Poker Hits Syndicated Television

The Plaza Hotel and Casino in Downtown Las Vegas has teamed up with a television production company to show poker on syndicated television. What does this mean? It means that poker will be shown on local channels throughout the country, and you won't need cable to watch it … just rabbit ears. Each Saturday and Sunday in September and October, players will try to qualify for the semifinals, which will be held Oct. 29-30. In the qualifying rounds, 40 percent of the prize pool is taken out and put in the championship event prize pool. Thus, the championship event will be big, and you won't be able to just show up and buy in, because only the top 100 players as determined by points will be invited to the semifinals.

You can watch the events on TV in your local area beginning the first week in September. This is a little different than most poker on TV. You could watch it in New York in September and still go to Las Vegas to qualify and end up competing against the players you watched in later weeks.

The point system works as follows: If you win an event, you get 100 points and an automatic entry into the semifinals. Each of the top 28 players per event gets points, no matter how many players there are. This makes it a lot easier if you play in the first few weeks before it makes TV and the word gets out to everyone. Once play gets to 28 players, it turns into sevenhanded tables from then on out. A player receives 20 points for reaching the fourth table, 30 points for reaching the third table, and 40 points for reaching the second table. Everyone at the final table receives at least 50 points and can get up to 100 points based on final-table performance. A player can also get 10 bonus points for being the chip leader when there are 28 players left or with seven players left.

The first week recently had 42 players on Saturday and 35 on Sunday. That wasn't bad considering that few people knew about it. I must say, it was fun and there was a lot of play. This was the easiest shot to make a television appearance that I know of. The first week's winners were Nick Bouyea and Erik Seidel. Las Vegas local Michael Ross, who is living the American dream (that is a story for another time), wanted to make it on TV so badly that he told me, "I had to put chasing girls and partying on hold for a weekend and see what this was all about." He finished third one day and made the show. Was it worth it, Mike?