As the only female in a group of 26 men playing poker, Priscilla Amaral of Framingham can hold her own. She has recently won two local poker tournaments and will play for a championship prize of $30,000 next month.If she wins the championship, she also will go on to play in the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.
Hundreds of locals from across Massachusetts and Rhode Island compete every six months in the Eastern Poker Tour for the chance to play in a championship where they could win thousands of dollars. The next championship round is in August, and the winner of that round gets a free spot in the poker World Series.
This year, for the first time, restaurants in the Framingham area are taking part in the tour.
Café Belo , a small Brazilian restaurant on Waverly Street in Framingham, hosts local poker games every Wednesday night as part of tour. Amaral is one of about 13 winners from Café Belo who will compete in the championship next month. The final round will be televised on Comcast SportsNet .
“There will be a lot of people, and it will be hard, but I’ll try my best,” said Amaral. “I’m confident, and hopefully I’ll make it to the Top 20.”
Five small businesses in the Framingham region host once a week poker tournaments for prizes. Players do not win money in the local games. The buy-in is the cost of a $15 buffet, making local poker an affordable, more low-key alternative to Foxwoods Resort Casino or Mohegan Sun, say tour supporters.
Amaral, 25, said she has been playing poker for seven years, first for fun with friends and then competitively at Foxwoods and Mohegan, often in ladies’ tournaments. She prefers the local games, however, because they are so close to home, and the atmosphere is friendlier.
“Especially being a girl playing with a bunch of guys and their big egos, trying to push you around,” Amaral, who works at Whole Foods in Framingham, said. “It’s so laid back here. Everybody knows each other.”
Other than Café Belo, participating businesses in the Framingham region are Sully's First Edition Pub in Marlborough on Mondays, Shoppers Café in Waltham on Tuesdays, The Wave Sports Pub in Waltham on Thursdays and Trackside Grille in Ashland on Sundays. Registration begins at 7 p.m. for each restaurant.
Some 300 players have come to the table in the Framingham region. Four other regions—Rhode Island, Central Massachusetts, Greater Lowell and Southern Massachusetts—will also send their local winners to the championship in August.
“A lot of these people come in and get dinner … never having played poker in their life,” said John Evangelous , the Framingham regional manager for the tour. “Even if they’re a new player or if they’ve played for 40 years, they’re welcomed and meet new friends.”
Dick Heaton of Natick said he has played poker Sunday through Thursday for two years in various areas, but the Framingham region is the best organized of any local tournament he’s attended. He recently won a game at Café Belo, qualifying him for the championship for the first time.
“It’s a night out and dinner every night, like tonight, I get to try Brazilian food,” said Heaton. “It’s girls and guys, and there’s no swears, whether it’s respect for the place we’re in or because we’re in mixed company, you don’t get that.”
Shoppers Cafe in Waltham now gets about 30 to 40 people every Thursday, said owner Paul LaCava. The tournament has helped bring in new customers by offering a great entertainment value, he said. Like Heaton, LaCava also complimented Evangelous’ management of the games.
“They took a relatively quiet night and made it a fairly decent evening,” LaCava said. “And there’s a tremendous young man who facilitates; he’s a real great young person who really works hard, a go-getter.”
Though all interviewed agreed the local poker nights are entertaining, a few players said they thought the big tournament in August would be nothing more than another night to play cards. Bruce Schraft of Marlborough said he thinks the championship will be crowded, and though he’s like to win, odds against it are high.
“I think a lot of these people don’t understand how big of a tournament this is,” said Evangelous. “A few are overwhelmed, but some have played before … people are fighting to get their win.”
Jeremy Snyder of Auburn has played in the eastern tour before and made the Top 20 final round twice, he said. He hasn’t played as often this year and hasn’t qualified with a local win yet, but he is confident that in the next 30 games, he can secure a spot. Last year, he played for twenty hours in the first two days of the championship but didn’t make it to the Top 20.
“You have to be in the mind frame that you’re going to win,” said Snyder, a software engineer for EMC Data . “It’s kind of heartbreaking, but you’ve got to keep playing.”
The two-day tournament will begin August 28 . The location has yet to be determined. For more information, visit www.easternpokertour.com.
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