Refund for Miss America?

The Miss America Pageant aired live from the Aladdin Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas Monday. The showroom audience demanded refunds after the contestants made their final walk down the runway. Only the pre-war intelligence was more covered up.

Celine Dion's Husband Gambles $1 Million a Week? Caesars Palace Responds

Responding to grossly inaccurate media speculation about the gaming activity of prominent entertainment entrepreneur Rene Angelil, Caesars Palace issued a statement.

"Allegations that Rene gambles as much as $1 million per week are totally false," said Gary Selesner, president of the famed resort. "In deference to the privacy of all our guests, we don't discuss their gaming or hotel patronage, but with Rene's permission, we would like to set the record straight. His casino losses in 2005 and 2006 have totaled exactly $230,300, which have been more than offset by his tournament poker winnings, of $259,079, which are posted on the Internet.

"Rene and his wife Celine Dion are very dear to us," Selesner continued. "In addition to being the best partners a business person could want, they are exemplary people, whose integrity, achievement and philanthropy have justly earned worldwide respect. In life and in business, Rene is a winner, and one of the finest people I have ever known. Caesars Palace is very sorry for any embarrassment that may have resulted from the media speculation."

Monorail in Las Vegas is a Train to Nowhere

To board the Las Vegas Monorail from the northwest entrance of Harrah's for a ride to the Flamingo, you need to walk 551 paces. That's just 38 fewer steps than if you walked the 589 paces on the sidewalk from Harrah's to the Flamingo - and you wouldn't have to wait for the ride or pay a $5 fare.

Walking through the casino also takes longer. But inconvenience and the closeness between rail stops are probably minor reasons for the monorail's poor performance, highlighted in a recent report that showed fewer riders boarded the monorail in December than in the system's 2 1/2-year life.
The 4-mile-long, $650 million line has lost riders steadily since peaking in mid-2005 at just over 32,000 paid riders per day. December's ridership averaged 15,430 daily. It might be crowded in a casino, but you could easily swing a dead cat at a monorail station and not hit a thing.

Carl Steinmetz, a 57-year-old Pullman, Wash., resident - who happens to be a distant relative of Mark Twain, who once famously wrote of the aforementioned "swing a cat" - states very clearly one day this week why he will never take the monorail, one of the few gee-whiz Strip wonders to fail. "Look, we know when we come here, we're going to spend money," says Steinmetz, a drug and alcohol counselor from the city named after the Pullman of railroad fame. "But that doesn't mean we're going to just throw our money away."

The idea of spending $5 for a one-way ticket to ride the monorail, he says, "is ridiculous." Especially considering that the bus pass in his hand also cost $5, but is good all day and allows for transfers so he can go just about anywhere, including the outlet mall near downtown. A daylong pass for the monorail is $15. "The bus is very convenient," he adds, nodding to his wife, Teena, and their friends, Christopher and Debra Mohammed from Vale, Ore.

Steinmetz and yet another visitor, Bob Plant, 68, from Fifield, Wis., in town for a bank board meeting, talk almost wistfully of the convenience of another monorail, the one that goes from the Treasure Island and the Mirage. Not only is that free, but it delivers riders almost to the casino floor, rather than a few hundred yards away. "That's one of the things that is real different," says Plant, who took a walk to the Flamingo monorail station Tuesday to find a map of its stops.

So maybe the monorail is inconvenient, goes nowhere people want to go, and you'd have to swing a dead cat on a very, very long rope before you'd hit anyone from Las Vegas riding it - so what? As advertised, the monorail is privately financed and taxpayers are never supposed to pay a dime, even if it goes belly-up.

Terry Murphy, a monorail board member since its inception, says the monorail's bonds are "doubly" insured, in case it does face a financial shortfall. Investors, including casinos, are footing the bill and taking the risk. If the monorail fails to make payments on its loan, insurance is supposed to pay off the bondholders.

