Las Vegas Poker
Poker in Las Vegas!
Playing on TV at Binion's
Average Players' Dream Come True/Superstars in the Making!
12/18/06 - Every weekend at Binion's, fomer home of the World Series of Poker, there are some fairly low buy-in ($330 & $660) no limit hold'em tournaments where if you make it to the top 10% or so, you play the next day on TV on a small production facility adjacent to the main poker room. WGN airs the event a few weeks later. Our friend, Andrea Li , a cash game player, not one of the "average players", having played in less than a dozen small scale tourneys over the course of the last 4 years, made it to the TV final table and of course there's Brandon Lilly who could be the next poker superstar. Read more...
580 Players Just for the Satellite at Bellagio!
$1,590 Buy-In Just for a 1 in 10 Chance at a Seat
Bellagio's Five Diamond World Poker Tour main event begins today in Las Vegas, and with a $15,000 buy-in, many potential players chose to try and win their seat for 1/10th of that price in the "super satellite". 580 players including Men "the Master" Nguyen and a few other superstars were playing. 55 seats were dished out for what promises to be another fantastic championship. The televised final table will be on Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2006. The prize fund, as usual, will be humungous.
Golden Nugget Builds Bigger Poker Room
The Golden Nugget has always been the classiest casino in Downtown Las 
Vegas, but the 8 table poker room of the past few years was jammed into a small space, and left a lot to be desired. The unveiling of a brand new poker room recently changed all that. Only 2 tables were added, but a major difference in quality and aesthetics was achieved, in part by the decor, beautiful surroundings, an actual room instead of a partially walled-off area, very nice tables and chairs, and plasma TV screens everywhere. A brand new simplified tournament schedule was implemented also, 7 days a week, 4 times a day at 11 am, 3 pm, 7 pm, and 1 am with a $65 buy-in and a single $40 rebuy. The Golden Nugget is also undergoing a major expansion to other parts of the casino/hotel. Check out the new swimming pool visible from the windows lining the long corridor between the hotel and the casino.
Palms Starts Tournament Schedule
Space has always been an issue at the popular Palms Resort, a favorite of celebrities, but a 10:00 AM weekday tournament with a $33 buy-in was added recently, in spite of the lack of space. One $20 rebuy is offered. The prize money is only 60% of the buy-in, so we believe this is not a good tournament for the strict money-management player, however, the fact that the Palms poker tournament is conveniently located across the street (Flamingo Blvd.) from the Rio and the Gold Coast, and is just West of the Las Vegas strip, gives the early-birds one more poker playing option and is worth a mention.
Norwegian Pro Wins at 2006 Festa al Lago
The final table consisted of all poker pros and the winner was Andreas Walnum, from Norway. The 2006 Bellagio, Las Vegas World Poker Tour Event drew 433 players. 1st prize was worth a little over $1,000,000. Runner-Up was Steve Wong, taking $542,700.
2006 Festa al Lago (Bellagio) Main Event Begins
After Day 2, the Festa al Lago championship World Poker Tour event at Bellagio Las Vegas is heating up. Chip leader Brandi Hawbaker is trailed by some well known names, such as James Van Alstyne, Nick Schulman, a recent WPT champion, Tim Phan, Jennifer Harmon, Mimi Tran, Erik Seidel, and Chip Jett. The tournament's main event, a $10,000 buy-in tournament with 433 entrants started Oct. 16 and continues through Friday Oct. 20, 2006. Click here for the entire schedule.
Fitzgeralds Downtown Opens Poker Room
A nice 6-table room with daily no-limit tournaments makes for the first new downtown Las Vegas poker room in years. While the strip casinos have continued to add poker rooms and expand existing ones, downtown area casinos, hard-pressed for space, have resisted the trend. Fitz bucked the trend by providing the poker tables upstairs, where the showroom and buffet/cafe is. Success appears to be in the cards for the Irish themed casino, as management tells us the tourneys at noon and 9 PM every day are filling 3 tables, not bad for an out-of-the-way location. A $20,000 freeroll for loyal players putting in the hours at the cash games is scheduled for September 10, 2006. 60 hours of live game play is enough to get into the freeroll, more hours equals more starting chips. For the tournaments, the buy-in of $30 gets you 1,000 in chips, a bonus buy for $5 gets an addtional 500 in chips, a rebuy for $15 buys 1,000 in chips and an add-on at the end of the first hour buys 1,500 in chips. With blinds starting at 25-25, 20 minute levels for the first hour and 15 minute levels thereafter, the structure offers fast-paced exciting action.
Jamie Gold Wins 2006 World Series of Poker
... Read more.
