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World Poker Tour(R) Launches Its First Official Ladies Poker League & Tour--WPT Ladies(TM)
LOS ANGELES, Jan 09, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- With the dramatic rise of women playing tournament poker, World Poker Tour(R: 41.12, -0.50, -1.20%) (WPT) has expanded its female-focused tour offering with the launch of an official WPT ladies league and No Limit Texas Hold 'Em tournament circuit--WPT Ladies(TM: 105.09, +2.05, +1.98%) (WPTL). With buy-ins ranging from $300 - $1,500, the tournament circuit provides multiple opportunities for amateur, semi-pro, and professional female players to test their skills in a tournament environment at prestigious gaming destinations without having to pay a costly five-figure buy-in. Ladies also will have the chance at each stop to win a WPT title and a seat in the WPT Ladies' Championship.
"Women are a rising force in poker," said Robyn Moder, executive vice president of WPT Studios. "By bringing a WPT ladies league and tour stops to top gaming destinations across the
Season I of the WPTL tour kicks off January 20 at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in
To help end breast cancer, a disease that statistically has or will affect one in every eight women(1) competing on the WPTL tour, WPT has partnered with Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the world's largest grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists fighting to save lives by empowering people, ensuring quality care for all and energizing science to find the cures. Participants will have the opportunity to donate at each tour stop and 15 percent of each $1,500 buy-in at the WPTL Championship will be donated to benefit Komen for the Cure.
The WPTL Season I schedule(a) is as follows. Visit www.worldpokertour.com/wptladies for more details.
Poker parlors increasing; so is gambling revenue
Poker parlors increasing; so is gambling revenue
Charities also share in profits
MILFORD, N.H. - In this the southern New Hampshire town, the former Violette's IGA has sat empty for nearly two decades. Now, a company has won Planning Board approval to fill the space with what it calls an ideal match: a poker parlor.
New Hampshire Charitable Gaming, a for-profit company, plans to host poker games in the former store six days a week, with 10 tables and space for 250 players.
"We want to be someplace where people want us, and this seems to be the perfect spot," said company president James Rafferty. The firm is also opening a poker parlor in nearby Brookline, at Big Bear Lodge.
Poker parlors are a booming business in New Hampshire following a change in state law. In 2006, the state Legislature voted to allow for-profit companies to operate games of chance at so-called poker parlors, requiring that at least 35 percent of profits go to a charity. Previously, the law required that charities themselves operate the games.
Since the change in the law, at least 12 companies have been licensed to run 16 poker parlors across the state, according to the New Hampshire Pari-Mutuel Commission.
An estimated $50 million a year is wagered on poker, according to the commission, and since January, New Hampshire charities have reported receipts of about $860,000 from the poker games.
As Massachusetts gears up for its own debate on gambling, New Hampshire increasingly is under pressure to expand its gambling options, for fear that gambling revenues could go to Massachusetts rather than staying in New Hampshire.
The Legislature this session is set to consider several bills that would permit slots at the state's racetracks, or casinos at North Country grand hotels.
Supporters of the poker parlors say they are a far cry from casinos. The maximum bet at any game is $2; poker tournaments are allowed to charge an entry fee of up to $250. Moreover, supporters of the poker games say that the for-profit companies are able to raise funds more efficiently for the charities, permitting larger payouts and less work for the charities.
But not every community has welcomed poker parlors. In Nashua, residents objected when New Hampshire Charitable Gaming proposed a poker parlor in a shuttered Catholic church. In Milford, too, some residents said the operation would have a negative effect on the community.
Gary Daniels, a state representative from Milford, said he opposed the poker parlor because he opposes the expansion of gambling in New Hampshire.
"This is part of an overall push in New Hampshire, as well as other states, to increase gambling, and a step toward that goes against my philosophy," he said, adding that he was not consulted by the Planning Board before its vote to approve the poker parlor.
Milford Planning Board officials said the opening of the poker parlor less than a mile from the town center was viewed as a potential economic boon.
"It could help out charities, and it could bring people into Milford who otherwise might not have come before," said Janet Langdell, the Planning Board vice chairwoman. "I would be a hypocrite if I opposed it; I have been known to lay a $2 dollar bet on a horse."
Milford Police Chief Fred Douglas said he was impressed with the plan of New Hampshire Charitable Gaming, and noted that the company planned to hire Milford police as security for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights, when the tables are expected to be busy. Douglas said the company would reimburse the town for overtime paid to the officers.