There is, however, one way that the monorail affects state residents. When Brian Krolicki, the newly elected lieutenant governor, was state treasurer, he helped the monorail get a not-for-profit designation. So like churches or the Red Cross, it doesn't pay taxes on the money it makes.

Looking back, Krolicki says the argument was that the monorail "serves a public good" - no, not by engorging casinos with the tourists who plug the slots and help boost the state's tax revenues - by easing traffic congestion and all the costs and problems that go with it.

Not everyone buys that argument.

"The route doesn't go anyplace that the public wants it to go," freshman Clark County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani says. "It's an antiquated piece of equipment. Even Third World countries don't rely on monorails. They have true light rail. This will never link to a light rail because they are different tracks and systems. It's never been set up to serve the citizens."

Murphy would dispute that, noting that since its inception, the monorail has carried 20 million people. "That's better than 20 million people riding up and down the Strip. And if they wanted to be on that bus, those buses would be awfully crowded."

The monorail might do better, Murphy adds, if a spur is built to the airport. The Las Vegas Monorail Co. is studying whether an estimated $500 million, 4-mile line to McCarran International Airport would help the ailing monorail. Investors are expressing interest in funding that spur, she added.

Krolicki, who says he goes through McCarran about once a week, always believed an airport line was the most important link to the system. "The taxi line out there is extraordinary," he says. And still, there are doubters. Transportation engineer Mohamed Kaseko, a UNLV associate professor of civil engineering, imagined a mom and dad with three kids arriving at McCarran, loaded with luggage and having to decide: Monorail or cab?

"It could work," Kaseko says of the monorail-airport line. "But there again, there are some issues. Because at some point, if you have a family ¦ it won't be cheap or convenient, and you'd have to haul all that luggage."

For at least 551 steps.

Thanks to Joe Schoenmann

NBA Jam Session Tickets in Las Vegas On Sale NOW!

Don't miss out on YOUR chance to get up close and personal with the NBA! Get your tickets TODAY for the 2007 NBA All-Star Jam Session presented by adidas! Meet your favorite NBA players, shoot hoops all day on 10 different courts, and more! All at the Mandalay Bay.

NBA All-Star Game to Gridlock Vegas Traffic

Civic leaders are hoping that next month's NBA All-Star Game at the Thomas & Mack Center will give the world a little taste of Las Vegas-style glitz and glamour. But some local cabbies fear that fans instead will get a huge dose of valley-style gridlock.

That's because of ongoing road work projects around the Thomas & Mack and McCarran International Airport that have pinched lanes and made it tough going to and from the Strip taking the usual surface streets. "It took me 45 minutes the other day from the airport, taking the surface streets, to get to the Treasure Island" hotel, normally a much shorter trip, said Greg Bambic, a cabby and president of the Professional Drivers Association, an advocacy group. "They've got all these cabs coming out, they can't get through that crap."

Much of the troubles revolve around a $6.8 million Clark County project that's reconfiguring Paradise Road and Swenson Street south of Harmon Avenue, and widening Harmon between those two byways. The project, which started late last summer, won't finish before late July.

That's choking a typical airport-to-Strip route along Swenson to Harmon to Paradise to Flamingo Road, as well as the Thomas & Mack entrance along Swenson. Especially troublesome is the corner of Swenson and Harmon, drivers say. "When you come off the airport, everything funnels by the Thomas & Mack," Bambic said. "They have the road construction going from four lanes to two lanes. You take a left onto Harmon, with the traffic coming out of UNLV, it's taking 15 or 20 minutes to come off the airport and get down to the Hard Rock" hotel, which is less than two miles from the airport's terminal. "It's nuts."

Agreed, said Karla Hiropolous, a cabby and official with the Industrial Technical Professional Employees union, the valley's largest labor representative of cabbies. "You cannot get past there," she said.

It's just one of a number of choke points that have raised the ire of cabbies over the past few months. McCarran's passenger dropoff area is a scrum; Russell Road near the airport is torn up; Paradise near the Las Vegas Convention Center gets slower every day; and we all know the Strip basically doesn't move after 10 a.m.