Down to 1,159 Players in 2006 WSOP, Negreanu with Huge Stack
The No-Limit Texas Hold'em World Championship, aka the World Series of Poker Main Event, will resume Friday, August 4, 2006, at which time the remaining 1,159 players will meet all at the same time and place for Day 3. Days 1 & 2 took 6 days to complete because there are not enough poker tables and dealers to accommodate all 8,600 players that showed up for poker's richest event of the year, hence Day one was split up into 4 flights July 28-31 and day 2 into 2 flights Aug 1-2. Most of the biggest stars of the game are already busted out, but Daniel Negreanu sits near the very top. Read more...
8,600 Players in Main Event
The $10,000 buy-in championship event of the 2006 World Series of Poker is underway. Read more...
2,776 Players in Event #2!
Over 1200 players competed in Event #1, the casino employee's $500 no-limit hold'em tournament at the 2006 World Series of Poker at the Rio Pavillion, adjacent to The Rio, Las Vegas. But to draw close to 3,000 for event #2 which came with a $1,500 buy-in? That's flabbergasting! A whopping $3,789,240 was given out in prizes, a figure that is right up there with some of the largest poker events in the history of the game. The WSOP continues to draw players from all over the world and to think they'd mostly wait for the main event which begins 1 month after Event #2 is just plain wrong. Poker players, professionals as well as amateurs, are in town now and they're here to play some poker. 2600 players fell by the wayside on day 1 leaving many top professionals including Carlos Mortensen, chip leader going into day 2, Greg Raymer, Jennifer Harman, Shawn Sheikhan, David "DevilFish" Ulliot, John Bonetti, Tuan Le, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Gordon, Erik Seidel, Bill Gazes and Don Zewin. Jennifer Harman eventually finished in 11th for a payday of $51,000 and Mortensen ended up in 9th for $71,617. 1st prize was $757,839 and went to Brandon Cantu. It is not too late to win your way into the $10,000 buy-in main event which begins July 28, 2006. Do you have $150-350 or so to invest? Then jump right into Step 6 of my "Freerolling your way to the World Series of Poker" collection of articles. It might be a little late to freeroll your way at this point, but it can be done and if you want to get to the big dance for $0.00, nothin, nada, zippo, then start here at Step 1.
World Series of Poker Begins!
The 2006 version of the World Series of Poker has finally arrived. Sunday, June 25 marks the official opening of the games with satellites, super-satellites, mega-satellites, single table satellites, and every other imaginable type of satellite, running from a $65 buy-in and up. Event # 1 begins Monday, June 26 and is open only to casino employees. Subsequent events will be open to the general public. There is still time to win your seat to the main event for $0.00!! The $10,000 buy-in main event begins Friday, July 28, 2006 and runs through August 10th. All tournaments are held at the Rio, in the gigantic pavillion, which is located at the North end of the Harrah's owned casino/hotel facility. The regular Rio poker room will be moved to the World Series area also. Harrah's is expecting close to capacity for the main event, 8,000 entrants, which would build the prize fund for that single event to $80,000,000!
Caesars Palace Home to New Event
The National Poker Tour, a brand new poker tournament series, has debuted at Caesars Palace. The inaugural event is called the Vegas Open. Consisting of a series of 10 single-day $1,000 + $60 buy-in events, held June 2-14, the winners will meet June 16-17, 2006, for the $25,000 guaranteed prize fund championship.
Mandalay Bay WPT Event Draws Big Names
Phil Ivey, Phil Laak, Dan Harrington, Daniel Negreanu, , Ted Forrest, Jennifer Tilly, Shannon Elizabeth, TJ Cloutier, Tuan Le, Layne Flack, Mike Matusow, John Juanda, Cyndy Violette, Michael Mizrachi, Rob Mizrachi, Eric Mizrachi, Josh Arieh, Cliff Josephy, Eric Haber, Shane Schleger, David Singer, Erik Seidel, "Miami" John Cernuto, Sean McCabe, Nam Le, Mike Gracz, David Grey, Joe Awada, Steve Frederick, Jean Robert Bellande, Brian Haveson, David Oppenheim, David Plastik, John Phan, Gene Todd, Dan Harrington, Gabe Thaler, Steve Brecher, Scott Fischman, Marco Traniello, Greg Mueller, Kristy Gazes, Mark Gregorich, Arnold Spee, Chad Brown, Joe Sebok, Barry Greenstein, Bill Edler, Carlos Mortensen, Allen Cunningham, Erick Lindgren, Toto Leonidas, Gavin Smith, Chip Reese, Tony Cousineau, Patrik Antonius, Farzad Bonyadi, Blair Rodman, Danny Smith, Mark Seif, Hasan Habib, David Singer, Harry Demetriou, Chau Giang, David Williams, Jen Harman, and John D' Agostino were all playing at Mandalay Bay's Championship Event of a World Poker Tour stop when play began on Day 1. When it was all over, Joe Tehan won the 2006 Mandalay Bay Poker Championship, earning $1,033,440. Runner-Up was Burt Boutin, winning $604,765.
