The Tuscany Suites and Casino located just off the Las Vegas Strip on Flamingo receives high marks on the list of Las Vegas Poker Rooms. The recently opened poker room at the Tuscany offers players unique options to make their visit the best it can be.

Locals have long known that the Tuscany is a hidden gem offering outstanding accommodations, great food, a modern full service casino and old Vegas service. The 24/7 coffee shop offers all the standard Las Vegas diner fare along with a great oriental menu. A Mexican restaurant provides the more adventurous hungry guests a full menu of dishes straight out of the desert southwest. Casual, elegant dinning straight out of Tuscany can be had at the Tuscany Gardens; where diners are afforded a menu filled with Italian specialties. The intimate Tuscany Gardens dining room has a view of the tropical gardens surrounding the hotel's inner open-air atrium.

The Tuscany Poker Room is currently spreading Hold'em games with $2/4, $4/8 and $6/12 limits. No-limit Hold'em is offered in two varieties: $1-$2 blinds and a $40-$200 buy-in plus a higher limit $2-$5 blinds with a $100-$400 buy-in. In addition to the Hold'em games the room offers an Omaha Hi/Lo game. A daily high hand promotion pays a bonus to players for high hands and two bad beat promos are currently running in the room. The Jackpot bad beat and the House bad beat pay players for losing with specific hands. Details of the high-hand and bad beat jackpots are available in the room.

The Tuscany Poker Room has a daily Hold'em tournament at noon appropriately called 'Nooners at the Tuscany.' Entrance into a monthly $2,500 Freeroll Tournament can be had by players for fifteen hours of play during one of the qualifying periods.

The Tuscany poker room comp policy is typical of today's Las Vegas poker rooms offering players $1 for every hour of play. The comp credits can be used almost everywhere in the Tuscany including the restaurants, hotel and the gift shop. Bob Sanders, Manager of the Tuscany poker room, can be reached by e-mail at: bsanders@tuscanylasvegas.com. The direct telephone line into the poker room is 702.595.0959. Hotel reservations are available at 702.893.8933.

Posted by flipchipro at 12:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Two events from the 2005 World Series of Poker are scheduled on ESPN tonight beginning at 7:00 pm East Coast time. Tonight's two events are event #7, a $1,000 buy-in No-limit Hold'em tournament followed by event #9, $2,000 buy-in No-limit Hold'em.

The first hour brings the $1,000 No-limit Hold'em match with $1,000 re-buys. A record (unofficial) number of re-buys (28) was made by Daniel Negreanu in this event in 2004. He had $29,000 invested in the prize pool of $1,261,700. Daniel then outlasted all but two of the 538 players to finish third and receive $100,940, giving him a net gain of just over $71,000, not bad pay if you can do it. Maybe that is why we watch and Daniel plays. Tonight's 2005 edition of the same WSOP re-buy tournament doesn't break Daniel's record of re-buys; but, it did set another record, 826 players showed up making it the largest re-buy tournament in the history of the World Series of Poker. The following list namers the players making the final table, with their seat assignment and chip count going into tonight's show:

Chuck Thompson (9) $544,000
CT Law (4) $516,000
David "The Dragon" Pham (1) $323,000
Shae Drobushevich (2) $248,000
Pascal Perrault (7) $225,000
Mike Gracz (5) $173,000
Shane Schleger (6) $134,000
Phil Gordon (3) $91,000
Meng La (8) $71,000

You can be there for much more of the final table action than tonight's hour broadcast by clicking over to Tao of Poker and read Dr. Pauly's live blog from his ring-side seat. Get the full illustrated story behind event #7 as experienced live by Pauly and Flipchip. Be sure to read Dr. Pauly's Wrap-Up of event #7 on the Poker Prof's Las Vegas & Poker Blog. The complete list of finishers and prize money for event #7 is available in the Poker Player Newspaper's tournament library.

The second hour of tonight's 2005 WSOP offering is the $2,000 buy-in No-limit Hold'em tournament, event #9. The event set a record for players with 1403 players competing for a total prize pool of $2,581,520. The final table players with seat assignment and chip count are listed below.

Morgan Machina (6) $1,050,000
Paul Sexton (7) $362,000
Erik Seidel (3) $354,000
Cyndy Violette (2) $305,000
Soulier Fabrice (4) $224,000
Perry Friedman (5) $219,000
Harry Demetriou (9) $184,000
Chris Wunderlich (1) $110,000
Bill Blanda (8) $46,000

To be there for all of the final table action beyond the hour of TV, go to Tao of Poker's record of event #9 blogged live as it happened from Dr. Pauly's perspective sitting within a few feet of the table. Read Pauly's Wrap-Up of event #9 on the Poker Prof's Las Vegas & Poker Blog. Get the complete results of event #9 and all the WSOP events from the Poker Player Newspaper tournament library. Don't forget that broadcast times may vary so check your local listings for ESPN in your area. Look beyond the players at the final table and you can probably see Dr. Pauly sitting behind the glowing screen of his laptop. LasVegasVegas offers the 2005 WSOP Photo Gallery by Flipchip with more than a thousand images of all the sights from the 2005 World Series of Poker.

Posted by flipchipro at 2:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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Today is one 'hot damn' day here in Las Vegas. The next couple of days will see temps go to 110 degrees or more; but, this will probably be summer's last gasp. The triple digit weather gets traded for some nineties weather and Las Vegas is definitely headed into the 'perfect weather' season. Just the opposite of living in a cold zone where autumn days are a promise of shoveling snow soon.

This week's Nines List is courtesy of the Poker Geek. I so appreciate the Poker Geek giving me the day off I decided to take the time and get reaquanted with Las Vegas.

We stopped by the Las Vegas Hilton late last evening and saw the almost complete Hilton Poker Room. It is indeed in the same space, only less of it, than the original and the new decor does not match the former elegance. In days gone by directly across from the room was massive sized restrooms built to handle the multitudes of sports bettors that would assemble daily at the Hilton's then-new Super Book, the first joint to offer a wall of video including movie size screens. Enough of the old feel is there to warrant a serious look come the September 2nd grand opening. One major difference is the buffet now directly across from the card room, which reminds me of the old Trop Card Room that was just outside the buffet, but that's another place, another time.

The Poker Geek shares with us the Top Nine things he's learned this year. And now, courtesy of the Poker Geek, this week's Nine...

1. It's now a proven fact...Chicks Dig Poker Geeks!

And now...on to Year Two---Chris

Posted by flipchipro at 9:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The photos that were intended to run with the Harrah's purchase of the Imperial Palace article below somehow got misplaced. The photos I used came from my stock of Vegas photos. The photos I shot to illustrate the piece have finally been found and I have decided to offer them in a mini-gallery today. A good way to end the week with some fresh (taken on Tuesday) photos of Las Vegas.

Other news around Las Vegas of interest is the reopening of the Las Vegas Hilton's Poker Room. The "new" room will be in the exact area of the Hilton's sports book as the "old" room that was closed many years ago. I have always said that the Hilton's card room was the finest I have ever played. The decor was old English country manor and the atmosphere was plush, professional and comfortable. The cavernous Hilton sports book was the perfect backdrop for the room. The card room management insisted on a set of house rules that left little room for interpretation so rules were applied fairly and consistently, a rare thing for the day. The first royal flush I ever had in a live game was at the Hilton, in hearts in a $5-$10 seven card stud game.