Those resort corridor driving conditions likely will be worse during All-Star Weekend Feb. 17-18, when as many as 150,000 people are expected to descend here. "If they don't have somebody who actually wants to control the traffic, we're going to flop as far as (getting fans) in and out of there," Hiropolous said.

The Nevada Taxicab Authority is considering adding up to 320 extra cabs to the valley's 1,600-cab fleet, but drivers fear those cabs will just add to the traffic jam. "It's going to be a nightmare," said Gene Brady, a driver and steward with the United Steelworkers Union, which also represents cab drivers here. They're going to be sitting in traffic."

That's not all. Around the same time as All-Star Weekend is the Men's Apparel Guild in California show, known as MAGIC, where 115,000 showgoers are expected at the Convention Center; there's an expected influx of Valentine's Day couples and Chinese New Year's revelers; and did we mention it's a three-day weekend for folks who have Presidents Day off? "We have all those conventioneers coming in, plus the NBA game," Bambic said. "We can't get the cabs, limos and buses through that."

Stephen Patterson, transit operations supervisor of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, recently told the Taxicab Authority that All-Star Weekend will be a "perfect storm" of overlapping tourist draws. "The city's going to be buzzing," he said.

Privately, some drivers say that "tunneling" visitors, that is, taking the airport tunnel to Interstate 15, normally considered a longer than necessary and illegal "long-hauling" route that gouges tourists, could actually be much faster than traditional routes, given the headaches on surface streets these days. "Somebody needs to call the county and get all that construction done," Bambic said.

So we made a call to the county's public works department, where officials said they'll try to open up as many Swenson, Paradise and Harmon lanes as possible in time for the game. But that's no panacea. "Obviously, it's a concern to us. Anytime you have restrictions and closures, there's concern," said Bobby Shelton, a public works spokesman. "But this is a several months-long project. Do you delay the project for one event, and then have it during other events?"

Indeed, the county is considering additional traffic restrictions on other weekends preceding All-Star Weekend, including closing parts of Paradise and Harmon in that area, in hopes of getting some work done early. But that could impact other busy tourist times, like the upcoming Super Bowl weekend Feb. 3-4 (one of the Paradise/Harmon closures will be from Feb. 4-8; the other will be Feb. 28-March 1).

"There's no good time when you have a project that extends over several months. You can't do part of a project, and then leave it," Shelton said. "When's a good time for a 330-day project to be done? You'll impact events, regardless.

"The biggest issue is, people will have to have patience to get in and out of that area because of the limited access to the Thomas & Mack," Shelton said. "We realize it's an inconvenience. But when the work is done, it'll be much, much better."

True. But where will All-Star fans be then? Back home, telling the world about the awful Vegas traffic.

Welcome to our world, hoop fans.

Thanks to the Road Warrior

Layoffs at Harrah's Entertainment

Harrah's Entertainment eliminated some 200 jobs in its Las Vegas corporate office Friday, saying the layoffs have nothing to do with the planned $27.8 billion leveraged buyout of the casino operating giant by two private equity groups.

The company notified employees in a memo early Friday morning that positions in aviation, food-and-beverage, hotel operations, design and construction and government relations were being eliminated. The jobs were primarily in the range and classification considered as "middle management," a source familiar with the reductions said.

Sources confirmed that 40 corporate employees were let go before Thursday and another 100 employees were being informed of their job status during the day Friday. Sources said that 60 job positions now unfilled would be eliminated and another 30 corporate workers were transferred to other jobs in the company.

"We're doing everything we can to be supportive and help these employees," said Jan Jones, Harrah's senior vice president of communications and government relations. "Not only have we given them a pretty good severance package, but we're offering job placement counseling and we're trying to redirect some people to positions at the properties. This is always difficult, but sometimes in business we have to make decisions that are fiscally responsible."

In December, Harrah's board of directors approved a deal in which Texas Pacific Group and Apollo Management will pay $90 a share for all of the company's outstanding shares and assume $10.7 billion in debt. The transaction is expected to take all of this year to finalize.

