New Year’s Eve is rapidly approaching, just a few hours left for 2004, then we march into 2005 and begin a new round of poker tournaments. The World Series of Poker will be held in its new digs at the Rio Resort located just off the Las Vegas Strip. Even the dates for the WSOP have changed to later in the year, beginning June 2 instead of mid-April. Will downtown Las Vegas be without a major poker tournament for the first time in more than three decades? Not hardly. Barrick gaming, new owners of the Plaza Hotel in downtown Las Vegas, has stepped up and scheduled the World Poker Classic. The full service tournament will run from April 21st through May 17th, and though many of the events will be Hold’em you can also play in a H.O.R.S.E. or Omaha 8 or better tournament. The final event will be a two day, $50,000 buy in No Limit Hold’em Championship that is sure to attract most big name professional players plus a bunch of lesser known entrants. The World Poker Classic will follow the Bellagio’s 3rd annual Five-Star World Poker Classic. This WPT sanctioned tournament will be held from March 31st through April 24th.

Beginning on June 3rd, 2005 will be the World Series of Poker at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas. The scheduled two day events will continue through to the five day Championship No limit Hold'em final that ends on July 15th. The final two days of the $10,000 buy In No Limit Hold’em Main Event are currently scheduled to be played at the historic Horseshoe in downtown Las Vegas as part of the 2005 centennial celebration for the city. The prize pool for the Championship Event is expected to top $50 million. All players making the final table will go home a millionaire; but only one will be wearing the highly coveted World Series of Poker Championship bracelet.

2005 promises to be a banner year for tournament poker and the poker industry in general. Many new rooms are scheduled to open at major properties here in Las Vegas. The opening of new casinos with live poker continues all around the country. The biggest problem live game players face is waiting for a seat to open up. Hopefully, our learned leaders will decide it isn’t a crime to play online poker and we Americans can join the rest of the civilized world competing in virtual poker rooms without fear of being a law-breaking criminal, having bank accounts frozen and credit cards cancelled.

We are already planning the next World Poker Blogger Tournament and it promises to be bigger, better and even more fun than our last meet if that is possible. The Blogger Tournament was the high point of the past year for me. Even with all the scheduling, coordinating and worry I didn’t want the day to end. 2004 was a great year for the Poker Prof’s Las Vegas and Poker Blog. I look forward to all the actions in 2005.