The Alaskan Poker Showcase

Bob Elyard, a Lazy Mountain Television producer is betting on the fact that viewers will tune in to see local poker players go head to head and hopefully ride the popularity wave of Texas hold'em.

Elyard is planning a local access Channel 303 show call the "Alaska Poker Showcase". He plans on the first of hopefully many broadcasts to begin at the end of this month.

His vision is a ten table sit-n-go poker tournament set up where the winner of each table will face each other in a televised final table shoot out for a chance to win a ticket to the ultimate poker tournament, The World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.

Elyard stated, "This is something I've been wanting to do all my life in broadcasting."To set out and do something beyond the norm is exciting."

The current Lazy Mountain YV lineup of weather updates and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly could you a big shot in the arm but the big question is can poker, local poker, be the answer.

A good poker show needs a host and Elyard said the show will have commentary for explaining why this play was made and why this bet was called like all the rest of the good poker shows. He is working with local Texas hold'em experts to see who will do the commentating.

The games won't be televised live. They'll be filmed, commentary will be cut in and then they'll be broadcast on LMTV a few times a week.

Alaska Poker Association president Wayne McGregor said he hasn't heard of Elyard's plan and isn't involved with the television show. But he's for anything that's good for poker, he said.