High stakes

August 13, 2006

By Michael Rovito

Frontiersman

The stakes ran high Saturday afternoon at Cottonwood Creek Mall as area youth put on their best poker faces in a game of Texas hold 'em - the culmination of 10 weeks of intense poker play.

The grand prize: a snowboard package worth more than $500 for the upcoming winter ski season.

Those who didn't win Saturday still received more than $100 worth of prizes.

The Alaska Poker Association, with sponsorship from Globe Shoes and Bruce's Street and Skate in Cottonwood Creek Mall, has organized tournaments all summer to gauge the interest area kids would show in poker.

And interest levels are high, according to Wayne McGregor of APA.

Poker games have seen a recent surge in spectator interest during the past few years, as ESPN and other sports channels make the events part of their regular coverage.

Texas hold 'em, one of many forms of poker, is what some poker experts call the easier version of the game. The style commonly is used during the final round of the World Series of Poker events.

Saturday's event in Wasilla brought together 10 youngsters, winners from the past 10 weeks of competition, emulating their favorite professional poker players in a game that easily could have been mistaken as a World Series of Poker match - the major leagues of poker play.

Starting off with 5,000 chips for each player, rounds lasted 30 minutes with the eventual winner holding all 50,000 chips on the table.

Cash McGregor, 10, and Aaron Parker, 14, were the high chip holders much of the day, sometimes going toe-to-toe in a psychological battle of wits to drain other player of their chips.

As parents and other mall patrons lingered about, the attention of the players rarely drifted from the card table. Dealers trained by APA were on hand to run the table and deal the cards, turning Cottonwood Creek Mall into a mini-Las Vegas for the afternoon.

As the rounds continued, players were ousted one by one until only two were left.

In the end, Parker came out on top with the win, taking home the snowboard package prize.

Parker was cool and collected even amidst his big win, McGregor said.

Donnie Salmon, 18, place second in the tournament, with McGregor following close behind in third.

Saturday's event was such a success, McGregor said, the group would like to put on more events.

&#8220We're already talking about what we can do year-round with it now,” McGregor said.

Until then, players in this year's tournament can take their tale back to school, watching the pro-poker counterparts on television and gearing up for the next round of Texas hold 'em.

Contact Michael Rovito at

352-2252.