Still, some area charities and nonprofit organizations have declined to partner with New Hampshire Charitable Gaming. Souhegan Home and Hospice Care, a nonprofit home-care agency, for one, opted out of the poker parlor proceeds.
Sarah Schweitzer can be reached at schweitzer@globe.com.
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Former FBI spycatcher reveals techniques to win at poker
NEW YORK - As an FBI spy catcher, Joseph Navarro could identify traitors through their subtle behavioral tics _ something as simple as a squint.
These days, Navarro brings his investigator's eye for detail to the poker table _ where a bite of the lip or the tilt of a head can signal a straight flush or a stone bluff. Navarro shares his decoding techniques with players eager for an edge in the high-stakes world of professional poker.
"Poker players lie all the time," Navarro says. "They pretend they are strong when they are weak or weak when they are strong. The truth is they can all be read. You can have a poker face, but I've yet to see someone with a poker body."
In the poker world, the giveaways are called "tells" _ gestures that signal a player's confidence or discomfort. Navarro's first career made him uniquely qualified for his current part-time job as an instructor at the World Series of Poker Academy.
While working espionage cases with the FBI for more than a quarter-century, he became a world-renowned expert in nonverbal behavior. He participated in virtually every U.S. spy investigation between 1993 and 2003, including those of notorious moles Aldrich Ames and Robert Hansen.
The 58-year-old Cuban immigrant was eight when he fled Cuba with his family following the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion. They settled in Florida, and he became an American citizen at 18.
Navarro retired from the FBI in 2003, although he continues to train FBI and CIA agents on interrogation and habits of spies and terrorists.
Navarro says his skill at deciphering body language in spies is easily applied to poker. Both are games of subterfuge and raw, primitive passion. A poker player, like a spy, telegraphs self-assurance or self-doubt through subconscious body language, he notes.
"When you are feeling good _ or have a monster hand _ your body will manifest what it feels," he says. "You get happy feet. Your feet begin to bounce up and down like a kid going to Disney World."
And the opposite: negativity comes out through pursed lips, a crinkled nose, squinty eyes. "We squint at things we don't like," Navarro says, referencing Clint Eastwood's taciturn gunslinger from his spaghetti Western phase.
Navarro says he can size up anyone _ even professional card sharks _ by observing their behavior for mere minutes.
Players often try to conceal their emotions with sunglasses, silence, a hooded sweat shirt. Navarro says the cover-ups don't work, even for professionals like Phil "The Unabomber" Laak _ renowned for hiding his visage behind shades and a hoodie.
"The involuntary nonverbal mannerisms dictated by the brain will always betray the strength or weakness of a player's hand," Navarro says.
A card player dealt a royal flush _ the best hand in poker _ instinctively treats the cards as a treasure. A bad hand is treated as something less than an heirloom, he says. Posture is another clue.
"If your boss asks at a meeting, `Who is not pulling their weight?', the shoulders will rise on those who are not confident," he says. "It's called `The Turtle Effect.' You are trying to hide your head inside your shoulders."
On the contrary, a person whose fingertips meet like a church steeple with the thumb pointed up indicates a winning hand.
Navarro teaches players to observe and collect behavioral information from the minute they sit at the card table. When a player is confident, they tend to use their hands more and claim more territory at the table. When they have a good hand, they generally look down at their chips.
Phil Helmuth, considered one of the best Texas Hold 'Em players in history, is among Navarro's students.
"He's taught me a few tricks," said Helmuth, winner of 10 World Series of Poker bracelets. "I took three pages of notes at his seminar."
Women display different gestures than men, but are generally not harder to read, according to Navarro.
For example, women who lack confidence will play with their hair to calm themselves down or will tend to touch their throats. Men touch their necks more aggressively or put their hands on their face.
Navarro says he was only duped once in his spycatching career.
Kelly Warren, a female U.S. Army clerk based in Germany during the Cold War, was selling secrets to the Hungarians in the late '80s. She convinced Navarro that her husband was the sole spy in the family _ but only temporarily.
Navarro soon unraveled her lies, leading to a 25-year sentence for espionage.
Navarro's techniques, while effective in reading opponents, can also be used to mislead other players. Deliberately telegraphed signs can convince opponents that a lousy hand is good, or vice versa.
"While you can't control the cards you are dealt," Navarro says, "you can make them win."
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