Poker

In Vegas, they're playing cards, and the person who emerges from a field of more than 6,000 people to win this year's main event at the World Series of Poker is going to go home with something like $10 million. Driven by innovations that have made it possible to play on the Internet and to watch card-playing like a sporting event on television - the commentators and viewers know as play unfolds what cards the players hold - poker has become gigantically popular, its best players mutating into worldwide superstars.

When recent Temple University graduate Russell Thomas earned his diploma, his future was fairly well-defined. An actuarial science major, he had a job lined up, a job he planned to start right after he returned from playing in the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. Now, after winning $84,256 for fifth place in his first live tournament - a no-limit hold 'em, six-handed event - Thomas faces a crossroads: Does he take the job or try his hand as a full-time poker player? "It's a very big decision," Thomas said.

Lou Castallani, minion of Lady Luck, is a poker dealer at the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort in Atlantic City. Arrayed in his riverboat gambler vest and enthroned in his swivel chair, he presides over eight stone-faced players contending for one another's and the casino's money. In the general roar of the room, his table is an island of soft sounds - shuffled cards and clicking chips, the calls of players who study their hands and then bet, check or fold as the game progresses to its conclusion.

Malvern poker tourney will raise funds to fight bone disease Area poker players looking to test their skills against a pro while donating to a good cause can get their card-playing fix next weekend in Malvern, at the Mallie's Friends Charity Poker No-Limit Texas Hold'em tournament. Mallie Holman, a kindergartner at Glen Acres Elementary School in the West Chester Area School District, has Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI),commonly known as Brittle Bone Disease. The five-year-old has suffered more than two dozen fractures, including a life-threatening skull fracture.

THE REGION'S poker scene takes on a new dimension today as the Casino at Delaware Park in Wilmington unveils its tournament-only facility, the first in the tristate area. According to casino poker manager Anthony Chester, the 25-table parlor is a result of supply and demand. "What we originally had planned was three tournaments a day, but our [existing] room couldn't handle that many [tourney] players and cash-game players," he said. "We just didn't have enough available tables. " Because there was no room to expand alongside the 20 tables that opened for business June 18, the decision was made to create a separate poker-only area about 50 yards from the original cardroom.

ALEX RODRIGUEZ' publicist says the Yankees' third baseman is looking forward to cooperating with Major League Baseball in its investigation of his alleged involvement in illegal poker games. The All-Star slugger sidestepped the issue, however, at the team's minor league training facility in Florida yesterday, saying he had no comment following his first on-field activities since having right knee surgery July 14. Star Magazine reported last month that several people saw A-Rod playing in games hosted at Hollywood hotels and residences.

MAYBE THIS is what the doctor ordered. Maybe it was just a nice night out. The Flyers did not practice Monday, but they did congregate at a local restaurant for their annual team poker night. The event, arranged by coach Peter Laviolette, invites players to bring their significant others for an evening of strategy and skill. The hope, of course, is that the team bonds. Given the 1-4-1 rut in which the Flyers now find themselves, bonding cannot hurt, whether they play Texas Hold'em or paper football.

Late on a Thursday night, about 80 people cluster around 10 tables at Fox and Hound on Spruce Street. TVs blast all around them, yet they stare down at their hands. Poker hands. Some lucky, some not. They're not playing for money; there's no gambling in Philly - yet. Or for prizes - some gift certificates to downtown spots. They're playing for the sport. The competition. The hang. The saloon is chaotic, jammed with young drinkers and smokers, men and women. Sure, some look up from time to time, but not for long.

A 51-year-old man was arrested Wednesday on charges that he engaged in sexual acts with a 14-year-old Limerick boy over four years. The man also faces charges that he exposed himself to the boy and a 12-year-old friend of the boy in a game of strip poker. Charles Boohar of White Tail Lane was arrested at his home here and arraigned before District Justice Theodore Michaels in Phoenixville on 16 charges, including involuntary deviate sexual intercourse. Assistant District Attorney Daria LaTorre would not say how Boohar knew the boys.

It's Saturday night at Trump's Taj Mahal casino poker room - the biggest, baddest poker room in town. Rows of huge crystal chandeliers light up the 64 tables, and the 15,000-square-foot glass-enclosed room vibrates with noise, smoke and the smell of action. One seat is open, and it's right next to Cyndy Violette, 37, who is blonde, pretty and friendly. But think twice about sitting down with Cyndy Violette - she is generally acknowledged to be the best woman poker player in the world.

Eddie Aldridge has been working the National Deaf Poker Tour for six years now. He's learned that dealing to deaf people is not unlike dealing to anyone else, since poker, by nature, is played mostly with nonverbal communication. Certainly, there's no "raise" and "call" to be heard; instead players use hand signals - a thumbs up or two fingers to the ear. But there are big differences at these tournaments, he said, and it's what you can't hear. "The camaraderie, the spirit, the brotherhood," says Aldridge, 48. "Something that you will never see at regular poker tables is clapping for a winner.

