February 1st, 2005

BY DENISE NEIL
The Wichita Eagle

Shawn Riley and Kurt McPhail were plenty busy back in November.

Absorbed with managing the explosive success of their 11-month-old Amateur Poker League, the young entrepreneurs spent their weeks in a blur, catering to their 42,000 members in nine states -- not to mention the 300

Texas Hold 'Em players gathering every Friday in their south Wichita headquarters.

Then they met Bob Knight, and they haven't seen much of their friends or families since.

Riley, the league's president, and vice president McPhail, both 35, are two of the main organizers of the Park City Poker Round Up, a tournament at the Kansas Coliseum Pavilion scheduled for seven days in February, March and April.

The event, billed as the largest amateur poker tournament ever, is expected to draw as many as 17,500 people from around the country. Proceeds from optional $25 registration donations will go toward improving Park City's skateboard park.

"I've been working six and a half days a week," Riley said. "I'm going to have to write apology letters to friends that I've ignored over the past few weeks."

Aided by 12 league staff members and 30 volunteers from the Park City Pride committee, Riley and McPhail are responsible for all the tournament details -- from registering the thousands of competitors to administering the complex scoring grid to providing the 30,000 poker chips, 600 decks of cards and 278 tables that will be needed to accommodate the crowds.

"It's a little more difficult than it appears," Riley said.

Pals, business partners

Riley and McPhail have known each other since they were kids, and they graduated together from Southeast High School.

They've been in business together for years, too. At age 14, they started a lawn-mowing business. Later, they opened a Web hosting firm, McPhail Solutions.

In 2003, the buddies -- both avid poker players -- found their entrepreneurial instincts pointing in the direction of an undeniable trend.

Poker

They approached Dave Wallace, who had recently founded the Amateur Poker League in Wichita. Riley and McPhail had an idea to take the league nationwide.

Wallace is still a stockholder in the venture, but over the past year, Riley and McPhail have taken over management of the league and have turned it into a massive operation.

The league's thousands of members in Wichita and across the country gather nightly in bars for Texas Hold 'Em games, the winners of which compete in weekly tournaments where cruises and trips to Las Vegas are given away.

The league makes its money from the fees that bars pay to participate in the tournaments. It's free to become a member -- a player simply has to sign up at least an hour before the games start.

These days, the league gains about 1,500 members a week. Riley and McPhail are preparing to expand it to several more states.

And they're not even close to finished.

"We're only about 10 percent as big as we want to be," Riley said.

Poker and Park City

With all the attention Park City's poker tournament is getting, the Amateur Poker League is poised to get much bigger.

The tournament was the brainchild of Knight, Wichita's former mayor, who is president of Chisholm Creek Ventures LLC. The group recently announced its plans for a 39-acre destination resort and casino in Park City.

Knight said he was looking for an event that would prove Park City could be a viable entertainment destination. A friend familiar with the APL suggested Knight talk to Riley and McPhail.

When he first approached them, Knight asked whether they could help him put together a poker tournament -- maybe for 500 people or so.

"I think they thought 500 people was a big tournament," Riley said. "But we told them, 'We get 300 people here every week.'

"The next thing I know, it's five times bigger, and we're having press conferences and getting calls from reporters."

Knight said he was impressed with Riley and McPhail from the start, not only because of the scope of their abilities but also because of their commitment to Wichita.

"I got a chance to know them, and I really became impressed with their capabilities," Knight said. "They're young people making a statement in their hometown."

The tourney is where?

Riley and McPhail knew the Park City tournament would be big news in the world of poker. But even they were unprepared for the response from last weekend's news conference.

As soon as news of the tournament hit the league's Web site, registrations started pouring in from states as far away as Mississippi, Illinois and Wisconsin.

The four phone lines at the league's office at 900 George Washington Blvd. were jammed Monday as staff members rushed to register participants. Riley had to use his cell phone to make calls out of the office, and even now, the staff hasn't caught up with all the calls and e-mails from potential registrants.

Riley anticipates that all 17,500 qualifying spots will soon be reserved.

The interest can be attributed to many factors, Riley said. For one, he said, no one else in the country is organizing amateur tournaments on this scale.

The prize is a big draw, too. The winner of the Park City tournament earns a paid spot in this summer's World Series of Poker, which is televised on ESPN. Registration for the tournament is $10,000 -- out of most amateur players' reach.

That tournament, Riley said, is considered the Holy Grail of poker.

"You're a poker god if you win it," he said.

Despite the craziness involved in organizing the Park City event, Riley said he's encouraged by it.

It proves what he already knew: Poker is as big as ever and shows no signs of losing popularity.

He and McPhail are already planning more similar-size tournaments in Wichita and other cities.

And if what he's hearing from his members is any indication, the buzz surrounding the tournament will be just as beneficial for Knight as it will be for the poker league.

"People are just kind of shocked that an event like this is taking place in Park City," Riley said. "They expect it to be in a Las Vegas or a super metro area."
win it," said Tim.