When the buyout was announced Dec. 19, the private equity groups said Harrah's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Gary Loveman and other members of the Harrah's management would stay on and manage the casino operations.

Jones said the buyout was not the reason for the job reductions. The company's expansive growth over the last few years led to an increased number of job positions in the corporate offices. Among the company's deals were the acquisition of Showboat Inc. in 1998 for $1 billion, the $1.45 billion buyout of Horseshoe Gaming in 2004 and the $9 billion buyout of Caesars Entertainment in 2005.

Harrah's executives, during the company's most recent quarterly conference calls with Wall Street analysts and investors to discuss earnings, have cited the need to address rising corporate overhead costs. "We've been growing so fast that we needed to stop, take a breath," Jones said, adding that additional corporate staffing reductions are being considered in the information technology, finance and human resources departments.

Sources said Harrah's had hoped to reduce corporate expenses by 20 percent, or between $150 million and $200 million annually.

Harrah's, which operates almost 40 casinos in 13 states and internationally, runs six properties on the Strip -- Harrah's, Caesars Palace, Flamingo, Imperial Palace, Bally's and Paris Las Vegas -- and the Rio. The company acquiring the Barbary Coast from Boyd Gaming Corp.

Sources said the job cutbacks were only in the corporate headquarters and did not stretch into the individual properties.

Jones said the resignations earlier this month by Harrah's Chief Operating Officer Tim Wilmott, Central Division President Anthony Sanfilippo and Senior Vice President Tony Santo weren't related to Friday's events. Wilmott was considered the No. 3 person in the Harrah's chain of command behind Loveman and Charles Atwood, vice chairman of Harrah's board of directors.

Sources said corporate employees were all informed of the pending layoffs in a letter from Loveman. In the letter, Loveman said the employees being eliminated had contributed greatly to the company's success over the past few years.

Thanks to Howard Stutz

Meeting the Casino's Cast of Characters

A vast and sometimes complicated hierarchy of employees with a variety of titles, responsibilities, and even different styles of dress populates a casino. These workers simultaneously cater to the needs of the guests and the casino owners. No matter who they are, the casino employees all have one goal in common: to provide you with ample opportunities to try your luck against the unevenly-stacked house odds.

Casino employees are usually pleasant, professional, and well-trained individuals (after all, if you're treated with courtesy and respect, you're more likely to stay — and spend — longer).

In the pits: Serving the table players

As you explore the responsibilities of the various casino personnel, it helps to split the casino into two parts:

* The area where slot machines appear in endless rows.

* The area where you play table games, such as blackjack, craps, or roulette.

The casino arranges the tables in pits, similar to wagon trains encircled to protect against an attack. Each pit is designed to be an autonomous, fully functioning business, equipped with a variety of table games and a small community of casino personnel that is always willing to usher your dollar bills into the casino coffers.

Pit bosses

Pit bosses are smartly attired, experienced professionals who are responsible for all the gaming operations in their assigned pits. As the name implies, pit bosses supervise floorpersons, dealers, and the gamers within their pit. Theirs is a very detail-oriented job, requiring not only intimate knowledge of all aspects of the games but also the ability to keep track of thousands of dollars flowing through their spheres of influence. In the event of a serious dispute, the pit boss is the one who steps in to settle matters.

Among other tasks, pit bosses monitor credit markers, or the amount of credit extended to you, and they dispense comps, such as free meals or shows, doled out according to an elaborate formula based on the number of hours you play and the amount of money you wager.

Winning or losing vast sums of money often ignites supercharged emotions. Another responsibility of the pit boss is to make sure those emotions don't explode into conflict. The pit boss is there to congratulate as well as to calm, to soothe as well as to strong-arm. The pit boss's job is part security staff, part supervisor, part gambling expert, and part public relations manager.

