Poker tournaments

For years, poker was relegated to smoky back rooms. However, today the game is booming, and massive poker rooms now take center stage in the nation’s biggest casinos. When you look at all the different casino card games, poker is clearly the hottest game in town. Television has elevated poker champions Phil Hellmuth Jr., Annie Duke, and Doyle Brunson into cult figures as admired as rock stars. And not just in the United States. Their fame is so far reaching that some foreign fans are virtually ready to bestow royalty status on poker celebs.

The poker bug bites nearly everyone, from Spiderman to Baptist ministers, who practice their skills with the shades drawn. Flip through your cable channels on any given night, and you’re apt to run across more than one televised poker tournaments airing simultaneously-from the World Series of Poker to celebrity tournaments featuring Hollywood stars to the dazzling glitz of the World Poker Tour. And to punctuate just how popular the game has become, poker chips are now a favorite Christmas gift for men (and even women).