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Imagine Tim Finchem winning a golf tournament. Don King promoting a fight, then stepping into the ring. Bud Seling in the Brewers' locker room with the World Series trophy.

OK, it's not at all like that. But Dan Le Batard did win his owner poker tournament Tuesday night at Dania Jai-Alai, prevailing in a field of more than 300. (I know the photo doesn't work, at least I got one on to download.)

Le Batard, who hosts a radio show weekday afternoons, said he had a hot run of cards. He was the chip leader when the field got down to 13 players.

As has been the custom at his monthly tournaments, players all agreed to “chop” the pot, each player collecting $857. Le Batard got the trophy, which had some reference to Dan Rather that I forget at this time.

“I have always been against “chopping” pots, I play to win," he said in a Dania press release. "But, it is amazing that I got that far in my own tournament, it was the right thing to do.”

790 The Ticket's Stugotz bowed out at 25th place, the best finish of all his tournaments.

Meanwhile, Pablo Ugando from Hollywood, playing in a no-limit Hold’em game about 20 minutes before the tournament hit a Royal Flush in hearts. The jackpot paid $11,080 and drew a roar from the players getting ready for the tournament.

And, as an aside, the jai-alai fronton had something I had seen there in quite awhile: people. Seems like this week is a big week, with local people off and visitors in town looking for something to do. I'd guess 2,000 or so, but it's only a guess. Usually there's fewer than 100 and bettors' calls of "DROP IT, FOUR!" have a pathetic echo to them.

Dania also celebrated its 55th year of operation, giving away bottles of champagne during the poker tournament, selling concession items for 55 cents and giving away free cake. First prize in the poker tournament was $5,500.

The fronton is located at 301 E. Dania Beach Blvd in Dania Beach. The cardroom is open seven days a week, Sunday through Thursday from noon to midnight, Friday and Saturday from noon to 3 a.m.

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The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino is giving away $2,000 in slot play hourly on New Year's Day. The drawings are from 4 to 9 p.m.

Also at the casino:

$250,000 Cash Exchange Giveaway: On Wednesdays (7, 14, and 21), Thursdays (8, 15, 22 and 29), Fridays (9, 16 and 23), and Saturdays (10, 17, 24 and 31) win $250 to $2,000 in cash. Drawings from 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. A mystery bonus round will be held at an unspecified time where guests will have free slot play fro $10 to $1,000 downloaded to their accounts. Swipe daily to enter.

$50,000 Big Game Lottery: Player’s Club members may purchase drawing tickets from Jan. 15-Feb. 1. Drawing tickets can be purchased for $100 at the main casino cage. Tickets include admission to the Big Game party in the ballroom on Feb. 1 and drawing will be held at half time. Three winners’ names will be drawn. (Note from Nick: You know, a lot of places use 'Big Game' to really mean 'Super Bowl,' especially when it is not an officially sanctioned Super Bowl event. Just clarifying here...)

CLK 350 A Mercedes Giveaway: On Sundays (4, 11 and 18) and Tuesdays (6, 13 and 27), win $1,000 in cash every hour at noon, 1 p.m., 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. on Sundays and 5 p.m. 6 p.m. 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Tuesdays. Grand prize drawing at 4 p.m. on Sundays and 9 p.m. on Tuesdays. Five names will be drawn; four will win $1,000 and one will win a Mercedes.

“Take Center Stage” Cash or Memorabilia Giveaway: On Jan. 2, 4, 16, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 and 30 Player’s Club members have an opportunity to win memorabilia and $1,000 in free slot play during three drawings at 11 p.m. To enter, Player’s Club members swipe their cards on concert days from 5 p.m. – 10:45 p.m. Drawings at 11 p.m.

Classic Rockers Slot Tournament: Every Tuesday in January (6, 13, 20 and 27), the tournament is free to Classic Rockers Club members and located in the non-smoking casino. Registration begins at 8 a.m. Each session is 20 minutes with five minutes of play. Up to 10 sessions with 25 players per session. Prizes awarded based upon the top five overall scores per session.

