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LAS VEGAS - A Las Vegas charity won
$50,000 in a hand of poker without even being at the game. Mayor Oscar
Goodman called the main office of the Boys and Girls Club of Las Vegas
on Wednesday afternoon, September 17, and told them to be sure to tune
in to the cable television broadcast of the City Council meeting. About
10 minutes later, people at the office were watching a contest winner
announce she had won $50,000 in a charity poker game of Texas hold 'em
-- and that she was giving it to the Boys and Girls Club.
"We were floored,"
said Jackie Valdera, executive assistant of the organization, which provides
about 12,000 children in the area with such social services as after-school
activities, club programs and help with schoolwork. "All
I could do is get on the phone and start calling people," Valdera
said.
The charity poker
hand was part of Tuesday night's festivities in Hollywood, CA, to mark
the world premiere of the television show "Las Vegas." Goodman
dealt the hand, which he said was played by such stars as James Caan,
Molly Sims, and the contest winner, Judy LaPenna of Phoenix.
A weekly drama, "Las
Vegas" debuts at 9 p.m. Monday on NBC (Channel 3). It stars Caan
as Big Ed Deline, the head of surveillance at the fictional Montecito
hotel-casino. Sims plays Big Ed's daughter, Delinda.
LaPenna was the winner
of a promotional contest, run by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors
Authority, to tell the best Las Vegas story. She received two nights in
Hollywood and two in Las Vegas, as well as an opportunity to meet the
cast of the show and play in the charity game, for this story:
It was more than a
year ago, and her then-boyfriend was in Las Vegas for business. He called
her and told her to come on up. "We had a typical Las Vegas indulgent
night out," she said, which caused the pair to change their flight
home. She called in sick to work, but the airline faxed her flight itinerary
to her office. When she got home, she needed an excuse; LaPenna said her
husband told her to say they went to Vegas to get married. "I
said I wasn't going to tell her that unless I was," LaPenna said.
"An hour later we were on a flight back. Within 24 hours we had two
trips to Vegas and ended up married." She said it was an easy call
to choose the Boys and Girls Club as the recipient of the donation.
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