photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

Friday afternoon at the Monte Carlo fire site

Late Friday afternoon workers were busy inside and out at the closed Monte Carlo Resort on the Las Vegas strip removing the damage areas resulting from the fire. Rooms on the upper floors were being stripped of carpet while the exterior workers on scaffolds 33 stories in the air were removing the damaged facade and covering the bare framework with clean, white fireblock wallboard.

The entire polymer decorative facade that proved to be highly inflammable will be removed and replaced, ensuring the Monte Carlo to be one of the safest hotels in Las Vegas. Flipchip was there Friday and sent along these photos.

Anyone can be discovered at the Playboy Bunny Hunt on Sunday, Feb. 3 at 9 p.m.

Just show up at the Playboy Club (at The Palms) and be ready to be interviewed by Playboy Playmates as well as Bunny Mom Pat Lacey.

For more information, visit this link.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

Famous Las Vegas welcome sign moments after turning red Thursday evening

Famous Las Vegas welcome sign turned red at 7 Pm Thursday evening and Flipchip was there to record this historic moment. The red is to support the fight against heart disease by the American Heart Association and CardioVascular BioTherapeutics, Inc.

Considering the half dozen or so stents propping my cardio vascular system open I’ll be wearing red all day in support of the February 1st National Wear Red Day.

Tonight at 7 p.m., the famous Welcome to Las Vegas sign will turn red.

The red is to support the fight against heart disease by the American Heart Association and CardioVascular BioTherapeutics, Inc.

Because tomorrow, Feb. 1, is National Wear Red Day, didn’t you know?

The sign is on the Strip between Russell and Sunset.

Click here to see other Red events going on across the country.

Use the above coupon this Sunday, Feb. 3 for $5 off a $20 food purchase at Gameworks (this works for all Gameworks, not just the Las Vegas location — click here for a location near you). Click the coupon for a larger sized version to print.

The big game that some might say is super this weekend will also kick off other Gameworks specials such as $2 baskets of wings, $10 buckets of domestic beer, and select video games for only a quarter.

While the new poker room is being built at Hard Rock (still another 9 months away), Royal Hold’em made its debut last weekend.

From a company called New Poker, Royal Hold’em takes the standard Texas Hold’em but uses just 10s, Js, Qs, Ks, and As in the deck.

That leaves 20 cards, and with a max of 6 players and 3 burn cards, the entire deck will be used.

The game is played in the pit at a regular table with autoshuffler. Dealers are still adjusting to learning to deal poker (like regular poker, the game is played against other players, not the house), but the game has already proved popular at 5/10 limit.

What we found interesting is that it completely changed our view and strategy of hold’em. No flush is possible except for a royal flush. Full houses are much more common. And practically everyone played every hand. If you hit something big, you’ll be called down.

You can download and play the game at this link.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

2007 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship final eight

Beginning Friday, Feb. 1, you can earn your seat into NBC’s 2008 National Heads-Up Poker Championship for just $70 and possibly win half a million.

‘Course, you gotta win a couple times in a row, but that’s the easy part, right?

$70 and $140 super-satellites sit-n-gos will run ’round the clock to provide the winner (two winners in the $140) entry into the championship satellite.

That satellite is Feb. 17 at 2 p.m., with a buy-in of $540.

Win that, and you’ll get a $20,000 entry into being on television.

Oh, and you may get assigned to Shannon Elizabeth. That’s worth it, eh?

The satellite is no longer a rebuy tourney and will now begin players with 7500 in chips and a beginning blind of 25/50 with 50-minute levels. Cash will be awarded to top placements, with the grand prize being a seat into the championship.

Satellites and tournaments take place in the Caesars Palace poker room.

This year’s heads-up championship will be Feb. 28 through March 2. It’s the fourth annual, with prior winners Phil Hellmuth, Ted Forrest, and Paul Wasicka.

The much-aligned I-15 has received a much-needed widening.

The freeway runs parallel to the Las Vegas Strip and at peak times is often just as congested.

One new lane in each direction will be created between Sahara and Russell (pictured above in green), about a 5.5 mile stretch. The lane will be created off road shoulders, what motorists use anyway when traffic is backed up.

This plus one existing lane will be two express lanes that will travel this route without any stops, lest a possible fine.

The budgeted $35 million project is expected to come in closer to $25 million and be completed by summer 2009.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

Even billion dollar projects on the Las Vegas strip are in foreclosure…The Cosmopolitan

If you’re looking to buy a cheap house, try Nevada.

According to RealtyTrac Inc., we had the highest amount of property foreclosures in the country.

The increase was over 200 percent from the previous year, with 66,316 filings on 34,417 properties.

Most recently is the possibility the $3 billion under-construction Cosmopolitan will foreclose after its $760 million loan has defaulted, despite 84 percent of its condo units already sold.

In 2007, sales of new homes were 19,670 — down 45 percent from 2006 and the lowest since 1995.

While we haven’t yet seen a downturn in gaming revenue (discounting downtown Las Vegas), we’ll be keeping an eye on the casinos that cater to locals. With increased unemployment (almost a 30 percent increase from 2006 to 2007), less spending, and foreclosures, it’s natural to anticipate immediate cutbacks in gambling.

It’s been said Las Vegas is recession-proof. Here’s hoping we don’t have to prove it.

In a strange deja vu moment, a second casino rooftop fire occurred earlier today in Connecticut at the Great Cedars hotel of Foxwoods, the largest casino in the world. Three floors were evacuated and no one was hurt.

Like Monte Carlo, they do not yet know what caused the hour-long fire.

Workers at Monte Carlo are busily getting the casino back into shape, and all employees will be paid their full wages in the process.

Although Clark County inspectors have given the casino and hotel a safety thumbs-up, it will remain closed because of the possibility of falling exterior debris.

No word on how soon the casino can reopen, but their website prevented any online reservations through mid-February, and currently the reservations system is down.

Hats off to the fire department for containing the fire as fast and as efficiently as it did. And to the 6,000 guests and employees who evacuated in an orderly manner. It proved lessons were learned from the MGM fire of 1980, which caused safety standards to improve across all new casinos and to retrofit into old buildings.