Floorpersons

Reporting to each pit boss are several other suits known as floorpersons. The main difference from pit bosses is that floorpersons are in charge of only a couple of tables in the pit and report directly to the pit boss. They dress and act like the pit boss, and you typically can't distinguish between the two without asking. Both of them make sure that proper casino procedure is followed.

Dealers

Dealers have their fingers on the pulse of the casino — figuratively and literally. Theirs is a high-pressure job with a demanding audience. Overseeing several players at a table, dealers must be confident in their gambling knowledge. They must know who wins, who loses, and how much to pay out on each hand. Many gamers mistakenly believe that dealers simply shuffle and deal cards, but dealers must also handle dice, chips, and money — accurately and quickly.


Dealers have a wide range of personalities. Some are polite and ebullient, others efficient and brusque. Although finding a compatible dealer doesn't change the cards or the size of your winnings, it can make your gaming experience more enjoyable. When you find one you like, sit down, but remember the dealer has no control over the outcome. Most dealers prefer that you win because they make their money primarily from tips.

Slot employees: The reel dealers

The average American casino makes nearly two-thirds of its profits from its various slot machines. Therefore, casinos are diligent when it comes to maintaining and stocking them for long-term play.

Slot attendants

The person you're most likely to deal with if you have a problem or question about your machine is a slot attendant. Slot machine attendants are on constant vigil, ever watchful for the next jackpot or flashing light requesting service. They're usually wearing a uniform and sometimes push carts with oodles of money so they can give change to bettors in need. The attendants are the perfect people to ask if you're not sure how to play a particular machine; they know every bell, cherry, and bar like the back of their hand.

Slot supervisors

The slot supervisor rules the realm of the slot machines, managing employees and overseeing the maintenance and upkeep of the machines. The slot supervisor generally has several slot attendants as direct reports. For casual gamblers, slot supervisors normally play a part in your life only if you hit a jackpot that can't be paid out in coins.
Management: Running the tables

A host of other casino personnel contribute to the success of the house.

Casino hosts

Modern casino hosts best resemble a successful hotel concierge: They're at your service. A typical casino host is an affable and professional employee whose mission is to serve your every need. Hosts are hands-on people who greet VIP guests at the door and pamper them throughout their stay. Depending on the size and popularity of the casino and the thickness of your wallet, a casino host may

* Comp your rooms

* Arrange for greens fees at the golf course

* Get tickets to sold-out shows

* Give away free meals



If it's your first time in a casino, don't expect to have the keys to the Rain Man suite at Caesar's Palace handed to you. But even low rollers can make a relationship with the casino host profitable:

* Join the club: The casino host expects you to be a casino loyalty club member before you're offered many comps.

* Express yourself: Don't wait for the host to find you in the penny slots area; go introduce yourself to the host.

* Be loyal: Find your favorite gambling locale and stick to it. Even small-scale visits can make you a valuable customer if they're repeated regularly.

* Just ask: The players who get comps are the ones who ask the casino host. Don't be rude or demanding, just ask politely and see what benefits you qualify for.

Other managers

As in other walks of life, every casino employee has to report to somebody, and those somebodies are the shift managers, who are responsible for their areas of casino expertise (such as slots or table games) during a particular shift. The only position above the shift manager is the casino manager. The only time you may ever interact with the manager is if you win enough money to buy the casino.

Thanks to Kevin Blackwood

Miss America at the Aladdin

The Miss America Pageant is tonight at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas. These contestants are wholesome, conservative, supervised and chaperoned. Guarding the girls at night gives the white tigers something to do besides eat the card counters.

Hooters Singing the Vegas Blues

The glow from those notorious orange shorts at the year-old Hooters Casino Hotel is struggling to be seen against the bright lights of the Las Vegas Strip.

Founders of the Hooters restaurant chain, where busty "Hooters girls" wearing short-shorts and clingy tank tops serve up chicken wings and cheese fries, opened their first casino last February with great fanfare and press coverage from Montpelier to Manila. But the news isn't all good these days.

