TEXAS HOLDEM ONLINE POKER

With a Texas Holdem poker craze in full swing on TV networks, including ESPN and Bravo, publishers are moving to launch Texas Holdem poker magazines before celebrities such as Ben Affleck take up some other game.

A former dot.com executive is starting a national magazine, All In, on Dec. 21.

The bimonthly magazine will sell for $4.99 at chains including Wal-Mart, Target, Barnes & Noble, Borders and 7-Eleven.

Time Distribution Services will distribute the magazine, which hopes to reach 150,000 paid readers by mid-2005.

The 100-page first issue includes a story by Phil Gordon, host of Bravo's "Celebrity Poker Showdown," about his Texas Holdem game with New England Patriots star quarterback Tom Brady, tips from Texas Holdem poker champs Chris Ferguson and Howard Lederer and a 25-page spread on the art of bluffing.

Advertisers range from Samuel Adams beer and Crown Royal liquor to the Mirage resort in Las Vegas and online poker sites.

Start-up magazines have about the same success ratio as new restaurants. About 6 out of 10 fail.

All In (poker slang for a player putting the last of his chips into a pot) is the latest offering in a niche market that could vanish fast if the fad wanes.

Bluff magazine was launched recently, but Card Player has been in the game since the late 1980s.

Bhu Srinivasan, a 28-year-old former InfoSpace.com executive who owns 80 percent of the new magazine, says two test issues got a positive response.

"We're in a hot market that has just found mainstream acceptance," he says. "If poker can support TV programming on five networks, we know it can support a couple of magazine titles."

With things looking up for the $19 billion U.S. magazine industry, magazine expert Samir Husni also thinks the time is right for publishers to deal themselves in on the poker fad. Total magazine ad revenue from January through November jumped 10.5 percent to $19.4 billion, says Publishers Information Bureau, with ad pages up 3.1 percent.

"Now's the time to cash in. A lot of magazines are born because of TV, and poker is very hot on TV right now," says Husni.

Media buyer Jose Lopez-Varela says, "You can't walk into a store without finding poker chips."