Shooting Stars A Comment On Poker Popularity

For those casual viewers of TV poker on shows such as Celebrity Poker Showdown, the World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour, the popularity of professional poker player may seem like some artificially created spotlight, done for the sake of pumping up ratings and inflated egos. If any of those viewers happened to be in Northern California recently, perhaps in San Jose, they might have seen that these poker stars have some real clout after all.At the World Poker Tour's Shooting Stars event, the biggest poker tournament in Northern CA history, people showed up after hours of driving not to play poker, but to watch poker being played by their favorite pros. Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, Scott Fischman and others were signing autographs and having their pictures taken with a bunch of fans before, during and after the five day event, showing that, at least for these dedicated poker fans, these professional poker players are celebrities indeed.