Harrah's collaborates on newest poker camp

You are holding pocket aces and you feel a slight twitching of your left eyelid, soon to matched by a jumping right eyelid. Be cool, take it easy. How can a guy wearing weird orange-tinted glasses and using a fossil as a card protector know that you have pocket rockets? But what about the obsidian-eyed unsmiling guy sitting next to him who is studying you like he is doing a profile?

Is this a dream? No it isn't. I am awake and those pros could be my opponents on the final Texas Hold 'em table of the World Series of Poker Academy. Woe unto me. They just happen to be two of the top professionals in the world. That's Greg Raymer behind the creepy orange glasses and next to him is unsmiling Joe Navarro.

"Fossilman" Raymer is just the guy who rocked the poker world when he won $5 million in the 2004 WSOP championship event wearing the same ugly specs. He's nicknamed "Fossilman" for his collection of fossils and he earned his seat in the 2004 event by turning a $160 satellite victory into $5 million. Navarro is a retired FBI agent and supervisor in the areas of counterintelligence and counterterrorism, handling complex investigations. But he was also a senior criminal profiler and now I know why his gimlet eyes are fixed on me, the minnow about to be swallowed by the shark. Navarro has written the book on poker tells and non-verbal behavior by taking his 25 years of FBI and related experience as an agent and interrogator to the poker felt.

Both gentlemen, however, are not out for my money. They are both instructors at the first WSOP Academy to be held in Tunica at Grand Casino, Jan. 27-28, along with two other top players, Scott Fischman who holds two WSOP bracelets, and Alex Outhred.

The Academy is being staged by Post Oak Productions, a Toronto-based live events company founded by a couple of young promoters, Jeff Goldenberg and Brandon Rosen. They hooked up with Phil Hellmuth and had a series of successful camps at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas before connecting with Harrah's Entertainment to bring the WSOP Academy to Harrah's properties in the US.

The two-day camp here puts emphasis on poker education and interaction with the pros and fellow attendees. It is comprised of poker seminars; interactive workshops and the opportunity to apply what you have learned in a No Limit Texas Hold 'em tournament with the pros.

"We have designed a curriculum that has been written and endorsed by our team of pro instructors," said Rosen. "It provides players with the tools that will take their game to the next level."

There are three teaching methods used during the camp: live demonstrations, seminars including Q&A, and tournaments. Areas to be covered include skills, tournament strategies and applications, the tells of pokers, Internet poker, cash games and sit-n-go's. For more information on the academy and the sessions, or to sign up, visit www.wsopacademy.com or call 1-800-989-9767. All major credit cards are accepted.

The two-day session costs $1,699.00. Many of those who attended past camps feel it is a worthwhile investment that will have a payback when they use their new skills to win their share of pots. There is also a Christmas special and the camp cost includes two hotel nights.