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World Poker Tour® Televised Event Returns to Indiana as Hollywood Casino Prepares to Host Hollywood Poker Open

Casino To Feature 72 Poker Tournaments Over 21-day Period;
Registration Begins March 2

Lawrenceburg, Indiana, March 1, 2011– Anticipation is building at Hollywood Casino Lawrenceburg as the Midwest’s largest poker room prepares to host the second annual Hollywood Poker Open (HPO), a 21-day tournament schedule with 72 separate tournaments – including 29 HPO events – that is expected to attract players from more than 30 states between March 24 and April 13. The HPO culminates with the $10,000 buy-in World Poker Tour® (WPT) No Limit Hold’em Main Event, April 9-13, which will be filmed for television broadcast on Fox Sports Net’s (FSN) national television network, which includes among its many outlets, Fox Sports Net Ohio and Fox Sports Net Midwest. Registrations will be accepted up until the beginning of Day 2 of the main event.

In addition to the first place prize money, the HPO Main Event awards the winner a WPT Champion bracelet and a $25,500 paid entry to the WPT World Championship in Las Vegas in May. Carlos Mortensen is expected to defend his title in Lawrenceburg, where he became the WPT all-time money winner in 2010, surpassing $5.7 million in earnings.

Action from the WPT Hollywood Poker Open, brought to you by ClubWPT.com, airs on consecutive Sundays nights – July 3 and 10 at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. local – on FSN as part of the WPT Season IX schedule.* Cashers in the HPO Main Event will be listed on the WPT screen crawl for the HPO broadcasts. Free bleacher seating in the Hollywood Ballroom is provided to fans interested in watching the final table on April 13. Seating begins at 3 p.m. and taping begins promptly at 4 p.m. Seats can be reserved by emailing tickets@worldpokertour.com. Legendary WPT announcing team Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten will kick off the main event at Hollywood Casino Lawrenceburg along with anchor Kimberly Lansing and the Royal Flush Girls who will greet players and fans throughout the event.

Hollywood Poker Open features a wide range of tournaments including three No Limit Hold’em, deep stack re-entry tournaments that offer a guaranteed combined prize pool of $500,000: March 24 HPO Opening Event ($345 buy-in); March 31 ($555 buy-in) and April 7 ($345 buy-in).

“These events are extremely popular with the players because they offer a massive amount of chips, blind levels that climb at a moderate rate and the opportunity to re-enter up to the dinner break,” said Hollywood Casino Lawrenceburg Poker Manager TK Krauss.

Other HPO events include: Seniors 50+ No Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha 8 or Better (both March 26), No Limit Hold’em Bounty (March 28), Limit Stud 8 or Better (March 29), Limit 7-Stud (March 30), and Ladies’ No Limit Hold’em (April 2).

“We designed a tournament to appeal to players with a variety of disciplines,” said Krauss, “and the action will be non-stop with $100 nightly cash tournaments and 27 super satellites or mega satellites.”

Three $540 buy-in mega satellites will be held on consecutive Thursdays, March 3, 10 and 17 beginning at 6:15 p.m. At least one player from each event will win a guaranteed seat at the Hollywood Poker Open $10,000 main event and there could be even more winners based on the number of participants in the mega satellites.

Registration for all Hollywood Poker Open events opens March 2 at the WPT Hollywood Poker Room. For more information, go to www.myhollywoodpoker.com or call the Poker Room at 812-539-MYPK. Registration packages can also be purchased through WorldPokerTour.com.