I played at the Hilton almost every day, enjoying the hushed elegance of the 28 table room. In fact, I won $500 in one of the grand opening promos when my name was drawn. The tournaments there were always great and the Hilton was where I developed my basic tournament skills. Incidentally, the Hilton's Tournament Director back then was Dick Gatewood, the current Manager of Sam's Town Poker. The tournament action was great and well attended. I once was at a final table with four former world champions. The prize pools would often be over $50K for some of these weekly tournaments. The comp policy was the best. Food comps could be had to most of the restaurants if you were a regular, even VIP show tickets to the Hilton's main showroom were available.

The beginning of the end of the card room was the closing of the back parking lot to erect an outdoor boxing ring. Many of the regulars quit the room when the convenient parking went away. The final blow was the opening of the Mirage and its' card room. The crowd quickly deserted the Hilton and the card room was unceremoniously closed and turned into executive offices, while the room staff was turned into the street. I will follow the opening of the room and get some photos of the new room with all of the old memories.

Posted by flipchipro at 2:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Heavyweight Championship of Poker was officially announced today in the latest copy, Vol. 9 Number 5, of Poker Player. The tournament is the brain child of Northern California professional poker player, Jerry Reed, whom tried for six years to organize the event into reality. Jerry finally realized he needed a channel to this market and brought his idea to Poker Player's publisher and founder, Stanley R. Sludikoff. Stanley immediately recognized the potential of such a tournament venue, partnered with Jerry and started implementing the necessary steps that would turn the idea into a Holiday Tournament.

Stanley realized this unique poker tournament structure, patterned after the successful championship boxing format, was destined to take its place alongside the two existing major poker tournaments, the World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour. Shopping around for a location lasted more than a year before Stanley arrived at Carl Icahn's Straosphere in Las Vegas to meet with Bob Dunning, Director of Poker Operation. Bob immediately agreed that the event would be exactly what Icahn wanted for his facility. The time line was set for the tournament to take place at the Stratosphere just before Christmas, December 18th to the 22nd of this year. The Heavyweight Championship of Poker is now being billed as the "highest stakes poker tournament at the highest card room in the world."

The highest card room in the world is easy to figure out since the Stratosphere is the tallest structure in the western US; but, the highest stakes poker tournament? Yes, that's exactly right since the buy-in for the event will be $100,000 + $5,000. The 2005 inaugural tournament will be limited to 100 players vying for the $10 million prize pool. The winner of the 2005 Heavyweight Championship of Poker will receive a $5 million purse; then, after three months, the boxing format comes into play again. The Champion will be required, after three months, to take on challengers, not less than one per month, that put up the $1,120,000 to the champs' $1,000,000. The loser of the challenge match receives a $105,000 buy-in into the following year's Heavyweight Championship of Poker while the challenge winner is required to defend his championship within thirty days.

The tournament has finally gone public after receiving the blessing of the Nevada Gaming Control Board and acquiring the additional permits and signatures required in making everything legal. Stanley Sludikoff was quoted as saying,

"The most surprising aspect of this event is the way it has been received by top players in the poker community, most of whom were informed during the 2005 WSOP. Knowing that $100,000 is not small potatoes for nearly everyone, I was flabbergasted that virtually everyone that I have spoken to so far have indicated that they will play."

The first group of ten players will include Carl Icahn, Stratoshere owner, and Lyle Berman, World Poker Tour owner, playing with eight other household-name gaming industry people. The second group of ten will be well known professionals staked to their buy-ins by the public, and the public backers will own 60% of the group's winnings. Included in this group are Doyle Brunson, T.J. Cloutier, Johnny Chan, Chris Ferguson, Phil Gorden, Antonio Esfandiari, Marcel Luske, Jennifer Harman, Mike Sexton and a to-be-named-later pro. Twenty additional players will be on the invite list including most of the who's who of poker. Sixty players will join this elite group by winning their way into the tournament through casino (Land & Internet) satellites. Forty players will come from land based casinos and the final twenty from internet card rooms. Players coming into the tournament from these satellites will only own 68% of themselves, since each will be giving the property where they qualified 5% and the lucky nine at a satellite winner's table get 3% each. And logos? Not only can the players wear a logo, they must wear the logo of their qualifying casino. This arrangement will allow for the greatest number of players and properties to have a vested interest in the Heavyweight Championship of Poker. Television rights to the tournament series are currently in negotiations and their progress will be announced. We will provide additional details as we get them, and details will be available on the Poker Player Newspaper website.

Posted by flipchipro at 3:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The latest news from Las Vegas is the sale of the Imperial Palace Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. Harrah's Entertainment announced on Monday that they have purchased the property for $370 million. The Imperial Palace sits on 18.5 acres between Harrah's and the Flamingo, both owned by Harrah's Entertainment. The purchase price for the aging Imperial Palace was basically a vacant land deal amounting to $20 million an acre, the going price for center strip frontage. Harrah's now controls more than 270 acres of Las Vegas strip frontage real estate, more than enough to allow Harrah's to design many future projects. The recently announced MGM Mirage project, City Center, being built on 66 acres of west side strip frontage may now have some serious competition from Harrah's. Harrah's now has the land and location to design and build an even bigger project on the east side of the strip. Harrah's also owns the property directly across the strip from Harrah's/Imperial Palace/Flamingo, Caesar's Palace Resort, which was acquired from Caesar's Entertainment in June of this year in a $9 billion deal. Just down the strip they have ownership of another major parcel with Bally's and the Paris casinos. Of course, as everyone in the poker world knows, Harrah's owns the off-strip Rio Hotel and Casino, home to the World Series of Poker, also owned by Harrah's.

Harrah's officials issued a press release announcing the sale and a time table for the completion of the transfer was listed as the end of the year. The Imperial Palace hotel has 2640 rooms and was built by transplanted North Dakotan, Ralph Engelstad. Engelstad purchased the old Flamingo Capri property and built the Imperial Palace. Engelstad and the IP gained international notoriety in the late 1980's when he was fined a record $1.5 million and his gaming license was placed in probation after the Nevada Gaming Commission found that he had damaged the reputation and image of the states gaming industry due to some rather bizarre behavior. Ralph held parties at the Imperial Palace every April 20th celebrating the birthday of Adolf Hitler. Additionally, he had amassed a large collection of Nazi war memorabilia which was housed in a large private room in the IP Auto Collection area. A lifesize painting of Hitler giving a speech showed Ralph Engelstad in a Nazi uniform standing along side the infamous figure. Apparently Engelstad enjoyed hosting parties at the hotel. He held birthday parties for his dogs with mandatory attendance of selected IP employees. Generally, the party goers left with a nice gift.

Although Ralph Engelstad died in November 2002, the IP continued to operate under the guidance of his wife of 48 years, Betty Engelstad. She managed the property through the Ralph and Betty Engelstad Trust. The IP employs 2,500 plus people whose futures with the property are unknown. Rumor says Harrah's will implode the buildings once the future project development of the property is decided. The only strip frontage on the block that is not owned by Harrah's is the small, 4.4 acre, Barbary Coast Casino, which is held by the Boyd Gaming Group.

Posted by flipchipro at 4:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The 2005 World Series of Poker begins broadcast tonight on the ESPN Network. The first hour brings you the final table of event #2 (Event #1 was limited to casino employees), a $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold'em contest. The second hour will be event #3, a $1,500 buy-in Pot-Limit Hold'em tournament. Enough quality poker action to satisfy the most jaded fan of poker.