Naysayers had predicted the chain's sexpot image would turn off female slot players critical for business as well as Las Vegas' new wave of wealthier tourists and business travelers - a casino's most profitable customers.

Hooters might be a hit in, say, Nebraska but wouldn't be as big a draw in Las Vegas, where hiring attractive women to serve drinks is a business imperative for casinos and competition for younger, richer customers has intensified, they said. Whether that has proved true isn't clear.

What's certain is that the challenges facing Hooters run deeper than whether its blue-collar brand could win sufficient customers in a more sophisticated Las Vegas. Hooters has discovered what Hard Rock, Aladdin and the Stratosphere have previously learned: that it is fundamentally difficult for new, independent startups to make money their first year in the shadow of the Strip. As casino newborns lacking marketing muscle, they're learning how to walk and stumbling along the way.

When the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino opened on Paradise Road in 1995, it needed a cash infusion from owner Peter Morton to carry it through its difficult early days, when it struggled to attract customers from the Strip. In time, the Hard Rock succeeded, thanks to a nightclub and music venue that attracted a desirable clientele.

In their early days, both Aladdin and Stratosphere fell into bankruptcy, emerging with new management and undergoing extensive remodeling.

Smaller properties have less room for error, Lehman Brothers analyst Jane Pedreira said. "You've got to make a perfect impression from the beginning and can't make a lot of missteps," Pedreira said. "If MGM opens up a new property, they're going to hit the ground running. They already have an existing player base and marketing infrastructure."

Hooters capitalized on its existing customer base by advertising its casino hotel at more than 100 Hooters restaurants nationwide. But "who goes to a restaurant to book a room?" said Hooter s Casino President Mike Hessling.

The financial challenge facing startups is to simply make enough money to cover debt payments without infusions of cash, creative debt restructuring or selling out.

The Hooters casino lost $16 million in the first three quarters of last year. But more upsetting to Wall Street was its dismal operating cash flow of $5.2 million over that period - not enough to cover the company's annual debt payments of $13 million and resulting in new agreements with lenders. Also troubling was the property's average occupancy rate of about 74 percent from opening through September, which pales next to the 90-plus percent occupancy rates across most of Las Vegas.

Hessling isn't hitting the panic button. In fact, he says he's "impressed" with the property, which has more than doubled revenue from its pre-Hooters days. "Analysts focus on quarter to quarter (performance) ... this is a marathon, not a sprint," he said.

Hooters took over the small San Remo hotel, which was making even less money, and set off to build a new customer base. That's not a problem for Strip giants like Harrah's Entertainment or MGM Mirage, which can tap existing customers and drive business to new properties, but is critically important to independent startups.

Burdened by debt, Hooters couldn't afford fancier upgrades needed to make a bigger splash, analysts say.

The dealmaker behind the transformation of the old San Remo hotel into Hooters, Santa Monica developer Richard Bosworth, has now made a $225 million offer for the property. It's unclear how Bosworth would finance the purchase, which would be expensive based on what the property earns and its land value, analysts say. The unsolicited offer triggers a 60-day negotiation period to attempt a deal.

Among the early misfires by Hooters' management was not quickly turning to the Internet to sell a large number of discounted rooms. Several months ago, Hooter s began selling rooms online more aggressively, which depressed room rates but boosted occupancy to 81 percent.

The Aladdin, by comparison, is benefiting from the Starwood room reservation and rewards network. The hotel database of millions has helped boost occupancy into the high 90s, spokeswoman Amy Sadowsky said.

Analysts also griped that the Hooters slots were only winning an average of $67 per machine - far short of the $100 or more per day won by the typical Las Vegas slot machine. Hessling said enough people were visiting Hooters - just not enough older, middle-aged couples who are the backbone of the casino business.

"Hooters attracts 65 (million) to 70 million people to its restaurants every year and is a successful American icon," Hessling said. "We've always been full with younger people. What we weren't doing is attracting the typical Las Vegas visitor."