$50,000 King of Rock Slot Tournament: Every Monday in January (5, 12, 19 and 26), the tournament is free and located in the alcove across from the Hard Rock Cafe. Registration begins at 3 p.m. Each session is 20 minutes with five minutes of play. Up to 13 sessions with 25 players per session. Prizes awarded based upon the top three overall scores each week; grand prize paid to the top 25 scores.

New Year’s Eve in The Poker Room at Seminole Paradise: Play on Dec. 31 and receive a pair or better and win a New Year’s Eve Party ticket, 7 p.m. to midnight. Party Ticket includes: Hors d’oeuvres and a champagne toast at the bar on the second level of the Poker Room from 10:30 p.m.-1 a.m. Call 954.585.5111

Super Bowl Sunday Cruise for Two Giveaway, Sunday, Feb. 1: Four drawings will be held in the poker room, one after each quarter of the Super Bowl. The winner of each drawing will receive a cruise for two.

Special tournaments: Tuesday, January 13 & 27 at 6:30 p.m. $15,000 guaranteed prize pool; $150 buy-in.
Monday, January 5 & 19 at 6:30 p.m. $25,000 guaranteed prize pool; $300 buy-in
Friday, January 9 & 23 at 11 a.m. $30,000 guaranteed prize pool; $150 buy-in

The Main Event Poker Tournament: January 12-18—Middleweight Division: Monday, Jan. 12 round one at noon; $350 buy-in, 45-minute rounds. Super Satellite on Sunday, Jan. 11 at 1 p.m. with $50 buy-in.

Cruiserweight Division: Wednesday, Jan. 14 round one at noon; $575 buy-in, 45-minute rounds with 10,000 units to start. (Super Satellite Tuesday, January 13 at 1 p.m. with $75 buy-in).

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Powerball, the multistate game with jackpots that often cross $100 million, starts in Florida on Jan. 4. The first drawing is Jan. 7.

The odds are astronomical, as current Florida lottery players say, but there's still the dream.

So, how will it affect what you play now?

(Not sure if the 'comments' portion of this blog has been fixed. My apologies. If not, email me at nsortal@sun-sentinel.com and I'll put up the comments later today.)

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The next Dan Le Batard Celebrity Poker Tournament will be held at 8 p.m. Tuesday night, Dec. 30 at Dania Jai-Alai.

Entry fee is $50 with re-entry allowed for the first 30 minutes of the tournament.

The entire fronton will be celebrating Dania Jai-Alai’s 55th birthday with 55-cent beer, hot dogs, and sodas, there will be a $5,500 guarantee prize for the winner. Also, there's free birthday cake from 7 to 8 p.m.

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The Florida attorney general is asking for criminal charges if the Seminole tribe continues offering blackjack.

The tribe began blackjack and other table games at the Seminole Hard Rocks in Hollywood and Tampa and at its Immokalee casino this year.

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They're ahead on entertainment and glitz, and now the Hard Rock may be catching up on big jackpot payouts: A 79-year-old man from Coral Springs won $424,694.38 on the slots at the Hard Rock Dec. 12, the highest payout ever there, the casino said.

Tampa Hard Rock a few weeks ago paid out a $2.5 million jackpot to a slot player, and Seminole Coconut Creek has had three $1 million plus jackpots, including one over $2 million, this year.

The man played a Bally Technologies “Quarter Million$,” two-cent slot machine. He played a 125-credit maximum bet. The maximum bet must be played in order to win the progressive award.

This machine is an “area wide” progressive slot, meaning it’s linked to other Indian casinos throughout the United States. Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino was the first casino in Florida to install wide-area progressive slot machines in April 2008. Casinos are Broward pari-mutuels have "linked progressives," meaning they are linked to each other, but only in the one casino.