About World Poker Tour
World Poker Tour (WPT) is one of the most recognized names in internationally televised gaming and entertainment with brand presence in land-based tournaments, television, online and mobile. Leading innovation in the sport of poker since 2002, WPT ignited the global poker boom with the creation of a unique television show based on a series of high stakes poker tournaments. WPT has broadcast globally in over 150 countries and territories and is currently airing its all new ninth season on FSN in the United States. Season 9 of WPT is sponsored by ClubWPT.com, a unique online membership site which offers inside access to the WPT as well as a sweepstakes-based poker club and is available in 37 states across the U.S. WPT participates in strategic brand license, partnership and sponsorship opportunities. WPT is a subsidiary of PartyGaming Plc. For more information, go to worldpokertour.com. Become our friend on Facebook at .facebook.com/worldpokertour. Follow us on Twitter @ wptnewsalerts

About Hollywood Casino Lawrenceburg
Hollywood Casino is a Penn National Gaming property located on the Ohio River in the City of Lawrenceburg, Indiana, just off I-275, less than 30 minutes from Cincinnati. The state-of the art casino floor features 3,300 slot machines and 90 table games, including a 41-table World Poker Tour® poker room. Hollywood offers a 300-room hotel, Final Cut steakhouse and Boogie Nights 70s and 80s themed dance club. On-site parking is available for up to 4,000 vehicles. For more information, visit www.hollywoodindiana.com.

Lawrenceburg, Indiana, Nov. 2, 2010 -- Hollywood Casino Lawrenceburg, home of the Midwest’s largest poker room, is expecting to set a day one attendance record in excess of 1,000 players when the Hollywood Fall Classic kicks off on Nov. 12 with a deep stack No Limit Hold’em event guaranteeing $175,000 in prize money.

The first event on Nov. 12 begins eight straight days of tournament action at Hollywood’s World Poker Tour® Poker Room with 15 separate events culminating in the No Limit Hold’em Main Event on Nov. 20.

“We’ve had an overwhelming response from players in past tournaments and have watched our first day attendance grow from 680 to well over 900 participants,” said TK Krauss, poker manager at Hollywood Casino Lawrenceburg. “Players appreciate the modern design and comfort of our room, and are traveling from locations well beyond the region because they like the variety of games, blind levels and stack sizes we offer throughout tournament week. Whether you’re a novice or a professional, there is an event for everyone.”

TK said poker players from 19 states registered at Hollywood’s most recent tournament event in August.

This year’s Fall Classic brings several new additions to the Hollywood tournament schedule, including a Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em event (Nov. 15), No Limit Hold’em with Re-entry for 12 Levels (Nov. 16) and Pot Limit Omaha 8 or Better (Nov. 17).

In addition, several changes in the tournament schedule are designed to accommodate players including a 10 a.m. weekend start time for the Fall Classic’s No Limit Hold’em Senior and Ladies events (Nov. 13 & 14).

Fourteen multi-table super and mega satellites will take place throughout the tournament, and cash tournaments will be held every evening during the Classic.

Registration for all Hollywood Fall Classic events going on now at the WPT Hollywood poker room and continues throughout the duration of the tournament for players 21 or over. For more information, go to www.myhollywoodpoker.com or call the poker room at 812-539-MYPK(6975).

About Hollywood Casino Lawrenceburg
Hollywood Casino is a Penn National Gaming property located on the Ohio River in the City of Lawrenceburg, Indiana, just off I-275, less than 30 minutes from Cincinnati. A new, state-of the art casino floor features 3,300 slot machines and 90 table games, including a 41-table World Poker Tour® poker room. The property includes a 300-room hotel, the new Final Cut steakhouse and Boogie Nights 70s and 80s themed dance club. On-site parking is available for up to 4,000 vehicles. For more information, visit www.hollywoodindiana.com.

Jon Duhamel at ease before final table

Multiple 24-bottle crates of Sleeman's beer decorate the walls of Jon Duhamel's ground-floor condo. The place is 23-year-old-bachelor neat. It's lived in, but the clutter is organized and the only thing out of order is the laptop and iPhone sitting on the dining room table …his office. Duhamel is hurriedly working the phones, looking for a fourth player for his hockey team.

It doesn't matter that there's not a flake on the ground to the poker pro that poker nation will get to know in the upcoming weeks of the WSOP's broadcasts on ESPN (Tuesdays from 9-11 p.m. ET). In Boucherville, Quebec, for 23-year-old men, it's always hockey season. It's a reality that hasn't escaped Duhamel despite the recent success that could cause less-grounded poker players to outgrow these rural surroundings. After all, it's not everyone who gets to spend four months as the chip leader at the World Series of Poker. In fact, he's only the third person to ever have the opportunity to feel this exact feeling.