The No-Limit Hold'em event features the result of three days of play. A record 2,305 players were seated for the tournament, the second largest crowd (at that time) to do so, right behind the 2004 WSOP main event that attracted 2,576 players. Early into the first day tournament officials realized the event could not be completed in the two days allotted and issued a press release announcing that an extra day would be added. This was a pattern repeated throughout the tournament because of the record numbers of players in every 2005 event. I was there, along with Dr. Pauly, for every hour of every event including this one. Even though the television series compresses it into something less than one hour, there was many hours of very competitive play before the final table was decided. The following roster lists the all-star players making the spotlight. Seat assignment ( ), hometowns and chip counts follow each name:

Allen Cunningham (4), Marina del Rey, California, $728,000
Scott Fischman (2), Las Vegas, $707,000
Charlie Huff (5), Geneva, Ohio, $509,000
Can Kim Hua (7), Rosemead, California, $440,000
An Tran (9), Las Vegas, $337,000
Devilfish Ulliott (3), England, $270,000
Richard Boutwell (1), Duluth, Georgia, ( $204,000
Liz Lieu (8), Los Angeles, $177,000
Randy Edmunson (6), Columbus, Michingan, $89,000

The event had a prize pool of $3,180,900 and offered the winner $725,405 plus a gold 2005 WSOP championship bracelet. Tao of Poker's Pauly live blogged the final table so if you want to know more including the actual details, Dr. Pauly's close-up view and hand-by-hand go to Pauly's Tao of Poker Blog. The complete results can be found at Poker Player Newspaper.

The second hour of 2005 WSOP action tonight will be the final table of the $1,500 buy-in Pot-Limit event #3. Another record crowd of 1071 players began play on the first day. The event collected a prize pool of $1,477,980 paying out $369,545 for first place plus another of the coveted gold WSOP champion bracelets. The final table nine complete with seat assignments and chip counts follows:

Seat 1; Arash Ghaneian 87,000
Seat 2: Ernest Patrick 118,000
Seat 3: Gavin Smith 73,000
Seat 4: Mario Valenzuela 116,000
Seat 5: Pierre Nasr 118,000
Seat 6: Tony Ma 48,000
Seat 7: Thom Werthmann 265,000
Seat 8: David Bach 130,000
Seat 9: Layne Flack 391,000

The final table action was live blogged by Dr. Pauly from his ring side seat at the media table. Complete results of this event can be found at Poker Player Newspaper.

Posted by flipchipro at 12:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by flipchipro at 12:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Rumors are flying around that the WPT will begin allowing players to wear logos (probably only one logo) at the final televised table of World poker Tour events. This has to be, if true, some of the best news to come down the pike for the professional players trying to make a legitimate living from the sport. This latest development will open the floodgates for big-time sponsorship of players. Corporate sponsors will gladly pay out the big bucks for the exposure of their brand on national TV. The poker community can now join with other professional sports figures reaping the benefits of sponsorship money. Players can even stay in hotel rooms instead of their cars when on the road and eating regularly too, just like other professional sports figures.

Its rumored that Steve Lipscomb, founder and CEO of the WPT, has been trying to work out an agreement that will make the players and the Travel Channel happy. The travel Channel has been adamant in their refusal to allow televised final tables to show any logos, whither worn by players or stenciled on the table, they are not allowed. The players blame this problem on the WPT for not negotiating with the network to allow them to wear sponsor logos. Apparently, Mr. Lipscomb has been negotiating with the network to find a compromise that pleases both sides.

The increased competition for viewers and players has quickly become a fierce battle fueled by the ever increasing popularity of the sport. The 2005 World Series of Poker televised series on ESPN includes final tables from the WSOP Circuit tour and the WSOP and does permit players to display a sponsor's logo. This factor could pull many of the top players away from the WPT should scheduling conflicts occur. The WPT, sans Shana Hyatt, must continue to draw the top name pros to their tournaments in order to remain on top of the poker show rating's heap.

Rumors heard in the street say the WPT tournament scheduled for mid September at the Borgata Resort will be the first event allowing the players making the final televised table to wear sponsorship logos. This turn of events will be remembered as the sport's quantum leap to the next level of legitimacy.

I have carefully considered what effect this latest move will have on poker in general and I have assembled a list of changes to expect. This week's Nines...

Top Nine changes to poker as a result of allowing logos on TV.

1. Blinking neon Full Tilt hats!

Posted by flipchipro at 12:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I've taken note of all the queries and requests for photos and information for Isabelle Mercier, the petite professional player from Canada. Isabelle was a fixture at most of the events at the 2005 World Series of Poker and fortunately for us, Isabelle is not camera shy, nor does she shun the media's request for photos and interviews.

I first took notice of Isabelle and her trademark denims during the Bellagio's Five Star. Not only is Isabelle a great looking lady; but, she is a very capable tournament poker player. I have selected a few photos I've shot and offer them here in a Isabelle Mercier mini-gallery.

Posted by flipchipro at 4:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

The Mirage Resort sitting amid a rain forest of palm trees, exotics and wild beast will always be remembered as the first ground-up super resort created by Steve Wynn. Opened in 1989, the Mirage was the first property to be billed as a destination unto its' self.

The Mirage is truly a world class resort offering the guest every possible amenity. Luxuriously landscaped grounds surround equally luxurious hotel accommodations. Constructed for a cost of $650 million, early speculation ran high about the survival over/under of such a costly resort. Needless to say, $650 million for a 3,049 luxury resort sounds rather cheap in today's multi-billion dollar projects.

The modern, plush casino is the resort's core area surrounded by a dozen restaurants and snack bars. A mix of bars and lounges are conveniently located throughout the resort. The Mirage is probably most famous for the erupting volcano sitting serenely in a lagoon out front surrounded by tropical plants and valet parking. The original volcanic eruptions were spiked with a Pina Colada fragrance personally chosen by Wynn. The erupting of the volcano is a traffic stopper with it's great special effects. Inside the hotel is the white tiger habitant providing luxurious accommodations for these regal animals. It's always a crowd pleaser to watch these huge rare cats just being cats, and when you tire of the felines you can visit the Mirage's unique Dolphin Habitant. Just being close and watching these high intelligence aquatic creatures is simply fascinating.

The Mirage Poker Room has become the industry standard that other rooms are measured against. The room supports 31 tables, most with auto card shufflers, spreading everything from low-limit games all the way up to "How much you got?" Limits vary from $3-$6 up to structured buy-in, No-Limit formats. The games spread include Texas Hold'em, Omaha 8 or Better and 7 Card Stud. Favored by professional players since opening day, the Mirage Poker Room is one of the most popular in Las Vegas. Expertly managed by the Director of Poker Operations, Donna Harris, the Mirage Poker Room is the results of Donna's twenty-five years of experience with the organization, having started her gaming career at the Original Wynn property, the downtown Golden Nugget. Donna listens closely to what the players are saying and responds to make your visit to the Mirage Poker Room as enjoyable as possible.

The Mirage Poker Room runs the Mirage Poker Zone Tournaments every Sunday through Thursday evenings with details as follows:

Sunday...A 5:00 pm start time No-Limit Hold'em with a $330 + 0 buy-in. Unlimited $200 buy-ins during first hour and 1 add-on.

Monday...A 7:00 pm start time Limit Hold'em with a $130 + 0 buy-in. Unlimited $100 buy-ins during the first hour and 1 add-on.

Tuesday...A 7:00 start time No-Limit Hold'em with a $130 + 0 buy-in. Unlimited $100 buy-ins during the first hour and 1 add-on.

