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

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

The Orleans has $5 bounties, but $50?

TI (Treasure Island) in Las Vegas has a Head Hunters bounty tournament that runs every Wednesday at 11 a.m. and every Sunday at 7 p.m.

The tournament attracts about 30-40 players and 1st place averages $600.

Buy-in is $125 with a $50 bounty on each player (so technically a $75 tourney). If you bust someone out, you not only get their chips, you also get $50. If you win the tournament, you get your own $50 bounty.

Starting chipstack is 5,000 and levels are 30 minutes.

For more information, call (702) 894-7291.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

Golden Nugget's upcoming Grand Poker Series in downtown Las Vegas will host a celebrity poker tournament on the first night of the series, June 6.

Buy-in is $1,080 with half going into the prize pool and half going to the Montel Williams MS foundation.

Golden Nugget will host a pre-tourney cocktail reception at 4 p.m., including live music and showgirls and plenty of photo and autograph opportunities.

Later that night will be a tourney after-party upstairs in Golden Nugget's new indoor/outdoor nightclub Gold Diggers.

Satellites into the charity event will also be available, and total players are capped at about 400.

To register, call (702) 386-8164.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

While the Silverton extension is still being finished, one of our coziest poker rooms in town has been displaced to the keno and slots area right in front of where the poker room was.

Taking a hit in traffic, Silverton offers a variety of promotions to reward their loyal locals.

We liked their no-limit game when the room first opened, but every time we return there's just one 3/6 limit running with the same faces (of course, where else can you find a packed 3/6 game running in Las Vegas?).

Now Silverton wants to lure the no-limit crowd back, and they'll pay you for the privilege. Just like a prop player, only there's 10 of 'em.

Every Monday from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., be one of the first 10 players to sit down at a NL hold'em table. Put at least $175 in play, play for at least 2 hours, then when you cash out you'll receive $25.

Now what happens if you bust? Well, you can always leave without collecting your $25. But you can only pick up your $25 after 2 hours. Be sure to bring enough buy-ins just in case.

The promotion will run every Monday for the foreseeable future, and you can participate as often as you'd like.

The Venetian Deep Stack event in February was so popular, they're doing it again!

While not as big as the first Deep Stack Extravaganza, this sequel will still provide lots of play to practice for the WSOP (or the next DSE, which is May 29-July 16).

The event runs from April 4-25 in the poker room at The Venetian, with daily registration at 4 p.m. for the 6 p.m. tournament. Note that this will substitute for the regularly scheduled evening tournament.

Cost is $330 and players start with 4500 chips (plus $10 to the dealers for 1500 more chips). A food credit will also be given.

Satellites into the tournament will run every day, with winners receiving tokens that can be used to buy into not only the DSE but any poker tournament at The Venetian.

The Venetian's website does not yet list the DSE, but you can email poker@venetian.com for more information.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

Everything in Las Vegas is crowded for the three day weekend. Cars fill the strip, restaurants have lines, the airport is a zoo, casinos are jammed, sidewalks are at capacity, and poker rooms have long wait list of players with pockets loaded with burning cash. What a great time to be in the city of entertainment. Vegas is far better than an adrenalin drip and comes with a list of amenities that include free food, full time gambling, hookers by the bunch, temporary insanity to go, your favorite drunk celebrity photo ops, more limos than a GOP rally, more Hummers than Iraq (and guns), and best of all its legal...well maybe not the hookers.

God, I love this city, nothing like the smell of crisp Franklins early in the morning. What are you waiting for? Come on down, the lights are always on.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

More Flipchip photos from the recently completed AVN Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas. All new photos await, so click here for a direct link to the ladies.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

Chinese New Year is a big holiday here in Las Vegas with resorts decorating for the event. This year is the start of a new 12 year cycle that begins with the Year of the Rat. Those wanting to see the most extravagant and exquisitely detailed displays head to the Bellagio's Conservatory & Botanical Gardens. The admission is free and the exotic plants and traditional 'good luck' fixtures make this a must see. Flipchip was there and provides a photo tour on the Las Vegas News Blog.

