If you can be in the Atlantic City area and you consider yourself to be an average poker player, here's your chance to play against other recreational poker players for a shot at the world's top poker pros and nearly $40 million in prize and bonus money in your own TV poker tournament series.

It's called ProJo Poker and the Tropicana Casino and Resort in Atlantic City will host the 26 weekly tournaments beginning this Wednesday the 21st and running through January 18, 2006. Winners will advance to the ProJo Poker National Championships in Las Vegas to be held in February, 2006.

The ProJo Poker Tournament Series is planned specifically recreational poker players in the United States who don't have a true tournament series they can call their own. The series will use ProJo Poker's proprietary tournament format where ranked professional poker players cannot play in the tournament's early stages, only average Joes can play, that is until the top 8 Joe's in the poker tourney are seated at a semi-final table.

The Tropicana Casino and Resort will host satellite events with a $100 buy-in and $20 entry fee. Satellite winners and runners-up receive a $550 voucher that guarantees them a seat in the preliminary events, where the buy-in is $500, the entry fee is $50 and the total prize money is $90,000, based on maximum occupancy. The Tropicana Casino and Resort also offers "Super Satellite" events featuring a $50 buy-in and $10 entry fee.

The winners of the 26 district events will head to Las Vegas for the ProJo Poker National Championship to be held Feb. 3-4 during ProJo Poker Week.

The following poker events will take place during ProJo Poker Week:

January 28-29 -  US Amateur Poker Championships

January 30-31 - US Professional Poker Championships

February 1-2 - US Team Poker Championships

February 3-4 -  ProJo Poker National Championships