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2010 DSE I at The Venetian Poker Room

2010 Deep Stack Extravaganza (DSE) series is currently running the first installment through February 24 at the Venetian Poker Room. Stop by on Friday before the High Noon start time with your $340 buy-in and play in the most popular (and copied) Las Vegas poker tournaments especially designed to give the average bankrolled players the same experience as the high dollar events. More starting chips and longer play at limit levels ensure your poker skills will definitely become a factor.

Registration begins at 9 PM the day before for each daily Noon event. Accumulate points that count towards the four Best Overall Player Awards. Satellites, Super Satellites, and 7 pm second chance tournaments run daily. DSE Tournament players are eligible for a special reduced room rate by calling 1-877-444-5777 for reservations with Group Code CP02L1. Complete details are available by calling The Venetian Poker Room direct at 702.414.7657 or visit www.venetian.com.

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Red Rock’s popular poker room

Homeland Poker Tour is kicking off its sixth season this week at the Redrock Resort in Las Vegas. Following their format of playing qualifers that sends players to the next levels, the Homeland Poker Tour appeals to the lower limit players that make up the bulk of America’s poker players.

The Heartland Series of Tournaments are staged for TV and provide an affordable opportunity to get some facetime on the tube.The Redrock main event will be played over Saturday and Sunday. The $1,000 buy-in main will play two Day 1 flights on Saturday at 10AM and 6PM. Survivors will return on Sunday for the Day 2 start time of 11AM. The final table (approx. 5PM) will be televised live from the Rocks Lounge.

A Celebrity Charity Event benefiting Disabled American Veterans. The event has a $300 Buy-In with $100 Rebuys and a $200 Add-On. The event will be televised. Take the drive to the west side if Las Vegas and play some poker.

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Red Rock Resort in West Las Vegas

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Red Rock Resort provides unsurpassed views of the Las Vegas valley

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Barry Shulman playing during the 2009 WSOP at the Rio Resort Las Vegas

Harrison Gimble, 19-year-old poker player from Jupitor, Florida, pocketed $2.2 million in the Seventh PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA). The youngest player to win the PCA, Harrison “gibler321″ Gimble, faced Tyler Reiman in the main event heads-up finale. Reimen takes $1.75 million back home to Morton, Illinois.

Barry Shulman, Card Player Magazine owner, keeps his multi-million dollar winning streak alive after taking third place and $1.35 million. Added to his WSOPE cash last October, the 63-year-old Las Vegas poker pro has banked over $2.6 million.

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Happy Holidays from the Rio Resort Las Vegas

The Night Before Christmas in the Poker Room

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the poker room,
Not much was moving, quiet as a tomb,
The chip racks were stacked on the side in a row,
Hoping some good luck would fill them with dough;

The players were sitting hunched in their seats,
Telling their tales of all the bad beats,
The dealer looked at me and asked,
Do you plan to bet or will you pass?

From out in the casino I heard a shout,
I jumped from the two seat to see what was about,
And what to my surprise did appear,
A fat guy drinking a bottle of beer,

He came into the room all in a bustle,
No one guessed it might be a hustle,
He slid into the six seat and yelled for a rack,
Looked around and said, “I’ll leave when I’ve filled my sack,”

Through the air the cards did fly,
Lady Luck loved this red suited guy,
He played every hand never folding a one,
The outcome was always the same, he won and won,

When he had taken most of our chips,
He said I’m going to give you some poker tips,
I’ve played them all, the good and the great,
And let me tell you I can relate,

I‘ve sat across from Hellmuth, Brunson and Chan,
Hachem, Reese, even a guy called Fossilman,
They remind me of a boxer with a glass jaw,
They can’t even play me to a draw,

Now please excuse me, I really must go,
I got to make a stop at the Bellagio,
I left my Mercedes in their valet,
Don’t look so surprised, I traded that drafty sleigh,

I hope you all have a very prosperous year,
I’ll be back next Christmas to play poker right here,
Maybe you should read a poker book or two,
The way you play you don’t have a clue,

Under you’re pillow tomorrow you must look,
That’s where I’ll leave your copy of Doyle Brunson’s poker book,
And with that he turned, shouting as he walked away,
Have a Very Merry Christmas Day!

From all of us at LasVegasVegas…
Happy Holidays!

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Bellagio’s festive 2009 holiday lobby

PokerStars is aiming to break their own Guinness World record (again) for the most amount of players in a poker tournament.

They beat Full Tilt in July with 65,000 players, and in a few days they hope to surpass even that.

The landmark date is Dec. 27 at 11:45 a.m. (Vegas time), the cost is only $1, and $300,000 is guaranteed. First place is guaranteed $50,000. Not bad for a buck.

As of this writing, almost 47,000 players have signed up, so keeping pace looks likely they’ll achieve a new record. But even if they just tie at 65,000, that leaves a decent overlay of $235,000. Are they really hoping for 300,000 players, and during Christmas break? Would the server crash under that load?

The tournament ID is 234567890 (easy enough to remember).

We’re a sucker for a cheapo tourney, so we’ll see you there.

P.S. While looking at the tournaments, we caught a $5,000 freeroll that anyone can sign up to. It’s tomorrow, Dec. 24 at 1:15 p.m. (Vegas time) and a whopping 105,000 players are in that one. It’s a hyper-turbo tourney, so blinds go up much faster than a regular tournament. Tourney ID is 224296990. We signed up to that one too.

