Player: Blind Poker Player Being Featured on ESPN (Las Vegas, NV)

“It was only about three years ago when Hal Lubarsky’s failing eyesight made it impossible for him to play poker. Thanks to a disease called retinitis pigmentosa, the darkness slowly closed onto the center of his eye, and it led him to a point he knew was coming – his eyesight had been deteriorating basically since he was born. He would soon be blind, and one day Lubarsky said to himself that he couldn’t play poker anymore, something he’d done since he was a boy in Brooklyn. It was a sad day among sad days when he decided to give it up.

Tournament: Jeff Haney runs down the main events of the National Poker League, which has just gained a base at the Venetian (Las Vegas, NV)

“The National Poker League, which despite its name is actually pound-for-pound the most international of the major poker circuits, has found a new home base at the Venetian. The Venetian poker room will host two of the league’s five events this year including its world championship event, a three-day, $15,000 buy-in no-limit Texas hold ‘em tournament scheduled for Dec. 3-5.

Technology: Jeff Haney hears the pitch for a new digital poker table that takes the cards, chips – and dealers – out of the game

“Kenny Rosenblatt recently placed his company’s automated digital poker table in the Hustler Casino, one of Southern California’s temples of poker.

His next goal entails extending the reach of his product to the poker rooms of the Las Vegas Strip.

“We’re planning an expansion into Las Vegas and Atlantic City in the next couple of years,” said Rosenblatt, chief executive of Arkadium Inc., a New York City-based game software company and co-creator of the “FastDeal” computerized poker table.

WSOP: Playing With Pain (Las Vegas, NV)

“Scott Kowalske Plays Poker to Escape the Pain of Chronic Wasting Disease and Quite Possibly to Save His Life. Many people from many different walks of life will come to the World Series of Poker today to play poker. None of them will have a harder time getting to the Rio today than Scott Kowalske did a few weeks back, and he was staying at the hotel. Kowalske called room 334 of the Rio home for a few days in June. He was here to fulfill a dream. He was here to find hope. He was here to escape the pain of the chronic wasting disease that is eating away at his body, and he did all of this by turning to poker. “It gets my mind off the problem, and the pain, and it just lets me focus on something else. It’s been a blessing for me,” said Kowalske of the game he has turned to in his darkest hour.

World Series of Poker: Time to shut up and deal (Las Vegas, NV)

“Baseball caps and dark sunglasses are back in fashion, and talk around casino hallways revolves around “bad beats” and “all-ins.” On golf courses and in hotel rooms, thousands of dollars are changing hands on whimsical proposition bets, and obscure card games are being played for rich stakes on a sea of green felt.

It must be that time of year again — it’s the World Series of Poker.

Thousands of the best players from around the world have gathered in Las Vegas, hoping to win the $10,000 buy-in main event, which last year paid $12 million to the winner…”

Times Herald-Record (07/06/07)

Player: Unabombshell talks poker

“If you want an indication of how popular poker has become, take a look at the size of the playing fields at tournaments and the stars that are starting to fill in those seats as well. One star who has made the transition from movie star to serious poker player is Jennifer Tilly.

In 2005 she took down both the World Series of Poker Ladies, winning herself a championship bracelet, and the World Poker Tour Ladies Night Out as well.

The two wins gave her instant acclaim and credibility in a poker world that can be harsh on one-hit wonders and women players in general…”

PokerListings (06/10/07)

WSOP: The great unknown (Las Vegas, NV)

“The 38th annual World Series of Poker, the centerpiece of poker’s calendar, begins Friday at the Rio with a $5,000 buy-in mixed Texas hold ’em limit/no limit event. It’s the first of 55 “bracelet events” in 2007 – meaning the winner earns a gold championship bracelet along with the prize money.

The five-day HORSE mixed-games tournament scheduled to begin June 24 carries the World Series’ biggest buy-in at $50,000, but the championship event, scheduled for July 6-17, remains the most eagerly awaited competition – not only on the World Series slate, but in all of poker…”

Las Vegas Sun (05/29/07)