Poker championship attracts state's top players

As a former used car salesman, Ron Ervin knows how to read people. For instance, he knows exactly what to think when he meets a brash poker greenhorn who introduces himself as a "professional player."

"That means you don't have a job!" laughs Ervin, himself a semiprofessional player of 44 years. "I consider a pro to be someone who has income in strictly one area."

Indeed, a handful of lucky and/or skilled souls will be in a much better position to voluntarily unemploy themselves after the $650,000 Arizona State Poker Championship begins this week at Casino Arizona. Now in its fourth year, the tournament has evolved into the state's richest and most prestigious - poised, organizers hope, to earn a chair at the poker world's proverbial elite table.

Initially conceived by Casino Arizona poker room manager Kent Odekirk as a "name-maker for the casino," the event has generally attracted local talent. The maiden 2005 tournament was won by Gilbert's David Gee, who also pulled down a lucrative second-place finish in the World Poker Classic at the Bellagio in Las Vegas that year. In 2006, Sedona resident Ervin beat the field. And last year, Gilbert poker pro Andreas Foulias took the $250,000 grand prize.

Ervin estimates that there are "10 or 15 elite professional players" that live in the state, and most of them will be at Casino Arizona on Saturday when the first card is dealt. (Like most major tournaments, it will be played in the no-limit Texas hold 'em format. The buy-in is a cool $1,000.)

The championship has yet to draw a marquee name like Phil Hellmuth or Johnny Chan, but some notable out-of-state stars have competed. Ryan Hughes, a 26-year-old college dropout who won a championship bracelet at the vaunted World Series of Poker in 2008, paid a visit last year.

Scottsdale poker pro King Kelly, who quit a career in custom homebuilding to pursue a "more lucrative" career on the professional poker tour, is a regular at the Casino Arizona card room - one of the handful of hard-core regulars who draw a reasonably steady income by gutting "fish," poker-vet parlance for novice or unskilled players.

"One year, seven of us Casino Arizona players made money on the World Poker Tour, which is probably the best known tour out there," Kelly claims. "We have a good reputation. We got people worrying."

Though local business is the casino's bread and butter, Odekirk and his Casino Arizona bosses clearly have aspirations for a national profile. A hotel is due for completion in 2010, at which time Odekirk plans to present his tournament to the World Poker Tour for official endorsement.

"We're up to 600 players from 450 last year, at a time when other tournaments are shrinking," Odekirk says proudly. "We want to make it bigger and better every year."

If and when the Hellmuths and Chans start signing up, the tournament will surely lose some of its folksy, accessible flavor. In lieu of a marquee star, one of the better rivalries at the tournament will pit Ervin against his wife, top female player Carolyn Ford. Through the years, the couple have clashed at three finals tables, so far with Ervin getting the upper hand in each.

Ford, a Sedona life counselor who incorporates New Age theory into her poker strategies, swears it has nothing to do with spousal courtesy.

"I would never cut him any slack," she says. "It's unethical to play soft. I'm always there to win."

Fourth annual Arizona State Poker Championship

When: Play begins 9 a.m. Saturday

Where: Casino Arizona, 9700 E. Indian Bend Road, Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community

Cost: Buy-in is $1,000. Seats are available.

Info: Visit casinoarizona.com or call (480) 850-7734.