photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

Poker players will be wishing for clones next month. There's that much scheduled tournament poker in Las Vegas during the coming month of June. The 2008 WSOP at the Rio Resort serves as the giant magnet drawing more than 50,000 poker players from around the world for the 38th annual World Series of Poker. Last year, the 2007 WSOP registered more than 57,000 poker players from around the world for the 55 poker events offering golden bracelets. The original and longest running annual poker tournament on Earth, the WSOP. Nothing in tournament poker compares to the big poker show World Series of Poker.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

Running from May 29 through July 16, the Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza III. The 3rd annual Deep Stack Extravaganza offering the lower buy-in ($330 - $2,500) events. The original larger starting stacks and longer play levels format tournaments have proven to be very popular with tournament players guaranteeing large fields and nice payouts. Check out the schedule of events for the Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza III Tournament.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

As rumors swirl of Las Vegas poker rooms closing (ahem, Paris Las Vegas), a new poker room just opened today at Bill's Gamblin' Hall & Saloon (formerly Barbary Coast), which is owned by Harrah's (er, Caesars -- we can never get used to the new and old names).

While not actually a poker room but tables inside the casino (like O'Sheas), Bill's poker room is situated near the entrance where the big eBay slots just launched (yep, eBay slots and they're so bright with the big screens you need sunglasses). Two tables have 2/6 spread limit (a format we haven't seen since Excalibur) and no-limit with a single blind of $1 and buy-in from $20 to $200.

The tables used are the old World Series of Poker tables, complete with the PartyPoker.net ad in the middle facing the dealer and TV cameras if there were any.

Like next-door neighbors Flamingo and Imperial Palace, a jackpot will offer payouts for high hands as well as $100 for Aces cracked and $50 for Kings cracked during certain hours.

Alas, as is becoming more and more the trend, the rake is 10 percent up to $5 plus $1 for the jackpot.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

While much of the poker industry is scrambling to stop the negative trends from two years of UIEGA, television network giant NBC continues to add viewers for its 2008 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship. Played at Caesars Palace Poker Room in Las Vegas earlier this year the tournament is televised every Sunday at Noon EDT in a miniseries of two hour poker shows.

Sunday noon is the perfect time slot for the poker miniseries and it says a lot for TV poker considering this same time slot is often filled by the 800 hundred pound gorilla of TV sports, the NFL. So, how come this NBC produced poker tournament has the appeal to show viewer growth while other big time poker shows are scrambling for solutions to their rapidly declining audience?

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

NBC makes it look easy, but remember, they've been producing sports entertainment for decades and have vast experience in packaging successful TV shows. First, NBC assured an all star cast. They invited the most talented poker stars, mixed in a few stars that play poker, added an Internet champion, and even provided satellites so a couple of players from the street could get an invite. Another important factor is the tournament format. Styled after the well known 64 team single elimination college basketball championships makes it easy for viewers to follow the action.

Flip over to NBC today at Noon EDT and settle in to enjoy two hours of entertaining high stakes poker from Caesars Palace Las Vegas. Will Orel Hershiser finally strike out? Will the WSOP Champion Huck Seed continue to flourish? Can MIT phenom, Andy Bloch, solve the equations for a win? Is this the year for Jesus to finally triump? We're down to eight; but, four must go home today. The surviving four will return next Sunday, May 18 at Noon EDT, for the three hour finale and champion of the 2008 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

If you happen to be in downtown Las Vegas right now, Montel Williams has taken over the Golden Nugget poker room.

And not the Montel Williams for charity events, this is his own money, your own money, and money won won't go to any outside company.

Williams will be in the poker room all day today, May 10, playing nonstop $1080 sit-n-gos.

Levels are 20 minutes per round, blinds begin at 50/100, and players start with 10,000 in chips.

First place wins $700, second place wins $300.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

WSOP players looking for additional poker action during the upcoming 2008 World Series of Poker at the Rio in Las Vegas need look no further than Caesars Palace. The Mega Stack Series runs daily from June 1st through July 9th. A variety of tournaments starting at Noon have the structure favored by most tourney players. Bigger starting stacks and 50 minute blind levels lower the "crap shoot" factor found in many lower buy-in events. WSOP players are accustomed to ponying up four figures for a seat but you won't need that here. Buy-ins range from $225 to $540 and $1060 for the 3 day championship event.

A $10 staff bonus add-on will increase the starting stack for all tournaments by 2,500 chips. No add-on for the championship just 25,000 in starting chips. Event registration begins at 10 AM every day. Grab the free Caesars shuttle at the Rio, conveniently located outside the poker room, and enjoy the short ride to the largest poker room in Las Vegas.

Check out all the details on the complete schedule for the Caesars Palace Mega Stack Series.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

With the national economy playing dead the big Vegas casino companies are reporting 1st Q earnings below last year's record numbers. Record gasoline prices makes the journey to the desert gambling mecca prohibitively expensive for some while arriving visitors are bringing smaller bankrolls. Unfortunately, aeroplanes are the carriage of choice for the majority of Vegas visitors. It's been the life blood of Las Vegas and now those arteries are blocked by post 9/11 fears.

All of this doom and gloom news should cast a pall over Vegas, a dimming of the of the famous Vegas neon. Right? Of course not. This is Vegas, Baby.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

Unofficially, The World Series of Poker has started at Caesars Palace Poker Room with Mega Satellites 3 times a day, every day, May 1st thru the 27th. The official start of the 2008 WSOP at the Rio Resort is May 30th. Players compete for Caesars Palace $500 WSOP buy-in chips good for all events in the 2008 WSOP. In addition to the Mega Satellite is a full complement of SnG's running round the clock.

No more standing in long lines for hours at the Rio to enter WSOP events. If a satellite player collects a single Caesars Palace WSOP buy-in chip they can use it to enter any event and make up the difference with cash. Caesars Palace will take care of registering the player at the Rio and leaving only one thing for the WSOP player to do, stop by Will-Call for your seat assignment. Actually two things, you have to find the seat.

This year's WSOP will be the longest WSOP in the history of the tournament. May 30,2008 is day 1 of event 1, the $10K buy-in World Championship Pot-Limit Hold'em, and the action continues until the final day of the final table of the Main Event on November 10, 2008. That's more than five months from start to finish.

Schedules and conditions for the Caesars Palace WSOP satellites after the jump...