On Saturday at the Hard Rock, a 42-year-old woman from Lake Worth won $200,000 on an IGT “Double Double Bonus Poker” Vegas-style poker machine. She played the maximum bet and won with four aces.

Both players declined to be identified, the casino said.

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The Palm Beach Kennel Club is now offering three-card poker.

Here's how it works: Players ante $5 and receive three cards face down. Starting with the dealer button, players must either bet $1 or fold. The $5 jackpot rake makes players eligible for six different jackpots.

The player who remains in for all bets and has the highest ranking hand, based on standard poker rankings, receives all the $1 bets that were made.

The jackpot amounts are:

$10 for a pair, $20 for a flush, $35 for a straight, $155 for three of a kind, $255 for a straight flush and $595 for a mini-royal flush (suited A-K-Q).

Instead of getting the cash at the table, though, you get tokens that you cash elsewhere. A house fee of 50 cents per hand will be assessed prior to the deal.

I'll make some calls as to whether this game is a winner or not...

Meanwhile, also at Palm Beach Kennel:

Dec. 12-23: Poker Room 12 Days of Christmas: High hand each hour has a chance to win great prizes including big screen TVs, laptop computers, Blue Ray DVD Players, IPods, $200 American Express Gift Cards and dining certificates and more.

Dec. 26-31: Poker Room Ho, Ho, Hold’em Events: Six days of tournaments, with big tournaments Dec. 26 and 27.

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Gulfstream is giving away a car at 12:30 a.m. Jan. 1. Five Players' Club members' names will be called, and all will receive envelopes. Four get $500; the fifth gets a 2009 Chrysler Sebring Limited.

Slot tournaments continue from noon to 4 p.m. on Fridays. Players spin for five minutes. First prize is $1,000 cash.

Coach and cash giveaway, 2-10 p.m. every 20 minutes Dec. 13 and 27. Winners receive a Coach purse and cash or free play.

Nintendo Wii giveaway, every 20 minutes, 2-10 p.m. Dec. 6 and 20.

$15,000 slot tournament: 4-8 p.m. Dec. 28. Entry fee is $25. Limited to 300 players. $5,000 for first prize on down to $50 for places 51 through 100.

Last minute shopping spree: 2-10 p.m. Dec. 24, every 20 minutes. Prizes include Cusinarts, Lobster grams, iPods, digital frames and Waterford Crystal.

$500 drawings every 20 minutes: 3-11 p.m. Dec. 4, 11, 18 and 25.

Grab a gift card giveaway: 10 a.m. to midnight, Dec. 5, 12, 19 and 26. Earn 50 points for play and receive a $25 gift card to Macy's Target or Home Depot.

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The World Poker Tour Boot Camp has concentrated on teaching players tournament strategy, but last month it offered a two-day course on cash game play at the Isle Racing and Casino in Pompano Beach.

Clonie Gowen, a favorite among WPT Boot Camp students and winner of the World Poker Open in Tunica, Miss., in October, offered these thoughts on cash games and Florida’s poker rules:

What are common mistakes people make in cash games?Just not being properly bankrolled, so they’re forced to rely more on the cards and they have maybe one or two bets before they’re all in.

So what’s a good bankroll?
At least 50 times the size of the big blinds, and that’s just the buyin. But the appropriate bankroll should be 100 times the big blind.

But Florida has $1-$2 no-limit with a $100 buy-in, as well as $2-$5 and $5-$10 no-limit, so you can’t really do that here.
But in the $1-$2 you can at least get 50 times the big blind. But if you’re going to play, you really don’t have much of a shot because you’re going to be all-in too many times.

So you wouldn’t play it here?
I would not.

As a pro, what is a good cash game?
I don’t like max buy-in because it goes totally against no-lmit. No-limit is no-limit, all you can set on the table.

What about for beginners?
The $1-$2 game, is not a bad game because it limits your losses. But if you’re not one of the starting nine to sit down at that table, you have $100, but there’s other players who have $1,000 or $2,000. You have no shot at winning.

