Tag: las vegas

42nd Annual World Series of Poker Begins

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WSOPThe 42nd annual World Series of Poker officially begins today May 31, 2011 running through July 7 when the November Nine will be set to square off at the final table of the WSOP main event in November. This year’s series marks the most gold bracelet tournament events of any year in WSOP history, with 58 events in all. The grand prize for the 42nd annual WSOP main event is once again somewhere around $9 million.

The 2011 WSOP starts with a casino employees event for the staff at Rio’s Hotel and Casino, where for the 7th time in a row the WSOP festivities will be held, and their compatriots from other casinos near and far. The first open event is actually the second event of the series, also taking place Tuesday, May 31, the $25,000 Heads-Up No Limit Hold’em Championship.

The series schedule also features championships in Omaha, Seven Card Stud, Limit Hold’em, Hi-Low, H.O.R.S.E. and more. Speaking of poker varieties, another sure-to-be-exciting event on the 2011 WSOP schedule is #55 taking place July 2, the $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship, a mixed event comprised of 8 games.

Most of the major poker sites (and many of the minor ones) are now holding satellite tournaments into the 2011 WSOP main event. Some sites are even holding satellites into other events of series as well. Buy-ins for 2011 WSOP events range from $500 to $50,000 with live single table and mega satellite tournaments running daily at the Rio during the event. Also happening at the Rio in league with the 2011 WSOP are 24-hour cash games.

Register Now for Invade Vegas II

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Now is the time to diarize the dates for the second Invade Vegas tournament which is scheduled for June 28th to July 1st. This is one of the premier live poker tournaments to take place in Vegas, and if the success of the first Invade Vegas is anything to go by, this one will be something that players will be talking about for a long time to come.

Pre-registration is now open for Invade Vegas II – Live OFC 2011 and if you want to guarantee your seat, it’s worth signing up now. With only two hundred seats available, you will want to take advantage of the opportunity to pre-register by June 15th.

The Invade Vegas II is the perfect opportunity to attend Global Gaming Event’s fantastic live event in Vegas and meet up with online poker friends.

Players have the opportunity to stay at the luxurious Golden Nugget Casino and Resort during their stay in Vegas. Special rates are available and can be guaranteed with the code Grand11. Rates begin at $42 on weekdays, with weekends costing a little extra. Players are invited to visit www.GoldenNugget.com or call 1.800.634.3454 in order to book their accommodation. Help with travel arrangements can be obtained by accessing http://www.InvadeVegas.com.

Amazing poker action awaits all attendees of the Invade Vegas II event next month. Check in to the Golden Nugget Casino and Resort begins between 5 and 7 pm on Tuesday, June 28th at the casino’s extended poker room area. Players can refresh themselves at the cash bar while they mingle with their newfound (and old!) friends, and enjoy the gift bag given to them courtesy of the tournament organizers. A meet and greet will be held, where players can register for tournaments in the coming days. At 8.00 pm, the Gold Diggers Nightclub will open and a pre-poker party will be held with a cash bar in operation.

On Wednesday June 29th, a $50 + $15 warm up event will kick off the tournament at 4.00 pm, with additional prizes being added along the way. This tourney will be broadcast live over the internet, and blinds will increase every half hour.

The OFC Live Forum Challenge Event begins on at 4 pm on Thursday June 30th, with a $100 + $15 buy in and 4000 starting chips. Tip the dealer $5 and you get another 1,000! Once more, the tournament will be broadcast live over the internet.

A $30 +$10 Turbo Bounty Event wraps up the Invade Vegas tournament on Friday July 1st, with 2000 in starting chips and another 1000 in return for a $5 tip. There’ll be a $5 bounty on every player taken out, with blinds increasing every 15 minutes. End the tournament on a high with a pub crawl after 7 pm.

Check out details on how to win your way to the Poker After Dark TV show through the Suzy and Howard Lederer charity poker event by donating $10 to the Boys and Girls Club.

This is one live tournament you won’t want to miss.

Exit Bobby’s Room Enter Ivey’s Room

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A few days back Daniel Negreanu made an interesting tweet on his twitter account @kidpoker. ‘Pretty amazing that Bellagio lost ALL of its hi limit action. Players banded together and moved the game to Aria due to poor treatment.’ This caused quite a stir in the poker community since Bobby’s Room in the Bellagio  used to be the home of the high stakes action in Las Vegas since it opened. What’s wrong with the Bellagio and what is the Aria anyway?

The Aria is a new hotel casino which opened his doors last year and is located right next to the Bellagio. Unlike other Vegas casino’s the Aria doesn’t have a theme. Instead it is a high tech hotel which incorporated a lot of technology in its design and even won a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) gold certification, the biggest hotel ever to do so. Pretty impressive for a hotel/casino built in the Nevada desert where environmentalism seems to be the last thing on people’s mind.

