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Apparently you can now reserve a poker tournament seat at The Isle online.

A site called http://www.PTseats.com takes your credit card and saves you the wait in line, the company says.

Isle director of poker operations Mike Smith said he thinks it will come in especially handy when The Isle Florida State Poker Championship comes June 16-23.

I ran through the site, and when it came time to close the deal, it was $6 to enter a $100 tournament. Felt like Active.com or Paypal. (And nowhere in the release did PTseats mention that there's a fee. Nice.) But I'll grant that it keeps you from getting shut out. Kind of like buying insurance.

So, if you play poker a lot more than me, is this something you would use?

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Gabe Kaplan, who is the analyst for High Stakes Poker and the National Heads Up Poker Championships, is in South Florida doing a stage show of "Groucho."

When I asked him about poker, he said he's "burned out" from the game.

Can't say I blame him; and Sports Illustrated, in its movie review of Blinds, called it "so 2006."

But in Kaplan's case, he's been playing for 30 years, long before any TV show broadcast poker.

So, is there a chance poker/Texas Hold 'em is dying out? Anybody tired of playing, ready to move on to another game? What do you think?

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It's hard to believe fighting cancer and poker can go together, but apparently All In Free Poker has found a way.

If you're not familiar, All in Free Poker conducts more than 50 events a week of what is called "Pub Poker," where players go to a bar and play for free. But at the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life at Omni Middle School in Boca Raton, the cards also were flying there.

All In Free Poker raised about $5,100 beforehand, and then took in another $2,700 during the April 5 event, with its dealers keeping four tables going. Total raised: about $7,800.

All In's Sandy Swartzbaugh credits Skip & Debbie Vashon, Tracie & Joey Mazza, Tammie & Carm Mazza, Nicole Sharp, Stephanie Ritter, Tom Cuce, and Robert Filter for their efforts & fundraising.

Filter's mother, a survivor, was one of the speakers of honor. The Duck Tavern in Boca Raton and NexStore donated food and manpower.

Swartzbaugh said dealer Rob Blum is a committee member for the East Boca Relay group and credits him for All In's involvement.

All In President Bryan Oulton says the company continues doing charity
events. "Between the money we donate to Make-a-Wish from our nightly events [$14,000 to date] and the $7,800 we raised, we feel that the poker community and poker companies can really make a difference in the lives of others, in a very positive manner."

For more information go to www.allinfreepoker.com.

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The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino announced today that its new poker room will open April 30.

I posted earlier that the casino is making room for blackjack and baccarat, and to do so on the casino floor, something's gotta give.

The first move is now April 30, when poker goes to the former Park sports bar.

The release says:

The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino is moving its poker tables to a new, 12,000-square-foot, Seminole Paradise Poker room on April 30. The new room, occupying the space formerly known as The Park Sports Club, is South Florida’s ultimate poker facility offering no-limit Texas Hold ‘Em, limit Texas Hold ’Em, Seven Card Stud and two dollar and four dollar limit Omaha Hi Lo games.

Seminole Paradise Poker will offer a more private environment for better concentration amongst players and a separate area for tournament play. In addition, it will feature a plethora of state-of-the-art televisions and two 8’x12’ monitors broadcasting sporting games, a table-side menu with service bar and an ATM machine. A high-limit area for VIP players will offer $5, $10 no limit and higher games.

Players Club card members can swipe their cards at the kiosk located inside to enter for casino promotions. All casino drawings will be piped-into the sound system.

Peter Arsenis, director of poker at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, said, “The Seminole Paradise Poker Room was designed to meet the needs of today’s player.”

Poker Players can participate in weekly no limit Texas Hold ‘Em multi and single-table tournaments in April including High Hand on Sundays-Thursdays from 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. Every hour the highest hand receives $1,000 in cash. Promotion includes all live games and sit-and-go tournaments and excludes multi-table tournaments. In the event of a tie, all five cards, the prize will be equally divided amongst the winners.

