River Pointe charity poker tourney tonight

Georgia -- For the second time in three months, the River Pointe Golf Club will host a charity poker tournament for members and non-members.

There won’t be any millionaires made this evening, and ESPN won’t be hanging on the edge for every flop, turn and river, but one thing’s for sure about tonight’s Texas Hold’em charity poker tournament at River Pointe Golf Club: It’s gonna be fun.

“Not only are we doing something fun and raising money for local charities, but, hey, it’s something to do in Albany,” River Pointe head golf pro Buster Clark said of the club’s second event in three months. “The first one was a real big success, and we expect even more from this one.”

Fifty-one percent of the money raised tonight will go to several area charities, while the remaining will be split into a prize pool for the players, with top prize expected to be $1,000.

The field, meanwhile, is expected to swell to around 120 players or more after the turn out for the first event in November was equal to that, raising what Clark called a “good amount of money,” for local charities.

As for the format, the tournament is open to members of River Pointe and non-members, and the doors for the tournament will open at 6 p.m, with cards in the air by 7 p.m. The fee is $50 a player in advance (which can be done by calling the club today before the tournament begins), while the fee is $60 at the door. Each player will start with $5,000 in tournament chips and — should you find yourself victim to a questionable call by your opponent, who hits a three-out gutshot straight on the river — rebuys will be available for the first session of play, but only if you’ve dropped below $3,000 in chips. Rebuys during the first session are $50, although when that round ends, players can do what’s known as an “add-on,” — no matter your chip count — for $10 per every $1,000 chips.

“If you want, you can by $10,000 in (tournament) chips (for $100) at the add-on,” Clark said. “It’s just more money for charity.”

Marty and Michelle Bates, the Leesburg couple Clark approached about helping run the tournament after the Bates’ ran the initial event in November that benefitted Thronateeska, will once again take the reins of tonight’s festivities and say that ever since they started putting these types of charity functions on, the calendar is filling up.

“We’ve actually planned for two more coming up in the horizon,” said Marty, who credits explosion in popularity over the past few years to coverage of the World Series of Poker on ESPN, as well as the World Poker Tour, which is currently moving to GSN to tag-team with the wildly popular — and first cash poker game to ever be broadcast on TV, High Stakes Poker.

“The growing numbers of people who want to come to the tournaments is amazing. The first one we did last year had about 75 players, the second (at River Pointe) turned about 120. I wouldn’t be surprised if we beat that (tonight).”

And while only one person will walk away with the top prize of $1,000 — at the first tournament, local businessman Ken Drawdy took down the pot, while in November, youngster Robbie Spivey won it all — Clark said the tournament will pay several other places.

“It all depends on how many players we get,” said Clark, who expects the tournament’s final table to wrap around midnight.

But even the late-night action is sure to intrigue some, especially since there are no casinos in Georgia, and the closest poker room is 80 miles south at the Jefferson County Kennel Club in Monticello, Fla.

“It’s something people enjoy doing and have been doing for years, it just now gotten really popular,” Marty said. “And these folks who come out aren’t hard-core gamblers, there just some card players looking to play some cards, help out charity and have some fun.”

News Added: 24 January, 2008

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