It's Poker Night at Many Bars in North Dakota

Doyle Brunson famously said that during his long poker career, he faced players he called "hometown heroes," players who happened to be the best in their hometown and wanted to take a shot at the big guns of Vegas. Now that poker has risen to become one of the most popular pastimes in America, Brunson and his fellow pros have had to shake off a few more hometown heroes in recent years, especially in major tournaments, thanks to an enormous system of both live and online satellites that allow players to win their way into the big tourneys, sometimes for nothing.

Regional poker leagues, where players play for free, have sprouted all across the country. They're held in bars and restaurants and attracts sponsors as big as Budweiser. Most of them conclude their "seasons" with prizes as large as entry into the World Series of Poker's main event. They give the hometown heroes who regularly attend the games hours of live tournament experience. And players don't even have even buy a drink if they don't want to.

For people who are thinking of starting a regional poker league, they might want to follow the model that Brook Lyter created when he founded his Free Poker Network in Fargo, North Dakota.

After less than a year, he runs two free poker leagues in North Dakota and Minnesota at bars and restaurants all across each state that attract somewhere in the neighborhood of 4,000 players each week. "It's been a heck of a year for us," Lyter said. "It sure has been a lot of fun. A lot of people have been very appreciative as far as organizing the events."

And because players aren't putting up a dime of their own money, the tournaments are perfectly legal under the state laws in Minnesota and North Dakota.

This fall in the Dakota League alone, there are individual leagues located in 36 different bars across the state. Each league has an average of 60 players who are all trying to accumulate enough points through 10 weeks of play to get to the regional playoffs and then hopefully to the state championship, and for a good reason.

The grand prize for the this season is a trip and entry fee to the World Poker Tour's PokerStars.com Caribbean Adventure that will be held in January in the Bahamas. The prize package is worth $10,000.

Each league has an individual leaderboard. Players earn points for each place they finish each week. When the dust settles at the end of the season, the winners of each weekly tournament and the players in the top 20 percent in points at each location move on to regional tournament. About 20 percent of the players from each regional tournament advance to the championship, where the WPT trip will be given away.

There are more rules – like the champion of the league gets a bye into the state championship – but that's essentially how it works. Players show up at the bars each week with the ultimate goal of winning the big trip in December. The state champion of the inaugural spring league won a an entry into the World Series of Poker's main event. Although the player didn't even make it through the first day, a least he has a good story. Phil Ivey knocked the guy out with a set.

The prizes are funded exclusively by money the bars pay Lyter's company to run and promote the tournaments. Although Lyter's looking for individual sponsors, he has none at the time. This is a case where the bars have picked up the tab to get people through their doors.

Because the players are playing for such a big prize, Lyter says many good players who would not normally play in a free poker league are signing up. "We've been very active trying to promote our players, give them a sense of excitement as far as playing for a goal," Lyter said. "This concept brings out good players."

Lyter is looking to expand to other states, but he's in no real hurry. The former bar owner wants to make sure all his ducks are in a row before expanding elsewhere. He learned very quickly how much work it takes to run the leagues.

"It's fairly involved. It's quite a task. I knew it was ambitious in the beginning, but I'm really happy with it," he said.

Lyter estimates that the number of leagues in North Dakota alone will double to about 100. If Lyter's estimate that an average of 60 people join each league is right, that means about 6,000 players will be venturing out into the frigid cold at least once a week to play some cards. Some players play in more than one league.

And for a good reason. Not one, but two trips to the World Series of Poker's main event will be given away this spring, one to the winner of a tournament made up of all the winners of the weekly tournaments, and another to the winner of a tournament filled with players who finished the season in the top fifth of their league's leaderboard.

There are worst ways to spend a winter night in North Dakota.

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