Final Results of 2006 Mirage Poker Showdown
Stanley Weiss won the main event of the World Poker Tour's 2006 Mirage Poker Showdown. Weiss earned $1,320,255 for his effort. His heads-up opponent, runner-up Harry Demetriou, got $673,272. Other players finishing in the top 10 were David William, Robert Mizrachi, and Alan Goehring. 384 players participated in the $10,000 buy-in championship, either paying their way directly or by winning their seats in smaller buy-in satellite events. The total prize fund was $3,724,800.
WSOPC at Caesars Palace, Spadavecchia Captures Crown
Out of 209 players that started Mon. May 8, 2006, the final table of 9 battled it out intensely at Caesars Palace and when all was said and done it came down to 2 crucial pots where John Spadavecchia overcame the formidable QQ twice, read more...
Fish Swallows Shark
Liz Lieu Settles the Score with Sagstrom
What does a world class poker player do when someone calls her a "fish" online? Most of the time, nothing, but in this case an event developed which ended up in a 3-match heads-up duel at the new Venetian poker room, with a prize fund of $600,000. Internet champ Erik Sagstrom. The film crew was there, Lieu's entourage were there, including good friend John Phan.... read more
Mirage Poker Showdown Begins with a Bang
406 players showed up for the opening $500 buy-in No-Limit Hold'em event at the Mirage in Las Vegas on May 4, 2006, despite the direct competition over at Caesars Palace, which is having a WSOP circuit event (see next article). The prize fund was $196,910. Men "the master" Nguyen decided to play. We got there just in time to witness 2 horrible bad beats he inflicted on the same unfortunate player within 5 minutes of each other to eliminate him. There were about 80 players left out of the 406 at the time. Nguyen went on to finish in 17th place for a $1400 win. 1st place went to Stanley Weiss, from Nashville, TN, who took home $75,549 for his performance. The tournament events run through May 17, climaxing in still another $10,000 buy-in main event, the 3rd in Las Vegas in the April/May 2006 time period. The championship event of the Mirage Poker Showdown begins on Sun, May 14th. As usual, many satellites (mostly single table) are available with many different buy-in and prize structures. See the complete tournament schedule here.
World Series of Poker Circuit at Caesars
April and May 2006 are 2 very busy months for large Las Vegas poker events. The recently completed Bellagio World Poker Tour Championship, and the upcoming Mirage World Poker Tour Showdown provide quite the competition for Caesars' inaugural WSOPC event. Despite being sandwiched between these 2 Las Vegas mega-events, the opening day's WSOPC tour $500 + $50 no-limit hold'em preliminary event on Apr 28, 2006 drew well over 600 players. This was higher than the tournament staff's expectations according to the tournament director. The $10,000 buy-in main event of the World Series of Poker Circuit event begins Monday, May 8 and runs through Thursday, May 11. Read more...
Bartholdi wins World Poker Tour Championship
Joe Bartholdi from Las Vegas defeated David Matthew, a $25 buy-in online qualifier, as well as 600 other players, to take home the $3.7 million 1st prize. Read more...
Red Rock Station Rocks!
Apr 19th, 2006 marked the opening of a brand new resort with a 20 table poker room in the heart of Summerlin, a large master-planned community on the west side of Las Vegas, close to the mountains and in clear view of the red rocks natural desert area further west. This awe-inspiring casino/hotel/resort is worth the trip out there if you're visiting Vegas, just head west on Charleston Blvd and you'll get there soon enough. I promise, there's nothing like it in Las Vegas, not downtown, not on the strip, and not at any of the other outlying places. This place is absolutely superb! . So much the better if you're a poker player. Read more...
Treasure Island Opens Poker Room Apr 12
One more poker room for the strip. The Treasure Island Poker Room sits at a busy location very close to the Mystere Theatre should make for another successful poker enterprise for another Las Vegas strip resort. Generating much less fanfare than the Venetian Poker Room opening of 10 days earlier, the location at TI should make up for the lack of big-time promotions, and almost assures a busy 8-table room. The TI poker room is situated not far from the self-parking entrance, just down the escalator, past Mystere, and to the right, immediately before the casino floor itself.
