Bluff calls its own bluff, gives up its poker face

Bluff was bluffing all along, according to Town Council chairman Patrick McDermott.

The little hamlet in southeast Utah, population 285, never seriously considered changing its name to PokerShare.com, McDermott said Tuesday. Last week, the online poker company offered Bluff $100,000 in exchange for the new name.

McDermott sent an e-mail to the town's residents last week, telling them about the deal and his plan to discuss the proposal at the Nov. 2 council meeting. But Tuesday, McDermott said the e-mail "was kind of a joke on our part."

In a Tuesday e-mail titled "Statement of a Committed Bluffoon," McDermott wrote that "Bluffoons do have an excellent sense of humor, so we got a good laugh from this because many of us knew that our consideration of the offer was a hoax."

Less funny, he said, is what PokerShare.com's offer reveals — that little towns across America are sometimes tempted to sell their souls for the promise of a rosier future.

"Changing the name for a mere $100,000 is in principle no different than selling out the future health of the county for a few hundred thousand dollars and a few extra jobs," he said, referring to a proposal to store nuclear waste in San Juan County.

"Currently, many in leadership positions are seeking economic growth at any price: namely, the importing of radioactive waste from all over the country for storage here," McDermott said. "It's like trying to change the name of the county to RadioactiveWaste.com.

In response to his e-mail last week to the town's residents, McDermott said he received plenty of e-mails and calls.

"Navajo people told me that it would be inconceivable to even consider changing the name to something so unnatural," he said. "Descendants of the original Mormon pioneers who settled in this area told me that this would be a travesty."

But a few residents saw the humor in the offer, he said. One wrote that "I kind of like Amazon.com better." Another asked "What if we auctioned off rights to sell the name Bluff, Utah, on eBay?" And another suggested buying a barge, parking it in the river and opening a casino.

According to McDermott, PokerShare.com told him last week that it might look to Bluff, Alaska, if Bluff, Utah, turned down its offer. The company had previously approached Sharer, Ky., and Bluff City, Ark., with no luck.

McDermott said he doesn't know if the online company has considered Bluffdale, Utah, as another back-up.

Darren Shuster of Pop Culture PR, the Los Angeles public relations company that represents PokerShare.com, could not be reached for comment.

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