So while the hotel was filling on weekends with younger, impulse visitors, there weren't enough older customers to fill the property midweek, said analyst Pedreira. "When you first start off, people don't know you exist when booking their trip so it takes longer to hit their full potential," she said. "I'm not sure if people are turned off by the Hooters name. I think it's more that people don't know about the hotel."

Hooters has also installed newer slot machines and is now marketing its slot club to older gamblers. "We started out with a certain set of assumptions and had to tweak those," Hessling said. "We've never lost faith in the brand."

Thanks to Liz Benston

Interview with Phil Gordon

Phil Gordon has a cooler life than anybody you know.

After graduating from Georgia Tech with a degree in computer science in 1991, Gordon joined Netsys Technologies, a California software company that later sold for $79 million - a sale that helped fund the start of Gordon's career as a professional poker player.

In his first World Series of Poker tournament in Las Vegas in 2001, Gordon finished fourth and earned $400,000. Not long afterward, he and another poker buddy embarked on a yearlong RV tour of America through its sporting events, visiting the Super Bowl, the Kentucky Derby, the Indy 500, and the Final Four, among scores of other stops.

The road trip raised $100,000 for the Cancer Prevention and Research Foundation, and Gordon still raises money for cancer research - donating all his winnings from online poker to charity.

Now 36, Gordon - who has won more than $2 million in live poker tournaments - is trying to become the world's foremost poker teacher with a line of books and DVDs through the educational media company he founded, Expert Insight. "Even the biggest tournaments I've won, even making final table at the World Series of Poker, nothing can compare at all to the feeling I got when I walked into bookstore and saw my book on the shelf in a bookstore for the first time," Gordon said.

He'll be in Council Bluffs putting on an intense 1-hour poker seminar on Feb. 3.

Q and A with Gordon

Q. You graduated from Georgia Tech with a degree in computer science and then went on to work for Netsys Technologies. Are there skills from your days in computing that you use today in poker?

A. Yes and no. There's not a whole lot of overlap. But computer science and computer programing generally requires critical thinking and process. Every time it's my turn to bet, I run a little script through my head. In computer programing, you have to think the same way.

Q. Do you see poker more as a game of mathematics or a game of intuition?

A. Poker is 20 percent mathematics, 70 percent psychology, and 10 percent brass balls. I have the mathematics nailed. I have very high confidence in my mathematical ability at the table. The psychology part I'm still learning more every day. And I definitely have the brass balls.

Q. One of the reasons poker has become so popular is that feeling that any average Joe off the street could win and become a millionaire. What are the chances that one of these average Joes from Iowa will be at the final table during the World Series of Poker event in Council Bluffs?

A. There are going to be 10 people at the final table, and there's not a lot of pros who will make that trip (to Iowa). My guess is there's going to be lots of people from Council Bluffs and the surrounding area at the final table. If 200 people are entered in the event, 10 make the final table. So you enter an event like that and you're a 1 out of 20 average to make the final table. With my experience and track record I'm maybe 1 in 8, but no better than that.

Q. When a well-known poker player like yourself is playing against the average Joes, do they try to hone in on the famous guy? Does that make things more difficult?

A. There are two people you see. There are the people who go after you at every opportunity, or the people who stay away from you because they're afraid to take chips. I prefer the latter. ... It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. When you're seen playing poker on TV, people playing against you tend to fold too much. It allows the best players in world to dominate the table. It's not so much their physical presence as their perceived dominance that gets them to the final table. ... I can't go anywhere and be unknown now. I'll certainly look around the table to see players reluctant to go in on a hand with me. You can sense that reluctance.

Q. You've worked on artificial intelligence for the government, you were a National Merit Scholarship finalist, you traveled around the world for five years. You're a well-rounded, intelligent guy. Do you see your poker career leading to other things, or do you want to stay as a professional poker player for a long time?

