'Average Joe' Poker Players - Here's Your Shot at $1 Million

'Average Joe' Poker Players - Here's Your Shot at $1 Million

Tropicana Casino and Resort Hosting Weekly Qualifiers Leading to ProJo Poker National Championships

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J., Sept. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Attention: "Average Joe" Poker Players. Finally, here's your chance to play against other recreational poker players for a shot at the world's top poker pros and nearly $40 million in prize and bonus money in your own televised tournament series.

It's ProJo Poker and the Tropicana Casino and Resort in Atlantic City will play host to 26 weekly tournaments beginning Wednesday, Sept. 21 and running through January 18, 2006. Winners will advance to the ProJo Poker National Championships in Las Vegas in February, 2006.

The ProJo Poker Tournament Series is geared specifically to the 80 million recreational poker players in the United States who don't have a true tournament series they can call their own. The series utilizes ProJo Poker's proprietary tournament format where ranked professional poker players cannot play in the tournament's early stages, only "average Joes" can play -- until the top eight "Joe's" in the tournament are seated at a semi-final table.

"Tropicana is the natural place to host the first ProJo Poker Tournament Series for the Eastern Regionals," said Scott Griffin, Tropicana Casino and Resort's poker manager. "Our poker room is one of the most popular in Atlantic City and was the first in the city to offer daily tournaments. We're proud to be associated with ProJo Poker."

The Tropicana Casino and Resort will host satellite events with a $100 buy-in and $20 entry fee. Satellite winners and runners-up receive a $550 voucher that guarantees them a seat in the preliminary events, where the buy-in is $500, the entry fee is $50 and the total prize money is $90,000, based on maximum occupancy. The Tropicana Casino and Resort also offers "Super Satellite" events featuring a $50 buy-in and $10 entry fee.

While the eight "Average Joes" go at it for four of the spots at the final table at each televised regional event, eight invited world renowned Poker professionals will also be playing at a "Pro Only" semi-final event for the remaining four final table spots.

The winners of the 26 regional events will receive Rings designed and crafted by Jostens, who have crafted 25 of the last 38 Super Bowl rings. The winners then head to Las Vegas for the ProJo Poker National Championship to be held Feb. 3-4 during ProJo Poker Week. During ProJo Poker Week, which runs from January 28 through February 4th, the following ProJo tournament events will take place:

January 28-29: US Amateur Poker Championships January 30-31: US Professional Poker Championships February 1-2: US Team Poker Championships February 3-4: ProJo Poker National Championships

In addition to the $40 million in prize and bonus money, winners of all final ProJo championship events will receive a National Championship ring designed and crafted by Jostens and valued at over $25,000!

Part of ProJo Poker's unique format is a bounty will be awarded to any "Joe" who knocks out a pro at a final table and goes on to win that particular event. The bounty will be 10 percent of all monthly buy-ins for a maximum of $36,000. If no amateur knocks out a pro during that week's regional event, the bounty will "roll over" to the next Regional Event and grow and grow until won by an amateur.

Additionally, at each of the televised Regional Events, the top finishing amateur player at the final table will get a shot to go "Heads Up" against five of the invited pros. If the amateur wins the one hand they are dealt against each of the five pros, in succession, they'll win a $1,000,000 bonus!

CBS Sports will televise eight of the 26 ProJo Poker tournaments including the finals from Las Vegas and four ProJo Poker Specials: The ProJo Christmas Poker Classic; The US National Team Poker Championships; the U.S. National Amateur Poker Championship and the U.S. "Grand Nationals" Professional Poker Championship.

This event is pending CCC approval. For further information, visit projopoker.com; cbssportsline.com and Tropicana.net.

Source: ProJo Poker

CONTACT: Steve Brener or Brian Robin, both of BZA for ProJo Poker, +1-818-344-6195

Web site: http://www.projopoker.com/ http://www.cbssportsline.com/ http://www.tropicana.net/

------- Profile: Ent