traffic in poker apparel and other poker-related gifts. Do an Internet search for "poker shirts," and you'll get well over 750,000 hits. Do a search for "poker gifts," and the number jumps to almost three million.

Offering a detour from the traffic jam of tasteless slogans and tacky t-shirts, PokerDetour.com is the latest, and arguably the best, to join the long stream of poker merchandisers. Their shirts are high quality; heavyweight, pre-shrunk cotton, and they come in a variety of colors and sizes. What makes this company a stand-out, however, is that it features creative images that put an imaginative spin on poker terms like "Big Slick" and "Stealing the Pot" as well as innovative designs promoting poker like "Eat, Sleep, Poker" and "Online Poker Star." This is poker attire that is distinctive and attractive; it can be worn both inside and outside of the poker room without apologies to your mother or your wife.

With twenty different shirts, and more being added each week, as well as caps and other apparel in the works, PokerDetour.com stands to become the next chip leader in the poker-merchandising game. Anyone who loves poker, or loves someone who loves the game, will want to take this PokerDetour for his or her poker merchandise needs.

Kevin Nealon, cast member of Saturday Night Live has agreed to host Game Show Network’s up-coming poker TV show Poker Royale: the WPPA Championship, premiering Tuesday, December 9 at 9.00pm ET/PT. Nealon will commentate in his own inimitable way on the action as amateurs and pro players do battle for the chance to split $10 million dollars with a GSN viewer in the $10 Million Poker Sweepstakes.

The championship, filmed at the Orleans Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, includes star players such as Carlos Mortensen, Kathy Liebert and Paul Wolfe.


GSN is currently the only U.S. television network dedicated to game-related programming and interactive game playing featuring game shows, reality series, documentaries and casino games. It is distributed through all major US cable systems and satellite providers and reaches 57 million homes.

The local authorities of Cheyenne, Wyoming have asked bars to voluntarily stop their poker games by month's end.
The Cheyenne Chief of police, Bob Fecht, said that poker games are considered gambling and therefore illegal. The city attorney and the attorney general have agreed with Chief of Police Fecht's decision.
There are also bar poker games being shut down in Laramie. However, in Casper bars, poker games continued on Sunday. Casper City Attorney Bill Luben said his office has not looked into the question of local bars hosting poker games.
In Gillette, games have not been shut down yet, Police Chief Ric Paul said. But they would be considered illegal.
poker games hosted by bars are becoming a statewide problem, according to Tom Montoya, chief of enforcement for the Wyoming Liquor Division.
There still isn't a statewide consensus about what constitutes illegal gambling under the Wyoming criminal code. Montoya has said that state law allows social gambling, but has become a problem when poker games are taken from the home and into a bar. He said when bars turn a profit, even if it's not directly, it becomes professional gambling establishment.
He has stated that bars likely profit indirectly fromincreased drink sales when they bring in the poker crowd, but this issue has not been formally addressed.

PRWEB) November 22, 2004 -- There are more than 50 million poker players in the United States and more than 100 million worldwide. Through shows like ESPN’s World Series of Poker, Travel Channel’s World Poker Tour, and 24/7 online poker - avid players & fans can now watch and play the most popular form of the game – No Limit Texas Hold’em – on a daily or even hourly basis. PokerDetour’s mission is to outfit every poker player worldwide with shirts and apparel based on the PokerDetour brand.Poker players have their own language with a “dictionary of terms and slang” that they all understand. PokerDetour’s shirts leverage these terms and slang like; “Big Slick” (Ace King) or “Pocket Rockets” (Ace Ace), and “Under the Gun” (First to Act). Additionally, PokerDetour is the first brand to acknowledge the online poker player with specialty shirts and apparel.PokerDetour offers more than 20 different shirts. Mainly, focused on men (21 years old & over) who account for over 95% of all poker players, PokerDetour sees the demographics of the game changing dramatically. Due to great exposure on television and online more women and kids are now interested in the game. Professional Poker Player, Annie Duke just won a $2 Million WSOP Tournament of Champions. Kids are playing hold’em during lunch and after school quickly learning probability & statistics. PokerDetour offers a women’s and kid’s line too.PokerDetour branded shirts and apparel are exclusively sold at PokerDetour.com. However, the company plans to market its shirts and apparel through major distributors, retailers, and online & land-based casinos. With over 7,000 players expected at the 2005 World Series of Poker, PokerDetour plans to have additional exposure through its strategic partners with exclusive lines through professional poker players and sponsorships.About PokerDetour:Three self-proclaimed “maniacs” of poker who wanted to express their love of the game in cool fashion statements founded Avid Players Corporation in October 2004. Avid Players Corporation has offices based in Sacramento, CA with production in Southern California for PokerDetour branded shirts and apparel. Avid Players designs, markets, and produces shirts, apparel and related-accessories based on gaming. Avid Player’s initial release of the PokerDetour line and can be found at: www.pokerdetour.com.