So, if you're a poker player, do you think it'll be a better place to play, or worse? To quote our Gregory Lewis: Holler back.

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Apparently the Palm Beach Kennel Club is still buzzing from the performance of Frank Greentree, aka Poker Talk Frank, the host of Poker Talk America (4 p.m. weekdays, WBZT, 1230 AM).

Seems that Frank was playing in a tournament there -- "And it wasn't more than three or four hands in," he says -- when he got K of hearts, 5 of hearts. He calls.

Flop turns up two hearts; he bets a little bit, his opponent bets a little bit. A blank on the turn, but the fifth heart on the river.

With no pair on the board (so no full house), Frank goes all-in, gets called.

"Only an ace-high flush beats me," he reasons.

So an ace-high flush does. And his victor points at the cards and starts laughing, "Poker Frank! Poker Frank!"

Frank starts to make his exit -- "just about out the door," he says -- when the man's voice gets contagious. The room breaks into a chant for the early bust-out.

"Po-ker Frank! Po-ker Frank!"

Graciously, he bows and makes his exit. More fame for a guy working to get a show off the ground.

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I finally found time to play in an All in Free Poker night, on Friday at the AMF Lanes in Davie.

Bar poker (All in's Bryan Oulton calls it "Pub Poker") is free, but most people tip the dealer $5. You play a Texas Hold 'em tournament, and the winner sometimes gets a bar tab, or points toward a greater prize, or a larger chip stack to enter an end-of-season tournament that has big prizes, such as a satellite seat in a for-cash event.

All in Free Poker is one of the two large groups in South Florida; BarPokerPros is the other. I've played with both and had fun with both.

Friday night drew about 25 players, and I made the final table in the first tournament, got fourth in the second one and was among the first to bust out in the third.

It's a great opportunity to work on your game. My plan for the night: I tried to work on reading other players' weaknesses, then attack. You see it all the time; the bets go check-check-check, and the first person to fire wins.

I'd like to say I had success, but I got trapped as much as I got away with anything. Only two all-in breaks -- rivering a 6 after going all-in with 5-6, and rivering a flush after K-10 suited -- got me as far as it did. That, plus quad queens early in the night. Final tournament bust-out was when I raised with 10s, got check-raised with Aces by a bigger stack and put him on 2 big cards (which is kind of true, just didn't think they were two of the same big cards).

It's funny, the more I play, the harder the game seems to get.

That said, a pretty good Friday night, with a beer or two, the ballgames on. Too bad the Marlins blew their lead.

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Palm Beach Kennel Club and The Isle are having tournaments and promotions that can put you into the main event at the World Series of Poker.

In my story today, I led with "as if winning hundreds of dollars isn't enough..." and I guess you could argue in many cases that it's really thousands, not hundreds. But I wrote it for the more common cases. And semantically, thousands, would mean more than $1,999, so I can justify it that way. The average-to-big players likely don't have that many days when they're plus $2K.

Anyway, the overall point is that by linking with the WSOP, card rooms here gain a little more legitimacy in the big picture. They matter. Just by offering seats in the same vein that card rooms in other parts of the country have been doing for, oh, decades now.

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So, thanks to my new friend Steve Bourie, I made a video poker field trip. I'm kind of interested in it because of the alleged best payout of all the games if (big IF) you follow the proper strategies.

Gulfstream and the Isle have run promotions offering new players club members a $50 rebate -- they say "the first $50 is on us" which is somewhat true. If you lose $50 on the day you sign up, they give you a voucher for another trip back, which you can just pop into a machine and cash out. (The Isle finished its promotion on March 31, but I'd think they'll bring it back some time.) Now Seminole Hollywood (the old one) has a similar deal but you can get the $20 the day of.

So, if you're not much of a slots player, why should you make a trip, lose money, then make another trip just to get your money back?

