HAMPSTEAD — He's already the New Hampshire state poker champion and now Richard Hewett is looking for sponsors willing to bet on him succeeding in even higher-stakes play.
He would like to represent the Granite State at the U.S. Championships in October in Atlantic City.
Hewett has been playing poker for fun ever since he was a youngster, but just started competing seriously in the last couple of years. He credits his move to competitive poker to a change in the state's gaming laws — and his job as technology manager at Seabrook Greyhound Park.
"New Hampshire now has the biggest poker rooms — with the exception of Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut — at Rockingham and Seabrook," he said.
State gaming laws were changed to reduce the amount the house took for the host charity. That led to a significant increase in the number of players and the establishment of some big poker rooms.
The poker room at Seabrook opened in 2006 for one day a week with 10 tables. That has since grown to a seven-day-a-week operation with 50 tables. The New Hampshire Poker Championship was held at Seabrook in late March.
It was a four-day event with more than 700 competitors. Hewett won the state title.
Now he wants to move on to the next level. His dream, he said, would be to try competing in the U.S. Poker Championships and possibly some World Series or World Poker Tour events. But those tournaments have very high entry fees and are out of his financial reach — unless he can find some sponsors.
Players usually give their sponsors 50 percent of their winnings, in exchange for entry fees and expense money. Hewett hopes to find several sponsors, who would get a percentage of any prize pool he won.
The 2008 U.S. Poker Championships are set for October in Atlantic City. It's a two-week event, with entry fees ranging from $300 to $10,000. Hewett is hoping some sponsors will ante up and stake him to a shot at a national title.
"In 2006, someone sponsored a completely unknown player, Jamie Gold, for the $10,000 World Series of Poker main event," Hewett said. "That sponsor got a $6 million return on his investment."
Hewett said he loves to play poker and believes he has a better-than-average chance to make money at it.
"Winning poker takes a combination of luck and skill. But, in the long run, luck evens out and good players will win more consistently than marginal ones," he said. "My strength is I have the potential to play and do well in any of the games. ... Poker is the only casino game where you are not playing against a statistically unbeatable house advantage. Instead, you are pitting your street smarts against those of other people at your table."
