Tournament Travel
By Debbie Burkhead

Traveling from one poker tournament to another can sometimes become overwhelming. Moving to Las Vegas was a decision I made which enabled me to be around poker on a 24-hour a day basis without traveling back and forth the 2700 miles from my home in Silver Spring, Maryland. Another advantage was not having to travel to most of the major tournaments that I was interested in, because they all were in Las Vegas.

When I arrived in Las Vegas, over 5 years ago, the Mirage was where the action was for high-limit poker games. A short three years later the Bellagio took over as the only high-limit poker house. Along with being able to play live seven-card stud ($10-$20 and up) 24-hours a day, major tournaments were held about every month to six weeks in Las Vegas. The evolution of tournaments from “lots” to “lack thereof in Vegas versus the “lack of” to “lots” in Reno, is a surprising turn of events.

Let’s go back about five years and take a look at how many poker tournaments were available to choose from in Las Vegas. The beginning of the year started with the highly successful “Carnivale of Poker” held at the Rio, followed by the successful “Queens Poker Classic” in March at the Four Queens, next came the most prestige of all tournaments, the “World Series of Poker” held at the world famous Binion’s Horseshoe. In the middle of the summer we were graced with the “Orleans Open” held, of course at the Oleans Hotel & Casino. Then in 1998 the Orleans, along with the help of Mike Sexton followed the Open with the birth of the “Tournament of Champions.”

With a few months gap before the next tournament in 1997 I was instrumental in developing the “Showboat Spectacular” which was to take place in September. It was to be the first non-smoking tournament in Las Vegas and the Showboat Hotel and Casino was to be the host. At the time Nick Gullo (now the General Director of Casino Europa in Costa Rica) was the General Manager and very pro poker. Nick, Tom McEvoy and myself worked literally for months to promote the “Showboat Spectacular” only to have it ripped from us six weeks before it’s debut. To make a long story short, Harrah’s bought the Showboat, Nick resigned, and Tom and I soon found out, that Harrahs was not poker friendly. The time slot was not filled and the next tournament on the Vegas Tournament Trail, schedule for November was the “Hall of Fame” hosted, once again, by Binion’s Horseshoe. That rounded out the year and all total we were to have seven major tournaments, allowing us a poker tournament approximately every two months.

That folks, was just three short years ago. Over the last three years we have lost the “Queen’s Classic,” the “Hall of Fame,” the “Carnivale”, and there was a lot of talk about the “Orleans Open” bowing out, and my guess, without Mike Sexton and the lead-in Orleans Open, there won’t be much of a “Tournament of Champions.” So if my calculations are correct, we could be down to ONE major tournament next year -- the “World Series of Poker,” and rumors are, that there is a possibility that it may not happen ... so all the perfect planning on my part didn’t last as long as I’d hoped -- life and poker tournaments are a state of change!

Now, five years later, rather than the convenience of living in Las Vegas, I find myself having to travel to; California, Tunica, Mississippi, Reno, Costa Rica, and Atlantic City. We need to get poker tournament competition back to Las Vegas where they originated (so I won’t have to travel as much).

Reno is fast becoming the tournament capital of Nevada because of pro-poker people like Mike Gainey at the Reno Hilton, Charlie Bates and Billie V. at the Peppermill, and Joe Bennett at Boomtown. Mike is hosting the largest buy-in tournament to hit Reno in the last decade, this January. His “World Poker Challenge” will also make history by being the first non-smoking tournament in Reno. We can all help Mike and all other tournament friendly poker room managers by using our Player Tracking Cards (see Susie Isaacs article) when we visit their establishments. This system could also be instrumental in bringing poker tournaments back to Las Vegas.

Update: According to my personal informant, the word is, the Orleans Open stands a 95% chance of taking place -- that’s a pretty good bet.