There was more positive PR for poker this week when the Boston Herald
commented that the game might well be the new bingo among the young
fund-raising set, and that legions of followers from grandpas to teenagers
were enjoying the game.
The report quoted WPT CEO Steve Lipscomb in estimating the number
of regular players at a whopping ``50 to 80 million''
- between home, online and casino games and revealed that last week
in Massachusetts alone, 100 home games were listed on Homepokergames.com,
a site connecting players with local games.
Nearby Foxwoods Resort Casino, in Mashantucket, Conn., reports a poker-revenue
leap of 60 percent over last year, with ``almost half the table
under 30 (years old),'' according to poker-operations director
Kathy Raymond.
But now there's a new twist to the trend, claims the Herald: Charity
poker tournaments, run by 20- and 30-somethings, champion everything
from high school track teams to religious groups to foundations for
diabetes and multiple sclerosis.
"My dad does a lot of charity work, and I see that it's
very fulfilling for him,'' said Dracut's Craig Chemaly, 25,
a legislative assistant who plays Texas Hold 'Em five times a week,
mostly online. "I wondered: How can I combine that (feeling)
on a constant basis with something that I love?'' The answer
was simple: Start a company that plans and runs charity poker tournaments.
Chemaly could handle the business side but he needed a seasoned pro
to host the games. So through the Internet newsgroup rec.gambling.poker,
he contacted Roslindale's Ashley Adams, author of the 2003 book 'Winning
7-Card Stud.' Adams is the ``poker guru of Boston,'' according to
a north-of-Boston player named Justin, 30.
Chemaly and Adams' month-old business, called Raise It Up, already
has four clients, including the Ayer Rotary Club, which plans a $75
buy-in event for 144 people next month to benefit the Loaves &
Fishes food pantry, according to ex-Rotary Club president Christopher
Lilly, 38. That and other calls came after Adams served as emcee at
a tournament that raised $17,000 to benefit a Connecticut chapter
of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
"I'm not playing, but I'm winning,'' said Jason
Daloia, 32, of Stamford, Conn., a "huge fan of poker'' who organized
the MS event.
"If people who play poker on a regular basis gave even
one-tenth of 1 percent of what they wager - a tithe of a tithe of
a tithe - that would be at least $10 million a year,'' said
Adams, 47, who's raised as much as $3,000 at poker soirees at his
West Roxbury temple, Hillel B'nai Torah. "It would be good
for the game and good for the world.''
Watertown's Michael Zildjian, 30, agrees. Zildjian, like many poker
converts, is an avid watcher of ESPN's "World Series of Poker''
and Bravo's "Celebrity Poker Showdown'' as well as Lipscomb's
"World Poker Tour.'' He plays a few times a month with friends,
at casinos and often online to hone his skills - mostly at partypoker.com
and pokerstars.com.
Zildjian recently launched the Waltham-based poker-apparel business
GMY Co. The partners are trying to persuade the cultural center connected
to their church, St. Stephen's Armenian Apostolic in Watertown, to
hold regular Texas Hold 'Em charity tournaments, with a portion of
the entrance fees going directly to the facility. GMY would sell its
T-shirts and hats at the games and donate a portion of sales to the
center.
"Today Poker is the hottest emerging sport in the country,''
Lipscomb said. "The people standing around the rail watching
the event (used to be) that no-spring-chicken crowd. Now it's the
hippest, coolest crowd you can possibly imagine: male and female -
gorgeous.''