Poker Superstars, Movie Stars in Attendance at Venetian Poker Room Grand Opening
Doyle/Todd Brunson, Mike Matusow, Amir Vahedi, Annie Duke, Shannon Elizabeth
were just a few of those in attendance at the pre-opening party held at Tao nightclub upstairs from the new poker room and the celebrity poker tournament which kicked off the official opening of the Venetian Poker Room on Apr 2nd, 2006 at 9:00 PM. The room was packed and the area outside the front entrance was packed with people wanting to get in. This grand opening was very special. A Lotus Elise automobile, parked right there at the poker room, was the 1st prize in the tournament.
Venetian, Treasure Island Add Poker Rooms
O'Shea's, Railway Pass Poker Rooms Now Open
With 11,000 square feet of poker room floor space and 21 plasma TV screens, the Venetian Poker Room promises to be along the same lines of Bellagio, Wynn, and Caesars Palace. Add butler service and gourmet food to the high stakes area and you might think they are trying to outdo the above-mentioned. We'll soon see as the opening date is Apr 2nd, 2006. Meanwhile, across the street, it's about time Treasure Island got with it, and sure enough their plan is also for an April 2006 poker room opening. Are you listening New York New York?? Do you like your poker rooms smaller and cozier? Try O'Shea's, the little Irish casino on the East side of the strip between Imperial Palace and Flamingo with 2 poker tables offering sit'n'go's. Or do you prefer out-of-the-way places? Not too far from the Southeast edge of Henderson, on Highway 93 towards Boulder City is the Railway Pass Casino, which recently opened their poker room, offering no-limit hold'em poker tournaments at 8 PM Thursday thru Sunday with a $25 buy-in. When will the poker boom peak? We don't know. Maybe not till every single casino in Las Vegas has a poker room and the existing ones have maxed out all available space for bigger and better card rooms than they already have. The question now is which Las Vegas places don't want to be in the poker business? Although slots make more money per square foot than any other casino acitivity, it is a well-recognized fact in the industry that along with poker playing visitors come wives, husbands, sisters, brothers, moms, dads, uncles, aunts, and friends who if they don't play poker, they'll surely play slots or table games, dine, need lodging, shop and go to shows, making more money for the casino/resorts.
National Heads-Up Championship Concludes at Caesars
Poker superstars and Hollywood stars alike invaded Caesars Palace for 3 days of heads-up poker. The Caesars tournament area was temporarily completely re-done, decked out to the max with the typical Caesars decor (pillars, marble-like floors, etc). Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, Doyle Brunson and his son Todd, Jennifer Harmon, Mike Matusow, Chris Ferguson, Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer, Daniel Negreanu, Scotty Nguyen, Ted Forrest, and Michael Mizrachi are just a sample of the big-names of poker that competed.
Read about the results (or wait to see it on TV) of all 3 days of the Caesars Palace NBC National Heads-Up Championship now. If you'd rather wait to see it on TV before you know any of the results, click anyway to read more about the event, but avoid scrolling down to the bottom of the page.
IP Poker Room Moves to Casino Level
The 3rd level poker room at Imperial Palace is no more. The new location, on the main floor of the casino, just inside the front entrance, is a step up in class and comfort, though a bit noisy from the nearby slots and the famous Imperial Palace rock music within earshot. An nice L-shaped bar within the poker room's confines satisfies thirsty poker players adding quality to the poker room. Read more...
Suncoast, Red Rocks Station Opening Poker Rooms Soon
The sign at the Kids Tyme door at the Suncoast Casino says Kids Tyme has moved to South Coast and the area is being remodeled to expand the buffet and build a new poker room. A pit boss in the casino tells us that progress has been slow and they don't know when to expect the opening of the poker room. We will keep you updated as we hear more. Suncoast is located in Summerlin, the affluent west-side master-planned community. With the opening of Red Rocks Station on April 18th, 2006, the Summerlin area will have 2 poker rooms where none exist now.
Caesars Palace Venue for National Heads Up Championship
The Caesars Palace poker room, having just opened Dec 21, 2005, is already into the business of holding major poker tournaments and many special events, such as the recently completed Valentine's Day Sweetheart Tournament, where the guys and gals swapped places at each level change. Another pre-grand opening event, the 2005 Tournament of Champions, won by Mike "the mouth" Matusow and a New Year's Eve celebrity tournament, hosted by Nicky Hilton were also held at Caesars. With 33 tables reserved just for tournament play, the Caesars poker room intends to hold many more special events. We can not say enough good things about the poker room, the tournaments, and especially the staff. The tournaments reward skill because the blinds go up slowly and the levels are 40 minutes long. They are also the best in Las Vegas in terms of returning the highest percentage of the buy-ins and re-buys to the prize pool, a figure approaching 90%. Though not quite as popular as Wynn or Bellagio yet, we expect Caesars poker room to approach and perhaps surpass those 2 giants of the industry.
