Independent Pursuits: Poker

AMID A flurry of contradictory rumours coming out of Las Vegas, it now appears that the 1999 World Series of Poker, in truncated form, will be held at Binion's Horseshoe from 28 April to 12 May. The World Championship itself - which if it attracts the usual 300-plus players, paying $10,000 each to enter, yields a first prize of $1m - will be shortened to three days.

It is not yet clear whether the Horseshoe's new owner, Betty Behnen, will give the event the publicity and promotion which her brother Jack was so happy to provide. He is down in Mississippi doing very nicely thank you, and has no intention of coming back to Vegas. The downtown area is suffering badly from a surfeit of casinos on the Strip and elsewhere. The very survival of old-style properties like the Horseshoe down in "glitter gulch" is under threat.

To more cheerful news: a lot of British players will be hitting the Vegas trail for the Rio's "Carnivale of Poker" from 10 to 28 January. The Rio is an all-suite resort, just behind the Mirage and Caesars. This annual tournament, with an estimated prize pool of $3.5m, is proving a major attraction. But the biggest event of the year may turn out to be theTournament of Champions at the Orleans, from 26 to 28 July. Poker players will always go where the action is.

The European Poker Championship will be held, as last year, at the Club d'Aviation in Paris, 6-14 February, a fabulous venue for poker (104, Avenue des Champs-Elysees). Three hours on the Eurostar and a taxi ride make it easy to reach. Hotels in Paris are not cheap, mais alors, you are not going over there to sleep, are you? Another European event worth noting is the Spring Festival at the Concord Card Casino in Vienna, 18-28 March. How long before they bet in euros, I wonder.

In Britain, the best hope for growth may lie in the approval of limited advertising by the casinos, as signalled by the Home Office. It will surely be helpful to inform the public, via local papers and listings magazines, that poker is on offer. Where one or two new players come, their friends will follow. With a few more people learning the game, numbers will rise. The main reason new players do not venture inside casino card rooms, so I am told, is that they feel intimidated. Casino managements can do their bit. But the main effort is up to us, the players, to give newcomers a feeling they are welcome.