Poker

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Real poker money

Check it out. I might have to buy some WPT stock Just for kicks.

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A million-dollar pot may look impressive on TV, but the real money in the poker craze is being made away from the cameras.

Spurred by the popularity of televised tournaments, retailers are betting that consumers will ante up for poker gear this Christmas. Casinos and card clubs are scrapping blackjack in favor of poker tables, while TV producers scramble to add more poker shows to an increasingly crowded lineup.

"This is clearly a trend -- you see it everywhere," said Heidi Weaver, a spokeswoman for Marshall Field's, which is boosting its selection of poker-related holiday gift items.

At All-American Recreation in Bloomington, manager Bob Stevenson said he sells five or six poker tables a week for $299 and up, along with a dozen deluxe chip sets, packaged in a stainless-steel case for $129.

Younger players are fueling poker's popularity.Glen StubbeStar Tribune"Two years ago, we wouldn't have sold a one," Stevenson said. "People wouldn't have been interested at all."

At Canterbury Racetrack & Card Club in Shakopee, cards now bring in more revenue than horse racing, and poker income is up 50 percent from a year ago.

The popularity of poker has surprised Randy Sampson, president of Canterbury, but he's not complaining. Canterbury takes a "rake" of up to $4 from each poker pot in the card club. Those $4 chunks added up to $7.65 million in the six months ended June 30, with 15 percent of that sum going into the racetrack's purse fund and a breeders' trust fund.

Matt Mahal checks his hand.Glen StubbeStar Tribune"We're horse-racing people. Our focus is always going to be horse racing," Sampson said. "But [poker] has been a tremendously helpful vehicle in subsidizing and improving the racing operation.

"There's a little bit of an awkward feeling to the card club being more than half of our revenue and driving the growth of the company," he said. "But in the end, they work well together."

On a recent weekday afternoon, players stood in line to wait for a spot at one of Canterbury's 30 poker tables -- while in the next room, 12 of the 20 blackjack tables stood empty.

"I think the appeal is going to stay," said Matt Mahal, 21, a Lake City bartender who comes to play once a month and often stays at the table for 24 hours at a time. "It's a cultural thing; it's a blend of different people. Everyone's there to have a good time."

Young players such as Mahal are the reason the poker craze won't fold anytime soon, said Sebastian Sinclair, president of Christiansen Capital Advisers, a Maine-based consulting and research firm serving the gambling industry.

"Games tend to follow generations," Sinclair said. "It's like after World War II -- the GIs came home and they played craps. They learned it in the service, and it had a 20-year run.

"I think a lot of what you're seeing in the rising popularity of poker is Generation X. They're getting into their 30s, they have discretionary income, and poker has become a spectator sport."

While slot machines and blackjack still rank as the most popular games in Las Vegas, casinos are tearing out blackjack tables and replacing them with poker tables, Sinclair said.

Revenue from three-card poker, a casino variation of the game, grew 33 percent last year, according to the Nevada Gaming Control Board, and traditional poker grew 18 percent. Meanwhile, revenue from slot machines grew just 3.3 percent and blackjack revenue grew 1.4 percent.

The poker craze has given birth to a publicly traded company with Minnesota roots. WPT Enterprises Inc. went public last month with a $32 million stock offering. Based in West Hollywood, Calif., the company is two-thirds owned by Lakes Entertainment of Minnetonka and its chairman, Lyle Berman.

WPT stock closed Wednesday at $10.16 a share, up 27 percent from the initial offering price of $8. The company is credited with creating the poker boom with its "World Poker Tour" show on cable TV's Travel Channel. First aired in March 2003, the show quickly became the highest-rated program in the history of the Travel Channel and spawned knockoffs such as ESPN's "World Series of Poker."

Steve Lipscomb, creator of the World Poker Tour and president of WPT Enterprises, said he expects the field to become even more crowded. But with new distribution deals in nearly a dozen countries -- including Australia, the United Kingdom, India and the Philippines -- WPT is well-positioned for survival, he said.

"Now that we've shown there is a market to mine, a lot of people are rushing in and trying to knock us off," Lipscomb said. "We have reason to believe we will be one of the two or three players in the long run."

WPT also has signed marketing deals for poker-themed clothing, casino games, game equipment and home video games.

What's unique about WPT, Lipscomb said, is that it's a professional sports league that lets fans not only watch but also participate and even invest in the actual sports league.

"Imagine if you or I had managed to get a little piece of the NFL or the NBA," he said. "We'd be pretty happy today."

Stevenson of All-American Recreation said poker has the ingredients for a long run of popularity.

"It doesn't take a brainiac to play," he said. "People watch it on TV and see these normal people playing."