A reality camp for poker players

Sports fantasy camps, where fans make the leap from easy chairs to practice and compete with former baseball and football stars, have been available as special vacation experiences for decades.

Enter the poker fantasy camp.

No, make that the poker reality camp because, in the words of poker professional Howard Lederer, "you get to compete with the guys who are doing it right now." Lederer, a poker champion and frequent player on the seemingly endless parade of televised poker tournaments, will hold his second poker camp March 31-April 3 in Las Vegas and expects to attract 400 to 600 participants.

Along with Lederer?a serious, contemplative competitor known as the Professor?poker stars instructing and playing at the camp will include his sister Annie Duke (the winner of $2 million in a TV showdown with several other pros) and Phil Gordon (cohost of a TV celebrity poker show). As campers play against the pros, the stars will offer tips and advice.

The four-day camp will cost $3,495, and include accommodations at a luxury Strip hotel, some meals, a Penn & Teller show, seminars, question-and-answer sessions, tournaments with tens of thousands of dollars in prize money at stake, and a banquet.

By Bill Ordine
Knight Ridder/Tribune

News Added: 13 March, 2005

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