What thought processes are necessary for cash games?
To have the bankroll and emotionally take the swings of it, and look at it like a business. And their business partner, their spouse, is not having to worry about the ups and downs. Players have to have a bankroll that’s set aside separately from paying the mortgage, car payment or credit card debt.

Overall, how have cash games changed?
Five years ago all you could find were limit cash games. They see people move all-in on TV and that’s what they think they should do in a no-limit game. Because when a player makes a mistake, they make a huge mistake. In limit, a bad player can make the wrong decision, but still have the right price to make a call.

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Another entrant into the bar poker scene in South Florida: The World Poker Tour Amateur Poker League.

The league carries the "World Poker Tour" brand name, and is in at five locations, according to its web site, mostly in Palm Beach County.

In bar poker, players meet at a pub or restaurant and play for free for points or prizes. It's not gambling, according to state laws, because the participants aren't risking anything. Bars like it because it brings business; players like it because it's a way to socialize and learn the game.

South Florida Regional manager Jason Horn said the league has also recently awarded trips to
Mexico and Las Vegas and custom golf clubs.

The players participating in WPTAPL events earn WPTAPL points. Horn says the points qualify players for regional tournaments, and the regional winners will qualify to compete in the
national championship, for the chance to win a $10,000 seat into a WPT
main event.

Toby Smith of Pompano Beach won a spot in the Season Pass event Dec. 1-7 in the Dominican Republic. He competed in the national championship in Orlando in April.

For more information about the World Poker Tour Amateur Poker League or the WPT Boot Camp, visit www.wptapl.com.

WPT also gives away seats into the WPT Celebrity Invitational tournament, an invite-only tournament where top poker pros and Hollywood celebrities compete for hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and a $25,000 seat into the WPT World Championship. Every point earned translates into rewards that can be exchanged for prizes from T-Shirts to Flat Screen
TV’s to WPT events, Horn says.

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Now poker has an all-women's teaching academy, with South Florida ties.

The Women’s Ultimate Poker Academy (WUPA), launched Dec. 6 at Harrah’s New Orleans in Louisiana with the "Queen of Poker" Barbara Enright, the only women to ever make the final table at the World Series of Poker Main Event. (She finished fifth.)

The WUPA offers a free three-hour teaching seminar with Enright and other players, including Susie Issacs, JJ Liu and Karina Jett.

There will be hand by hand instruction, individual attention from the top female pros in the industry and personal feedback, according to a news release.

The next WUPA academy will be held at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino March 6-7. Cost is $1295 and includes a free-roll into the High Heels Poker Tour Event at noon March 8 at the Hard Rock.

The Women’s Ultimate Poker Academy was established in 2008 by partners Lisa Adams and Lauren Failla, who also created the High Heels Poker Tour.

For more information contact the info@womensultimatepokeracademy.

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Mardi Gras (the former Hollywood Greyhound Track) is celebrating its 75th racing season Friday with promotions and a fireworks show.

The fireworks are at 10:30 p.m.

There also is $750 in cash giveaway at 4, 5 and 6 p.m. and $75 in bonus play every 15 minutes from 4-7 p.m. The casino will then give away $100 in bonus play every 15 minutes from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., except for a $1,000 cash giveaway at 9 p.m. and $2,831 cash at 8:31 p.m.

The casino's tic-tac-toe chicken promotion is 2 p.m.-10 p.m. The first person to beat the chicken gets $7,500 in cash; others get $75.

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Seminole Casino Hollywood, which made news earlier this year with Strip Poker and a 26-cars-in-26-days giveaway, is now turning its attention to a big 29th anniversary party on Dec.12-14.

Seminole Casino Hollywood started as a bingo hall on the Seminole’s Hollywood reservation in 1979. It continues to offer bingo but also has Las Vegas slot machines and poker.

“We’ve been operating continuously ever since and we’re fortunate to have a very, very loyal customer base. Many of our customers have been coming here for nearly 30 years,” said General Manager Adrian Fox, via a press release.