Celebpoker is hosting a celebrity poker tournament for 50 players on Sunday 28th November. Celebrities from the world of football that are taking part are as follows: Paul Ince, Kenny Miller, Teddy Sheringham , Matthew Etherington, Simon Davies, plus Scott Robinson, Chris Brooks, Nick Leeson and many others are currently listed to play.
The Tournament is being held following the launch of our spectacular new poker room. The new cutting edge software gives you the chance to play poker with games such as: limit, no limit, pot limit poker, and multi table tournaments with Hollywood superstars and sporting legends. With up to 10,000 players online at any one time and tournaments every hour of every day, you are guaranteed some of the most exciting and competitive poker action on the Internet today! The game is Turbo No-Limit Texas Hold'em £1000 + 50 buy-in. The tournament will be held at the Rendezvous Casino in Southend-on-sea, Essex. Play starts at 7pmOur new software offers fantastic graphics with quick game play to ensure that the action and efficiency of our games is the best on the Internet. Key differences over other software is that players have the choice of downloading the software or playing our non-downloadable version which allows people to play at the office, at an internet café, in fact anywhere that has an internet connection. We are also one of the few sites that enable Mac users to play, as well as Windows and UNIX.Never played poker before? Well we feel the he best wayto learn poker is just to jump in and start playing. We offer free online games to give players valuable poker experience without worrying about losing their money. We also offer poker schools, and step by step instructions and strategy tips to help you play like a professional quicker than you thought possible. At CelebPoker we have players of all standards so everyone is welcome. And you can even chat during the games to the other players."Poker players from all over the world can join together at Celebpoker, at their convenience, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to compete at their favourite game. The release of our new cutting-edge software marks a new chapter online poker rooms, and sets the bar high in the poker craze that is sweeping the world.Tournament Contact Information:Kevin Hicks 01702 616000Web site information at www.celebpoker.comAbout CelebPoker.com Celebpoker.com was founded by David Donovan to enable the public to play poker against their favourite celebrities online. It is the first and only online poker site in the world to bring together celebrities and the general public to play the most realistic poker experience on the Internet! Our unique software offers fantastic graphics and sounds to ensure that the action and efficiency of our games is the best on the Internet. Poker players from all over the world can join together at Celebpoker, at their convenience, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to compete at their favourite game.Play poker for real money or just for fun. We provide free tables and so you can decide if and when you are ready to play for real money. Celebpoker provides all of your favourite poker games such as Texas Hold'em, Seven Card Stud and Multiplayer Tournaments.Coming Soon to Active: Betting Exchange, Multi Player Bingo and Celebrity Auction

