The latest up and coming poker TV show actually seems interesting.

Per the shows (relatively undeveloped) website:

The Small Town Poker Tour is as simple as the title states, blend everyday people with the exciting game of Texas Hold'em, a winning combination.The tour is set to travel the USA in search of the best amature player in America, along the way featuring a unique blend of characters that make for some very exciting action.

Although I do not know all of the specifics, the show's concept is brilliant. I think TV concentrated way to much on high stakes, big money tournaments which are great for the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, but it has left untouched the amateur side of poker. Its nice to see the big guys get schooled a couple times or makes some fantastic plays, but I find it infinately more appealing to watch a guy hone his skills and then deliver an old fashioned whoopin' to the pros.

Small Town Poker, while it doesn't trace a player from beginner to pro, does at least show the ameteur side of poker where a large majority of players find themselves. I really hope that this series takes off.

For those of you that are interested, the first states to be featured are New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusets, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.

Poker players wanting to take part show should go to www.smalltownpokertour.com, call 570-204-7983, or e-mail info@smalltownpokertour.com.

A couple years ago, reality was the magic word for any successful TV show as well as a score of other crappy ones. It seems that the new TV catch phrase is POKER.

Patterned after the Travel Channel's World Poker Tour, Game Show Network's new lineup includes, take a guess, a poker show. Titled "Poker Royale: The WPPA Championship", the show will be a six part series taped at the Orleans Hotel and Casino in Vegas. The first episode will be aired on Tuesday, December 7 at 9:00 p.m ET/PT.

For those who are wondering, WPPA stands for World Poker Players Association which, according to CNN Money (which we all know is the pillar of poker legitimacy), includes Chris Moneymaker, Carlos Mortensen and Kathy Liebert. If you haven't heard of it, don't feel bad, its actually a relatively new organization created in March 2004.

To the show's credit, there is an interesting twist. I'm feeling lazy so I will let CNN Moneyexplain:

The show also includes other highly skilled players, and will feature an added bonus -- the chance for the tournament champ and a GSN viewer to split an additional $10 million grand prize in the final episode. During the telecast of the final episode on January 11, the winner will be dealt five cards, if it's a full house or better, the player and the sweepstakes winner will split $10 million dollars.

To those of you who are wondering, the odds of that happening are about 590 to 1.

As a sidenote, Poker Royale's sponsor is Pizza Hut. Each episode, it will sponsor the "Full House" poker tip of the day which fits conviently with the name of its new pizza, the "Full House XL Pizza(TM)" and makes the full house requirement for the 10 million giveway less arbitrary (I mean come on, who would order the XL straight or XL Flush pizza?). So, if anybody cracked a joke about Corperate America jumping on the poker bandwagon only to be laughed at, make sure to rub this in.

Reading through the Austin American-Statesman this morning (yeah, I'm a nerd get over it) I found this from two weeks ago (Sunday, Nov. 14th):

The poker players had resumed their game at the East Austin apartment complex when four masked men walked in.

The robbers stole the $1,000 prize money and about $1,000 more from the victims, Rodriguez said.

(Read the full article here)

I had been told that something like this had happened, but I had never been able to confirm it. In all honesty though, I'm not suprised that something like this would happen. In fact, I am surprised that this is the first time. To so many people, poker games have this image that they all have piles of cash lying around, an image not helped by TV tournaments where an incredible amount of cash is dumped on the table. Unfortuantly, as these guys found out, and as many of us know, most of the home games played have pots hardly worth the effort. Think about, two grand split four ways isn't that much money. Committing that kind of crime for that small of an ammount is like playing strip solitaire, it just doesn't make sense. If you are going to risk that much, there are so many better options/targets.

Anyways ... note to self: If running a poker tournament, make sure to have some security.

Hopefully this was the last time this type of thing happens, but I doubt it.

Are you a problem gambler? Problem solved .... well online at least. A new program called GamBlock prevents access to all online gambling websites and programs.

From the designer's website (www.gamblock.com):

GamBlock prevents a Personal Computer linking to Internet Gambling, wagering and betting sites.