Hooters Grand Opening!
Hooters Hotel and Casino opened at 9 PM Feb 2, 2006 amidst much hoopla, representing the restaurant chain's first venture into the lucrative Las Vegas hotel & casino industry. The famous Hooter girls were there. They have a poker room with a view, so to speak, and we were there Feb 3 to give you some details. Located just east of the Strip on Tropicana, Hooters replaces the San Remo, using the same building San Remo occupied, with extensive remodeling done during the past few months.
World Poker Tour coming to Mandalay Bay
The WORLD POKER TOUR® announced today that Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas has joined its roster of host casinos for a new event that will be staged as the second stop of the Season V calendar. The Mandalay Bay Poker Championship, to be held June 4 - 8, will become the next big event on the WPT’s storied 17-stop tour which features exciting poker action at some of the most beautiful, elegant and highly regarded resorts and card rooms around the globe. In Season V, the WPT is expected to surpass its Quarter Billion Dollar mark in prize money!
Harrah's Expands WSOP Circuit Events
20 January 2006
Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. today announced new dates and an expanded schedule for its World Series of Poker Circuit stop at Caesars Palace® in Las Vegas this spring. A new $5,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. event will feature four games - Hold'em, Omaha, stud and stud eight or better. Read more...
Poker.com Hosts WSOP Satellites for $1.10
Poker.com has begun their 2006 World Series of Poker online satellite program. Players are encouraged to buy-in at whatever level they feel comfortable with in this multi-tiered satellite structured promotion, with buy-ins for as little as $1.00 + .10. Winners will be given seats to the main event at the Rio Las Vegas in late July, 2006 plus $2,500 expense money. Read more...
Caesars Opens Palatial Poker Room December 21, 2005
The largest poker room in Las Vegas now graces a portion of one of the largest and grandest (no offense to MGM Grand) Las Vegas strip resort/casinos since they opened near the sports book and the Pure nightclub on December 21. Poker has been taken to the next level. Caesars Palace Las Vegas is now the biggest and quite possibly the best with 63 tables, outnumbering Bellagio (40 tables) and Wynn Resort (27 tables) by a whopping margin. Previously Binion's had the most poker tables in Las Vegas with 46, but they are not in the same class as Caesars, MGM Grand, Wynn Resort, and Bellagio. 33 of the 63 poker tables are reserved in a different section of the poker room just for tournaments. (See the updated tournament schedules page). Hosting the Tournament of Champions this year which ended November 8th (the one that Annie Duke one last year) was a prelude to Caesars' grand implementation of their plan to get back into the poker business. The TOC was won by Mike Matusow. Caesars previous poker room closed in the 90's during poker's lean years.
South Coast Latest to Open Poker Room
The Coast brand of casino resorts, which includes Orleans, Suncoast, Gold Coast, and Barbary Coast has opened a brand new resort complete with poker room. December 20, 2005 was the approximate opening date. We were out of town then, but went immediately upon our return on about December 28 to find a large area for poker at the South Coast, located at the far end of the casino from the parking garage. The upstairs entrance to the movie theater has a large lobby-type area and the poker room sits adjacent to that. 8 tables spread $2-$4 and $4-$8 limit hold'em as well as the usual $1-$2 no limit Texas Hold-Em. The South Coast Casino Resort is expected to draw locals from the growing part of the Las Vegas valley in the coming years. Also the hotel/casino/poker room will be the first in the valley that visitors from Southern California will see upon arrival via I-15 and the last one they see upon return. We were very favorably impressed with the resort, especially the exterior. The poker room is comfortable. Daily 10 AM tournaments with a $37 buy-in are now running.
Rehne Pedersen Champ
Dec 17, 2005- 8:19 AM
Day 5 at the Bellagio Resort in Las Vegas, NV
After spending most of the evening short-stacked, Doyle Brunson surged to over 8 million in chips, 1st doubling up from 2 to 4 million against Rehne Pedersen with pocket 10's against Pedersen's pocket deuces, the 10's holding up. Then, JJ Liu, the wildly dressed (with plunging side-view cleavage) lady, busted out in 4th place at the hands of Patrik Antonius and Doyle moved all in again a couple hands later against Patrik and his pocket 3's held up against Antonius' A2. This put Doyle in the lead as follows.. Read more...