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Daniel Alaei walked away with $1.4 million after winning the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio in Las Vegas

Daniel Christopher Alaei outlasted a poker pro rich field of 328 players to claim his first World Poker Tour title. The high-stakes poker player has won two WSOP bracelets, 2006 and 2009. His best WSOP Main Event finish was 25th in 2007.

The tournament got down to heads-up with Daniel Alaei facing Josh Arieh for the championship, but it was all Alaei on this night. Daniel Alaei received $1,428,430 while Josh Arieh left with $952,290. WSOP Main Event champion Scotty Nguyen finished 5th and pocketed $249,976 for his efforts.

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Want one of the nine seats at the November final table? Sign up now for the 2010 Main Event $10,000 World Poker Championship

The 41st Annual World Series of Poker for 2010 has released the event schedule and online registration is now open. Players can also register for events at the Rio Resort’s Main Cage and if you want to avoid being shut-out, then early registration is highly advised. Use this WSOP direct link to register now for events you wish to play. A complete schedule of all events including structures and details is available with this link.

Players will be competing over 51 days in 57 Gold Bracelet events, the same as 2009, during the May 28 - July 17, 2010 WSOP. The first open bracelet event will be The Player’s Championship $50,000 buy-in 5-day contest that features eight variations of poker and begins on Friday May 28, 2010. Players will be competing for millions in cash, a coveted bracelet, and the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy.

Other notable highlights for 2010 is the adoption of limits on play time. Player comfort will be enhanced with play days limited to 10 levels of play per day until the winner is crowned. Bracelet events will begin at 12 Noon and 5 PM. Another welcomed change is no food tent, instead, the Miranda Ballroom will be converted into a food court with an expanded menu of popular food items. And finally, the entire convention facility at the Rio will be dedicated to the 2010 WSOP to provide more room, more tables (over 350 anticipated) and improved media access to the World’s Biggest Poker Show.

The Ladies World Championship and the Seniors Championship continues. The 4th Annual Up For Africa Celebrity Charity tournament returns with an all-star gathering of poker pros and celebrities.

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Aria’s 24 table poker room

After four years of waiting the Aria Hotel and Casino is finally open to the public. We headed over to the property and made for the poker room to check out the latest option for poker players. The 24 table room appears to be designed with the poker player’s comfort and convenience in mind. Located close to self parking and valet makes this room easy to get into and out. Restrooms are a few short steps down a side corridor.

The color scheme is pleasing and room lighting is subdued while the playing surface is brightly illuminated for ease of following the action. An enclosed high limit room is located within the poker room. Even in the Aria’s poker room there is artwork in the form of oversize playing card cascading down from the ceiling to the floor.

The Aria poker room offers $1-3, $2-5, and $5-10 No-Limit Hold’em. Other limits and games will be spread depending on demand. While we were there a lively $100-200 Pot-Limit Omaha game was in progress in the high-limit room. Poker professional Thor Hansen was seen hanging out at the room. Stop in and try the all new, luxurious Aria poker room.

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Playing cards fall from the ceiling

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The 24 table room has operated close to capacity since the Wednesday opening

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Rio Resort Las Vegas

Think your bad beat story belongs in the book? This might not be as bad as the time your went all-in within ten minutes of hitting town and came in third after two one-outers caught a miraculous river and chopped up your entire play bank; but, it’s the biggest bad beat. It lasted a year and cost Terrance Watanabe $127 million. The 52 years old Watanabe spent most of 2007 at Harrah’s Caesars Palace and Rio casinos drinking and gambling.

When his sister finally came to town and rescued Mr. Wanatabe from himself he had gone through almost 127 million dollars. Apparently, he still has millions but not nearly as many. He’s paid close to $112 million to Harrah’s, but, has now decided to renege on the remaining $14.7 million in markers. The law here in Las Vegas considers unpaid markers to be the same as a bad check and if you don’t pay you might be spending a few years in Nevada in a comped small room far away from the bright lights of the strip. In Mr. Watanabe’s case the stay could drag out to 28 years.

In his defense, Mr. Wanatabe filed a civil suit in Clark County District that seeks to place some of the responsibility for his record setting loss on Harrah’s. He is claiming he was supplied with alcohol, drugs, and encouraged to gamble in a drunken state for hours on end. Unfortunately for Mr. Watanabe, this line of reasoning hasn’t worked well with Nevada juries. After all, the casino didn’t make you drink the booze. His trial on the criminal charges is set for Summer 2010.

Read a detailed account of Mr. Watanabe’s bad beat story according to Alexandra Berzon for the Wall Street Journal.

Next time you’re in Las Vegas thinking about going on-tilt because some soccer mom commandeered a case deuce to beat your quads just remember Mr. Watanabe’s Vegas story.

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Caesars Palace Las Vegas

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Scotty Nguyen

Scotty Nguyen, 1998 WSOP World Champion, was seen playing in the Five Diamond World Poker Classic Tuesday afternoon at the Bellagio Resort. A number of other poker professionals was in the crowd of 63 entrance for the $1,500 Limit Omaha Eight or Better event.

Stop by the Bellagio and try your luck in the daily satellites for a cheap seat into one of the Five Diamond tournament events.

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Bellagio Tournament Director, Jack McClelland, counts down an all-in at the final table

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Tournament room overlooks the famous Bellagio dancing fountains

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WSOP bracelet holder James van Alstyne

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Thor Hansen

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Barry Shulman