The Deep Stack Extravaganza began today at the Venetian Resort on the Las Vegas strip. The event continues through Sunday, February 24th. This is a crowd pleasing variety of poker tournaments with lower buy-ins, $330 through $2600 for the ME, that attracts professional and amateur players from around the world.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

For those still pondering the super question, "Take the Giants and the points or give them up and go with the unbeaten Pats?," here's a little something to give your stressed out brain some R & R. More Flipchip photos from the recently completed AVN Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas. Another dozen new images await, so click here for a direct link to the ladies.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

While the Monte Carlo resort on the Las Vegas strip was ablaze last Monday the poker room was doing business as usual. Poker players continued betting and dealers continued dealing the cards to the nonchalant crowd of gamblers. The big screen TV's in the poker room were tuned to local channels where the fire on the upper floors exterior facade could be tracked in real time. This devil-may-care behavior is reminiscent of the time when flood waters flowed through the casino at Caesars Palace and blackjack players rolled up their pants legs and continued gambling. Neither flood nor fire will keep the dedicated gamers from their appointed games.

FYI, the Monte Carlo including their poker room is currently closed; but, the facility should be reopened in a few days. More Monte Carlo fire clean up photos are available on the Las Vegas News Blog.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

Will the unbeaten Pats win Sunday's big game by more than the 12 point line? Will the total points be over or under the projected 54? That's the big question in Las Vegas this week. Of the dozens of prop bets which offers the easiest money? Everywhere in town there are bettor's specials offering free food, beer, T-shirts, caps, money drawings and free tailgate parties. Thousands of big screen plasmas will be tuned into the big game, thousands of gallons of beer will be consumed, thousands of hot dogs eaten, thousands of bets made, and millions of dollars changing hands. If you can't be in the crowd of fans in Phoenix then your second choice is Las Vegas and for many of us Vegas is our first choice, too.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

Those in attendance at the U of P stadium in Phoenix will not have great parking, a front row seat, cheap food, cocktail girls delivering booze, and legal wagering on hundreds of prop bets. All of these things Las Vegas provides in abundance and can be found in any sports book in town. You don't even need a ticket so come on down and join the fun on this made for Vegas weekend.

It's a known fact the football fans love to play poker (Why do you think they put the poker room by the sports book?) and it's a fact that Super Sunday is one of the big three weekends in Las Vegas guaranteeing full poker tables and tournaments. That alone is reason enough to gather up your friends and head to Vegas. If you've never been in town for a Super Bowl then do yourself a favor and get here this weekend. You'll have so much fun you may never be leaving Las Vegas.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

While you're sitting around on this football-less weekend watching the Tiger Woods Golf Show you might consider heading over to the Las Vegas News Blog for the latest Flipchip images of the 2008 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo. A baker's dozen of images await to forever change the meaning of "big pair," see example above.

For those wondering about the Big Football Game next Sunday (Las Vegas gambling dens are forbidden to refer to it as the Super Bowl®) the local line is favoring the unbeaten Pats to beat the Giants by 12 with an over/under point total of 53 1/2.

photo by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

Today's two playoff football games to determine who goes to the 2008 Super Bowl are being played in temperatures ranging from the teens at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough to sub-zero misery in Greenbay. There's no excuse to let this severe cold get to you. All you have to do is click this link to the latest Flipchip photos from the 2008 Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas for an instant warm up.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

Check out Flipchip's photos of the $2.1 billion Las Vegas resort that adjoins the Venetian. Patrons were allowed into the Palazzo for the first time on New Year's Eve. The casino and public spaces were open although the hotel will not accept guest until January 6th. Click here for additional Flipchip photos of the latest Las Vegas strip mega-resort.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

I've posted New Year's Eve stuff on the Las Vegas News Blog including photos and video of the Robbie Maddison world record motorcycle jump in the parking lot of the Rio, the Las Vegas home of the WSOP. If the parking lot looks familiar there's a good reason, it's the same parking lot that claimed Hellmuth's race car during last summer's WSOP.