After Daniels tweet more people raised their voices and it became clear why the Bellagio lost their players and the Big Game. According to the players, the low comps, low level of service and rude floor people of the Bellagio have been an annoyance to the players for a long time. When the Aria opened their own high stakes room called Ivey’s room, named after Poker pro Phil Ivey, it was an easy switch. The Aria provides their high rollers with food, rooms, calls players when their seat is open and the setup of the room is much nicer. The Aria also allows the highest game running the be seated in Ivey’s room where as the Bellagio always refused to let any game below  $400/$800 in Bobby’s Room.

The WSOP always brings a lot of poker players into town for the summer and fills Las Vegas poker rooms with action at all stakes. This year however might very well be different because of the recent events on Black Friday. The Big Three online poker sites, Pokerstars, Full Tilt Poker and Cereus traditionally provide a lot of the online qualifiers for the WSOP. With no US qualifiers this number will be significantly lower this year and with that the amount of poker players in town. This will force the poker rooms to compete more then ever for their players.  A full poker room cannot be take for granted anymore. Maybe the Bellagio will see this as well and clean up their act in time to regain the high stakes action this summer.

Pokerstars to Partner with Wynn Resorts

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Pokerstars, world’s largest online poker site, has been very busy in Las Vegas over the last month. After announcing support for the passage of a new Nevada law that would bring online poker to the state and creating 500 new jobs if the law gets passed they have now formed a partnership with Wyn Resorts.

Wynn Resorts Ltd announced that they have entered into a partnership with online poker giant Pokerstars, and that the two companies would work together for the passage of a U.S. legislation that will define illegal internet gambling.

The companies plan to jointly operate a regulated, U.S. online poker site, PokerStarsWynn.com, if they can get the legislation to pass, Wynn said.

“We are convinced that the lack of regulation of internet gaming within the U.S. must change,” Wynn’s Chief Executive Officer Stephen Wynn said in a statement.

41st Annual World Series of Poker 2010 Recap

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WSOPWe here at Holdem Poker Chat will always bring our members interesting news from the poker world. The 41st Annual World Series of Poker® has provided us with many bits of information that we wanted to share with our members. We also want to thank Harrahs Entertainment for sending us their press releases.

There is a global economic slowdown, but the 41st annual World Series of Poker (WSOP) has not been affected at all. On the contrary, the WSOP set a host of new records. Poker players from 117 nations traveled to Las Vegas to compete on the game’s grandest stage. With a record 72,966 entries (a 20% increase from last year) in 57 events creating the largest prize pool in WSOP history: $187,109,850 (a 3.5% increase from last year). In the 41-year history of the WSOP, the prestigious tournament has now awarded more than $1.2 billion in prize money. (Actual figure is: $1,228,375,121).

The youngest player in this year’s WSOP was John May, who played Day 1-D of the Main Event, a day after his 21st birthday. The oldest player to participate in this year’s WSOP (or in any WSOP) 97-year-old Jack Ury, who also played Day 1-D of the Main Event.

In addition to overall participation and prize money, the 2010 WSOP established new records for:

Most million-dollar tournaments: Forty-four of 57 events in this year’s WSOP boasted a prize pool of $1 million or more, up 13 percent from the previous record (39 of 57 tournaments) set last year.

Most consecutive years to cash at WSOP: Berry Johnston’s two in-the-money finishes this year (Events #4 and #45) give the 1986 World Champion cashes for 28 straight years, the most in history. His two cashes this year give him a total of 61 in-the-money finishes at the WSOP, placing him in fourth place all-time. Total WSOP Earnings: $2,075,527

Most consecutive years with multiple event winner: Frank Kassela’s two victories stretched the multi-event winner record to 11 consecutive years. Event #40: Seven Card Razz – $2,500 buy-in & Event #15: Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Split-8 or Better World Championship $10,000 buy-in.

Biggest single day attendance ever: 3,097 players in Event #45. $1,500 buy-in

Most consecutive annual WSOPs played: Howard “Tahoe” Andrew of Walnut Creek, Calif., extended his record for most consecutive years played at the WSOP to 37. WSOP Earnings: $162,809

Largest amount of chips in play: This year’s WSOP Main Event featured a total of 219,570,000 million in chips. Because players in this year’s WSOP Main Event received chips valued at three times the buy-in ($30,000), the total chips in play exceeded the amount in the largest tournament ever, the 2006 Main Event, during which players received two-times the buy-in (20,000).

Most cashes at WSOP without a win: Tony Cousineau of Daytona Beach, Fla., extended his record as the player with the most cashes – 46 – without a win. Better luck next year Tony.

Legions of amateur players competed alongside legendary poker pros, to establish the new milestones.