Vegas High (Season)

“Now you swear and kick and beg us that you’re not a gamblin’ man; then you find yourself in Vegas with a handle in your hand…You go back Jack, do it again.”  Yup, just like the Steely Dan song says, I’m back in Vegas, doin’ it again.

It’s high poker season in Vegas, with the $25K WPT Championship about to kick off at the Bellagio.  Almost every big name player will take the field over the next couple of days and I will be covering the event with the equivalent of poker’s Dream Team of reporters (Pauly, Change100, the Poker Shrink, and BJ Nemeth).  Check out the live reporting section at PokerNews.com.  

I attended the very first WPT Championship back in the day with Lou Krieger and my buddy PocketRocket.  Back then, it ran concurrently with the WSOP’s preliminary events.  So I was zipping from the strip to downtown every day, trying to catch all the action.  And back then, I thought that was a lot of poker.  But as the years drifted by, more and more tournaments have been jammed into the Vegas spring calendar.  After this event, we’ll be covering the WSOP Circuit event at Caesars.  I’ll go home for a little rest before the WSOP marathon, but there is no rest for the players.  They’ll be negotiating the WPT events at the Mirage and Mandalay Bay.

While most venues and circuits try not to overlap with “competitors”, going into this years WSOP, it looks like that philosophy been flushed down the proverbial poker toilet.  Last year the Bellagio hosted their Bellagio Cup events during the WSOP in an attempt to lure the NLHE tournament player spillover during the WSOP.  As they had a pretty good turnout, it looks like the Bellagio has set up for sloppy seconds again this year - with one critical exception.  The final event at the Bellagio will be a televised WPT event - running head-to-head against the WSOP main event.  If that didn’t complicate a player’s choice, the Venetian decided to offer its Deep Stack tournaments again this year - which will also be competing for WSOP bound players. 

I guess I’ll let the big boys sort out the financial risks and returns of offering an embarrassment of tournament riches.  In the mean time, I’m going to enjoy my favorite season in Vegas.  Other than reporting the WPT, my agenda for today involves getting some NASCAR bets down for my brother for today’s race.  He’s coming in later tonight and will miss a lot of the race.  He’s going to spend a little time with me, BJ, and the Shrink holed up at Casa Debonair over the next couple of days, before he heads over to the Mirage for the week.  Although I’ll be busy, I’m hoping to catch a little poker at the Mirage, squeeze in a Sunday brunch somewhere, see Linda on her home turf, have dinner at Hugo’s Cellar, and possibly some Salt Lick BBQ at Red Rock.  Matty is particularly hoping to get in some $5 pai gow with his favorite dragon slayer, Jen. 

As always, I have no idea what I’ll really end up doing in Vegas over the next couple of weeks - but I know it will be ridiculously fun and spent with great company.  Stay tuned.         

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 21st, 2007 at 8:40 am and is filed under Uncategorized.