Deaf Poker Tour

August 10, 2008

The final day of the National Deaf Poker Tour just ended its season at the Venetian in Las Vegas. The event is open to both those that can hear and those that cannot, but the main event is restricted to deaf players only.

This event was the last of four stops on the NDPT’s 2007-08 schedule, and there were four events. The main event had a $200 buy in, and was played by 136 players.

The total prize pool for the event was $20,672. Jonathan Collins and Matthew Erickson made it to heads up play and ended up dividing up the remaining cash out of the prize pool, which netted them both about $6,000 a piece.

The beauty of the NDPT is that it gives deaf players the chance to play poker. It was created two years ago by six deaf poker players: Alok Doshi, Andy Foster, Nathan Montoya, Jarrod Musano, James Rydstrom, and Joey Seifner.

The first deaf poker tournament was held at the Atlantic City’s Trump Taj Mahal. The founders wanted a place where they could talk to anyone around them, and this allowed them to do so. If they were playing in a non deaf tournament, such as the World Series of Poker, they wouldn’t really be able to converse with their fellow players.

The other events allowed interpreters and those who are learning sign language to play alongside those that could not hear. This opened the world to those that wanted to play with the understanding that they had to be sensitive to the hearing issue. It was a huge success.