Football, Poker Converge in Tom Elias Fantasy Football Kickoff Poker Event

America's two favorite sports, football and poker, came together for the first time recently at the Tom Elias Fantasy Football Poker Championship at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas.

Fantasy sports league wagering is an estimated $3 billion industry, attracting an estimated 15 million die-hard, statistically obsessed fans. For years, groups of armchair athletes have been setting up leagues and building fantasy teams made up of real players in football, baseball, and basketball, and making bets on which team piles up the highest stats.

The industry really took off when web sites began compiling statistics automatically. With the Internet, fans can now compete with everyone else around the world. ESPN, Yahoo!, and CBS Sportsline are only a few of the many web sites that offer various services, and report on trades, injuries, and other statistics.

Las Vegas is one of three cities, along with New York and Chicago, where fans converge annually to bid on players they want to draft for their teams. An estimated 3,000-4,000 came to Vegas in early September for that draft.

Enter Tom Elias, a poker industry veteran who was co-director of the World Series of Poker from 1999 to 2001. He organized the first poker tournament for Fantasy Football players on Sept. 10. The $150 buy-in no-limit hold'em event was limited to 120 players because it was put together hurriedly, and that was all they had room for in the Nugget's poker room.

However, Elias sees this venture, which would include basketball, baseball, and perhaps blackjack, exploding into huge national tournaments with prize pools of anywhere from $250,000 to $1 million each.

For his first Fantasy Football event, Elias tabbed the "Silver Eagle," veteran tournament director and close friend Bob Thompson, to run things.

The players had a rousing good time and the final table attracted a goodly crowd of spectators, mostly friends and wives, but it was quickly obvious that this tournament was not exactly World Series caliber. Most of the players making the final table were beginners, or at best had a little low-stakes home-game experience or a small taste of online gaming.

The winner was John Friedline, a litigation attorney from Atlanta, Georgia, who is the commissioner of his local Fantasy Football league. His total poker experience: one month playing limit hold'em online, and that was just to prepare himself for this tournament.

He came to the final table with a huge chip lead with $95,300, nearly a third of the chips in play, which he said he had built up gradually. Once there, he caught cards, or at least better cards than his opponents, and pretty much ran over everyone. When the tournament got fourhanded, he had something like $225,000 of the $300,000 in play. The other three players conceded first place to him and agreed to chop the remaining prize pool, playing one showdown hand to make it official. Friedline also played in the showdown hand, even though he had first place locked up, and proceeded to make the best hand and theoretically knock out all three remaining players.

Each player started with $2,500 in chips. When the final table assembled, the blinds were $1,500-$3,000 with $300 antes, playing 20-minute rounds. There were a couple of all-in drawouts (J-9 beating pocket queens and 6-5 beating a paired ace) before the first player went out on hand No. 11. Paul Verbesey of Boston, another lawyer, went all in from the button for $2,000 with 8-3 and lost when Mark Behrens, with K-5, flopped a king.

A few hands later, with $500 antes and $2,500-$5,000 blinds, there was three-way action. Jim Weston, who runs an engineering company, was all in for $4,000 with pocket treys. Friedline beat the Texan by flopping a 6 to his Q-6. However, with more than $100,000 in the pot, Friedline, raising to $20,000 on the river, failed to put the third player, Ted Cohan, all in for just $1,000 more and knock him out, too. No problem. Friedline finished him on the next hand by flopping a 5 to his 8-5 to beat Cohan's A-3 suited. Cohan, who finished eighth, is a portfolio manager in Washington state.

Painting company owner Tom Consiglio went out on hand No. 18 with Q-6 when Behrens, with the 10 6, made a flush. Just two hands later, two players were all in, Brian Elder with 9-9 and Charles Russell (playing hold'em for the first time) with K-J, against Behrens with Q-4. Nobody helped, Elder doubled up, and Russell finished sixth.

Hand No. 21 was the clincher. Russell and law student Michael Cuellar were both short-stacked, and both put their remaining chips in, Russell with Q-6 and Cuellar with Q-9. Friedline had them both covered many times over, holding pocket jacks. He flopped a set and filled on the river, Cuellar, from Roseland, New Jersey, had more chips and finished fifth, while Russell, from Seattle, finished sixth.

Now came the unusual concession and the four-way showdown hand. David Hubbard pushed in with 7-5, Behrens with 8-4, and Elder with K-J, while Friedline went along for the ride with A-2. The board came A-8-7-3-J and that was it. Hubbard, of Houston, Texas, had the most chips and technically finished second. Elder, of Denver, Colorado, was third, and Behrens, of Rochester, New York, was fourth. The entire final table took but 22 hands – counting the showdown.

Elder, who came to the final table with the most bounties, also won the surprise gift of a TV/DVD/etc. player.

Complete results were as follows:

1. John Friedline, Atlanta, GA – $6,660

2. David Hubbard, Houston, TX – 3,960

3. Mark Behrens, Rochester, NY – 2,160

4. Brian Elder, Denver, CO – 1,395

5. Michael Cuellar, Roseland, NJ – 1,035

6. Charles Russell, Seattle, WA – 855

7. Tom Consiglio, Detroit, MI – 675

8. Ted Cohan, Walla, Walla, WA – 540

9. Jim Weston, Austin, TX – 450

10. Paul Verbesey, Boston, MA – 270