ATLANTA — Bluff magazine routinely reveals a world at the top of the poker craze that few get to see, of millionaire card sharks who spend money with abandon, use $1,000 chips as coasters and fly like rock stars from one glitzy casino to another.

But like its name, Bluff's glamorous gloss is all for show. It spins its stories nearly a continent away from the poker mecca of Las Vegas at its headquarters in Atlanta, where the most exciting legal gambling experience is scratching off a lottery ticket.

"We're aimed at the new generation of poker players," said Eddy Kleid, Bluff's co-president. "We wanted to make it fun and sexy. We're kind of like a 'Maxim' for poker."

Poker's exploding popularity, with televised Texas hold'em tournaments and Internet games, has created an unprecedented opportunity for magazine publishers — even those far from casinos — looking to cash in on the craze. In the last year, as many as 10 poker magazines have popped up in card rooms, newsstands and stores.

The poker magazine industry is flush with new advertising dollars from other companies profiting from the poker craze, including poker Web sites that, although not legal in the United States, can advertise because they're based abroad; regular (and legal) casino card rooms and other companies that sell poker-related products from clothing to bobbleheads.

In total, poker magazines bring in between $5 million and $10 million in revenue a year, a figure comparable to the yields of specialty magazine markets for triathletes and other hobbyists, according to Samir Husni, chairman of the journalism department at the University of Mississippi.

Bluff seeks to feed young players' dreams — wealth and fame beyond imagination — by focusing more on poker personalities and lifestyle and less on strategy.

It's that creativity that publisher Eric Morris credits with the magazine's impressive growth in popularity in just 12 months, now with a self-reported circulation of 250,000.

"I didn't want to be a stats and strategy magazine," Morris said. "We recognize that poker has moved to the mainstream."

For example, in a Bluff article titled "The Magician, the Unabomber and the Guy Who Never Wins," writer Rob Fulop visits his poker pro friends Antonio "The Magician" Esfandiari and Phil "Unabomber" Laak in Las Vegas.

"I do a quick scan of Antonio's new house. ... Bellagio chips ranging from $10 to $1,000 lie scattered over the coffee table, serving as drink coasters. A rubber-banded 2-inch-thick wad of $100 bills sitting on one of the cushions of the sofa looks as if somebody just tossed it there a few days ago and forgot about it. I'm in poker dreamland," Fulop writes.