Because you can hit it big. Say you play the slots and run your winnings up to $100. That's a $50 profit, and you could cash it out then, knowing you're up.

Or, you could do like I did last week at Gulfstream and take a shot at the video poker jackpot.

I sat down and played Jacks or Better, and max-bet the 25 cent machine, making it $1.25 to go (If I had it to do over, I'd have played the $1, with a max bet of $5.). I know I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer to just now figure this all out, but we all have a learning curve of some sort of another.

Had I hit a royal flush, it'd have paid $1,000. So, anytime I had even 2 face cards of the same suit, I threw away everything else and tried to draw for the royal. (Came close twice, getting four to the royal, but...)

I got tired and I got hungry, and I kept winning just enough to not lose the $50. Then I had a hot streak, got the total up to about $50 -- actually, $45, but I'll take the $5 loss -- cashed out and went for lunch.

But I took the shot.

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Two former members of the MIT blackjack team are ready to work the rest of the country, bringing seminars to players who want to learn to count cards.

One seminar is set for Miami June 14, at a location still being arranged.

The pair were among those who inspired the movie 21 and the book Bringing Down The House.

Michael Aponte and David Irvine have announced four Blackjack Institute Group Seminar dates in 2008.

“The next few months could be very dangerous for amateur or half-hearted blackjack players,” said Aponte, who was the Jason Fisher ‘character’ in the book. “A lot of people who have seen ‘21’ or read ‘Bringing Down The House’ are going to try their hand at card counting. That’s fine, but don’t try to count cards after reading a blackjack book on a flight to Vegas or Atlantic City. That’s a sure path to financial disaster. In the long run these players will end up hating themselves, but the casinos will love them.”

The one-day sessions will focus on basic strategy, card counting, deck estimation, betting strategy, money management and game selection.

Dates and cities: Las Vegas April 19, Los Angeles April 26; New York May 3 and Miami June 14.

Each group seminar runs from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and enrollment is capped at 50 students. The seminar costs $900. Go to www.BlackjackInstitute.com.

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So I have a story in the paper today about The Isle Racing & Casino celebrating its first anniversary, and when you check the revenue numbers, it's noteworthy how their figures are much greater than the two other slot/racing sites in Broward.

Marketing VP Linda Powers was the highest-ranking staffer at the party, and so it really wasn't a time for tough questions to fly. (Upper management keeps a firm hand on who says what.) But among the questions I still have: Is the number disparity large because of things The Isle is doing right or something the two other places are lacking?

Or is it simply geography? With Mardi Gras and Gulfstream in South Broward -- and 900-pound gorilla Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino only miles away -- are they merely swinging away at each other? Or will they both take off when Gulfstream's construction is done and Mardi Gras upgrades its card room?

The Isle, meanwhile, isn't that far from Seminole Coconut Creek, and both draw from a lucrative Boca-Delray set (Palm Beach County has no slots). And Powers offered up that her place feels more like a casino than everyplace else -- and I'll grant some of that, mostly when you compare the poker room at The Isle to the room at the Seminole. I won't get into comparing the rest of the two.

The Seminole Coconut Creek will be expanding soon, though, and what does that do to the Isle?

So, you all tell me: Is it geography, some other factor or what?

I've typed six questions in this post; take a crack at any of them.

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I'm gathering a roster of local names who are headed out to Las Vegas for the events. I can't go myself -- maybe next year -- but in the meantime, the more contacts I have, the better I can follow it -- and the more I can root vicariously for everyone else.

So, send me an email at nsortal@sun-sentinel.com if you're going to play, as well as any contact info you're willing to include.

Meanwhile, I'm working on a story about Palm Beach Kennel and the Isle giving away World Series of Poker main event seats to their tournament winners. If anyone has any observations or thoughts on what they're doing -- which has been offered for years at other casinos across the U.S. -- email me.

