Texas Hold 'Em Poker Tournament Folds Before First Hand Is DealtJanuary 7, 2005
Friday night's Texas Hold 'em tournament at Turn of the Century folded before the first hole card was dealt.
Dennis Schultz- the owner of Turn of the Century and the co-sponsor of the event with his friend Mike Knight- said he learned late yesterday afternoon that the tourney would have to be cancelled after Knight received a call from Brian Turner, who works for the Colorado Liquor Enforcement Division.
"It's kind of interesting that the liquor enforcement guy shut me down," Schultz said. "I don't know what he has to do with gaming. He (Turner) told Mike Knight he would shut me down and arrest everyone at the tables.
"We checked with the district attorney in town and he said it was fine as long as we didn't take a cut. They said it was OK as long as it was a friendly game, but what is the definition of a friend? Everyone has a friend of friend who was coming to the game.
"We would love to have the game and we're working on the details of what can or can't do. The gaming people haven't had a problem with it, but the liquor enforcement guy does. There are a lot of people interested in playing in the came and a lot were going to come as spectators, but I depend on my liquor license to make part of my living and I can't afford to lose it."
Knight said the event was cancelled for two reasons. The first was Turn of the Century can't host poker events because of its liquor license while the second was because a story in Wednesday's Daily Press violated the "friends" definition.
"This event is cancelled because it's tainted," said Knight, who was driving around Montrose this morning returning the $200 per person entry fees to the 49 residents who had signed up. "You can't advertise a poker game to draw people together who previously didn't know each other. That constitutes illegal gaming and rather than take a chance of getting some of Montrose's finest citizens in trouble we cancelled it. I've put a lot of time and effort into this, so I would have to think about it before I would try to do it again."