Duhamel's done over 100 interviews since that morning of July 15, when he left the table as the chip leader amongst nine survivors in the biggest poker tournament in the world. Assured of some $900,000, he's already made a score that's 20 times bigger than anything he'd done before. The kind of lifestyle change that windfall could provide doesn't appeal to him, though.

"I bought an Audi," he smiled as we joked about how life could change if he wanted it to. "I needed a car anyways."

The truth is that he's only just gotten started. As much as he's already earned, a win in the main event would give him nine times as much money just from the tournament alone. His eyes are on even broader prizes than that.

"I knew I wanted to play the Series, make a big score," Duhamel said. "If you want to be known, that's the place to play tournaments. Being known, recognized … obviously, sponsorship is good, but being known will let me play in a lot more live tournaments, something I'd like to do."

See, despite the interviews and the PokerStars gear dotting his apartment, Duhamel hasn't yet figured out that he is at the eye of the storm. He's still a fan of the game, hearing angels singing when the stars of the game walk into the room. He doesn't seem to see that Dennis Phillips and Darvin Moon -- the chip leaders heading into the two previous November Nines -- both became stars despite not winning their respective final tables. He doesn't understand he's the big deal he is. It's probably because when he looks in the mirror, he sees the same guy he's always seen.

"I'd rather you write about how I'm the same guy, to be honest," Duhamel admitted during our interview. "Really, I think I'm the same guy."

In a fame-obsessed generation of reality stars and celebrity wannabes, he's just a small town kid who loves to play poker and broaden the depth of his comprehension of the passions he takes to heart.

Duhamel doesn't have hobbies, just passions. When he discovered poker five years ago, he consumed it.

"A friend of mine said, 'I learned a new game, want to see it?'" Duhamel said, speaking of no-limit hold 'em. "It went like that. We played until 5 or 6 in the morning that night and then we started playing every day. We'd finish school at 3, do our homework and get dinner as fast as possible and then we'd play all night and half the morning."

That same friend, Pascal Turcott, has 1 percent of Duhamel. A victory for his friend could mean a new condo.

"He's the same guy," insisted Turcott. "He's really modest. He's happy with what he has right now and I think that's what's best for him right now. He can win and for a modest guy it's such an achievement. In all the world, I think the guy who most deserves it is him. He'll still be the same, at least with his real friends and his family. He'll probably change a little in the way he talks to new people, but I know with us he'll always be the same old John."

Turcott kept up with Duhamel in their friendly home games (complete with wild cards), but when Duhamel discovered online poker about four years ago, he separated himself from the mob. As he started beating his friends, John started beating $1 sit-and-gos online, then $5, $10 and so on. He's now a regular in the $2/$4 and $5/$10 games online, amongst the toughest in the world.

"I knew I wanted to play the Series, make a big score," Duhamel said. "I am a big fan of poker, so getting the chance to play and spend time with the stars of the game means everything."

Now, he's one of them. After a lackluster first five days where he fought to survive, Duhamel doubled up midway through Day 6. Then, early on Day 8, he doubled from 10,000,000 in chips to 20,000,000.

"That's when I knew I would make the November Nine," he said. "From there, I never looked back."

The key for the kid from Boucherville is that he's not looking too far ahead. With the kind of chips he's sitting on and the word "favorite" tattooed across his forehead, it would be easy to get caught up in the hoopla. When the whole world wants to know your every thought, it seems like it's much tougher not to be swept away.

For Duhamel, though, those are thoughts for another day. As he is every time he sits down to play poker, he's keenly focused on finding one more player for that hockey game.

"If I don't find someone, I think we will lose." he said, underneath his breath. You get the sense he's not the kind of guy to let that happen.

He eventually found his man and that night his team won 10-0, and the good run continues for the one who is quietly going about his business before taking his seat for the biggest night of his career.

Gary Wise is a poker columnist for ESPN.com. You can follow him on Twitter via @GaryWise1.

Links

CMHPoker.com

Jon Duhamel at ease before final table