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The Isle Casino and Racing at Pompano Park will celebrate its first anniversary at 4 p.m. Monday at the casino, 1800 SW Third Ave., Pompano Beach.

The casino management will give out cupcakes to patrons and casino management will address the crowd at The Fling bar, in the center of the casino.

For information, call 954-972-2000.

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Lisa Teebagy of Lighthouse Point. If the name sounds familiar in women's poker, it's because there have been two women's events in the High Heels Poker Tour, and she has won them both.

Teebagy won the inaugural tournament last fall at the Isle in Pompano Beach, which drew 103 players. She paid $250 to win $5,407.

Then about a week ago, she prevailed again, in a tournament at the Seminole Casino Hollywood (the one everyone calls "Classic").

She had the option of a seat in the WSOP Main Event, hotel accommodations, airfare and spending money package or $10,000 in cash. She took the cash.

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Russ Fox talked some about taxes and gambling in today's Showtime section of our paper, but I ran out of room to answer two questions. Here they are:

Q. What if you play online and have a foreign bank account? Am I clear?

A. If you have sum of the largest balance in your accounts is $10,000 or more, you must check a box at the bottom of Schedule B indicating you have a foreign bank account, and file Form TD F 90-22.1 with the Department of the Treasury. That form is not filed with your tax return — it is sent directly to the Treasury — and it must be received by June 30.

Q. More information?

A. The IRS has an excellent Web site, xirs.govx. As much as we like to bash government, the IRS site usually will get you to the right answer. And I have a tax blog. For just the gambling posts, go to Taxabletalk.com/gambling.

Meanwhile, one regular slots player says she keeps ATM receipts for each trip. That way if she does hit it big, she has the receipts to show she's been playing. Not a bad idea.

Anyone else have any tips? (By the way, if you have a problem with winning too much, that's a good problem to have, eh?)

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The first time I watched The Natural, when Glenn Close stood up, then Robert Redford homered, I had no problem with that. Romantic license.

But when Roy Hobbs (Redford) knocked the cover off the ball, well, I went nuts. How can you not portray baseball correctly? That ball never would have been in play. No way it unravels.

The difference: One is sports, and the Close thing, well, that's romance... something we never can figure out.

Which brings me to 21 again. First of all, the object of card-counting is for more 10s to be in the deck and the dealer to bust -- not to always hit 21 yourself. But the movie shows scene after scene of paint upon paint in front of our hero. Rain Man did the same thing. Fools. Then there's the idea of college kids who are trying to be anonymous being greeted by name and comped the finest suites. (Now, I'm questioning the whole $800,000 figure the MIT kids are citing.)

That's only part of it, if you ask Matt Eagan of The Hartford Courant, who runs with the over-glamorization of gambling in a recent article. Greater point: You win, someone else loses. Sometimes you're the someone else.

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Steve Lipscomb, founder and CEO of the World Poker Tour, will be a guest on Poker Talk America, the radio show that airs out of West Palm Beach at 4 p.m. weekdays. (WBZT-AM, 1230)

Also booked is Susie Isaacs, a professional poker player, author, and inaugural inductee into the Women's Poker Hall Of Fame.

The WPT is hosting a ladies championship poker tournament this weekend in Las Vegas and that the tournament will subsequently be televised. Fifteen percent of each entrant's buy-in for the tournament will be donated to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure charitable foundation.

According to Poker Talk America host Frank Greentree, some of the ladies did not know the "donation" was mandatory and reduced the prize pool.

Author and pro Lisa Adams regularly hosts the show on Wednesdays, which is women-oriented.

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As part of the Palm Beach International Film Festival, is the movie The Grand, a mockumentary about six poker players as they reach the final table of a high-stakes tournament.

Sports Illustrated reviewed it a couple of weeks ago, saying that it captured the "2006 feel" of poker mania to a T. (Kind of a shot there by SI, saying that poker is on the way down.)