It runs on Windows operating systems.

The personal version is $29.95.
The corperate version is 34.95 for a single license but there are discounts for the more that you buy.

Massive props to David Warr, the guy who created the program. The idea is fantastic. Even with the young age group that I usually associate with, I have already heard way to many stories of lives ruined because of gambling problems. While the program cannot stop people from going to casinos and emptying the ATMs, it at least cuts out the most accessible form of gambling for those who need a little help in setting limits.

Additionally, the way the program reacts when a user tries to access a gambling site is genius. If the user does not immediately close out the gambling site, GamBlock gives the user 60 seconds (a countdown is displayed) to exit the program before it shuts off the computer. Its like a virtual spanking and I kind of like it!

Outside of personal use, GamBlock also offers corperations and governmental entities like libraries and schools the ability to prevent thier computers from being used for gambling. I don't know much about the legal issues surrounding online gambling, but I think this may be an answer to some of the arguments against online gambling. If anyone has more in-depth knowledge (or any knowledge for that matter) about any legal ramifications this program may have or core legal issues surrounding this topic, feel free to leave a comment.

As I am sure you have noticed, its been a long time since my last post. I promise you there are really good reasons for it ... well just one actually, but it is still a really good reason: COLLEGE!

The last couple of months have been increibly busy. For anyone in UT's McCombs School of Business, I am sure you know about all the group projects (11 over 4 weeks). Those alone were enough to eat up all of my free time, but for some reason I felt the need to give myself an ulcer. Trying to hold down a job, volunteer with the Austin ACLU and the Make-A-Wish foundation and pull down straight A's again have left little, wait scratch that, no time for poker let alone sleeping, eating, and women (the girlfriend has been mad at me for that one).

Anyways, being done with the majority of my group projects, expect more activity, a lot more activity on the site. Maybe, it will include a lot of stories about me making amazing reads and pulling down big pots with the occasional off the wall comment about something poker related. Thats a big maybe though ...

For those of you who do not watch CNN 24 hours a day, Steve Lipscomb, the president of WPT Enterprises was on CNN's The Money Gang. While the interview itself was kind of boring, he introduces the concept of a poker Christmas.

And sitting here, one of the things we`re pretty excited about is that it`s going to be a poker Christmas, thanks to all of the television exposure that we`ve given poker. And we have a number of things that are out in the marketplace right now. We`ve got these amazing chips going on are unlike any poker set you`ve ever seen before. They`re in Sam`s Club and are going as quickly as any hot item you`ve ever seen. And this little baby actually took the place of "Spider-Man" as far as jack specific promoting it simply because it was doing so well, they pushed "Spider-Man" aside and the two products that they`re promoting this year now, this Christmas season, are going to be us and the "Star Wars" brand. Not bad.

The sad thing is that its true. Step aside Spiderman, little Timmy is going to get a $150 set of poker chips so he can gamble away his allowance.

At any rate, the popularity of poker is great for those who have been with the activity since before it was televised. Ain't nothing better than those crazy kids who just love pushing their newly bought chip stacks into the pot.

The extended entry includes the entire interview.

Investors appear to be going all in since WPT Enterprises IPOed on August 10th. It`s shares are up nearly 62 percent since then. The company produces the "World Poker Tour" television program which airs on the Travel Channel.

For more on what`s behind the company`s success, we bring in Steve Lipscomb. He is the president of WPT Enterprises. He joins us from Los Angeles.

Steve, good to have you with us.

STEVE LIPSCOMB, PRESIDENT, WPT ENTERPRISES: Good day, Pat.

KIERNAN: Quite a performance as far as the stock investors obviously finding some value in this company and really getting caught up in what has captured the imagination of the nation. This has come out of nowhere the past few years, as you know. What makes it a business that people want to invest in?

LIPSCOMB: Look, I tell you, it`s a pretty easy formula, if you ask me. And that is, if you had had a chance to invest in the early stages of the NBA or the NFL, you`d be doing pretty well today. Pretty much for the first time in the history of televised sports entertainment you had a chance to invest in the naissant stages of an emerging legitimate sports league. And I think that captures the imagination of the investing public.