Wednesday...A 7:00 pm start time No-Limit Hold'em with a $130 + 0 buy-in. One $100 rebuy during the first hour and 1 add-on.

Thursday...A 7:00 pm start time No-Limit Hold'em with a $230 + 0 buy-in. One $200 rebuy during the first hour.

I have always enjoyed the amenities and comforts of the Mirage Poker Room. Easy parking, a short walk and you are in one of the premier poker rooms in the world. If you enjoy playing poker in plush surroundings located in the heart of a major Las Vegas resort; then, the Mirage Poker Room is the one for you.

You can contact the Mirage poker room by e-mail at: dh@mirage.com or call 702.791.2290. The toll free reservations number is 800.374.9000.

Posted by flipchipro at 12:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The theme for this week is "different". Head on over to the new site Tom Bayes set up, and sign up for a tournament or two in the Weird Series of Poker. The only caveat is that you can be 100% certain it won't be NL Hold'Em. For more "difference" check out Signals in the Fog for James' thoughts on the Japan Series of Poker. Once you've shaken your routine up a bit, visit DoubleAs and Maigrey for some No-Limit insight. But remember, change is good!

[I'd like to wish Sherry a belated birthday and check out her excellent MGM poker room review. At the same time congratulations go out to Shirley on winning the legends of poker Omaha Hi-Lo event. -Prof]

Posted by at 12:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tuesday is for ESPN's World Series of Poker cable series. Tonight's main event comes from the World Series of Poker Tour stop in New Orleans. The $10,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold'em event attracted 259 players contributing to the $2,460,500 prize pool. The final six players making the broadcast table include well known professional poker player and magician, Antonio Esfandiari taking on a group of relatively unknowns. With the exception of Mark Cole, none have had a cash in a major tournament before this event. Completing the final table are Harry Cullen, Nick Mao, Corey Bierra, and Walter Chambers. The show is scheduled for 10:00 pm Eastern Time but check local listings for times in your area.

Tonight's show will be the last episode before next week's 2005 World Series of Poker at the Rio Resort in Las Vegas. Next Tuesday brings event #2, a $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold'em tournament, from the 2005 WSOP to the small screen. The event had a record field of 2305 players and offered a prize pool of $3,180,900. Read the live daily report from event #2. Next Tuesday offers a bonus second hour of WSOP on ESPN with the final table from event #3, a $1,500 Pot Limit Hold'em tournament setting another attendance record with a field of 1049 players. Read all the details of the event in our daily blog article for event #3 from the floor of the 2005 World Series of Poker.

The Prof's team of bloggers, journalists and photographers are on the road heading off to oppossing compass coordinate. Providing Poker coverage requires me to leave the familier comfort and security of my Las Vegas surroundings and go forth into a sometimes hostile world. Sometimes when I'm driving the Interstates, situation can develope that gives me the same rare rush as when I've caught the nut card for a monster pot. Sometimes the unfamiliar enviroment around an out-of-Vegas casino presents me with the same emotional roller coaster as the time I was at a tournament table with four former WSOP champions. Traveling around chasing the action is very much like being in the action. I guess you can't say, "It's not the destination, It's the journey," anymore. With the poker tournament circuit It's the journey and the destination.

The results of Harrah's New Orleans main event are in the continue reading section below.

The Harrah's New Orleans WSOP Circuit main event order of finishers with home town and amount received.

1. Walter Chambers Baton Rouge, LA $787,340

2. Corey Bierra, Atlanta, GA $433,050

3. Antonio Esfandiari, San Francisco, CA $221,445

4. Nick Mao, Long Beach, CA $172,235

5. Mark Cole, Greensboro, NC $147,630

6. Harry Cullen, Houston, TX $123,025

7. Imre Leibold, n/a, $98,420

8. Marlon Labbe, Lafayette, LA $73,815

9. Cyril Gittens, Miami, FL $49,210

Don't forget that next week is the first showing of an event from the 2005 World Series of Poker at the Rio Resort right here in Las Vegas.

Posted by flipchipro at 2:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I read the Prof's article about the state of poker blogging. I guess I didn't realize how complicated and competitive the blogging business has become. I was not aware of how crowded the blog-rolls are with new blogs, pseudo-blogs, link farms called blogs, outright for profit only blogs and the old, well established poker blogs. Reading the comments the article garnered indicates that there is some confusion as to what a blog or blogger really is and what you must do to become a certified, verified, genuine poker blogger.

The definition of both a blog and a blogger can be a bit confusing and includes a lot of grey area. An actual dictionary definition is a rare thing but one of the few I found says:

blog (bl g) n. A weblog. intr.v. blogged, blog ging, blogs To write entries in, add material to, or maintain a weblog

Not really a lot of help, but at least it gives a general idea of what a blog might be. I have added my own thoughts to the blog definition in order to help clarify this mystery of who qualifies as a blogger. I have listed the ways for you to know if you are maybe becoming a blogger. This week's Nines...

1. You named your first child Iggy!

Posted by flipchipro at 2:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Poker Blogger's royalty turned out for the 2005 WPBT's tournament held at the Aladdin.

Over a year ago Hank at Cards Speak, the expert programmer and brilliant writer, wrote an article for All-In magazine entitled The Viral Phenomenon of Poker Blogs, when this article was written there existed precisely one page called a blog covering the World Series of Poker, us (we have the first WSOP press pass issued to a blogger). This article is somewhat of a follow up to this premise and it also details my top ten list of poker blogs. A look at how the blogosphere has changed and some future predictions of things to come.

The rise of the commercial blog...

Not long after Daniel Negreanu began blogging and readers discovered Paul Phillip's blog, players in the online community took notice of the sudden rash of corporate blogs, first with Poker Pages, which begin with Mike Paulle's blog and then expanded to seven different 'blogs.' I placed 'blogs' within quotes because these pages scarcely qualify as a personal log, with the writers working under dictated severe corporate policies that allow the blogger no voice with regards to content, linking, or control of the page (e.g. personal blogrolls aren't allowed... Abhorrent!!) About the same time Card Player added the Barry Shulman's Advertorial section which they dare call a blog! Pfffft! These are the pseudo-blogs of the corporate emergence, a somewhat unsuccessful approach with few of the blogs getting significant traffic numbers and none of the blogs receiving incoming links. Both Card Player and Poker Pages have wisely picked up Daniel Negreanu's blog, the blog that offers the most worthwhile offerings. Of note, I read Daniel's blog on Blog-Lines. For some of these writers I'd suggest setting up a true blog, a personal site on Blogger takes about 5 minutes to set-up (e.g. Lou Krieger), and then work hard to insure people are linking to your personal blog using your name. Perhaps the site hosting your blog/page will allow you to make the credit line for an article/post a link to your 'real' blog. If they won't allow this, that's a big ol' red flag.

The first really innovative approach came from Poker Stars, when they offered a position to Otis at Up for Poker to cover the EPT and WPT events on the Poker Stars' Blog. They did some really goofy stuff early on (Poker Stars, not Otis), such as moving the domain for every single event so keeping track of the 'current' url was a pain; however, the excellent writing of Otis and the outpouring of support from the 'traditional' blogging community for one of their own has given the site a fair share of traffic. Soon after, another online poker room scooped up several excellent bloggers (whom I'll leave anonymous) into various positions in the company, a brilliant move.

