Week in Review for 01.30.04
Iggy's tournament on Poker Stars is in two days, the buy-in is only $20 and it will be quite a gathering. This week is dedicated to the cool bloggers I had a chance to hang out with yesterday while covering the LA poker Classic at the Commerce Casino. Top props go to StudioGlyphic for organizing the impromptu gathering and Al Can't Hang for getting us space at the bar, not to mention the SoCo. The dinner was a hoot with old friends Felicia, Glenn, Grubby, Hank (he has a great new post up), Bill and, of course, Al "The Party" leading the party. I had a chance to meet some very cool members of the blogger community for the first time as well, Glyphic, F. Howard H., Joe and Jeff. If I missed anyone shoot me an e-mail and blame it on the SoCo.
I didn't have a chance to play since I spent most of my scant few hours chatting with fellow bloggers and checking out the $300 No Limit Hold'em poker event upstairs. I planned on having more time but the last 60 miles of the drive down were brutal. I thought we were taking I-10 to I-605. It turns out we were taking the "Miserable Dead-Stop Traffic" freeway to the "Avoid it like the Plague" freeway.
In other news, if you're reading this you're looking at the new server.
Although the facility is large and crowded it lacks the sparkle and shine of a Vegas casino. The facility definitely shows the wear and tear from the daily multitudes of patrons. Housekeeping could certainly do a more through job of maintaining the property. Another problem was parking. Being accustomed to the accommodating multi-story parking garages here in Vegas I was somewhat surprised to find the surface parking lots full with many cars waiting for someone to leave.
Unlimited rebuys were allowed for the first three levels and you could also get an add-on at the end of the rebuy period. Rebuys numbered 955 and 458 players took the optional add-on. The prize pool totaled $667,554 and paid 45 places with the winner receiving $240,319.
We had a great time photographing and visiting with the professional players. Many of the poker bloggers were there so dinner became a large gathering in the bar. 
We should have everything up and running sometime this weekend. Apparently I will also have to continue posting since there will be no downtime.
I visited with the Poker Prof's grandfather today. He lives in Vegas and plays poker everyday even though he is approaching ninety. He is living proof that living in Las Vegas and playing casino poker everyday assures one's longevity and good health. Frank has been playing poker in Las Vegas since they invented the game and shows no outward ill effects. He tells some great stories about seeing and associating with many of the legends of the game way back in the "good ole' days." I will collect some of the tales into an article and share this slice of first person poker history with our readers. I guess the Prof, being a fourth generation poker player, was just destined to become a part of the poker industry. Even though he collected a number of advanced degrees and tried his hand in the entertainment production business as well as the law, poker was in his blood.
Many of our readers have probably noticed an apparent lack of bandwidth resulting in some visitors seeing a "try again in five minutes" page instead of the latest post. This problem is not only apparent, but real. We have outgrown our current web hosting and, as such, we began looking for new digs for the Poker Prof's Blog. A new home has been located and I'm happy to report that the entire operation is being moved to a state-of-the-art dedicated server with more than ample bandwidth and, of course, everything is scalable so those annoying 'try-again-later' screens will be gone forever. The move is almost complete with a few small details to be worked out and we will then repoint. Being the cautious types we will spend the next week closely monitoring everything and doing the final tweaking to ensure your visits are trouble free. 
During the rerouting we may not have the ability to do a daily post; but, this should only be for one day, if at all. Now is a good time to thank everyone for finding the blog interesting enough to continue coming back. You are the reason we need a new, bigger and better web host solution. We thank you for your time and we will continue to earn your visits by offering Las Vegas news, most everything poker and our trademark 'in-your-face' poker tournament photographs. In addition to everything we currently offer we will continue to develop and expand our content with added writers, expanded tournament coverage and cutting edge technological features. We may even buy J. Santos some crayons so he can do the "Muckit" cartoon in full color.
The eventual winner was John Stolzmann. The WPT moves on to the 
Last night these guys and girls were snowboarding on the specially built mountain in the 
I must look that place up when I visit the Commerce next month.
From my vantage point the players seemed to be taking the game seriously and why not as the winner received a seat in this years WSOP main event and $10,000 in cash.
Those receiving a citation can pay the $183 fine and forget it or they may choose to go to court instead; so today, seventy-eight people were scheduled to appear in Texas City's municipal court to answer the charges. Owner, Frank Skaggs has maintained that he cleared dthe event with local police and they were OK with the tournament since the bar did not receive a cut of the prize pool. Of course, the police now say the conversation never took place. I am assuming that it is OK to hold a poker tournament in Texas if you do not profit from the event and clear it with the poker police first; but you had better get it in writing. Now, let me do some simple arithmetic: 78 entries, each with a $183 citations would be equal to $14,274. That's a lot of donuts.
I would wander around the historic old Strand district of the city and shoot photos while visiting with many of the retired, long term locals. I was especially interested in some of restaurants located in refurbished older building. Some of them had what appeared to be a cashier cage very much like Vegas casinos with windows and security bars. One of these restaurants, the Balinese Room, was built on a peer jutting out into the Gulf where you have to walk a considerable distance out to the building, then all the way around the building to get to the entrance. One of the older local natives told me the building originally housed one of the Sam Maceo family owned casinos. The long walk was by design. By the time the police, at full gallup, could get into the building the gaming tables had been miraculously transformed into a restaurant, complete with patrons enjoying food and drink. 
