Free poker tournaments prove popular at local bars

Colorado -- It's nearing 4 o'clock on a Sunday afternoon and Bob Seger's "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man" blares through the speakers in the lounge at the Boulder Broker Inn. But the lounge's dance floor is empty; the mirrored disco light hanging overhead is still.

Focus your gaze past the dance floor and the song makes sense. That's where a green gleam reflects off several poker tables, each neatly stocked with playing cards and poker chips.

Soon several people mingling at the bar on the other side of the room make their way toward the tables, find a seat and begin a night of friendly — and free — Texas Hold 'Em poker.

Thirty minutes into the first game, there's a bustle at one of the tables. It catches the attention of everyone in the room.

"Are you out?" shouts one player. He directs the query toward Becca Korn, who's standing with a chagrined look on her face.

Korn, it turns out, didn't last long on this particular Sunday. But that's a rarity for the 21-year-old player, who often ends up playing the final hands of a local poker tournament. Her early ouster earns her some good-natured ribbing.

The Broker tournament ends around 10 p.m. It's a weekly event, and many of the same players will be back at the tables tonight. Some may find themselves at one of the other 24 weekly games put on by Boulder Poker Tournaments in Boulder County later in the week.

Korn figures she plays bar poker four times a week, and sits in at private house games another two or three times a week.

"I like the ones in Boulder because I know everyone here," says Korn, a sociology major at the University of Colorado.

Tom Roe, also a 21-year-old CU student, likes the social aspect of the Boulder poker scene, as well.

"It takes you different places, and there are cool people," he says. "And it's free. ... The best price in town."

Lafayette resident James Maxwell started Boulder Poker Tournaments last year. Maxwell retired from his job as the state's notary administrator three years ago, and spends his time these days running the poker tournament company and acting in local theater. He's currently playing the lead role in the Upstart Crow Theatre Company's production of "Tartuffe" at Boulder's Dairy Center for the Arts.

In the past six months, BPT has become almost the only free game in town. Some local establishments run their own free poker tournaments, but BPT is the only poker tournament company currently operating in Boulder County.

Maxwell thinks poker's popularity has risen in recent years because sports stations like ESPN and Fox Sports Net now televise poker tournaments.

"People see so much poker on TV, they want to find out about it — they want to play," he says.

In addition to the Broker, BPT runs weekly games at the Foundry, Johnny's Cigar Bar and Thunderbird Burgers & BBQ on the Hill in Boulder. Dillinger's (Lafayette), Helmet's (Firestone), Miners Tavern (Erie), Group Therapy (Longmont) and 4th and Main (Longmont) also host BPT tourneys.

BPT charges each bar a flat fee of $160 per night, which includes two three-hour games. The tournament company provides the tables, cards, chips and registration materials, and someone to run the individual tournament.

Bars like hosting the tournament because they bring in customers.

"They've upped our bar business a lot," says Danette Randall, sales and marketing manager at the Broker.

Bars not only make revenue from the poker players, who may purchase drinks and food during a night's stay at the poker table, but a busy bar tends to attract more business, she says.

"When people walk in and they see there's a lot of people, they tend to stay, whereas if they go into a bar that doesn't have a lot of people, they tend to go somewhere else," Randall says.

Jeremy Ogden, general manager at Johnny's Cigar Bar, concurs. Johnny's is the most popular tourney in Boulder, drawing close to a capacity 50 players per game on Wednesdays.

"I love what it does for our business. We have a good experience with it," Ogden says. "For a normal bar scene, the number of bad apples is really low. It's poker and it's competitive, so sometimes they storm out when they lose. But they're always back for the second game."

The tournaments are open to anyone 21 and older, and according to Maxwell, as many as 350 players participate in one of the 14 tournaments each week. He has a contact list of roughly 900 who have played at some point over the past year. The fact that there is no entry fee attracts players.

"Players never have to pay," says Maxwell, 58. "In fact, they're not allowed to pay at a bar, otherwise it would be considered a casino."

But players can and do win. The host bar offers a gift certificate — usually a $20 bar tab — for the winner of each tournament, and half that for the winner of the consolation game.

Using a point system, BPT keeps track of each individual player's cumulative tally and awards much bigger cash prizes at the end of each month, and each quarter. Between nightly bar prizes and monthly and quarterly competition prizes awarded by BPT, Maxwell estimates there's roughly $50,000 to be won in the coming year.

The winner of the first quarter of BPT competition in 2007 was given $2,000, which he used to enter the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.

The sharper players don't mind taking a novice or two under their wings, either, Ogden says. He hadn't played much poker when he sat in on a few games earlier this year.

"The more experienced players who actually play for money elsewhere were super helpful," Ogden says. "They're always ready to give you advice. I ended up winning one of the tournaments because everyone helped me so much. Beginner's luck — it was actually the first time I played. But it was because everybody was so nice and cool about it."

Korn figures there are fewer than 10 regular female players who play the BPT tourneys. She says being a female player in a male-dominated endeavor has its drawbacks and its plus side, too. She's endured some catcalls, but she's also taken advantage of some preconceived notions coming from her competitors along the way.

"They think that I don't know how to play," Korn says.

Be warned: She knows how. Korn took home the $150 grand prize by winning October's monthlong competition.

News Added: 24 November, 2007

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