Jimmy Stover is a tournament director with World Tavern Poker in Roanoke. In June, he placed second in Atlantic City at Nationals and won a seat worth $1,500 to Harrah’s in Atlantic City for the World Series of Poker.

Now, World Tavern Poker has a home of sorts in Salem. The league will play on Mondays there at 6:30 and 9 p.m., starting tonight, October 31.

World Tavern Poker is free, players play for points and for first through third place in each tavern. There are three 15-week seasons, Spring, Fall, and Winter. Players have to play at least eight games in a tavern to qualify for tournaments. Each season brings a championship for each tavern and a regional Tournament of Champions for the first, second, and third place finishers at each tavern. Prizes for the upper tournaments feature spots in the World Series of Poker tournaments like the prize Stover won for being second at Nationals.

Other local World Tavern Poker eateries:

Mondays at 6:30 and 9 p.m. at Applebee’s in Salem

Tuesdays at 6:30 and 9 p.m. at Applebee’s at Valley View Mall

Wednesdays at 6:30 and 9 p.m. at Breaktime Billiards on Plantation Road

Thursdays at 6:30 and 9 p.m. at Applebee’s on Challenger Avenue in Bonsack

Saturdays at 1 and 4 p.m. at Applebee’s at Tanglewood

Sundays at 1 and 4 p.m. at Breaktime Billiards on Plantation Road

For more information, call Jimmy Stover at 793-3081.

We recently posted a story about Stover and his win at Nationals – here it is:

After an eight-hour-day of playing Texas Hold ‘Em at the Nationals of World Tavern Poker in Atlantic City in June, Jimmy Stover of Salem was one of the last two.

Stover checked; his opponent went all in. He had a King and a six in hand. She was holding a five and a ten. On the table: a three, a five, and a six.

The next card drawn, the turn, didn’t help either player.

“I thought to myself ‘Jimmy, you’re one card away from the national championship’” he said.

But when she drew the river, the fifth card, it was a five. Her triple fives beat his pair of sixes.

While he didn’t win, his second place finish was enough to earn him a coat and other goodies along with a paid-seat worth $1,500 to the World Series of Poker at Harrah’s in Atlantic City this December. Last year’s event there boasted a $550,000 prize pool and 382 players, he said.

Stover’s success in poker began here in the Roanoke Valley four years ago when he ruptured four disks in his back. A bricklayer by trade and an avid golfer at the time, he had to leave both. His interest in poker was piqued by ESPN’s coverage of the World Series of Poker. He watched and learned.

“A person has to have hobbies in their life, and I’ve had hobby after hobby after hobby,” he said, revealing that before golf, he played pool, and that in 1964, when he was 12 years old, he won the spinning top championship at Crossroads Mall. He won a free trip to Disneyland in California.

He played for a short while at Big Lick poker before he made the connection with World Tavern Poker in the Roanoke Valley. The organization hosts games at local restaurants and bars Monday through Thursday nights and on weekends. He’s played for three or four years, and he recently assumed the volunteer role of tournament director in Roanoke.

World Tavern Poker is free, players play for points and for first through third place in each tavern. There are three 15-week seasons, Spring, Fall, and Winter. Players have to play at least eight games in a tavern to qualify for tournaments. Each season brings a championship for each tavern and a regional Tournament of Champions for the first, second, and third place finishers at each tavern. Prizes for the upper tournaments feature spots in the World Series of Poker tournaments like the prize Stover won for being second at Nationals.

“You’ve got to have a lot of luck to win these things. It ain’t all skill, trust me,” he said.

To see more photos, click here to go back to the earlier post.

-Miranda Beck