Ultimate Poker Challenge a Huge Success, Amir Vahedi Wins Championship Event
11/27/2005 -
Poker and TV go well together these days, thanks to the lipstick camera and the colorful characters who have become big stars. $10,000 buy-in events are no longer a big deal in Las Vegas, but the Plaza in downtown Vegas has gone way out of their way to make TV stars out of ordinary tournament poker players. The Ultimate Poker Challenge features daily $500 buy-in events, with single table satellites at $65. Read more....
2006 World Series of Poker Expected to Attract 8,000 Players
Rio to Host Entire Event, Schedule Now in Place
The 2006 World Series of Poker will begin with satellites starting June 25 at the Rio in Las Vegas. The $10,000 buy-in Championship event starts July 28 and concludes on Aug. 10. Online players take note, the 2006 WSOP promises to be the biggest and best yet and you can be a part of the championship event if you're willing to put a little more time into your online play. For an investment of $0 or as little as $20, you can make your late summer plans to be in Las Vegas for the most prestigious poker tournament in the world. Find out how here.
Thang Pham Wins Main Event in Vegas at WSOP Circuit Championship Nov 9-22
Paris Las Vegas, and the connected Bally's were the venue for the big WSOP circuit events, a series of tournaments culminating with a 4 day $10,000 buy-in championship which drew many of the biggest names in poker. Buy-ins for the other events ranged from $200 + $25 to $1,500 + $70 and most were no limit hold'em. Satellites were available beginning at 9:00 each morning and super satellites with a $230 buy-in and $200 rebuys are at 3 PM and 9 PM nightly. For the complete schedule and a little about the winner, Thang Pham, click here.
Festa al Lago concludes, Minh Ly takes it down, Harrington 2nd at Festa al Lago
Oct 22, 2005
Minh Ly beat out 419 other players including many of the world's best to win the $1,060,050 first prize at Bellagio's Festa al Lago $10,000 buy-in main event which began Tuesday and concluded last night (Friday). Dan Harrington, cousin of Padraig Harrington, the professional golfer, finished 2nd. Final results are here. The tournament was held at the beautiful Bellagio, home of the dancing waters free show, and also home of Friday and Saturday $1,000 buy-in and Sun-Thurs $500 buy-in events.
Bellagio's Festa al Lago Championship Event Begins, 420 Entrants
Oct 18, 2005
Doyle Brunson, Men the Master, John Juanda, Dan Harrington, Chris Ferguson, Phil Ivey, John D'Agostino, Sammy Farha, Phil Hellmuth, Humberto Brenes, Gus Hanson, and Michael Mizrachi were some of the faces we recognized at the Fontana Bar turned poker room inside the beautiful Bellagio today. Located at the front of the casino, the room overlooks the Dancing Waters show that graces the strip every half hour or so. A door leading to a balcony gives the players a chance for a quick breath of fresh air in between hands if they choose. The tournament runs Tuesday thru Friday this week, culminating in the Doyle Brunson North American Championship, a World Poker Tour event. The winner gets a seat in the $25,000 buy-in World Poker Tour Championship event in 2006. Read daily updates for the Festa al Lago tournament here.
Tuscany Opens Poker Room
Tuscany Casino, an off-strip friendly little place East of Las Vegas Blvd on Flamingo Blvd has opened a friendly little poker room located near the main entrance. With 5 tables in a very nice room by itself with a cozy bar just steps away from the poker tables, the Tuscany Poker Room promises to be a favorite among locals as well as poker playing tourists lucky enough to hear about the place, and find it. To get there from I-15, take the Flamingo exit heading East (towards the strip) and go past Bally's and the Tuscany will be on your right before you get to Paradise. Realizing they need something extra to draw people in from the mighty resorts just to their West, the management has executed a number of very interesting promotions, including $300 prize fund no limit Hold'em tournaments at 10:00 AM Mon-Thurs with no buy-in and no player requirements (freerolls). Read the whole story here.
Paris Las Vegas Surprises Everyone by Opening New Poker Room
Paris Las Vegas, next door and connected to Ballys opened a new poker room in early September 2005. Being a big surprise when we heard about it because of their denial that they would go up against their sister Ballys, we still felt that they should do it because of poker's continued rise in popularity. The poker area at Paris Las Vegas is centrally located, near a bar, and kind of out in the middle of the casino rather than being in its own separate room. There are 8 tables, featuring the usual games starting at $3-$6 limit hold'em and no limit Texas Hold'em with $1-$2 blinds. The opulent South end of the strip, on both the East and West sides of the street, from the Tropicana to Harrah's and from Mandalay Bay to the Mirage, now has only one major resort casino without a poker room, and without plans to build one. New York New York still remains the lone hold-out. Treasure Island is the first major resort on the strip if you go from the extreme South end and work towards the North that finally breaks the string besides New York New York. We predict that both Treasure Island and New York New York will both have plans to put in a poker room by mid-2006 unless the poker boom starts to wane, which we see no signs of happening.
