BY TOM SOMACH

A tournament to gain entry into the World Series of Poker (WSOP) will be held this weekend for deaf people only, ensuring that at least two deaf people will qualify for this year’s WSOP in Las Vegas.

The event, billed as the “Deaf Texas Hold’em Poker Tournament,” is scheduled for 3-7 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 25, 2007, at Hanging Gardens Banquets, River Grove, Ill.

The top two finishers in the deaf tourney will win seats to a WSOP event at the Rio All Suites Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nev., plus expenses, according to tourney organizers.

The WSOP begins June 1, 2007.

The entry fee for the deaf poker tournament is $65 a person, and participants must be at least 18, the organizers said.

Poker players in the deaf tourney will communicate their bets by American Sign Language (ASL) and other methods of communication, said Ed Glennon, Jr., one of the tournament organizers.

The tourney is being sponosred by the West Suburban Association of the Deaf (WSAD), a Chicago-area group.

Its website is www.wsadeaf.org.

“Our organization encourages deaf and hard of hearing individuals to communicate and interact in activities the same as hearing people,” Glennon said.

“Many deaf and hard of hearing persons play in major tournaments in Las Vegas (and) in the fund-raising tournaments we’ve sponsored the last four years at Chicago area banquet facilities,” he said.

Poker tournaments for deaf people should not come as a surprise, as many handicapped people enjoy poker at all levels.

Blind people have played poker for years, using specially-made Braille playing cards.