A mini gallery of Flipchip photos of the 2008 New Year fireworks show on the Las Vegas Strip and above the Plaza in downtown Vegas available here.

Enjoy your New Year's holiday, great food, great company, 17 straight hours of football.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

All of us that hoped UIGEA would be neutered into nothingness by the World Trade Organization's (WTO) recent rulings upholding the island nation of Antigua and Barbuda's claim for financial damages of $3.44 billion annually will have to keep hoping. UIGEA created long unemployment lines when 40% of the workforce was laid off as sites downsized. Internet gaming websites are Antigua-Barbuda's #2 employer just behind the tourist trade because Antigua was one of the first nation's to license and strictly regulate Internet gaming sites.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

A selection of Flipchip photographs taken Christmas Eve at the Ethyl M's botanical gardens are available on the Las Vegas News Blog. The blog has an article listing a couple of shopping malls that will be open in Las Vegas on Christmas day, the Forum Shops and the Miracle mile Shops.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

Beginning this week, Caesars Palace has raised its table games betting limit ceilings to the highest in the city.

Blackjack players who previously could bet up to three hands at $10,000 a hand, will enjoy raised wagering limits of one hand at $50,000 or three hands at $25,000 per hand. Dice players who were limited to $5,000 on line bets, will have higher betting limits of $50,000 on any line bet. (Pass, Don't Pass, Come, Don't Come). Place bet limits will be $25,000 and $30,000, up from $5,000 and $6,000. "Hard Way" bettors will be allowed to wager $10,000 on any 'Hard Way." Roulette players who were limited to $500 "Any Way" wagers (single numbers, splits, quads, etc.) will enjoy new wagering limits of $3,000 " Any Way."

The new wagering limits will be available in high-limit gaming areas and in the dice pit.

post by Desert Rock

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

The World Series of Poker released the 2008 schedule for all 55 events. Next year's WSOP will offer a number of changes including some new events and schedule changes. Start times will vary and events will overlap as three-days-per-event schedules are utilized to handle the anticipated large crowds of players. The winner of the $50K H.O.R.S.E. event will receive a special David "Chip" Reese memorial trophy. The following is a quote from the press release:

LAS VEGAS - December 11, 2007 - Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:HET) said today the 2008 World Series of Poker Presented by Milwaukee's Best Light and televised exclusively on ESPN will - for the first time ever - begin and end with $10,000 buy-in World Championship events and feature a total of eight $10,000 championships.

The $10,000 Main Event will run for 2 weeks with 12 days of play and two off days. The Ante Up for Africa Charity Event returns for 2008. We have separated out all the times, dates, and details of the 2008 WSOP schedules and placed the information in our tournament directory. You can easily find what you're searching for by mousing over the Vegas Poker Rooms tab located in the top menu bar , then from the drop down menu click the Rio to go to the 2008 World Series of Poker schedule information or just click here. It's listed under "Other Poker Tournaments" and don't forget to click on any event for complete details.

And finally, the best news, "The Poker Tent is Gone!"...Jeffrey Pollack, Commissioner of the WSOP.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

Thanksgiving in Las Vegas...Part #2 turned into a Las Vegas Shopping trip and was posted on the Las Vegas News Blog. Plenty of Flipchip photos shot last evening on the Las Vegas strip moments after the NFL's Thanksgiving Day Dallas game ended. Check out the Thanksgiving in Las Vegas...Part #2...Shopping and as a added photos bonus Flipchip posted some photos of his favorite shop windows.