Open to the public (21 and over), the casino’s birthday bash will feature as master of ceremonies the star of BET’s Comic View and Bad Boys of Comedy shows, Rayzor.

The weekend-long event will also feature “Birthday Bingo” worth $50,000; Junkanoo bands and live Caribbean-style music; an island themed prime rib buffet for only $5.99, and much more.

Laid back in comparison to its sister property, Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino just up the street, Seminole Casino Hollywood recently began bringing its promotions up a notch with its “26 Mustangs in 26 Days” that culminated on Nov. 30.

The Seminole Casino Hollywood, 4150 N. State Road 7, pioneered Indian gaming when it opened as the country’s first large stakes bingo hall in 1979, eventually expanding with gaming machines and poker. It is home to 1,000 machines, 15 poker tables featuring live and tournament play seven days a week, a 700-seat high stakes bingo room with a non-smoking area and a 50-seat Lightning Bingo room.

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The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tampa awarded a $2,551,037 Wheel of Fortune MegaJackpot on Nov. 25, the largest to be paid in Florida to date.

The winner, Terese Moore, 57. is from Land-O-Lakes, Florida, and said she was scheduled to go to Las Vegas three days later, but “felt lucky today” and opted for a more local trip. The Associated Press said plans to use the money to help her daughters and grandchildren, and donate some to her church.

She said she came to the casino for a car drawing and had already won $200 before her million-dollar jackpot hit.

She said she was surprised to learn she had won the top progressive prize, but as the reality of her million dollar prize began to sink in, she said she will use her MegaJackpot winnings to pay off her home.

Earlier this summer, on July 19, the Seminole casino in Coconut Creek awarded a $2.3 million MegaJackpot prize on a Wheel of Fortune Special Edition progressive. The Seminole Hard Rock Casino is part of a Native American progressive gaming network that includes over 300 casinos nationwide. Each time a coin is played in a linked machine, anywhere in the network, the jackpot accumulates. Coconut Creek has also been the home to two other $1 million plus payouts this year.

The Seminole Tribe of Florida owns and operates casinos in Brighton, Coconut Creek, Hollywood and Immokalee and Big Cypress, as well as two Hard Rock Hotel & Casino properties located in Hollywood and Tampa.

The $5 Wheel of Fortune progressive system has a starting jackpot of $1 million. In order to win the MegaJackpot, a player bets $10 at a time while attempting to line up the Wheel of Fortune reel symbols on the machine’s payline.

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Mardi Gras Gaming in Hallandale Beach has hatched a promotion that gave away $10,000 Friday -- no poultry sum.

OK, enough. The casino's Chicken Challenge features a tic-tac-toe playing chicken. Most games end in a tie, just like regular tic-tac-toe, but people keep lining up to play. Of the more than 1,000 visitors who played over the first weekend, only 322 won, according to Mardi Gras marketing director Ann Zebrowski.

The chickens have been trained at tic-tac-toe — they know when to block, for example. Players hit a touch-screen with their selections — the chicken and the players alternate going first — then the chicken jumps up and hits a tic-tac-toe square inside its booth with its beak. The chick's pick then registers on the display screen.

The grand prize went last Friday, but the promotion continues. Beat it and you get $50 in free play.

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A new car promotion and players’ leaderboard have revived a poker room option: one-table tournaments.

Gulfstream Casino and Racing began the “Mercedes-Benz Poker Challenge” in October.

Players collect points by playing in tournaments, and the top 50 vie for free for a Mercedes-Benz C Class at 3 p.m. Sunday.

Casinos usually have promotions to develop loyalty with slot players, but poker – which is less profitable – offers little, if any, incentive to choose one venue over another.

Gulfstream poker room manager Scott Poole said the Poker Challenge has changed that. Casinos in the western United States have run such promotions before, but it’s the first to come to South Florida, partially because to be worthwhile, the casino has to make enough money to cover the cost of the car. In this case, the Mercedes lists at $32,000.

