Texas Hold ’em lucky for casinos in Atlantic City

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This article was published 13/09/2004 (7673 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ATLANTIC CITY — If you want to play in a Texas Hold ’em poker tournament in Atlantic City, get in line.

Literally. Get in line.

The gambling public’s appetite for the game is so ravenous that the major Atlantic City casino poker rooms are holding daily tournaments and, in some cases, turning away would-be Chris Moneymakers by the score. Moneymaker was the 27-year-old Tennessee accountant who went from poker unknown to a $2.5-million US winner in the 2003 World Series of Poker. It was his improbable feat, televised dozens of times on ESPN, that helped make Texas Hold ’em the hottest thing going in a casino.

“We’re scrambling to hire as many (poker dealers) as we can,” said Tom Gitto, manager of the Trump Taj Mahal Hotel Casino’s poker room. “It started in February with 50 people (wanting to play in tournaments), then 60 and 100, now the lines are outside the door… Some people don’t even know the name of the game. They say, ‘I want to play that game I see on ESPN.’ ”

The Taj Mahal has Atlantic City’s largest poker room and plans to add 12 more to its 68 tables.

The Taj holds No-Limit Texas Hold ’em tournaments all week, ranging from a $50 US buy-in plus a $15 fee to a $200 buy-in and $25 fee. As a rule, the higher the buy-in, the bigger the payoff. In tournaments, the buy-in money is returned to the highest-finishing players as prizes, and the fees are kept by the casino for dealing the game.

On weekends, the Taj Mahal holds preliminary events, called satellites, in which players can win entry into the Taj Mahal’s premier poker tournament of the year, the United States Poker Championship. If players want to buy their way into the final U.S. Poker Championship, the combined buy-in and entry fee is $10,000 US.

The tournament, run much like the poker World Series in Las Vegas, is actually a series of events featuring various poker styles, such as seven-card stud and Omaha, and buy-in amounts as low as $300. The USPC will be held Sept. 20 to Oct. 8, and of the 16 tournaments, 10 including the championship will be Texas Hold ’em games. The 2003 USPC had 100 players, with the winner collecting $388,000 US. This year, Gitto expects the field to triple and produce a $1-million first-place prize.

Atlantic City’s newest hotel casino, the Borgata in the Marina District, holds No-Limit Texas Hold ’em tournaments most days, with buy-ins that range from $40 to $200, plus entry fees. And like the Taj Mahal, the Borgata has its own mega-tournament , the Borgata Poker Open, which begins today and continues until Sept. 22 (satellites start earlier), with a final event that’s a stop on the World Poker Tour, a televised series of high-stakes tournaments on the Travel Channel.

The poker explosion has prompted the Borgata to draft plans to triple the number of poker tables (there are 34 now) as part of an expansion that is to break ground at the end of this year and is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2006. The $200-million addition will also include more restaurants, table games and slots.

Bob Boughner, the Borgata’s chief executive officer, said his casino’s poker business had doubled from a year ago, and that he expected the trend to continue. The Borgata hopes to capture a younger clientele, and Texas Hold ’em, a game that appeals to the under-30 crowd, apparently fits the marketing strategy.

“What we’ve brought is a level of energy the (Atlantic City) market hasn’t seen in 20 years, and poker was a critical part of that,” Boughner said.

Even before tournament poker reached a fever pitch, the Tropicana Casino in Atlantic City was offering a regular schedule of events. Currently the second-largest poker room in town with 42 tables, the Tropicana is running daily No-Limit Hold ’em tournaments, with buy-ins ranging from $20 to $100. The Trop has other styles of poker tournaments, but the Hold ’em variety has overtaken the old East Coast standby, seven-card stud.

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The U.S. State Department might frown on Americans visiting Cuba these days, but the Tropicana will roll back the clock to pre-Castro days when it opens The Quarter, a $250-million US complex of 42 retail stores, restaurants, lounges and entertainment attractions, in mid-October.

Connected to the Tropicana’s casino but also accessible from a new parking garage, The Quarter reflects Havana in the 1950s, and among the new dining spots will be Cuba Libre Restaurant and Rum Bar.

Putting its own stamp on the Old Havana theme, Cuba Libre will have a marquee that includes a red-white-and-blue 1951 Buick Super Convertible, representative of some of the last American cars imported to the island before the Communist revolution. Many of those Detroit classics are still being used as taxis there.

Along with traditional Cuban dishes, Cuba Libre will offer the latest fashion drink, the Mojito — a blend of rum, a mintlike herb, sugar-cane juice, fresh lime, and club soda. After dining hours, Cuba Libre will present Latin-flavoured floor shows, including salsa dance lessons.

— The Philadelphia Inquirer