Can't make it to Vegas today? Check out the Las Vegas Shopping Directory for a complete, up to date list of malls and shops on the famous strip.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

This post is mostly for all those folks not here in Las Vegas for the big Thanksgiving holiday...yet. Let me count the reasons to get in gear and get to Las Vegas. Crowded poker rooms, dozens of poker tournaments offering hundreds of thousands of dollars everyday should be reason enough to enjoy a few prime time days (and prime ribs) in Sin City, but if you still need more reasons to make the journey read on.

photo by flipchip/lasvegasvegas.com

Las Vegas local, Jerry Lewis, will be making his 42nd consecutive appearance as host of the Labor Day MDA Telethon. The twenty one and a half hour live broadcast will be beamed to almost two hundred TV stations around the country from the South Point Hotel, Casino & Spa on the south Las Vegas strip. Jerry Lewis will be joined at the entertainment extravaganza by his long time sidekick, Ed Mahon. Hundreds of entertainers will be featured from around the country.

photo by flipchip/lasvegasvegas.com

For those lucky people that get to spend Labor Day weekend in Las Vegas you're invited to become part of the South Point TV Audience. Free tickets to the show are provided on a rotating basis beginning Sunday, September 02 at 5:30 AM and continuing until Monday, September 03 at 1:30 PM. After driving down to the south most Las Vegas casino try the South point poker room, read the South Point Poker Room Review here.

photo by flipchip/lasvegasvegas.com

Flipchip Photos of the 2007 WSOP Winners only at LasVegasVegas Flipchip Photo Galleries. Complete 2007 WSOP stats at the Poker Prof's World Series of Poker 2007 Information Page. Complete WSOP poker from Dr Pauly of Tao of Poker.

I continue to recover from the muscle pull injury so I'm on light duty for a few days and have been spending some leisure time on the Las Vegas strip. The triple digit heat seems to help the bum shoulder for an hour or two before the pain sends me home. A quad of Flipchip Strip Photos from the past couple of days. Forget to add that I'm a neon junky...like a Nikon moth to a neon flame.

photo by flipchip/lasvegasvegas.com

photo by flipchip/lasvegasvegas.com

photo by flipchip/lasvegasvegas.com

photo by flipchip/lasvegasvegas.com

photo by flipchip/lasvegasvegas.com

Las Vegas is crowded with partying holiday people. Many in the crowd packed into the sports books to bet and watch the Indy 500, NASCAR 600 and pro roundball. Thousands were here to witness first hand the Ultimate Fighting Challenge at the MGM Grand Garden where Quinton Jackson stunned favorite Chuck Liddell with a sweeping right upper cut to end the match after 1:53 minutes of the first round.

This Friday we start the month and a half of World Series of Poker at the Rio Las Vegas. After all is said, done and the final flop is set there will be 55 players going home with those elusive gold bracelets. For the last day of your three day holiday weekend I'm offering some vintage views from the 2005 WSOP.

Have a safe, fun Memorial Day. All photos taken at the 2005 WSOP...

photo by flipchip/lasvegasvegas.com

Memorial Day weekend is the 3 day holiday that signals the un-official start of the Las Vegas tourist season. Hundreds of thousands of the follow your luck faithful will be in the desert Gambling Mecca starting today. Over the course of the summer millions of Vegas visitors will follow to spend quality leisure time in Las Vegas during the blast furnace heat from being on the edge of Death Valley. Acres of sunburned skin, truckloads of cold booze, mountains of money left to the Vegas economy, the grandest resorts in the world filled to capacity, and the thousands of seats in poker rooms and poker tournaments occupied all the time. Damn, I love the smell of money on a hot Vegas day.

photo by flipchip/lasvegasvegas.com

I continue to hang out at the Rio checking out the site for the biggest event in Poker, the World Series of Poker Tournament. I've revisited some of my favorite eating places, visited with some old friends, made some new ones and shot a few photos of the Rio, the original Vegas party place. Today's offering is a mini-gallery of Flipchip's Nikon views of the Rio's famous Sky Float light show. The place is the Rio's Masquerade Casino or rather, high above the casino floor. The colorful sky rides and tracks were originally constructed for the Fremont Street Experience when a change in plans for downtown opted for the current light canopy and the floats were placed in storage. The builder of the Rio bought them from the city and they have been cruising high above the Rio's Masquerade Casino ever since.

Check them out when you're here at the Rio Resort for the 2007 WSOP. Flipchip's photos of the free show after the jump...