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Thursday, February 03, 2005
By Associated Press
LEWISTON, Maine - The organizer of a Texas Hold 'Em tournament and many of the 120 people lured by the prospect of high-stakes poker were left grumbling after state officials set limits on the action.
Two state inspectors showed up Sunday at the Eagles Club to explain that Maine gambling laws limit a player to no more than $1 worth of bets per hand.
"They said, 'This is how you're going to have to do it, and we're going to stick around to watch you,'" said Joe Levasseur, who organized the tournament. "We couldn't play the game the way it's meant to be played."
After about two hours of small-time gambling, Levasseur offered to refund the $60 entry fee the players had submitted for a chance to try their luck at the card tables.
A whole flock of people just got up," said Megan Griffey, 27, one of more than a dozen dealers working the card tables. "They just wanted their money back. It was horrible."
No charges were filed in connection with the tournament.
The state caught wind of the tournament, which Levasseur had advertised days in advance. When the doors opened at 8 a.m., the two inspectors made their presence known.
"We didn't tell them how to play the game. We just told them what the laws are," said Maine State Police Lt. Patrick Fleming. "We have a specific betting limit in Maine."
Fleming acknowledged that the $1 limit may be at odds with the spirit of Texas Hold 'Em. Unable to make big bets, players are not compelled to take risks and rely on guile to outwit opponents.
"The nature of the game is that you exceed that limit," Fleming allowed.
Two hours into the game, most of the players had given up, and Levasseur refunded their money. The inspectors lingered, while the remaining poker players grumbled.
Levasseur, who said he had planned to donate 10 percent of the proceeds from the game to charity, complained that he wound up taking a hit.
"We got stuck with food bill, the cost of the license, the advertising and all that stuff," he said. "I got shafted there."
While millions of dollars are often at stake in big-time Texas Hold 'Em tournaments around the country, Levasseur said the top player at Sunday's game probably would have walked away with about $1,000.
"I see it as much less of a gamble than say, bingo," said Eric Griffey, one of the players at the tournament. "The most you can lose is your entry fee."
Griffey, Levasseur and about eight other players moved the game to a nearby home. By law, gambling at a private residence is legal as long as the house doesn't take in or make a profit.
Televised poker matches have made Texas Hold 'Em far more popular during the past decade, Griffey noted, and more people want to put a little money on the line and maybe take home some winnings.
"The laws have not been changed to allow for that," he said. "The laws in place stunt any sort of big-stakes game. This state, and I suspect, a lot of states, are struggling to deal with that."
Information from: Sun-Journal, www.sunjournal.com
# by The Poker Web @ 8:07 AM
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