Poker Stars and Wil Wheaton are now teamed up for tournament sponsorship. In the mean time Pauly writes about poker online for too many publications too count and many other bloggers are picking up writing gigs with various papers and sites. The influence of a well read blog on a writer's career is incredible. The latest entry into the Commercial Blogger realm, OddJack is a topic for another post with the controversy surrounding the direction and potential influence of this site considering it's a 'Nick Denton' blog. So... moving on, a look at the evolution of the traditional poker blogger community.

Where are they now...

Many of the old guard poker blogs in Hank's Article have changed since the article was written and I know my top ten list, which closely matched Hank's at the time of the writing, has changed significantly. However, I believe an examination of each of the blogs on that original top ten can provide useful insight into the future.

PokerWorks, Linda's main domain pokerworks.com, is operated by an external company that has put up a pleasing (if unremarkable) site. Table-tango.pokerworks.com is where to find Linda's blog, she still deals at the Bellagio and is still one of the best reads on the net. The true original.

Guinness and Poker, very much what is has always been and as one of the original blogs it reaps the benefits of a long term commitment to blogging.

Lion Tales, very much what is has always been. (as a Professional Poker Player Richard is now sponsored by Full Tilt)

Poker Grub, The grub moved to Vegas but the writings and musings of the Grubby are as always an excellent read,

Mean Gene, Very much the same as always, another excellent read.

Tao of Poker, A lot has changed at Tao of Poker, Pauly's success truly reached record levels during the WSOP and the fact that he'll be able to do it bigger and better next year makes him a hot property, well deserved as he is one of the best writers in poker.

Felicia Lee, My heart goes out to Felicia as she battles cancer; however, her candid posts and unsightly poker advice continue on and is a regular must-read for me.

The Poker Penguin, The Penguin quit posting for several months but is now posting with some frequency again.

Chris Halverson, The target of the professional poker player jopke in the community, Chris is ever the same and a cool guy.

Wil Wheaton, As mentioned above Wil is doing some work with Poker Stars and as well as playing tournaments, an excellent writer and fun to follow poker player places Wil in my top ten list. The 'everything else' Wil does from books to performances to stopping by to say 'hi' during the WSOP make him a great example to follow. The fact that I agree about his stated political and copyright viewpoints is just icing.

The Cards Speak, Hank is now in the industry professionally and the Cards Speak still has infrequent but always excellent, thought provoking posts.

The new(er) blogs

Too many to count or name, from Dan's Texas Hold'em blog called Pokerati to This is not a Poker Blog to Poker in the Weeds style and content are diverse with some being good, some mediocre and a few are truly bad. The ever growing community of poker blogs will decide which of these new offerings will become well linked and well read.

The shill/feed scraping sites.

This has been tried time and time again, and so far, not one of these 'cut & paste' sites has been able to get out of the starting gate. After more than a year of observing these unrepeatable sites come and go, the clearest solution is also the simplest one. Ignore them unless they actually manage to accomplish something (occasional original content would be nice). These sites seek to build a profit center around the hard work of others.

The future of the community

The entry of corporate organizations and high profile bloggers into the niche of poker blogs combined with the continuing evolution of the relationships between bloggers, print publications and professional players will fuel the growth of the poker blogging community allowing it to become far more prominent in the coming year. We poker bloggers now have the ability to use collective community power to influence the search engines and draw attention to the quality content in the community. I see the future of poker blogging as an indispenable component for the continued success and growth of the sport.

Posted by pokerprof at 12:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

The LVV team hits the road to points south, very soon. I'm trying to make the most of a few days of R&R before returning to my temporary role of acting ( that's acting with a small "a," if you don't know ask a geek) Manager Editor of a major poker print publication, Poker Player Newspaper. I just got a copy of the latest issue of Poker Player, vol. 9 #4, the very one we worked very hard to publish last week. Holding the actual issue is my reward for working the long days into nights as an apprentice publisher under the expert guidance of a real master publisher, Stanley Sludikoff. Additionally, working along side another apprentice publisher, the Poker Prof, forced me into turbo mode just to keep up. But, seeing the proof that all those trips to do Post Officeing, FedExing, computer fixing and writing have paid off in the form of a poker newspaper and I'm holding a copy of it. The feeling is the same as when you catch your all-in miracle.

I guess you have to find something you really love to do and that provides the stimulus to work the long, connected days ('and nights). I can say that I have been around some form of poker most of my life and I have never tired of the world's favorite game. Sometimes I'm amazed to realize that many of those years were in places where poker was a crime. Just like today's lopsided morality inspired laws that make online poker a crime anywhere in the US, yesteryear's vice raids of in-your-home poker games could and would land you in the lock-up. Some of the bible belt areas demanded that evil card players do hard time in the "Big House." Thinking back, I don't remember sleeping better knowing that these card addicts were safely locked away. Living in today's turbulent, violence plagued world has me thinking those old laws that made poker playing a crime didn't do one damn thing to make the world a better place to live. The morality Gestapo didn't work then and they don't work now. Let them take away the sport of Poker today and tomorrow they're grabbing baseball, then basketball becomes a crime and is quickly followed by a law banning boxing (OK, that one's not so bad) and finally, Yep, all forms of football becomess a jailable offense. Can you imagine a world that doesn't include some version of football? Can you imagine a Monday Night without football? Hard to imagine, isn't it?

The current version of poker has its' roots in the backrooms and private homes of old. Those olden days when all poker players were type cast as derelicts. Those olden days have now been replaced with a modern version of poker that has little to do with the old poker, this being especially true for the stigmas that have been layered upon the sport. Poker today is one of the largest leisure time industries in the world and certainly the fastest growing. Poker, with roots reaching back to yesterday, has now become the first legitimate industry delivered through the first world-wide delivery system, the Internet. I realize that labeling poker as "legitimate industry" is dancing very close to the rim of truth, especially when considering poker's state of illegality. Legal issues aside, poker is a big business that employees thousands and thousands of workers and best of all poker is one hell of a revenue producer. In locales where it's legal to put a tax bite on the rake the revenue coffers are often brimming over. The profits and associated taxes are flowing away from the US in a wild torrent; but, maybe this is how it should be. Perhaps it's not such a bad thing but more like the Robin Hood effect...from the haves to the have nots.

Ending on a more cheerful note, some new projects are in the works for LasVegasVegas, some of these we hope to unveil in early September. More details soon but I will say that its all for the good of our readers. Now, I will continue to enjoy my leisure time for the next few days hanging out in a strip hotel, eating good food and even playing some good old legal Nevada casino poker. Las Vegas figured it out a long time ago. Quoting 2005 Poker Hall of Fame Inductee, Jack Binion, "People play poker because it is just a fun game to play." You have it nailed, clear and simple, Mr. Binion. Now, that's got me thinking again that maybe the reason some forms of poker are criminal offenses is because the game of poker is just too much fun. Due to my current state of laziness and the fact that the image computer is not accessible from my present location I have illustrated this article with stuff shot out of my hotel window.

Posted by flipchipro at 6:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Dr Pauly poses with fan at the 2005 WSOP Show.

We enjoyed the coolest high temperature ever for this date. The high was 85 degrees and that was at 4:00 am. Most of today has been down right sweater weather, under eighty degrees, cloudy and rainy...more like our Christmas weather. What a city. We hit the record highest temperature ever recorded in Vegas; then we set an all-time low temp for August, all within a span of a few days.

