Retailers
are trying to fill the demand for Texas
Holdem poker tables, but many are still
awaiting delivery.
NEWPORT NEWS -- Newport News
resident James Brown has been searching
locally for a Texas Holdem table for months.
He's even gone online but decided that if
he's going to spend $600 for a table, he
wants to know the true dimensions and the
quality of the table before he buys it.
"You can't get that online," Brown says.
"I've been playing Texas Holdem poker with
some friends on weekends for about a year
now. We've played on nice dining room tables
and even pool tables. But you really need a
Texas Holdem table to play poker.
"When you play on a nice table, you run the
chance of marking it with the clay chips
that are thrown on the table. A table with a
hard edge is also hard on the elbows. Texas
Holdem tables have a padded ring around the
edge," he explains.
Five months ago, Brown could have had his
pick of 10 Texas Holdem tables sitting on
the floor at Long's Billiards in Newport
News, but not today.
Long's and other local retailers can't keep
the tables in stock, and once they're sold,
it's hard to get more, local retailers say.
In fact, Long's is still waiting for eight
tables that were to be delivered in July
from a Wisconsin manufacturer.
"Everybody wants these tables, because
everybody and anybody is playing Texas
Holdem poker," Mitchell says. "It's the kind
of game that can be learned in five minutes,
but it takes a lifetime to master, because
it is a game of skill."
Texas Holdem is a poker game that began
sweeping the nation about a year ago when
television viewers became hooked on the game
by watching poker games on ESPN or the
Travel Channel.
Televised celebrity poker games also have
sparked interest in the game.
As a result, retailers are claiming a pot of
cash, as sales of poker chips and tables
keep increasing with the popularity.
Locally, billiard retailers are ordering as
many Texas Holdem tables and kits of chips
as they can get their hands on, but many
continue to wait for delivery.
While many regular poker tables accommodate
five to seven players and are
octagonal-shaped, the Texas Holdem tables
seat eight to 10 players and tables are
typically 8 feet and oval in shape. John
Winter, of Amazing Entertainment in
Yorktown, says he's been renting the tables
to organizations and even individuals who
want what they can't, yet, have - a Texas
Holdem table in their home.
"We were already in the rental business, and
then one day we said, 'Let's push this.
Let's make a table.' There weren't a lot of
tables being sold, and people were saying
they couldn't find tables, so we started
making them."
Winter says he has started to make tables to
sell, realizing the demand of the market. He
now has five tables made to sell.
The first table took four people an entire
day to make. Now he says he can make two to
three tables, which sell for for between
$399 to $599, a day.
"This has gone from being a game played by
men in a smoky atmosphere to a game that
attracts everyone from housewives to
professionals," Winter says.
The possibility of becoming rich instantly
is one of the attractions of the game,
Mitchell says.
"The people who are making it to the big
tables are average people," Mitchell says.
"This is a game where all you need is
$10,000 to sit down with top poker players
and play the game. And if you have some
luck, you could win."
And amateurs are winning.
Three amateurs recently played in the World
Poker Tournament televised at 9 p.m.
Wednesday on the Travel Channel.
Idaho building contractor Michael Kinney
took first place and $629,469 home. All
proof that it doesn't take a professional to
win the game.
As a result, the game is attracting everyone
from stay-at-home moms to salaried
professionals and even high school students,
who all want in on a weekend game.
"It's a game about bluffing," Winter says.
"It's not about what I have and don't have.
It's about what you think I have."
The craze of bluffing your way to a jackpot
has retailers in a spin, trying to find and
keep poker supplies in stock.
"We hope to get about 30 to 40 tables, plus
the poker chips, at the end of the month,"
says Jason Knight, a salesman for East Coast
Leisure Billiards in Williamsburg.
Although East Coast has not carried poker
supplies in the past, Knight says his
company would be missing an opportunity if
it didn't start carrying poker supplies now.
More than five people have asked for tables
in the Williamsburg store in the past two
weeks.
"There's an enormous demand," says Jim
Gurnee, assistant sales manager of East
Coast's Virginia Beach store. "I bet I've
had 25 to 45 people inquire about the
tables, and if I had 'em, they'd be sold
out. ESPN has created a monster.
"Poker's kind of a lost art. People used to
get together and play poker years ago. That
retail niche is back," Gurnee says.
GLD Products, a Wisconsin-based manufacturer
that added the Texas Holdem tables to its
offering only a year ago, is trying to keep
up with demand. The company manufacturers
many inside games, including pool and air
hockey tables, darts and now poker tables
and chips, says Justin Voden, vice president
of sales.
Voden said his company introduced the Texas
Holdem tables at a billiards show in Las
Vegas this summer.
"It was a huge success, and we took lots of
orders," Voden says. "We're making about
1,000 tables a day, and we're doing
everything we can to keep up with demand.
We've ramped up production to the point
where there are no shifts that we can add."
But Voden says his company has been able to
add this niche to his lineup because he saw
it coming a few years ago.
"I had a hunch the demand for these tables
and other poker items was coming, but I had
no idea that the demand would be this
strong. |
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