(PRWEB) November 22, 2004 -- With the current lack of good online media outlets for the promotion of Online Poker, Laurence Michaels Associates have launched http://www.online-texas-holdem-poker.ws.The site will provide surfers interested in online poker, access to up-to-the-minute information. This will include how to get started playing online poker, poker news, online poker playing tips, where to play the best online poker tournaments, news from the world of poker and even where and when can you watch poker on television."This is a great opportunity for people offering online poker, to be able to reach out and connect with every day internet surfers.” Said Laurence Michaels, CEO of Laurence Michaels Associates. “Online poker is a growing industry. The credibility of online poker is developing at an astonishing rate. Nearly every online poker room has a well known poker professional to add legitimacy to its core business. Search engine giants such as Google and Yahoo have painted online poker with the same brush as online casinos. When they made their decision to stop allowing ads for gaming, and lumped casinos and poker together, they made a mistake. Poker is a sport that requires deep concentration and a great deal of skill. With the growth of televised poker events and the fact that any good bookshop keeps its poker books section in a prominent place, is proof that no one can stop the growth of online poker.” Interested advertisers wishing to promote their online poker offering are invited to email e-mail protected from spam bots. To mark the launch of the site, http://www.online-texas-holdem-poker.ws is offering very preferential advertising rates to the first new advertisers through the door. “We are entering a highly competitive market at a time when the market is calling out for good media outlets. Our site will only go from strength to strength. We are currently in talks with a well known personality from the world of poker to write for us on a full time basis. This will only enhance and enrich the content on http://www.online-texas-holdem-poker.ws and make it more appealing to prospective players.” Stated Jeremy Rayner, VP of marketing.In addition http://www.online-texas-holdem-poker.ws, is offering new subscribers free membership to their poker tips mailing list. This will include the best Poker advice possible together with a recommended list of reviewed and approved online poker rooms. Interested online poker rooms should email e-mail protected from spam bots.About www.online-texas-holdem-poker.ws OTHP (http://www.online-texas-holdem-poker.ws) is a fully owned marketing portal and has been created by Laurence Michaels Associates to supply a demand and fill a huge marketing gap that has become evident by the huge growth of online poker.

SNOOKER champion Matthew Stevens, 27, is ranked No 6 in the world. He is now defending his title in the Travis Perkins UK Championship at the Barbican Centre, York, which is being shown on BBC TV. He will also be competing over the next few weeks in the 888.com Pacific Poker UK Open.
Born in Carmarthen, South Wales, Stevens grew up with his older sister, Charlotte, and went to the local comprehensive. He first played snooker at the age of seven and by nine had joined a local club.
At eleven he notched up his first century break (scoring 100 without leaving the table), and went on to win junior tournaments in Hemsby, Norfolk, and Prestatyn, North Wales.
Stevens left school at 15 and became a professional shortly before his 17th birthday. He was ranked in the top 16 snooker players in the world four years later, which meant he no longer had to win qualifying rounds to enter tournaments at the televised stages.
Stevens won his first tournament, the Regal Masters, in Scotland in l999. The Benson & Hedges Masters followed in 2000, and in 2003 he won the UK Championship.
He lives near Swansea with his girlfriend, Clare Holloway, and their son, Freddie Morrell, aged 10 months.
How much money do you have in your wallet?
I don’t carry a wallet, but in my pocket I’ve got £200, which will last me anything from two minutes to four days. I like to have cash on me in case I want to eat out, buy a takeaway or place a bet.
I play poker every Wednesday, so I can sometimes turn £50 cash into £2,000. I’ve just won $10,000 (£5,400) for reaching the final of a poker tournament.
Do you have any credit cards?
I have two Visa debit cards, one for business and one for personal use. I use them all the time, especially to pay for hotels, petrol and meals when I’m away at tournaments.
Most of the championships are in the UK, but that’s about to change. Next year there are plans to hold ranking tournaments in China, Dubai, Malta, Thailand and Ireland.