The good Dr. Pauly will be on the road soon, taking some needed time away from Las Vegas and checking out the action back east. He will continue to provide readers with his trademark live blogging of major poker events. We certainly had our share of adventures, drama, excitement and chronic fatigue as a result of our constant live coverage of the 2005 WSOP. Pauly and I would cover the different events with each of us on the floor walking, talking, watching, chasing leads, visiting with the pros, listening to the gossip, working the trade show, interviewing and the number one thing we did, listen to bad beat stories, thousands of bad beat stories. I was straddled with pounds of cameras and lenses filling gigs of flash cards; while Pauly was weighted down with pounds of laptops, cables, recorders and air-cards he used to provide the readers with live news as it was happening.

We developed a routine that produced an end product of instant, accurate accounts, complete with photographs, of all the 2005 World Series of Poker's forty-four events. We typically worked a twelve hour plus day at the Rio Resort, and then we would head home so Pauly could write the event article and I could process the images for publication in the blog articles and galleries. In addition to all this, Pauly was writing for Poker Player Newspaper (online and print), FOXSports, Tao of Poker and many of the other outlets of his work. We believe we provided some of the best coverage for this year's "big show" and we are quite proud of our efforts. Thanks to the many readers that sent emails we know that our stuff was well received. We are already planning our future coverage enriched with the incorporation of some of our reader's suggestions and ideas for improved tournament coverage. Least we forget, The Poker Prof was the director of this show giving directions and providing the technical expertise and resources needed to get the information to all of our visitors. We also wish to think all of you for visiting and supporting our advertisers.

We learned a great deal during the month and a half of the WSOP followed by the Ultimate Poker Challenge and the Bellagio Challenge Cup. We learned that it becomes difficult to continue to provide quality content with no days off and little to no sleep. This is especially true during the latter days of the long tournaments so this will also be an area of future improvement.

I decided to provide some of the photographs I shot of Dr. Pauly during the months he lived in Las Vegas. He got to do some cool stuff during his stay and the pics are a reminder that covering poker can be a lot of fun. I am looking forward to the next gig for us.

Thanks Dr. Pauly for a job well done!

Posted by flipchipro at 3:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Phil Ivey shows off his 5th Gold WSOP championship bracelet moments after winning event #27 of the 2005 WSOP.

The Tuesday night WSOP television series brings the main event from Harvey's Lake Tahoe Resort in Lake Tahoe, Nevada that was played on May 8, 2005. The $10,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em event attracted 173 amateur and professional poker players vying for a piece of the $1,643,500 prize pool. After the elimination days ended and the dust cleared we were down to the final six players making the TV table. Some familiar faces will be present around the table. Poker Superstar Phil Ivey shows why he is one of the most feared players on the circuit. The geeky and quiet James Van Alstyne, one of the best players in the world, makes an appearance and so does rising star Jeffrey Lisandro. They are joined by Jonathan Shecter, Tommy Reed and Salim Batshon in their quest for the championship, the money and the coveted WSOPC gold ring. First place pays $542,360, second is $299,360, third gets $164,350, fourth receives $131,480, fifth walks away with $98,610 and sixth is paid $82,175.

David Pham was the TV bubble boy, finishing seventh and earning $65,740. George Saca was eighth taking $49,305 while Joe Awada went out in ninth for $32,870.

The show is scheduled for 10:00 pm Eastern Time, check your local listing for air time. The order of finish, hometown and money won chart is in the continue reading below.

Order of Finish

1. Jeffrey Lisandro Australia/Italy/USA $542,360

2. Phil Ivey Las Vegas, NV $299,360

3. James Van Alstyne Las Vegas, NV $164,350

4. Jonathan Shecter Las Vegas, NV $131,480

5. Tommy Reed Chapel Hill, NC $98,610

6. Salim Batshon Foster City, CA $82,175

7. David Pham Ceritos, CA $65,740

8. George Saca Folsom, CA $49,305

9. Joe Awada Las Vegas, NV $32,870

Posted by flipchipro at 1:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Aluminun cloud hangs over the fashion Show mall on the Las Vegas Strip.

We were treated to two great posts from Bad Blood this past week, covering the topics of luck and player image.
The lovely Mrs.CanHang tells us a great story about the tough competition she'll be facing at an upcoming poker game.
HDouble brings us another great post, this time about Information Asymmetry in Poker. Despite the name, I promise it won't make your head hurt (much). Go read it.

Finally, don't forget that starting this Friday, August 12th, fellow blogger Jason Kirk will not only be winning the WSOPC event in Tunica, but also providing coverage of the event at Blind Bet Poker. Best of luck to you Jason. Bring one home for the bloggers!

Posted by at 3:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

J. Santos continues to send us cartoons in plain, unmarked envelopes from destinations far from Las Vegas. I'm not surprised that he chooses to spend most of the summers out of Vegas. I suspect that he may be in the LA area, probably hanging out at one of the tourist crowded beaches in and around Huntington. He often earns extra money selling his art to the beach crowd. If you happen to see an aging short, thin guy with a bunch of painted wooden cats you've probably met Santos. He usually sells the cats on eBay for enough to keep him in his drug of choice, Coors.

I consider our website lucky to have him doing the cartoons for the Poker Prof's Blog. The guy is really a talented artist and has created some highly collectable pieces. Unfortunately, he seems to be lacking in the skills to market his works, often deciding at the last minute to pull his stuff from an exhibit because he doesn't like or trust the dealer doing the show. I think he fears making any commitment that would limit his ability to be a true free spirit. Whatever Santos' adversion to success, I'm happy he continues to do the poker cartoons for us.

Now for some poker related things. The Legends of Poker tournament is well under way at The Bicycle Club in Los Angeles with events going off everyday throught the first of September. The WPT sanctioned five day championship begins on August 27th and runs two first flights on the first two days then plays down to the final table. The event will be filmed for later broadcast on the Travel Channel's WPT Series. Following the Championship event there will be a Ladies Poker Party on the 31st of August and then a No-limit Hold'em WPT Ladies Night Out invitational event on September 1st.

Posted by flipchipro at 12:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Vegas summers are brutal reminders of global warming, active volcanoes and hell. The locals develop some rather curious behavior in their efforts to avoid heat stroke and survive another summer in the neon microwave. Sitting on the edge of Death Valley, surrounded by the infamous Mojave Desert, Las Vegas enjoys some of the most pleasant winter weather to be found anywhere; unfortunately, we have to pay the piper come summer. I've lived in the desert for so many years that I no longer have words in my vocabulary describing high summer temps, it's just hot or hotter. The stupidest greeting we hear from visitors is, "Hot enough for you?" followed by "But, it's a dry heat." Right! My oven is dry heat, too; but I still need a large oven mitt. I compiled a list of things unique to Vegas locals attempting to survive Vegas summers. This week's Nines...

9. Sidewalk grilling cookbooks
8. Asbestos shoes
7. Ten gallon sized personal water bottles
6. Air conditioned underwear
5. Bras padded with ice
4. French fries refer to tourists from a country in Europe
3. You order your steak frozen
2. Your computer cooling fan is the size of a Buick
1. Two words...Melted people

Posted by flipchipro at 5:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's been almost three weeks since Joe Hachem won the $10K buy in main event at the 2005 World Series of Poker. He won $7.5 million or about $10 million in Australian Dollars. He had to pay 30% of his winnings to the U.S. Government but the remainder of his winnings may or may not be taxed according to Australian tax laws. Since he was not a professional gambler at the time, his winnings were not technically taxable. However, the Australian Taxation Office is currently looking into how much of a cut they are going to take.

