Paul Harris is a longtime radio host in St. Louis.After the World Series of Poker success of his friend Dennis Phillips, they started the Final Table Show, which covers poker news, interviews and strategy.The weekly show is broadcast from the Harrah’s St. Louis poker room every Tuesday at 3 p.m. CT on 590 KFNS-AM (kfns.com).It’s also a popular podcast that can be found at dennisphillipspoker.blogspot.c om.
Phillips discusses events from around the tournament circuit while both hosts interview the biggest names in the poker world. Some of Harris’ favorite interviews include Matt Affleck, Phil Hellmuth and Jennifer Harman (the show’s most downloaded podcast).Strategy segments from Stack’em Coaching cover topics from handling a downswing, bet-sizing, dealing with tilt and changes for heads-up and six-max play.
Harris’ interest in poker goes back to his high school and college days.After working in numerous cities he landed in Washington, D.C., and that’s when his interest in poker skyrocketed. He frequented home games and made occasional trips to the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City to play his favorite game, seven-card stud.
Once Harris moved to St. Louis in 1999 he began to play regularly at the local poker rooms, starting with stud and working his way up to $20-$40 limit hold’em.He now plays in the bigger no-limit hold’em games, but prefers pot-limit Omaha.While primarily a cash-game player, Harris has cashed in a number of tournaments, including WSOP Circuit and World Poker Tour preliminary events.
The Final Table hosts are bringing a big cash game to St. Louis on Oct. 28-30, drawing players from all parts of the country. The $25-$50 NLHE game with a $10 ante will have a $15K buy-in and is expected to be the biggest game held in Missouri.The backup game will be $10-$20 NLHE with a $5 ante.The games will be in Harrah’s main poker room.Access near the tables will be restricted, but large windowsshould provide a good view for spectators.
Hotel discounts are available and players can wire funds to the cage. Email dennisphillipspoker@gmail.com for more information or to reserve a place in the game.The hope is this will become a quarterly event.With this in mind, Harris said, “Anyone who books a significant win on Friday will be expected to play again on Saturday or risk not being invited next time.”
— Don Matusofsky is Ante Up’s Missouri Ambassador. You can email him at anteupdonm@gmail.com.
