In about two weeks, Janel Cole, General Manager of O'Shea's and Strike Tournament director, will send a letter outlining details about the strike tournament to all participants. If you have signed up two people, you should call the Flamingo in about a week (1-800-225-4882) and let them know which two free nights you want.

I believe it is necessary to make a few comments in response to some of the participants' inquiries about there being no cash prizes. We don't know, nor may we ever truly know, all the costs involved in putting on a strike tournament. I'm going to list a few of the items charged to the tournament budget that most of us never thought of: the "free" night included in your package is not really free to the casino tournament; $75 is charged to the tournament budget. The room that is reserved for the Saturday night trading session (7-10 p.m.), the beer, wine, and hors d'oeuvres, and the Sunday champagne brunch also come out of the budget. Then there's the extra personnel necessary to run the tournament, and even the balloons, and, of course, (most important to us) the cost of the special limited edition strikes, which as we know are expensive because of the small issue.

Since this is the first strike tournament, the casino has no idea how much play it will get from strike collectors. Therefore, it is very important that you use your Flamingo card when you play in the casino. If this tournament is successful, future strike tournaments may include cash prizes.