Joe Hachem moved to Australia from Lebanon when he was six years old. His original passion for almost twenty years was chiropracting. He studied it for five years and had a flourishing practice for 13 years before he had to retire due to a sudden and rare blood illness in his hands. He switched over to mortgage banking to pay the bills. He is now putting that occupation aside to focus on playing in several tournaments all over the world during the next twelve months.

Joe Hachem was not an internet qualifier like the previous world champions, Greg Raymer and Chris Moneymaker. Hachem bought in to the main event with $10K of his own money. He beat out a field of 5619 players in the largest event in the history of the WSOP to win the coveted gold bracelet amidst the chants of "Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!" from his loyal supporters, which included his brother and cousin.

Joe Hashem cashed twice in the 2005 WSOP. He took 10th in Event #37 $1K NL with Rebuys and missed the final table by one spot. He's made two final tables in different Australian Poker Championships NL events. He's also made final tables in smaller buy at the Australian Poker Championships in events in both Pot Limit Omaha and Pot Limit Hold'em.

In the last three weeks, Joe Hachem conducted hundreds of interviews for various media outlets all over the world. He even appeared on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. And he's currently being courted by hundreds of different companies offering him endorsement deals. He's been taking two or three meetings a day with various online poker sites, casinos, clothing manufacturers, TV infomercials, and other poker related businesses. They all want the new 2005 WSOP champ as their spokesman.

The Crown Casino in his native Melbourne is making a big push to have Joe Hachem as their world wide ambassador. He will definitely be participating in the Crown Casino's annual Aussie Million tournament held every January.

Joe Hachem has become an overnight celebrity. By the time ESPN airs the main event, he'll become one of the biggest names in poker. His biggest challenge is sorting out the legitimate business deals from those trying to rip him off. He doesn't expect to dramatically change his lifestyle. The majority of his winnings will go to pay for his four children's education and the rest will be put aside to take care of his extended family.

For now Joe Hachem is enjoying the ride and soaking up every moment that comes with being the 2005 World Series of Poker Champion.

Posted by Dr. Pauly at 3:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After nine weeks in Las Vegas, I am winding down my time here in Sin City. Since the 2005 World Series of Poker has ended, Flipchip and I covered the Bellagio Challenge Cup and the Ultimate Poker Challenge at the Plaza, which was won by Andy Bloch. Aside from that, I've been holed up at the Redneck Riviera trying to catch up on lost sleep and attempting to write the next great American novel.

I've also been playing as much online poker as I can. Noble Poker is running the $1 Million Challenge. If you win 7 SNGs in a row, they will pay you $1 Million. How could anyone pass up on that offer? The also have consolation prizes for players who win five and six SNGs in a row. If you don't know, Noble Poker was recently purchased by Empire Poker. That gives Noble Poker a little more credibility.

I've also been hitting up many Las Vegas casinos and card rooms before I return to New York City. Since I moved to Las Vegas, I've played poker at Mandalay Bay, The Excalibur, MGM, Aladdin, Bellagio, Mirage, Tuscany, Palms, Sam's Town, Binion's, The Plaza, Wynn, The Orleans, and the Rio. Of course feel free to read my recap of playing in a NL tournament at Sam's Town when Flipchip took second and I took third.

Tuscany is one of the newest poker rooms in Las Vegas. It opened up on Monday, August 1st. It might be one of the few poker rooms in Las Vegas where they allow smoking. Just a heads up for you non-smokers. Tuscany runs a promotion where you get $25 if your pocket aces are cracked. Grubby and I stopped by on Tuesday to play for a few hours. Tuscany offers a $1 per hour comp if you get a player's club card. Tuscany Suites and Casino is located at 255 East Flamingo Road. Their phone number is 702.947.5917.

For all you music lovers out there, Las Vegas is going to host a huge musical festival in late October called Vegoose. It will be held at Sam Boyd Stadium from Oct 29-30. There will be late night shows running from October 28th thru Halloween all over town. I'll be back for sure to catch some of my favorite bands. Here's the preliminary lineup:

Widespread Panic
Phil Lesh & Friends w/ special guest Ryan Adams
Trey Anastasio
The Flaming Lips
The String Cheese Incident
moe.
North Mississippi Allstars
Spoon
Gov't Mule
Primus
The Meters (Art Neville, Zigaboo Modeliste, George Porter, Jr., Leo Nocentelli)
Dave Matthews & Friends
Jack Johnson
Ween
The Shins
Digable Planets
Michael Franti & Spearhead
The Decemberists
Atmosphere
Blackalicious
The Magic Numbers
Lyrics Born

I can't wait for my return to Las Vegas in October to cover the Doyle Brunson North American Classic, which is a WPT event. After that's over, I'll party it up with some of my favorite bands for Vegoose! Stay tuned for more details. Feel free to visit the Vegoose site for more information.

Posted by Dr. Pauly at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Imperial Palace Hotel & Casino is centrally located on the famous Las Vegas Strip. The Asia themed hotel has been catering to guests for many years with time honored attractions and some of the most stunning cocktail girls in all of Vegas. The IP has plenty of convenient free parking and most of the major strip properties are withn easy walking distance. Guests are treated to a full service casino offering all of the popular casino table games, hundreds of the latest, most popular slot machines and a comfortable state-of-the-art race and sports book.

The Imperial Palace is famous for its world class auto museum open to the public at no charge. Simply pick up a free pass given away at the front of the casino and stroll through antique, exotic and famous automobiles. The collection of rare cars comes from the private collection of the founder and owner of the Imperial Palace, the late Ralph Englestad. The centerpiece of the Auto Collection at the Imperial Palace is one of the largest, finest collection of Duesenberg's to be found anywhere.

The IP continues to offer the Legends in Concert stage show featuring celebrity look-alikes singing and dancing just like the real thing. The show has entertained thousands over the years with its' live recreation of stars past and present. Enjoy seeing created versions of Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, Madonna, Cher, Michael Jackson, Elvis and more. The production is constantly changing and adding new cast members so it continues to receive rave reviews.

The Imperial Palace has numerous restaurants that offer everything from standard coffee shop fare to the finest in gourmet dining. Included on the list of eateries are two vastly dufferent buffets. Additionally, the IP offers a Hawaiian Luau and authentic Polynesian Revue every Tuesday and Thursday night, weather permitting. This popular attraction is now into its' fourteenth year.

The Imperial Palace poker room opened on May 10, 2004 after the original poker room was closed a number of years ago. The new operation was designed from the floor up with the expectations and comforts of poker players being the driving factor. Room management guarantees you will be in the friendliest poker room on the strip. Ten tables of hold'em (The Imperial Palace poker room offers hold'em exclusively) action await poker players. The room spreads $2-4, $3-6 and $4-8 limit Texas hold'em. For the higher limit hold'em player the IP poker room offers $40 min-$100 max buy-in no-limit hold'em.

The custom designed tables are oversized to allow players much more room than most other poker room tables. No more bumping elbows and crowded foot space. One of the most desirable features of the room is the comp policy. The Imperial Palace offers the most liberal comp policy anywhere. You receive $3.00 for every hour played and, best of all, you can use the comps anywhere in the hotel, even the gift shop. Players are treated to gourmet coffee, sandwiches and pastries conveniently served right in the poker room.

Mike Fey, Imperial Palace poker room manager, provided details of the tournament schedules. Daily $55 buy-in tournaments are held at different times and with different formats. Sunday at 1 pm with one $25 rebuy, Monday at 11:59 pm with multiple $25 rebuys, Tuesday at 7:00 pm with one $25 rebuy, Wednesday at 1:00 pm with one $25 rebuy, Thursday at 7:00 pm with one $25 rebuy, Friday at 1:00 pm freeze-out and Saturday at 1:00 pm freeze-out. Major tournaments are scheduled two to three times a year with the next one planned for Super Bowl weekend. The IP poker room returns 100% of the prize pool to the players and the juice goes to compensate the dealers.