KIERNAN: And what exactly do you own here? Because some of these tournaments existed prior to your involvement, right?

LIPSCOMB: Basically, we rolled them up into this thing called the "World Poker Tour," established 10-year exclusive relationships really with the best in class casinos out there that were doing poker and rolled it up into this thing call the "World Poker Tour" that now runs year-round, we`ll have $70 million in prize money and gives people a chance to touch the one great sport now that they can come play in.

KIERNAN: All right, you answered one of my questions as far as the length of the relationship on the side of the tournaments. The other side is the distribution. You`ve had a good partnership with the Travel Channel. Is that distribution locked up for some period of time to ensure investors that you`re going to be able to continue to put this program on the air?

LIPSCOMB: The great thing about our relationship and partnership with the Travel Channel is that we are their biggest thing. I mean, if you look at the great cable success stories out there, they include "South Park" for Comedy Central. We`re the tent pole for the Travel Channel. So they will want to keep us around as long as they possibly can and our relationship to date has been such that that`s a great thing for us and for our investors.

KIERNAN: Where do you go from here? Is the growth international? Is there perhaps a move to network television that works out for you?

LIPSCOMB: Look, I`ve got to tell you, we just launched something called the "Professional Poker Tour." And what the PPT is, is one of the next new steps for us. So we have a league that anyone can come play in. Now we have just taken again the first big step in creating a professional league. So you have to establish your credentials to get in and that will go on the Travel Channel or somewhere else. We`re negotiating with a number of networks. And then we`re going to be in 30 to 40 countries next year with the "World Poker Tour" television show. So all of those markets, we have the possibility of taking our brand and monetizing it across really the entire globe now. So where we were when we launched the IPO this summer has really come to a whole new place today. So we think the future is extremely bright.

KIERNAN: I want to come back again to this idea of what`s proprietary. And you`ve got the long-term contracts as far as the distribution and with the tournaments themselves. What about the players? Would they be free to go to a competitor?

LIPSCOMB: Really trying to make poker players exclusive would be like trying to herd cats. The great thing about these sports that the "World Poker Tour" has established that you can watch every Wednesday night on the Travel Channel at 9:00 in primetime. The great thing about this sport is, it`s not really restricted to players and that allows for events - we just did an event that had 89 players in it two years ago, now its got 674 with a prize pool of $7 million. So really what the great thing about poker is anybody can play and we manage to have a whole new set of stories show up to every final table.

KIERNAN: Steve, it`s certainly an interesting competition to watch. The camera work, of course, the first time we saw that sort of broadcast with the embedded cameras, you really get a sense for the game. What is it that has really captured the imagination of Americans who may have played poker but never thought of it this way?

LIPSCOMB: Look, you know, this is the great American card game. And we`ve been playing it for hundreds of years in this country. And, really, from the firehouse to the halls of the Supreme Court, people play regular games of poker. The great thing is now, finally, the "World Poker Tour" found a way to translate it into great TV. So you feel like you`re sitting in the chair making a million dollar decision on every hand. Now, that`s just the best kind of reality television you can get.

And sitting here, one of the things we`re pretty excited about is that it`s going to be a poker Christmas, thanks to all of the television exposure that we`ve given poker. And we have a number of things that are out in the marketplace right now. We`ve got these amazing chips going on are unlike any poker set you`ve ever seen before. They`re in Sam`s Club and are going as quickly as any hot item you`ve ever seen. And this little baby actually took the place of "Spider-Man" as far as jack specific promoting it simply because it was doing so well, they pushed "Spider-Man" aside and the two products that they`re promoting this year now, this Christmas season, are going to be us and the "Star Wars" brand. Not bad.

KIERNAN: Steve, good to have you with us today. Thank you.

LIPSCOMB: It`s a pleasure. Thank you, Pat.

KIERNAN: Steve Lipscomb with the "World Poker Tour," the president of WPT Enterprises.