A. The thing is, (poker legend) Doyle Brunson is fond of saying it takes a minute to learn and a lifetime to master. I'm always trying to get better, playing online, talking to players, talking to the world's greatest players. I know there are weaknesses in my game, and I'm working on them constantly. Sometimes I get a little impatient (at the poker table). I can get myself into bad situations. I get my money into the pot in bad spots. But I don't want to give away too much because I don't want people to be targeting those weaknesses!

Q. Do you think this poker boom is going to last? Do you think it's going to be a permanent part of the American culture?

A. I think it already is. Five years ago before poker was televised, I'd tell people I'm a pro poker player and they'd say I'm out of my mind. Now you're signing autographs. Every weekend there's a $10,000 buy-in (tournament), and they're all around world. It's in Australia, it's coming to Southeast Asia. The coverage on ESPN is unrivaled. I don't think it's going away.

Q. What game do you think is most similar to poker? Chess?

A. It's certainly not like chess. Chess is game of complete information. The entire scope of your position is weighed out before you. You know where your opponent's pieces are, and they know where yours are. A poker game has incomplete information. You can speculate what your opponent has, but it's only speculation. In my mind a very similar game is backgammon. You don't know what's coming on dice. And it's also a little bit like bridge.

Q. Is poker a game of luck?

A. In the short term, it's a game of luck. If I play you on one hand, we're about 50-50. If we play 10 hands, I'll take all the money in your pocket. If we play 100 hands, I'll have your car. 1,000 hands and I'd own your house. But the great thing about the game is anyone truly can win. Over the short term, anything can happen. Most experienced players can get lucky. That's part (of the) game. If bad players didn't win, it wouldn't be such a popular game.

Q. When you're playing in tournaments against these average Joes, what do you see as the most common poker errors?

A. I think people play too passively. You want to be the person who bets and raises and not the person that checks and calls. If you knew exactly what hole cards I had, calling a bet would almost never be correct. If you have the best hand you should be raising. If you don't have the best hand you should be folding. I think raise or fold. I like to raise first because it'll get me into an aggressive mind-set. There are only two mistakes you can make at the poker table: not putting chips in the pot when you have the best shot, and putting too many chips in the pot when you don't have the best shot. ... When I bet into you, I give you chance to make both mistakes.

Q. At your first World Series of Poker event in 2001, you finished fourth and won $400,000. Did your life change immediately?

A. It didn't. I already had money from my previous stuff. But it made me realize I could compete with the best in the world in game I love.

Q. Your total live tournament winnings exceed $2.3 million. Do you think this "dream life" will keep on going until you're done with it?

A. No. But no doubt in my mind I'll still be playing poker. I'm the CEO of Expert Insight (an educational media company that publishes Gordon's poker books). We have 15 employees, and we're growing rapidly. But I really love teaching the game more than I like playing the game. I hope to continue to do television. It helps me teach what I know to the masses in a quick and fun manner. It really is a great game, and it can bring you a great amount of satisfaction, joy and money if you're good at it. I know I'm not the best player in world, but I think I could be the best teacher in the world.

Thanks to Reid Forgrave

Interview with World Series of Poker Champ, Greg Raymer

Who has four eyes (two of them reptilian), is trained as a scientist and a lawyer, won five million dollars, fights for the rights of poker players everywhere, and might just possibly be the next Vice President of the United States-- yet describes himself as a "pretty normal and boring guy?"

That would be 2004 World Series of Poker ("WSOP") champ Greg Raymer, who answers questions about a Vice Presidential run, discusses the state of poker today, and shows that the smart, approachable, classy gentleman poker fans see on TV is the genuine article in a "hot off the presses" interview with Holdemback.com. In this interview Greg talks about being part of Team PokerStars and discusses the World Series of Poker 2007. Holdemback is proud to offer our interview with the affable FossilMan for the pleasure of our readers, who come to Holdemback for the latest and most entertaining news about the world of poker.

Holdemback provides daily updates on the best poker room promos, the scuttlebutt on who is doing what in the poker world, and all the information on how to qualify for seats in some of the biggest poker tournaments in the world, including the 2007 World Series of Poker.