Casino news source: The Sun Herald - http://www.sunherald.com/
WORLD POKER TOUR PRELIMINARIES
Power poker
By TOM WILEMON
BILOXI - The IP Casino made history Friday when it began hosting the Coast's first poker circuit tournament.
From now until Oct. 29, players will vie for the first prize and a seat at the World Poker Tour Championship Event in Las Vegas. This is the tour featured Wednesday nights on the Travel Channel. It is a joint venture of Hall of Fame poker player Lyle Berman, one of the founders of Grand Casinos, and television creator and filmmaker Steven Lipscomb.
Lee Bond, IP's director of financial planning and analysis, helped set up the tournament through contacts at Lakes Entertainment, another casino company founded by Berman where Bond previously worked.
"I called and asked what the possibility of getting a World Poker Tour event at Biloxi would be," Bond said. "Two hours later, we had people at the World Poker Tour excited about coming to Biloxi."
Jacob Markowitz of Biloxi, who has been playing in poker tournaments for the past three years, sat out the action on Friday but was sponsoring another player. He said he planned to get into the game today. He said he expected the games to average about eight hours.
The World Poker Tour is a different circuit than the World Series of Poker, which is owned by Harrah's Entertainment. Grand Casino Biloxi was scheduled to host a World Series of Poker tournament this year. That would have been the Coast's first poker circuit event, but it was canceled because of Hurricane Katrina. |
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