You can email Mike at poker@imperialpalace.com with any comments or questions or call the room at 702.731.3311.

Posted by flipchipro at 3:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I first met Charlie Shoten at Sam's Town casino in Las Vegas last December, at a breakfast "meet and greet" before the first WPBT live tournament. Charlie was scheduled to speak about his upcoming book No-Limit Life. He offered insight into his Ten Commitments along with suggestions on how to eliminate Thought Terrorists (TT) out of your life. Since that day, I had been waiting for his book to come out. I'm an avid reader and was eager to read about Charlie's thoughts on life and how it specifically applies to your poker game.

During the last two months while living in Las Vegas, I've had the opportunity to engage in several inspiring conversations with Charlie Shoten. I'd catch him in the hallways at the Rio during the World Series of Poker or I'd stop by his booth at the Poker Expo. Most recently, I've been running into him at the Bellagio where you can often find him playing in their daily tournaments. We chatted about many different things. He gave me tips on improving my tournament game. We discussed his book and the intricacies of getting it published. And most importantly we spoke about personal freedom, a subject that intrigues me the most as a writer.

Now that the WSOP is finally over, I can take the time to tell you about Charlie's Shoten book No-Limit Life. You need to add this book to your poker library. It's always refreshing to read a book that focuses on subjects that are not just about poker. Charlie wrote a series of articles for Poker Player Newspaper and the feedback from readers was so overwhelmingly positive that he expanded the concept of those articles into No-Limit Life.

Charlie Shoten shares with you some of his own personal philosophy and how if applied, you can improve both your life and your poker. No-Limit Life is a book that would be great for poker players of any skill level. I personally enjoyed his astute advice on being less of what we are not and discovering personal freedom to find a release of my inherent creativity.

The design of the book is very cool. The quality of paper used is top notch. The pictures are outstanding. Several of them were taken by Flip Chip. And even pictures some of your favorite bloggers (G Rob, F Train, Daddy, Felicia, and the Poker Prof) are in Charlie's book, including yours truly on Page 191. On almost every page there are boxed quotes from both Charlie and a selection of great minds including William Shakespeare, Albert Einstein, Alfred Tennyson, Winston Churchill, and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. There are small illustrations sprinkled throughout the book where you get to see the cartoon version of Charlie Shoten. On the margin of every left page, he lists keywords for his Ten Commitments:

1. Attitude
2. Focus
3. Notice
4. Intentions
5. Trust
6. Appear
7. Outcome
8. Forgiveness
9. Notice
10. Gratitude

Charlie spends a lot of time discussing his "Sixth Commitment" which is: I am calm, confident, and clear, and I wait for my best choice to appear. This is advice that you can apply to your life whether you are seated at a poker table or in a business meeting. I've found myself repeating Charlie's Sixth Commitment to settle down while I was on the verge of tilt during my last bad poker session.

Plenty of pros have read and embraced Charlie's book as well. Included in No-Limit Life are commentaries from notable pros who enjoyed Charlie's book such as Vince Burgio, Scotty Nguyen, Men the Master, Carlos Mortensen, and Miami John Cernuto. Even WPT founder Lyle Berman purchased twelve books so he could give them to his friends. You can see a picture of Lyle Berman reading Charlie's Book here. It was taken during the WSOP by Flip Chip.

Since his book has been published, Charlie has shown me some of the glowing emails and letters he's gotten. Here's a sample of what readers have been saying about No-Limit Life:

"You are far more than a poker player and I commend you for your work. You are teaching people to guide themselves, and that's the greatest gift a leader can give."

"Not all can say what they mean and mean what they say! The real task is to of course practice what you have taught in No-Limit Life."

"Your book has altered my perceptions so drastically, that now I can better handle the stress of professional poker. Thanks for changing my life."

"Your book gave me the knowledge and map I needed to have the courage to deal with my negative outlook on life. I have turned my future into something positive. The pages of the book were filled with an abundance of wisdom from someone who has obviously 'been there.' I finally had the recipe to be myself and eliminate my Thought Terrorists. This has allowed me to be a better and happier person than I ever thought to be."

If you would like to order a copy of No-Limit Life, simply download and mail in the order form. (PDF Document)

NOTE: If you're having difficulty downloading the above order please download the latest copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader.

****** ******

Read Charlie's Corner for more information about Charlie.

Posted by Dr. Pauly at 2:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The World Series of Poker continues its Tuesday night run with a final table from the WSOP Circuit tour. The setting is Harrah's Rincon Casino & Resort in San Diego, California last February 27th. The players surviving to claim a seat at the final TV table of the Main Event follows:

1. Chris "Jesus" Ferguson
2. Prahlad Friedman
3. Chad Brown
4. James Worth
5. Alex B Prendes
6. Keith Sexton
7. Robert Williamson III

The Championship event attracted 208 entrants and collected a prize pool of $1,985,500.

The action promises to be top flight with this bunch of players vying for the first place money of $655,220 and a gold WSOP Circuit Championship ring. Tonight's winner is one of the most recognizable professional poker players around, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson. Chris is a former WSOP World Champion having won the $10K main event at the 2000 World Series of Poker. He continues to exhibit and hone the championship edge making him one of the toughest pros on the tour, always close to the money. Chris lists Pacific Palisades, California as his home.

The second place prize of $361,365 went to Prahlad Friedman of Los Angeles, California. Chad Brown, on camera host of the 2004 Ultimate Poker Challenge Series, completed the top three and hauled $198,550 back home to LA for his third place finish.

The fourth place spot was taken by James Worth of Toronto, Canada. James received $158,840 while Alex B Prendes got the $119,130 for fifth place. Keith Sexton was sixth and collected $99,275. The seventh place finisher, professional Robert Williamson III, of Dallas, Texas collected $79,420.

Other well known players also cashed in the final event including David Levi finishing 12th and Gavin Smith going out 16th. The ESPN broadcast is scheduled for 8:00pm Eastern time, but check your local listing for times in your area.

The Poker Prof and I are back in Los Angeles working out of the Hollywood Park based LA office. We should be back home in Las Vegas by the end of the week. Can't wait to get back to a warmer climate, I actually had to wear a sweater this evening to ward off the chill in the air.

Posted by flipchipro at 2:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This week it appears that now that the WSOP is over, everyone is back on the poker horse and bringing us great posts about their events. Well...almost all of us, that is. Linda over at Table Tango is a little disappointed in some bloggers for their lack of updates. Those who have been posting lately have shared with us reports of 2nd place tournament wins (a big acomplishment in its own right, even more so when 1st went to Chris Moneymaker), and introspection on success in poker.

For No-limit strategy (if you're into that sort of thing) you should check out DoubleAs's latest post on the care and feeding of monsters, and the gang over at Wicked Chops Poker has a few other suggestions as well. Thanks to them for also pointing us to a recent Time article on obsessive gambling (they say obsessive, we say...passionate).

Finally, a big congrats to Bill Rini on his new gig at Full Tilt. (Speaking of Full Tilt, it's not to late to get in your "Decorate Geek's Cube" entry). Also, be sure to check out this week's episode of Card Club for more poker goodness.

Posted by at 10:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)