“It has worked out incredibly well,” Poole said. The casino’s tournament revenue went from $8,500 in September to $32,098 in October to $54,600 in November. Non-tournament revenue also has increased, as players eliminated from the tournaments head over to cash games.

The $55, $60 and $100 multi-table tournaments reward about 230 points for winners, through about 70 points for 10th. But players receive up to 57 points in a one-table tournament – known in poker lingo as a “sit-and-go.”

Sit-and-goes were popular at casinos until July 1, 2007, when the state upped non-tournament buy-ins from $4 to $100. So players shifted to non-tournament, “cash” games.

Now, with the points incentive, sit-and-goes have been revived at Gulfstream, Poole said. The casino has about 15 a day, up from about one per day in recent months.

“As soon as one sit-and-go ends, there are players lined up to play another,” he said.

Poole said the casino will begin another poker leaderboard promotion in January, with a prize TBA.

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Imagine how good you'd be at poker if you could see everyone's hole cards.

That's what happened when someone hacked into AbsolutePoker.com and its sister site, UltimateBet.com. (I'm not linking to them because I don't want to reward their behavior.)

The story has been out in the poker world for about a year now, but finally hit the mainstream media. It's complicated, but it comes down to the fear you'd expect from the Internet: It isn't always what it seems.

The Washington Post dug and dug and came up with the answers behind the largest Internet poker scandal ever. CBS' 60 Minutes, which worked with The Washington Post, also reported the story Sunday.

The amazing part is that the work and the persistence the players themselves put into tracking down the cheaters. Read into it whatever you want, but there's a lot of smart people out there playing poker, folks...

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Cash and iPod Giveaway: On Tuesdays in December (2, 9, 16 and 23), cash prizes of $100 - $1,500 plus iPod prizes awarded from noon – 9 p.m.; cash prizes of $15,000 per day guaranteed.

$250,000 Holiday Cash Giveaway: On Wednesdays (3, 10, and 17), Thursdays (4, 11 and 18), Fridays (5, 12, 19 and 26), and Saturdays (6, 13, 20 and 27) in December, cash prizes of $1,000 awarded every 30 minutes from 1 – 8 p.m.; cash prize of $3,000 awarded at 9 p.m.; $18,000 cash awarded per day guaranteed.

$20,000 Giveaway: On Wed., December 31, $1,000 to $3,000 in cash will be awarded every 30 minutes from 11 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. Grand prize of $5,000 will be awarded at 4 p.m.

Win a BMW 635i: On Wednesday, Dec. 31; Grand prize drawing at 5 p.m.

Cash & Cars Quadruple Entries Giveaway: On Sundays in December (7, 14, 21 and 28), Cash prizes from $1,000 - $3,000 awarded from 1-3 p.m.; Grand prize of $5,000 cash awarded at 7 p.m.; Earn quadruple entries on Sundays for the Dec. 31 cash and cars giveaways.

Classic Rockers Slot Tournament: Every Tuesday in December beginning Dec. 2, the tournament is free to Classic Rockers Club members and located in the non-smoking casino. Registration begins at 8 a.m. Each session is 20 minutes with five minutes of play. Up to 10 sessions with 25 players per session. Prizes awarded based upon the top five overall scores per session.

“King of the Rock” Slot Tournament: Continues on Mondays in December (1, 8, 15 and 22). Free to Player’s Club members and registration begins at 3 p.m. in the alcove across from the Hard Rock Cafe; sessions start at 4 p.m. and occur every 20 minutes with the final sessions commencing at 8 p.m. Cash prizes of $200 - $10,000 to top 25 tournament high scorers.

“Take Center Stage” Cash or Memorabilia Giveaway: On Dec. 10, 11, 12, 14, 17 and 30, Player’s Club members have an opportunity to memorabilia and $1,000 in free slot play during three drawings at 11 p.m. To enter, Player’s Club members swipe their cards on concert days from 5 p.m. – 10:45 p.m.

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