Fox Sports Net to Televise Sands Tournament

The soaring growth of poker's popularity is becoming old (yet wonderful) news on these pages. Casinos are jammed, the Internet is booming, poker book sales are going through the roof, and tournaments are getting so big that serious changes may become necessary.

Just recently, Fox Sports Net announced, along with the Sands Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, that it will be televising the championship event of the Showdown at the Sands: The Million Dollar Deal poker tournament.

This is particularly important on several fronts. Fox Sports Net gets poker one step closer to major network TV. Additionally, this not only is the Sands' first major tournament, it is guaranteeing $1 million to the winner.

Furthermore, this is not just one of those one- or two-hour special productions, but one of six hours, and it will be televised twice on Thanksgiving Day, at 12:30 p.m. EST and 8:30 p.m. EST. Not being a TV expert, I am not sure exactly what this means, but I assume it means that Fox Sports Net plans on really getting involved.

If you want to play in the championship event, register now or you may get shut out. The Sands has room to accommodate only 250 players. A year ago, that number would have been an unbelievable stretch, but not these days.

The recent World Poker Tour events at Borgata, The Bicycle Casino, and UltimateBet drew fields far beyond expectations. In its first year, Borgata had 235 entrants, The Bicycle Casino grew from 134 to 309, and UltimateBet, which had 100 in 2002, had a goal of 150 players in 2003 and ended up with more than 430. Plus, it was held in Aruba, and I assure you there were no drop-ins. And UltimateBet is so confident that it announced a $4 million guarantee for 2004. I guess it's taking over the entire island.

There is no telling how huge the next WPT event, at Foxwoods, will end up being. The Foxwoods poker room has been jammed all year, satellites have been huge, and rooms are hard to come by already.

Getting back to the Sands, there are still some rooms left at very attractive low prices. CardPlayer newsletter subscribers even get an additional $10 off nightly. Be sure to ask for it, and e-mail us ([email protected]) your e-mail address so that we can confirm it with them.

An even more exciting package for a total of $500 plus the buy-in includes a free hotel room in the Sands' bigger, better rooms (a $500 value itself), access to the Players Club lounge (this cannot be bought, as it is for high rollers only), round-trip limousine service (I just paid $290 round-trip from the Philadelphia airport), and a gourmet dinner hosted personally by Carl Icahn. This dinner event will definitely be on TV. And world-class pros will be offering personal strategy tips prior to Icahn's dinner. You can charge the entire deal, including your $10,200 buy-in, over the phone to your VISA card.