National Deaf Poker Tour launches in Atlantic City

The first tournament of the National Deaf Poker Tour series was played at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, NJ, last week. A total of 227 deaf poker players registered for the first-ever $100 buy-in event which was held on Saturday, March 25.

John Merriman of Cleveland, Ohio, took first place and its prize of $6,330, while the remaining top 26 competitors were paid from the $18,240 prize pool.

The inaugural event is to be followed by a second tournament taking place in Las Vegas one month into the World Series of Poker (WSOP) on July 22, 2006. Further events are scheduled for the fall of 2006, though no other details have been released.

According to ESPN.com, the National Deaf Poker Tour was founded in 2006 by Nathan Montoya, Jarrod Musano, Andy Foster, Alok Doshi, Joey Seifner IV, and James Rydstrom, friends from the Rochester Institute of Technology's Class of 1996.

The six school chums established the National Deaf Poker Tour in the hopes of finding the best deaf poker player in the country, and to provide the deaf poker playing population with a broader poker experience, one which allows them to practice their skills at bigger events.

Please see www.nationaldeafpokertour.com for further details.