Green Valley Ranch Opens Beautiful Poker Room
Green Valley Ranch opened an exceptional poker room in mid August, 2005, with its own bar, brand new comfy chairs and 11 good tables, a very roomy layout, and an extravagant decor. When you go there, if you meet Gary, the shift manager who's been in the poker business for decades, tell him hello from us at Vegastexasholdem.net. He is one of the nicest poker bosses we've ever met. He schocked us when we were just taking in the sights of the new room as he informed us that this great place was only temporary, in about a year, they will be expanding and have plans for a still newer room with probably about 18 tables. All 11 tables were full when we visited at about 9:00 PM on a Sat. night. The only disappointment is that our friends wanted to play there at the time of our visit and at this busy hour, the waiting list would have caused them to have to wait too long.
Las Vegas Hilton Opens Poker Room Ahead of Schedule
The Las Vegas Hilton opened their poker room Sep 2, 2005, with 11 tables. Games spread are $3-$6 and $4-$8 limit poker as well as no limit Texas Hold'em with $1-$2 blinds and no limit with $2-$5 blinds. Already tournaments are under way at 10:30 AM Mon-Thurs with a $60 buy-in. The poker room at Las Vegas Hilton was originally scheduled to open in November, 2005.
World Series of Poker Live Update, July 16, 8:02 AM
Hachem new champ!
Joe Hachem , born in Lebanon, and now from Melbourne, Australia, is the new World Series of Poker champion. Runner-up was Steve Dannenmann. The tournament finally concluded abound 6.30 am Pacific time this morning. The $7,500,000 first prize that Hachem won was the richest prize for a sporting event in the history of the world! 5,619 players paid the $10,000 buy-in for the tournament or won their seat into the championship by winning smaller satellite tournaments held throughout the year at various online sites or live poker rooms in Las Vegas as well as elsewhere. The total prize fund was $52,000,000. All 9 players that made it to the final table last night won at least $1,000,000.
Here are the final table final results from last night's historic tournament...
1 Joe Hachem (Melbourne, Australia) $7,500,000
2 Steven Dannenmann (Severn, MD, USA) $4,250,000
3 Tex Barch (McKinley, TX, USA) $2,500,000
4 Aaron Kanter (Lodi, CA, USA) $2,000,000
5 Andrew Black (Dublin, Ireland) $1,750,000
6 Scott Lazar (Studio City, CA, USA) $1,500,000
7 Daniel Bergsdorf (Umea, Sweden) $1,300,000
8 Brad Koudrachi (Kingston, PA, USA) $1,150,000
9 Mike Matusow (Las Vegas, NV, USA) $1,000,000
More World Series of Poker News & Updates
Stratosphere Opens Poker Room June 3, 2005
The Stratosphere has opened their new poker room and it is getting good reviews already for its clean, comfortable, and roomy atmosphere and friendly personnel. 4 tables are open now, but we believe there will be about 8 tables when everything is in place. 2 tournaments a day Mon-Fri are scheduled, with a $22 buy in at 9:00 AM and $44 buy-in at 8:00 PM. Both tournaments allow 1 rebuy. See the tournament schedule for all casino's tournaments.
Las Vegas Hilton Latest to Open Poker Room
On Sep 2, 2005, the Las Vegas Hilton opened a 10 table poker room within the sportsbook complex. The more the merrier---- there is so much poker available now in Las Vegas that any mood can be met for all tastes and limits. Good luck and enjoy them all!!!!
2305 Entries, 3 Million Prize Fund at World Series of Poker
The World Series of Poker has kicked into full gear with the completion of event #2, a tournament originally sceduled for 2 days, but extended to 3 because of the huge 2305 player tournout. A total prize fund of $3,180,900 was distibuted to 200 players, including the $725,405 1st prize, won by Allen Cunningham. Scott Fischman, last year's winner was 2nd and earned $352,125, while David "Devil Fish" Ulliott was 3rd and got $232,205. Complete Results
World Series of Poker begins with employee tourney, 662 players, nearly $300,000 prize fund
The Rio Hotel & Suites is hosting most of this year's massive World Series of Poker in a 60,000 square foot (bigger than a football field) assemblage. As expected, the series of events, which go from June 2 - July 15, 2005, has gotten off to a tremendous start. An astounding 662 players, all casino employees, paid the $500 entry fee to participate among their peers in the opener on June 2. Andy Ngyuen took home the trophy and the $83,390 first prize. 63 players made it into the money. The series continues with 1 and 2 day events and culminates with the $10,000 buy-in main event, which is expected to draw 6,600 players. The last 2 days of the championship 6-day World Series of Poker tournament moves to Binion's, the last year the old-time downtown casino will have anything to do with the WSOP.
