High Stakes Poker

Phillies centerfielder Len Dykstra, who testifies tomorrow in the trial of a man accused of running high-stakes poker games, is not suspected - as Pete Rose was - of betting on baseball games. That does not mean, however, that Dykstra is exempt from disciplinary action by the commissioner. Baseball's concern with gambling goes back more than 100 years, and has been focused chiefly on players and officials who wagered on games or fixed contests. But there is precedent for suspending men just for an association with known gamblers.

Shade is about the art of the deal. As in dealing cards. And in his jazzy debut feature about lowlifes drawn to high-stakes poker, which opens the 13th annual Philadelphia Film Festival tonight, director Damian Nieman draws a full house. Nieman's three-of-a-kind: L.A. cardsharps Gabriel Byrne, Thandie Newton and Stuart Townsend, grifters with eyes for the big game and one another. His pair: legendary poker hustler Sylvester Stallone and his lost love, Melanie Griffith. The acting is of a higher order than Nieman's loaded-deck screenplay and direction.

His teammates are 3,000 miles away, but Lenny Dykstra is with them in spirit, his radio tuned to WOGL so he can listen to the games from the West Coast. Dykstra, charged with drunken driving, speeding and reckless driving after a Monday morning auto accident in Radnor Township, remains in fair condition at Bryn Mawr Hospital. He was visited yesterday by Phillies president Bill Giles, general manager Lee Thomas and public relations director Larry Shenk, and discussed, among other things, the Phillies' performance this week in San Diego.

The team bus had already pulled away from Al Lang Stadium, where the Phillies had lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-2, in an exhibition game yesterday. Lenny Dykstra was still in the trainer's room. An ice pack was strapped to his left knee and he was rubbing liniment on his right wrist. "I think I hurt it diving back into second base," he said. "But it's nothing serious. " Dykstra paused, and an impish grin crossed his face. "Might have to miss tomorrow, though," he said.

More than two dozen people, including a professional baseball scout and a high-stakes poker player, were charged yesterday in connection with a $1 billion-a-year gambling ring that rivaled casino sports books. The illegal betting scheme was orchestrated through a Web site called Playwithal.com, run by the poker player, James Giordano, 52, of Pine Crest, Fla., according to New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and Queens (N.Y.) District Attorney Richard Brown. A break in the case came last year when investigators secretly hacked into a laptop computer that Giordano had left in a Long Island hotel while attending a wedding, police said.

Baseball commissioner Fay Vincent met Phillies centerfielder Lenny Dykstra, at Dykstra's request, while visiting the Pirates-Phillies exhibition game Saturday at Jack Russell Stadium. Neither Vincent nor Dykstra made himself available for comment afterward. However, the Daily News has learned that Vincent told Dykstra he would not fine or suspend him in the wake of Dykstra's testimony at a trial in Oxford, Miss., last week that he had lost at least $78,000 in illegal, high-stakes poker games.

An acknowledged gambler who frequently played high-stakes poker with Phillies centerfielder Len Dykstra was acquitted of all charges yesterday in U.S. District Court. Dykstra was a key prosecution witness against Herbert Kelso of Ridgeland, Miss., who was acquitted of one count of running an illegal casino, one count of conspiracy, one count of money laundering and three counts of perjury. Before the verdict, the testimony of Dykstra was both praised and attacked by lawyers.

Len Dykstra, the Phillies' all-star centerfielder and the soul of their offense, wrote checks totaling $78,000 in a four-month span last winter to pay off debts from high-stakes poker games and golf matches. Testifying in federal court yesterday, Dykstra said that from November 1989 to February 1990 he wrote four checks to pay off debts held by Herbert Kelso, a man on trial here for running an illegal gambling operation. Speaking in the confident, comfortable tones of an all-star, Dykstra testified that his losses came from a weekly poker game Kelso ran and from bets Dykstra made on the golf course one to three times a week.

Jay Wright thinks his Villanova Wildcats are more prepared for the start of the Big East season than they were a year ago, when a team without a senior scratched out a 9-9 conference record and barely made the NCAA tournament. But he won't know how prepared until tomorrow, when the 15th-ranked Wildcats take their first dip into the conference's shark-infested waters at Marquette, starting a marathon run of 18 consecutive Big East games against daunting opposition. The Wildcats closed their nonconference schedule at 12-1 after a 62-45 win over Temple on Monday that clinched the Big Five title.

No one's life, liberty, property or credit cards are safe when the power brokers of Washington play high-stakes poker. Last week's fiasco with bank credit card interest rates was a frightening example of just how fast things can get out of control when a wimp starts the bidding and 74 senators decide to whomp him. President George "Once a Wimp" Bush brought his bully pulpit as president to the poker table. He challenged banks to bring down credit card rates voluntarily from the stratosphere.

