Rio tournament shows gamblers love poker

Bob Shemeligian

Friday, Jan. 30, 1998 | 10:34 a.m.

When the chips were tallied last weekend, the Rio's first Carnivale of Poker tournament was hailed as a resounding success. That spells good things for the future of tournament poker on the Strip and throughout Las Vegas.

"I predicted we would have a $3 million prize pool. There were skeptics who didn't believe that, and we ended up with $3.8 million in total prize money for all the events," said tournament director Carol Trimble, with the smile of a poker player who had just drawn to a royal flush.

The amount of prize money paid at the Carnivale of Poker ranks the young tournament with the Queens Poker Classic at the Four Queens hotel and the Hall of Fame Classic at Binion's Horseshoe.

The Binion's World Series of Poker, the granddaddy of gaming tournaments held each May at the Horseshoe since 1970, is the world's largest poker tournament with greater than $12 million in prize money.

Trimble, the first woman ever to run a major Las Vegas poker tournament, acknowledges the World Series is the best-run poker tournament in the world. So she availed herself of the Horseshoe tournament staff.

She hired many veteran Horseshoe tournament directors and floor supervisors such as Steve Morrow, Rudy and Barbara Lotief, John "Scoff" Scoffield, Kathy Hudson and Tony Shelton.

To ensure the players would have an affordable room, she convinced hotel officials to offer a $59 rate on suites for the length of the three-week tournament to any player who entered at least one event, and she made sure the staff liberally distributed discount passes to players for meals at most of the Rio's restaurants.

"The room discounts were important," Trimble said, "because poker players tend to stay longer than those who play other types of games, and so the room becomes a bigger expense."

The tournament got off to a raging start Jan. 2 when spots for the $500-buy-in limit sold out and some enterprising players scalped their buy-in tickets for $800 or more.

Crowds filled the tournament room of the Rio every day right up until the final event when 153 players bought in for $5,000 each to compete for a $300,000 first-place finish and title of first Carnivale of Poker champion.

"From what I understand, I think we set a record for $5,000 buy-ins for a major tournament," Trimble said. "The old record was 142 players at the Four Queens classic."

On Friday, there was a story-book finish as four of the players at the final table were World Series of Poker Champions, meaning they had won the world's most prestigious event at Binion's Horseshoe in previous years. They were Johnny Chan, Berry Johnston, Phil Helmuth and Huck Seed, who eventually won the Rio final event.

One of those who was impressed with the participation in the Rio's tournament events and the side games -- which are live high stakes poker games comprised mainly of players waiting to play in tournaments -- was Linda Johnson, publisher of Card Player magazine.

"I think this is going to be a very successful yearly event and it's a sign that poker is expanding throughout the United States," Johnson said. "This is good news for all card rooms and tournament events in Southern Nevada."

It's also good news for Johnson, herself an expert player, who did very well playing in side games during the three week tournament, according to poker room wags.

Officials at the World Series were good sports about the Rio's success this month.

"I'm happy for Carol, and I'm glad the tournament was a success," said Jim Albrecht, director of the World Series of Poker. "It's good for poker."

But does the success of the Rio's tournament mean that high stakes local tournament action is shifting from downtown to the Strip?

"I don't think so. I think everyone can do well," Albrecht said. "The way I see it is that the more poker tournaments there are, the better it is for the entire industry."

Albrecht explained that poker is enjoying a boom period throughout the nation, and this statement is backed by a recent study by International Gaming & Wagering Business magazine that found gross revenues at legal card rooms throughout the nation totaled nearly $680 million in 1996, compared with $50 million in 1982.

"There's more and more poker in the U.S. and throughout the world today than there has ever been before," Albrecht said. "There is an explosion of poker in Europe."

Albrecht explained many players learn to play during poker tournaments -- especially small-limit tournaments, and by doing so these players become more comfortable playing in live games.

Doug Dalton, poker manager for Mirage Resorts, agreed with this philosophy.

"Poker players need a place to play year-round, those who are not fortunate enough to make the final table in a tournament don't want to sit around or go shopping. They want to play. That's what they come out here for," Dalton said.

This principal of running tournaments partly to support the live action has worked well at the Orleans, which hosts two low-limit tournaments every day.

"Our daily tournaments represents the heart and soul of our poker room," said shift supervisor Mary Fico, who explained the low-limit tournaments account for much of the business in the Orleans poker room. This is because the tournaments themselves are popular, and often players who are knocked out of the tournaments will jump into a live-action game.

"People come in and they love these small-buy-in tournaments," Fico said. "It gives them a chance to win several hundred dollars for a modest investment."

Albrecht explained poker is different from many businesses in that the success of one tournament tends to breed success in others. This is one reason why the Horseshoe helps promote poker throughout the nation.

"I can't tell you how many times we've sent copies of our poker room rules and regulations to Indian reservations and other properties who want to open poker rooms," Albrecht said.