LARAMIE, Wyo. (AP) - Police chose not to shut down a poker tournament at the Buckhorn Bar, one day after ending a similar contest at the nearby Cowboy Saloon.

Buckhorn owner Mike Hopkins said police did not show up Thursday although they had threatened to do so when they shut down a tournament Wednesday night at the Cowboy, which Hopkins also owns.

''They never came down,'' he said.

Hopkins said he called police Friday to ask what was going on and an officer replied that they now intend to wait until obtaining a legal ruling on whether state law prohibits bars from hosting poker tournaments.

Such tournaments have sprung up across the state in recent years, and several establishments in Laramie, Casper and Cheyenne, among other cities, host poker nights on a regular basis.

Acting Laramie Police Chief Jim Kyritsis did not return repeated phone calls from the Casper Star-Tribune for a second consecutive day.

Laramie Vice Mayor Jodi Guerin said she had not heard about the poker issue as of Friday afternoon, and neither police nor the public have brought it to the council's attention

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