This same elder historian also told me that when the Maceo family ran the island in the 1920's and 30'ds the roads didn't have any potholes, a black person could find respectable employment and crime was practically non-existent.
First of all I did enjoy the Battle of the Sexes. This is the sort of programme you could force guests with no interest in poker to watch and they would find it entertaining. Not as dumbed down as Celebrity Poker but certainly not high brow. I have heard of editing but they even switched players on me. Evelyn will be on next week alongside Kristy Gazes and Jen Harman, I suppose; but, my result sheet doesn't show these three playing together. I know 
A bit like playing a round with Tiger Woods. I have not signed a deal to shop at the 99c store although it seems that way.
A smattering of culture, strategy, trip reports and upcoming events comprise the bulk of this week's post. Maudie and Iggy both have literary poker related jewels, Maudie with an 
Cruising around the Internet I ran across this article, 
The author of the article reports that this new mass threat of addiction is the results of televised poker. Millions of people see the game on TV and want to be like the Poker Pros. A reference is made to the 'seemingly' rebirth of other casino games. Does this mean poker is the 'gateway' game? I have lived in Las Vegas for three decades and through my association with the poker industry I follow the trends in gaming. I have not noticed a resurgence in any of the other casino games with the exception of poker. The comment that, "Las Vegas is once again a preferred vacation destination," is highly questionable. When was it not been a preferred vacation destination? We have continued to grow and prosper as a result of our millions of visitors that come, even when the rest of the world and the economy are in a nose dive. The only question asked about Las Vegas visitor numbers? What rate is it growing, not whether it is ascending or descending.
When I was 6 perhaps I could have better spent my leisure time throwing rocks at the neighbor's dogs. Maybe that would have led to a big league baseball career where I could be on TV in a wholesome environment above all the drug and gambling addicts.
Each player has to play three times with the winner scoring six points, the sixth place one point. The overall points winning team (Male or Female) collects $30K. The winning player receives $40K.
The UK Register reported that the top UK poker site operators made $200 million or more this year. Two years ago the Brits were betting approximately $100K per day, today the Brits bet more than $200 million a day in online poker games. Considering the gross numbers reported for the Industry as a whole; this represents a rather small piece of the action, so the majority of profits are taken by other than British operators so I have to assume the majority must be US players and operators. Currently, the Brits make up 80% of the poker players considered to be the European market. This translates to an Internet poker market that is no where near saturation. Europe will continue to discover online poker and provide the fuel for long term growth. Another interesting stat is the high percentage of online poker female players. Approximately 40% of online players are women compared to 5% of live game players. The number is probably even higher since many females register as males to avoid the all-to-common gender abuse.
It was almost a record seventy degrees here in Vegas today. I am not sure of the exact figure as Channel 13 had to fire weatherman Rob Blair. Bonehead Rob, the racist, gave his forecast for 
Tilt is being touted all over town on taxicabs. This was repeated on ESPN Sunday. It portrays the people involved in poker as being seedy. I know this is not the case from my years of observing the top players.
Las Vegas turns one hundred on May 15, 2005. The city will be celebrating the 
Prior to the railroad coming to town in 1904 and the city becoming official in 1905, the Las Vegas valley was a Mormon farming community beginning about 1855. The history of the water rich valley goes back much further with the discovery of pre-history Native Americans that roamed the valley thousands of years ago. 
Fly in on an airliner and all you see below is hundreds of square miles of barren, empty land. Land shortage or political gambit? What better way to “create” a land shortage than to legislate restrictions and impose selective, dynamic zoning? What better way to maximize the profit per square foot then to build high rise style due to the shortage of dirt? Lower construction cost per foot and the greatest return on the investment. High density living in one of the last great empty spaces in the country. I believe this is a wonderful idea and am constantly amazed at the daily changes in the skyline. Las Vegas continually re-invents itself and doesn’t hesitate to blow up the old and build the new. It is one of the primary ingredients of our success, the prime directive for our existence and continuing to flourish.
I noticed that one of the old off-strip joints is closing forever tomorrow. The Key Largo hotel on Flamingo will close to make room for?... Yup, you guessed it, high rise condominiums. Why? Because of the land shortage, of course! The developer told the on-camera reporter that any of the “old” neighbors in Vegas are fair game and will be dozed and replaced. I probably live in one of those target neighborhoods and know that sooner or later (probably sooner, reps are already canvassing the area) I’ll have to pack up and go. And if I refuse to sell my piece of the Las Vegas desert I’ll have a first hand opportunity to learn the absolute power of Nevada’s eminent domain law. Will I be sad to depart from my neighbor of more than two decades? Hell no! I think I’ll like high rise life. Given a long enough lens I’ll never have to leave the house to shoot photos of Vegas and the empty desert surrounding the city.
Let me start off by mentioning