Living poker life

Everyone has a story on the river

Models from Bodog.net are more than willing to have their picture taken with you, if you fill out a form to win a Harley Davidson.


Golfer Rocco Mediate (above, r.) attempts to soak in some key advice from last year's winner Greg Raymer (above, l.).

LAS VEGAS - Everything is on sale at the World Series of Poker - from Havana Honey's Cigars to poker panties.

Tens of thousands have passed through the WSOP Lifestyle Show the last four days - just another indication of how the poker world continues to grow exponentially.

Visitors are pitched to buy instructional books, instructional DVDs, logo-laden clothing, custom-made poker tables, poker magazines, autographed clothing and signed photos.

There are free hats, free T-shirts, free video games - all in the name of marketing. All the major online poker sites are represented.

Outfits such as the Universal Poker Players Association are soliciting new members. For $25 a year, signees are promised access to tutorials, chat rooms and merchandise discounts.

There's even a poker-related pitch for workshops and private mentoring from a proprietary stock trading firm and a pair trading firm that deals in statistical arbitrage.

The hook is the "similarities between trading and poker," such as "loose trades" in the markets and "loose play" at the tables. On Wall Street, you have to be able to read the tape; in Hold'em, you have to read the players across the table.

The Lifestyle Show has free raffle-type drawings galore. Of course, the card that serves as the entry ticket must contain your name and E-mail address, a less-than-original but still tried-and-true marketing tool.

A framed, signed photograph of Doyle (Texas Dolly) Brunson, who has won 10 WSOP bracelets, sells for $1,150, as does a framed and signed shot of the late poker great Stuey Ungar.


Some of the merchandise mixes erotica with poker plays on words: there's the poker panties that carry the instruction "Go All In" or "I Never Tell."

There are men's boxers emblazoned with the message "Big Slick," which usually means pocket cards of an Ace and a King.

A tiny stretchy woman's top bears the message: "My pair is bigger than yours."

The WSOP Lifestyle Show was created to "enable poker enthusiasts to learn about, experience and purchase many of the latest products that fit the lifestyle of the poker aficionado," according to a press release from Harrah's Entertainment, Inc., which owns the WSOP and the Rio All-Suites Hotel & Casino, where the tournament is being held.

All-In magazine, a poker-themed upstart that has had considerable trouble keeping to a reliable publishing schedule, is selling a year's subscription for $1.

And if you know how to play Three Card Poker, which bears absolutely no resemblance to No Limit Hold'em, you can play a hand or two in the hopes of winning entry into the Rio's upcoming - you guessed it - Three Card Poker National Championship Tournament.

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