STATE Government plans to cut the number of poker machines by 3000 are under threat because of a $50,000 cap put on the sale price of surplus machines.MPs are warning the cap will make it hard to reach the target because hotels will be reluctant to sell machines for such a low price.
Earlier this month, the Government amended its own Bill in the House of Assembly to ensure the plan to allow hotels to "top up" the number of machines they lost through the cuts did not lead to a huge financial windfall for venues selling poker machine licences.
Evidence had been given to a parliamentary committee hearing earlier this year that machines would change hands for more than $100,000 each.
Under a complex formula for removing 3000 machine licences, 2200 will be given up by hotels, while the remaining 800 will be traded out of the system by requiring venue operators to give up a machine for every three, or part of three, machines they sell.
The need to forfeit a machine means those wishing to sell would get a maximum of $37,500 a machine.
Owner of the Austral Hotel at Quorn, Ron Cunningham, said selling his 15 machines was no longer an option.
"No one is going to bother passing on their machines at that price," he said. Mr Cunningham said he had been looking forward to selling his machines to finance the building of 10 motel units to boost tourism in Quorn. "Now, it's not worth the hassle and effort," he said.
Mr Cunningham said he was furious with the AHA, which had lobbied the Government to secure the cap even though it was not in the best interests of smaller hotels wanting to sell their poker machines.
Greens MP Kris Hanna said it could defeat the purpose of the whole Bill.
"It's a concession to the big players in the hotel industry, so they can buy back machines cheaper than what the market would dictate," he said.
Opposition gambling spokesman Robert Brokenshire said the cap would make it less enticing to trade machines.
"All the politicians will be a lot older before we see the 3000 reduction achieved," Mr Brokenshire said.
No Pokies MP Nick Xenophon said an "across-the-board" cut in poker machine numbers made far more sense than a convoluted transfer system that could advantage the big pokies operators.
The Minister for Gambling Michael Wright was unavailable for comment last night.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) - Authorities have asked local bars to voluntarily shut down poker games by the end of the month.
Cheyenne Police Chief Bob Fecht said the poker games count as gambling and are illegal. Both the city attorney and the attorney general agree with this decision, he said.
Bar poker games also are being shut down in Laramie and Casper, Fecht said.
Bar poker games are a statewide problem, said Tom Montoya, chief of enforcement for the Wyoming Liquor Division.
He said there isn't a statewide consensus about what constitutes gambling under the criminal code.
Montoya said state law allows social gambling, but it becomes a problem when poker games are taken out of the home and into a bar. He said when bars start to turn a profit, even if it's indirectly, it becomes professional gambling.
He said bars likely profit indirectly in drink sales when they bring in the poker crowd, but the question hasn't been formally answered.
''Hopefully, through the attorney general's office and the Legislature, we'll get clarification,'' he said.
Games were shut down at Snake River Pub and Grill on Friday night, said Troy Meeks, the establishment's general manager.
He said several bars have hosted games for months, and Snake River followed these same guidelines.
''It's a way to get people in on a Tuesday night,'' Meeks said.
He added this gray area in the law has created confusion and he'd like to see the matter sorted out legislatively.
''I want to play by the rules,'' he said.
Games also were shut down at Two Bar Bowling, said owner Myron Langhoff. He said poker games had been going on at his establishment for six months without any problems.
Before starting the games, he called the Cheyenne Police Department to see if there would be a problem.
''We were told as long as we didn't make any direct profit there's nothing wrong with the game itself,'' he said. ''We can't charge people to play. We can't take a cut. We can't provide dealers; they have to provide their own.''
Langhoff said even added a few rules of his own such as all players have to be 21 years old and the most anyone can lose is $25.
''We thought we were operating within the requirements of the state law,'' Langhoff said.
He said the games were run three nights a week, attracting up to 30 people for a game.
While shutting down poker nights will cost the business money, Langhoff said it won't be a major loss. He said instead of buying drinks from the bar while they play poker, fans will likely buy from package liquor stores before playing a game at home.

