Charity poker kicks off television show on LV

Sito Negron

Thursday, Sept. 18, 2003 | 9:11 a.m.

A Las Vegas charity won $50,000 in a hand of poker without even being at the game.

Mayor Oscar Goodman called the main office of the Boys and Girls Club of Las Vegas on Wednesday afternoon, and told them to be sure to tune in to the cable television broadcast of the City Council meeting. About 10 minutes later, people at the office were watching a contest winner announce she had won $50,000 in a charity poker game of Texas hold 'em -- and that she was giving it to the Boys and Girls Club.

"We were floored," said Jackie Valdera, executive assistant of the organization, which provides about 12,000 children in the area with such social services as after-school activities, club programs and help with schoolwork.

"All I could do is get on the phone and start calling people," Valdera said.

The charity poker hand was part of Tuesday night's festivities in Hollywood, Calif., to mark the world premiere of the television show "Las Vegas." Goodman dealt the hand, which he said was played by such stars as James Caan, Molly Sims, and the contest winner, Judy LaPenna of Phoenix.

A weekly drama, "Las Vegas" debuts at 9 p.m. Monday on NBC (Channel 3). It stars Caan as Big Ed Deline, the head of surveillance at the fictional Montecito hotel-casino. Sims plays Big Ed's daughter, Delinda.

LaPenna was the winner of a promotional contest, run by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, to tell the best Las Vegas story. She received two nights in Hollywood and two in Las Vegas, as well as an opportunity to meet the cast of the show and play in the charity game, for this story:

It was more than a year ago, and her then-boyfriend was in Las Vegas for business. He called her and told her to come on up.

"We had a typical Las Vegas indulgent night out," she said, which caused the pair to change their flight home. She called in sick to work, but the airline faxed her flight itinerary to her office. When she got home, she needed an excuse; LaPenna said her husband told her to say they went to Vegas to get married.

"I said I wasn't going to tell her that unless I was," LaPenna said. "An hour later we were on a flight back. Within 24 hours we had two trips to Vegas and ended up married."

She said it was an easy call to choose the Boys and Girls Club as the recipient of the donation.