RAKING IN THE CHIPS POKER A HOT HAND DURING HOLIDAYS.Byline: Candice Choi Staff Writer It may be a gamble, but retailers are betting poker poker, card game, believed to have originated in Asia and first played in the United States in the 19th cent. A traditional cutthroat gambling game at first, it is now also an internationally popular social pastime. chips will win big this holiday season as the nation's craze for Texas Hold 'Em Texas hold 'em (also hold'em, holdem) is the most popular poker variant played in casinos in the United States.[1] Hold'em is a community card game where each player may use any combination of the five community cards and their own two hole cards continues to surge. ``I always played, but now a lot of my friends are getting into it too,'' said Johnny Kassis, a Sherman Oaks resident. In 1999, Poker Chips USA in Northridge raked rake 1 n. 1. A long-handled implement with a row of projecting teeth at its head, used especially to gather leaves or to loosen or smooth earth. 2. A device that resembles such an implement. v. in $60,000 in sales over the holiday season. The online store tripled that amount over the same time frame last year, said owner Gus Fanfassian. ``This is the hottest trend in games right now,'' said Ellen Heaney Mizer, game buyer for Barnes & Noble, which will set up displays of poker products in all its stores for the holiday season. Robinsons-May Department Stores This is a list of department stores. In the case of department store groups the location of the flagship store is given. This list does not include large specialist stores, which sometimes resemble department stores. also began carrying poker sets in time for the holidays as well. Feeding the frenzy for multicolored chips, cards, tables and all things poker-related are shows like ESPN's ``World Series of Poker'' and Bravo's ``Celebrity Poker Showdown Celebrity Poker Showdown was a celebrity game show on the cable network Bravo. It was a limited-run series of five celebrities playing poker. The series ran eight tournaments in five seasons. ,'' among others, Fanfassian said. ``They're showing a whole bunch of young people how to play,'' said Will Hunt, who started a retail line of poker products called All N' Poker this summer. ``College kids love the game because it allows them to sit around a dorm room and play for several hours with just a few bucks,'' he said. But everyone from 18-year-olds to 80-year-olds are getting in on the action, Fanfassian said. ``It runs the gamut See color gamut. gamut - The gamut of a monitor is the set of colours it can display. There are some colours which can't be made up of a mixture of red, green and blue phosphor emissions and so can't be displayed by any monitor. - it's not hard to learn.'' Even Restoration Hardware, a high-end furniture store based out of San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden , is carrying everything from Ace shot glasses to mechanical card shufflers. Wal-Mart, Target and various other retailers are offering an array of poker goods as well. Aahs! The Ultimate Gift Store began carrying poker-related products about a year ago, and sales have increased steadily since, said Vida Bakshi, assistant buyer for the Commerce-based company. ``We were just responding to the interest we saw.'' Poker Chips USA's most popular item is a 1,500-chip Texas Tournament set that ranges in value from $449 to $649. ``We sell anything you see in the casinos except the dealers,'' Fanfassian said. Aahs! carries everything from dice to poker sets that range from $60 to $200. There is even a sign next to the store's prominent display of poker products suggesting how many chips are needed for games of varying size. After noticing poker's recent popularity, North Hollywood resident Manal Al-Hakim decided to buy her dad - a longtime long·time adj. Having existed or persisted for a long time: a longtime friend; a longtime resident of Detroit. longtime Adjective poker player - a game set from Aahs! recently. Since Hunt started All N' Poker in Davis, Calif., this summer, he said orders for T-shirts and visors bearing the company's trademark logo - ``Dominate the Table,'' have swelled to the hundreds on a weekly basis. Hunt is currently in talks with department stores including Macys about a distribution deal. The demand shows some retailers are missing out on a rapidly growing pool of poker fans who want game-related products, Hunt said. ``Surfers have Quiksilver and basketball players have Nike - we want to be that brand for poker players,'' Hunt said. All N' Poker is rolling a line of T-shirts bearing remarks like ``Do you go all in?,'' ``Backdoor See trapdoor. straight,'' ``Slow play,'' ``Straddle In the stock and commodity markets, a strategy in options contracts consisting of an equal number of put options and call options on the same underlying share, index, or commodity future. bet,'' and ``Flopping the nuts.'' ``T-shirts with double meaning are popular right now. This takes that concept and applies it to poker,'' Hunt said. ``We're trying to capitalize on Cap´i`tal`ize on` v. t. 1. To turn (an opportunity) to one's advantage; to take advantage of (a situation); to profit from; as, to capitalize on an opponent's mistakes s>. a craze that's only going to get hotter.'' Candice Choi, (818) 713-3634 candice.choi(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1 -- color) A variety of poker cards packs are displayed at Aahs! in Sherman Oaks. The store began carrying poker products about a year ago, and sales have increased steadily since. David Sprague/Staff Photographer (2 -- color) no caption (Poker chips, cards) |
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