Mike Connell was several years ahead of the curve.
Like a lot of kids his age, Connell, a junior at West Catholic High School, is nuts about poker.
He says his father taught him to play at least 10 years ago. Connell is 16, which means he was building straights and flushes at about the time most kids learn to read.
"I've been playing consistently since before that happened," he said.
By "that," he means the explosion of interest in anything related to poker, the most basic and accessible of serious card games.
Thanks to a number of factors -- generational tastes, televised events, colorful players -- poker, Texas Hold 'Em, has been the rage for the past year or so.
It's visible everywhere, from high-school cafeterias to college dorms and makeshift basement casinos, from the high ratings of televised events to the cult poker film "Rounders" that video stores have a tough time keeping in stock. It thrives in casinos and local tournaments as charities jump on the wave of popularity.
The Grand Rapids Jaycees hosted a tournament Friday, and the Grand Rapids Griffins hosted a tournament Saturday.
"It has changed my business completely," said Kurt Orosz of A-1 Bingo Supplies and Elliott Bingo Supplies. "Bingo has definitely taken a back seat."
In the last year, almost all of his 38 Texas Hold 'Em tables have been rented out every weekend for private parties, corporate events, charities and fundraisers. "It's very profitable for VFW halls because they get the older people and the younger people."
As TV shows continue to pop up, so does the popularity, he said. "It's been crazy," he said. "I'm almost waiting for it to crash because it has built so fast, but I don't see any signs of it slowing down."
Strange bedfellows
The phenomenon has made improbable TV stars out of peculiar characters -- long-haired, cowboy-hat-wearing Chris "Jesus" Ferguson; temperamental, loudmouthed Phil Helmuth; energetic redhead Annie Duke, a thirtysomething mother of four; actor Ben Affleck, a regular on Bravo's "Celebrity Poker Showdown."
The surge of interest in the game has all the makings of a short-lived fad -- TV boom, popularity among teens, etc.
But Connell said he plays two or three times a week with a group of five or six friends, and occasionally hosts tournaments at his house, which attract 10 to 20 kids. He plays so often he wasn't bothered when a call from a Press reporter interrupted one of his games.
"I'll be doing this for the rest of my life," Connell said.
Local entrepreneur Mark Danevicz, 29, said he is amazed by the extent to which poker has infiltrated pop culture.
"I don't think it's a fad, because it's different," he said. "You've actually got it playing on ESPN and Fox Sports, so I think it's here to stay."
Right place, right time
Danevicz is like many others who, through either timing or outside-the-box thinking, have tapped into the possibilities of the hottest new game (which, ironically, is a pretty old game).
Two years ago, he and a friend went online to sell an "unsatisfactory" card table they had built. Now he's selling gaming supplies full-time.
As a result of overwhelming interest, Danevicz parlayed his first sale into a successful online business. His site, crapsjack.com, sells custom-made poker, blackjack and roulette tables, chip sets and other card-playing supplies. The company also sponsors local tournaments.
"It didn't start with poker. We were interested in gaming in general," Danevicz said. "We noticed the World Series of Poker a couple of years ago, and that's when people started to ask us about our products. The hobby turned into the business."
Credit is due
Much of the credit for the boom goes to the "World Poker Tour," which has achieved the daunting task of making it interesting to watch other people play cards. Though ESPN has broadcast World Series of Poker events, typically at late hours, for about a decade, the WPT has transformed a little-seen TV curiosity into a sweeping craze.
In the fall of 2001, WPT founder and president Steve Lipscomb approached investors with an idea "from the crazy ether of my mind," which was to create what he calls the "NFL of poker." He formed the WPT, which united most of the big tournaments under one banner, and set out to revamp the TV production.
"By its nature, (poker) is not interesting to watch," Lipscomb said during an interview from his office in West Hollywood.
"My belief was that the subtleties make it interesting. It was perfectly tailored for a TV phenomenon."
The challenge
By presenting key information graphically -- each player's hand, his or her odds of winning, etc. -- and focusing on the idiosyncratic personalities of the professional players, WPT turned the game into a ratings sensation on the Travel Channel when it launched in March 2003, prompting other networks (Fox Sports, Bravo) to launch shows. It made poker as ubiquitous on TV as Regis Philbin during the height of "Millionaire."
Much of the excitement is because Texas Hold 'Em, the "Cadillac of poker," is fast-paced, high-stakes and a lot of fun.
"I like the skill it takes and the money," said Connell, adding the biggest pot he's played for was about $320. He said Texas Hold 'Em is distinctive for "the amount of times you can bet, and more chips can change hands."
Lipscomb is confident Texas Hold 'Em's popularity is more than just a passing fad.
"Most trends or fads come from nowhere and go to nowhere. I can't believe that will be the case with poker," Lipscomb said.
"This is a game that people have been playing for a long, long time. We've just taken the great American card game and combined it with the most powerful medium."