As reported by: The Associated Press
It is being likened to the first PGA tournament or the first Wimbledon title: the Professional Poker Tour that has brought out the best names in the game and is making its debut at Foxwoods Resort Casino.

The tour's arrival marks a big poker score for Foxwoods. While the world's top players face each other on the casino floor, nearly 700 would-be poker champions are also at the casino playing in the World Poker Finals, a stop on the 16-tournament World Poker Tour.

Even players who have written books on the game have their own competition going at the casino.

"Nobody questions whether this is a sport anymore," said Steven Lipscomb, chief executive of the three-year-old World Poker Tour.

The card game is pulling in crowds from across the country to Foxwoods, players and spectators alike.

It's $10,000 to play in the World Poker Finals, but through a series of smaller tournaments, called "satellites," a person can work his or her way up to the finals for as little as $60. The winner walks away with more than $1.5 million and a seat at the World Poker Tour Championship in Las Vegas at the Bellagio hotel-casino in April.

Only in a game of poker can fans sit across from their favorite players and try their own luck. Popular television shows, such as Bravo's "Celebrity Poker Showdown," have heightened the poker craze by allowing people at home to follow a player's every hand.

Through the different poker tours, Foxwoods hopes to capitalize on the trend.

About 600 spectators are expected to attend Wednesday's final table in the World Poker Finals, said Kathy Raymond, director of poker operations for the casino. That's double the number who attended last year.

"Right now people who possibly haven't heard of Foxwoods before ... they are learning about it through poker," Raymond said.

On Tuesday, crowds stood in anticipation and watched as players fought for one of six spots on the last table at the World Poker Finals. The players, wearing dark glasses and baseball caps, kept their heads down. They spoke quietly to the dealer and kept their nerves still by playing with the towers of chips in front of them.

"It's like a movie and there's action all the time, especially when it thins out," said John Demello, a businessman from Las Vegas who came down to watch the tournament.

Back in 2001 and 2002, the World Poker Finals brought in less than 100 players. For poker professionals, the new craze makes for longer tournaments and stiffer competition.

"When you have to go through 700 or 800 players, it's not very difficult to get unlucky," said Peter Giordano, an online poker champ who placed 16th in the finals and took home $64,378.

Erik Seidel, a player whose victories include a number of World Championship titles, called the tournament at Foxwoods a "monster."

"You have to get through more people and it's a little more random," Seidel said.

The World Poker Tour is touting its new Professional Poker Tour at Foxwoods as a way for accomplished players, like Jennifer Harman and Chris Bigler, to play exclusively with one another. The final table will be played on Friday and the winner will go home with $200,000, as well as a spot on the championship tour.

The company is in negotiations for a television contract for the professional tour. The third season of the World Poker Tour will air in March on the Travel Channel on Wednesday nights.

"Forget the lottery. The new American dream is to win life-changing money at a world poker event," Lipscomb said.