Silverton Poker Room opens Memorial Day Weekend, 2005
They were right on schedule at the Silverton Hotel & Casino with their new 6 table poker room. May 28, 2005 was opening date. The room is a clean, classy card room. Flagstone rock on at least one wall will complement the rustic look of the casino. Silverton is located in the South Las Vegas Valley off of I-15 at Blue Diamond Road A tournament schedule was started in August.
Venetian planing poker room? Maybe not yet
The Venetian Las Vegas Casino was reported to be opening a poker room at some point, but upon further investigating, we find that the Venetian is denying any truth to this unconfirmed report and that they are only considering a poker room
MGM Grand starting tournament action soon, masseuse for hire in poker room
A busy new poker room on the Las Vegas Strip is about to become busier as of Fri., May 13, 2005. Also, a massage company has opened for business where they send a masseuse to MGM Grand and offer a massage for $2.00/minute to the poker players, with a 5 minute minimum. Business has been good according to Laurie, the masseuse we interviewed. During the interview, a great big tall guy came up to her wanting a massage, so they went to an empty table and she did her business, but usually she can be found during live action rubbing the neck and shoulders of the poker players. Later at night, we saw 2 others from the company come in offering their services. They plan to branch out to other casinos soon.
Wynn Resort does it right with 27 table poker room, grand opening a huge success
Don't ever underestimate Steve Wynn. The latest and greatest of the new Las Vegas mega-resorts is finally here, opening at 12:01 AM Thursday, April 28th, 2005 with a crush of 10,000 visitors. The poker room is simply awesome, beautiful, and delightful. Read more...
Riviera latest to offer Texas Holdem
Add one more poker room to the Las Vegas strip's north end. The Riviera is only the 2nd casino on the north part of the strip to offer $2-$4 Texas Hold'em, opening a 5 table poker room Monday May 2nd at 11:00 AM. Wynn Resort, Circus Circus, and the Stardust all have at least $3-$6 minimum Hold'em making Sahara and Riviera the only ones offering $2-$4. The Riviera also has $4-$8 limit hold-em and 7 card stud. The poker room can be found in the Southwest corner of the casino, near a food court and next to the sports book. The tables are the smaller size popular as 7 card stud tables, but they've got the big 10 seaters on order for hold'em. The non-smoking poker room has no plans for tournaments as of this writing, nor is there a comp system or beginners lessons offered yet, but these things could change as they get going.
MGM Grand opens new poker room
The highly anticipated MGM poker room opened Monday, March 28th, 2005, up front in the area of the big dome, sandwiched between the new sports book and a snappy new bar with scantily clad dancing cocktail waitresses. Despite the questionable choice of carpet, the unique, roomy design allows for the feel of a private game. There are curved walls on the north side and rails far from the action separating the poker room from the masses that gather to hang out by the bar. 2 sections with 11 or so tables each gives the poker room the appearance of having one area for high stakes poker and some good Texas Hold'em lower stakes games in the other. Apparently they have mostly no-limit holdem in the back section (which is toward the front of the casino) and limit games closer to the main entrance of the room.
World Series of Poker moves to the Rio
The World Series of Poker will be held mostly at the Rio in 2005, with the final 2 days back at Binion's where formerly the entire event was held. They simply ran out of room at Binion's (formerly Binion's Horseshoe Casino) downtown, and since Harrah's Entertainment now controls the World Series of Poker and owns the Rio Hotel & Suites, it was an easy decision to make the move to their new 90,000 square foot convention center located in the rear of the Rio casino in a separate building. There are a myriad of poker events going on both before and at the same time as the WSOP $10,000 Championship event, a whole bunch of them being No Limit Texas Hold'em with buy-ins ranging from $500 to $5,000. Be sure to see the schedule.
Tropicana, Riviera, Wynn Resort, Green Valley Ranch, Stratosphere, Caesars Palace all jump on the bandwagon
Tropicana, Wynn Resort, and Riviera have all opened new poker rooms in the past month. Caesars Palace is going for August, 2005, Stratosphere is set to open a poker room in mid May, 2005, and Green Valley Ranch is looking at Summer, 2005. They're opening poker rooms faster than you can say "I'm all in"! MGM Grand did it Mar 28, 2005 (see above), Santa Fe Station opened their poker room just after the new year 2005 after just missing their planned New Years Eve opening. And in late 2004 (Oct) it was Aladdin, before that Rio. Read all about them right here at vegastexasholdem.net.