Why So Many Predictions Fail - But Some Don't By Nate Silver Penguin. 523 pp. $27.95. Reviewed by Sharon Bertsch McGrayne I don't play chess. I don't gamble. I don't play poker. But I loved this book. Trust Nate Silver to write a wise but entertaining book in which the heroes are baseball coaches, poker players, gamblers, weather forecasters, and chess-playing computer scientists - and the villains are economists and political scientists, especially those who offer themselves as pundits.

A WEEK AGO, the Boston Celtics beat the Miami Heat with defense. This time, they did it with offense. Paul Pierce scored 27 points, Kevin Garnett added 24 points and nine rebounds, and the visiting Celtics made their first eight shots of the fourth quarter to hold off the Heat, 115-107, on Tuesday night. Rajon Rondo posted double-digit assists for the 18th straight game, extending the NBA's longest such streak in 20 years with an 18-point, 15-assist effort. Brandon Bass added 12 points and 10 rebounds, while Avery Bradley scored 11 for the Celtics, who shot a season-high 61 percent and survived two possessions when Miami could have tied the score in the final quarter.

MAYBE THIS is what the doctor ordered. Maybe it was just a nice night out. The Flyers did not practice Monday, but they did congregate at a local restaurant for their annual team poker night. The event, arranged by coach Peter Laviolette, invites players to bring their significant others for an evening of strategy and skill. The hope, of course, is that the team bonds. Given the 1-4-1 rut in which the Flyers now find themselves, bonding cannot hurt, whether they play Texas Hold'em or paper football.

IT'S ONLY BEEN a few weeks since Germany's Pius Heinz won the Main Event at the 2011 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, but Harrah's Resort Atlantic City is already looking ahead to the 2012 tourney. Tomorrow, the bayside gambling den kicks off its annual WSOP Circuit event, which offers pros and novices alike a chance to play their way into a seat at the world's richest, most prestigious poker contest. A dozen "Ring Events" are scheduled, including Omaha High/Low 8 or better, and No Limit Hold'em matches.

ANNE HATHAWAY'S spokesperson announced Anne's engagement yesterday, and she doesn't even have a movie to promote. How un-Hollywood of her. The lucky guy is 30-year-old Adam Shulman , who's a Brown grad best known for a recurring role in the TV show "American Dreams. " Anne, 29, is best known for roles in "The Devil Wears Prada," "The Princess Diaries," "Get Smart," "Brokeback Mountain," "Rachel Getting Married" and the upcoming "The Dark Knight Rises. "   Tattle jukebox *  Emily Robison , of the Dixie Chicks , says that the release today of the trio's 2006 VH1 "Storytellers" episode is "kind of a gift to our fans.

YANKEES THIRD baseman Alex Rodriguez met with a group of Major League Baseball officials yesterday to discuss allegations that he participated in illegal poker games. Rodriguez said the 2-hour meeting, which was held in Baltimore, "went well. " "They asked questions and I answered them," he said. "I'll let them review it, chew on it and then let them come back to us. " Star magazine reported last month that several people saw A-Rod playing in games hosted at Hollywood hotels and residences.

ALEX RODRIGUEZ' publicist says the Yankees' third baseman is looking forward to cooperating with Major League Baseball in its investigation of his alleged involvement in illegal poker games. The All-Star slugger sidestepped the issue, however, at the team's minor league training facility in Florida yesterday, saying he had no comment following his first on-field activities since having right knee surgery July 14. Star Magazine reported last month that several people saw A-Rod playing in games hosted at Hollywood hotels and residences.

For the moment, Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez is dealing with his poker controversy by standing pat. His publicist, Richard Rubenstein , said in a statement Thursday that Rodriguez is looking forward to cooperating with Major League Baseball in its investigation of his alleged involvement in illegal poker games, as reported in the tabloid Star Magazine. The article contained "numerous factual inaccuracies," Rubenstein said without elaborating. Meanwhile, Rodriguez, who is on a rehab assignment in Tampa, Fla., is not saying as much.

You'd think the most interesting thing about Bryn Mawr mother Beth Shak is that she's a world-class poker champ who once won $328,683 in a tournament, one of the biggest jackpots ever won by a woman. But her poker-playing skills aren't what landed her in a recent documentary next to Fergie and ex-Destiny's Child member Kelly Rowland, or on NBC's Today and in the pages of Women's Wear Daily. It was her shoes, all 1,200 pairs of them, the biggest private collection in the country according to Thierry Daher, whose film, God Save My Shoes , examines women's relationships to their footwear.