Jay Wright thinks his Villanova Wildcats are more prepared for the start of the Big East season than they were a year ago, when a team without a senior scratched out a 9-9 conference record and barely made the NCAA tournament. But he won't know how prepared until tomorrow, when the 15th-ranked Wildcats take their first dip into the conference's shark-infested waters at Marquette, starting a marathon run of 18 consecutive Big East games against daunting opposition. The Wildcats closed their nonconference schedule at 12-1 after a 62-45 win over Temple on Monday that clinched the Big Five title.

More than two dozen people, including a professional baseball scout and a high-stakes poker player, were charged yesterday in connection with a $1 billion-a-year gambling ring that rivaled casino sports books. The illegal betting scheme was orchestrated through a Web site called Playwithal.com, run by the poker player, James Giordano, 52, of Pine Crest, Fla., according to New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and Queens (N.Y.) District Attorney Richard Brown. A break in the case came last year when investigators secretly hacked into a laptop computer that Giordano had left in a Long Island hotel while attending a wedding, police said.

Shade is about the art of the deal. As in dealing cards. And in his jazzy debut feature about lowlifes drawn to high-stakes poker, which opens the 13th annual Philadelphia Film Festival tonight, director Damian Nieman draws a full house. Nieman's three-of-a-kind: L.A. cardsharps Gabriel Byrne, Thandie Newton and Stuart Townsend, grifters with eyes for the big game and one another. His pair: legendary poker hustler Sylvester Stallone and his lost love, Melanie Griffith. The acting is of a higher order than Nieman's loaded-deck screenplay and direction.

Outwardly, the battle over Conrail began to resemble trench warfare last week, with two sides firing heavy artillery back and forth from their respective corporate bunkers. On one side, the Philadelphia-based railroad company and its designated merger partner, CSX Corp., dug in for a siege, preparing to defend their $8.5 billion deal on all fronts, from Wall Street to federal court. Meanwhile, Norfolk Southern Corp. pressed its own $10 billion hostile takeover bid for Conrail in speeches, news releases, and full-page advertisements in major newspapers.

Forget its dubious ancestry as a popular TV show of the '50s. The combined charms of Maverick's genial cast, its sly script and its punchy direction make it the legitimate heir to escapist crowd-pleasers such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting. Unlike its title character - a cardsharp who's the fastest gun in the West but can't hit a shot - Maverick is a swifty that rarely misses. This screwball comedy in chaps stars Mel Gibson as that beloved rogue in the frilly shirt, Jodie Foster as adventuress Annabelle Bransford, the tootsie in taffeta, and James Garner (himself the star of TV's Maverick)

Barry Bonds was in a slump. He had 12 hits in 46 at-bats in the middle of September with only one run batted in. More telling, while Bonds struggled at the plate, the Giants slipped out of the lead in the National League West for the first time since early in the season. If the season had ended then, maybe Phillies centerfielder Lenny Dykstra would have been named the National League's Most Valuable Player yesterday. But there still were 16 games to go. Bonds used that time to bat .333 with six homers and 21 RBI. And so, when the results of balloting by the Baseball Writers Association of America were announced last night, it was no surprise that Bonds was a comfortable winner for the third time in the last four years.

"The show must go on. " That's the actors' credo, and one that Alan Rosenberg, who plays the most compassionate of prime-time TV's herd of lawyers, has mobilized this season. Rosenberg's only brother, Mark, died of a heart attack at 44 on Nov. 6. On the actor's first day back on the set, ABC's Civil Wars was filming its Christmas episode. Rosenberg, as Eli Levinson, had to dress up as Santa Claus and give toys to children. "The absurdity of being in that garb and my brother's death just hit me," he says, "and I couldn't get through the scene without weeping.

Spring training doesn't open for a couple months, but Phillies centerfielder Lenny Dykstra already is playing defense. An article in the January edition of Philadelphia magazine portrays Dykstra in unflattering terms, alleges that he cursed loudly and had to be restrained from attacking another casino customer while losing $50,000 playing baccarat early one morning this offseason in Atlantic City. Dykstra, who has never claimed to be a choirboy, defiantly dismissed the story, which is due on newsstands Monday.

"Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you. " - Satchel Paige Lenny Dykstra, the Phillies' perpetual motion machine, has just completed a morning workout at Veterans Stadium. As usual, his offseason has been filled with places to go and people to see, but that's almost over now. In a few days he'll leave chilly Philly behind. He'll migrate to the soothing sunshine of Clearwater, a month ahead of his required reporting date. All the better to work on his swings, baseball and golf.

No one's life, liberty, property or credit cards are safe when the power brokers of Washington play high-stakes poker. Last week's fiasco with bank credit card interest rates was a frightening example of just how fast things can get out of control when a wimp starts the bidding and 74 senators decide to whomp him. President George "Once a Wimp" Bush brought his bully pulpit as president to the poker table. He challenged banks to bring down credit card rates voluntarily from the stratosphere.