>>>>FYI
>>>>The new British Open Champion is the cousin of Joey Harrington of the Atlanta Falcons.
>>>
>>>FYI, Sam, he's also the cousin of Dan Harrington, a well-known world class poker player and 1995 World Series of Poker main event champion. Dan tells a *great* story about calling his mother when he won the world championship -- all his mother could talk about was that Padraig had won some small tournament that weekend and couldn't understand why Dan was excited about being a "world champion" at something so insignificant as a card game.
>>>
>>>The fact that he also won a million dollars in the process somehow eluded her as well...
>>
>>
>>*g*
>>I didn't know that. I don't what TV poker tournaments.
>>And WOW! do those poker pot get that big?
>>
>>At least she couldn't threaten to pull him out of school like my mom did when I told her about my all night poker game while in college. :)
>
>I knew about Joey, but didn't know about Dan.
>
>The million dollars he won is now small potatoes. There are several events there with 1st prize over a million. The main event in 2007 had 6358 entries ($10,000 entry fee) and paid over 8 million to first place.


Still, you somehow get the sense the poker craze is ebbing. And if viewership falls off, so will the prizes.