Anyway, we get to see it in Boca as part of the film festival. It's rolling out in couple of a big markets, but that's about it.

It shows at 7 p.m. Thursday Sunrise Cinemas Mizner Park in Boca Raton. Call 561-362-0003 or visit pbifilmfest.org.

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Most of you know this already, but this blackjack card-counting thing has been around for more than 40 years. The movie 21 is just the latest turn on it.

In fact, a West Palm Beach man, Mark Saunders, wrote his 1973 master's thesis on a similar topic, about the probability of the cards and proper betting sequences of blackjack. Doing it gets a 1.41 percent over the house, he says. Read on, and you'll see that it has a card-counter's feel to it.

Saunders, who originally studied physics, played professionally in Vegas for more than 8 years. He now restores carpets for auto dealerships in Palm Beach County.

It works like this:

Say you play $5. you start with $500. You play two hands and 2 units apiece. Apply basic strategy, hitting if the dealer has 7 or more and sticking if you're at 17 or more, generally. Insure only a 20 against a dealer's ace and take even money on an ace.

The key comes with the betting. Once you're down 10 units you bet 1 more unit each hand, so your $10 bet becomes $15. Each time you get down 10, add another unit of betting.

When you're up, bet less, under the same formula. And play only double-deck or single-deck games.

My take -- and I'm kind of a math guy -- is that it's similar to card-counting in this way: if you're down money, it's likely because there's been a run of low cards. So the deck has more 10s, and is in your favor. If you're way up, the 10s have all been used. So bet less.

Anyone agree/disagree?

Saunders conferred with the 21 filmmakers, and was under the impression that he was getting a credit at the end of the film, he said. I saw, it and no name made it. But, hey, that's Hollywood.

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Saw 21 this week, and I wrote about blackjack and card-counting in this week's Showtime section. Thought I'd write here more about the movie.

Talk about rip-offs. Let's see... Oceans 11 (with the replays of the action you just saw), Risky Business (especially the closing interview -- I can almost see Tom Cruise and hearing "Princeton can use a man like..." and on Jim Sturgess' first date, I can almost see Rebecca DeMornay as the girlfriend on the train), Rain Man (although they acknowledge that one, when Fisher runs his mouth) ...

Actually, the movie is about a college kid deciding whether to allow himself to be seduced by money, Vegas, beautiful women and adventure (tough decision?). I guess it has something to do with gambling, heck now I do kind of want to read the book Bringing Down the House.

But on Amazon.com, reader Craig Kenneth Bryant scored the "most helpful critical review," verbalizing some points in the movie that I felt in my stomach, but couldn't put into words. Good job, Mr. Bryant.

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The Isle Casino and Racing at Pompano Park is celebrating its first birthday in April.

From 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. each Sunday in April, the Isle will award $100 in play every half hour.

Each Monday, people receive 50 Isle points and a birthday scratch-off ticket.

Anyone who wins a jackpot of $1,200 or more during the month will enter a $10,000 jackpot drawing, set for 7:30 p.m. April 30, and those who have won larger jackpots get more entries.

Fireworks at 9 p.m. April 18.

The big stuff is April 25-27. From 8 to 11 p.m. on the 25th is a $25,000 total giveaway, with two $5,000 winners. From 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. the 26th is another $25,000 giveway, with 20 $500 winners at 6 p.m. And on April 27, the casino gives away an Infiniti G37 coupe at 8 p.m., and $10,000 in cash from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

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If you love the World Poker Tour broadcasts, then you've heard that the show has left the Travel Channel and is now on the Game Show Network, which also has the very popular High Stakes Poker.

So, I start to flip over to the Game Show Network, only to find out that, well, I don't get that channel any more. Comcast has deemed that tier of channels (about 100-199) to be some new term ("semi-premium") which I don't get ... unless I pay 12 more bucks a month.

Sorry, I've had it. Comcast out. Direct TV in.

Advice anyone? Commiserate with me or warn me?

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