Bellagio Captivity and Vegas Cat Houses
When you cover a poker tournament, you are pretty much a captive of the venue. If you’re stuck at an aging Atlantic City casino in the dead of winter or a casino plopped down in the middle of nowhere, you’re just going to have to suck it up. But this week I was captive at the Bellagio in the springtime. And it just don’t get much better than that.
At the WPT Championships, I was surrounded by world class players. I was forced to eat at the Bellagio buffet. And I had to share my space with beautiful works of art, like this Chihuly piece (pictured above) that I came across the other day. I have also been on assignments where I am the one person reporting show, trying to report key hands, bust outs, chip counts - while trying to sneak a picture in when I can. But of course I am here with the PokerNews.com reporting dream team - and their skill, work ethic, and wit has kept me far too sane.
My brother is also in Vegas this week and although I’m working, we’ve been able to catch some time together. Before work, today’s theme was cat houses. First we went over to the MGM where the two new cubs (Geno and Belladonna) were on view. Matty and I are pictured below with Belladonna.
We went straight from the MGM lion habitat to the cat condos at the Nevada SPCA. The NSPCA is a no kill shelter and was the recent beneficiary of Jennifer Harman’s star-studded poker charity event last week. All you have to do is say “PokerNews” at the shelter and they instantly love you. I guess PokerNews was the first site to give the event and the shelter some publicity. You don’t have to say anything for the cats to love you…all you have to do is walk in the door. Here’s Matty immersing himself in the cat experience…followed by a picture of the Poker Shrink wearing a kitty kat shawl.
Ok. Well I promise the next post will have less pussy and more poker.
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April 27th, 2007 at 11:28 pm
Chihulys are wonderful. If you’re ever stranded in west central NY, the trip to the Corning Museum of Glass is well worth it. I was quite astonished by the place… and they have lots of Chihulys.
April 28th, 2007 at 9:50 am
[...] People sometimes complain that my blog background is black. I specifically chose black because it offered enough contrast for text, while optimizing the presentation of photos.  The Chihuly piece pictured (taken at the Bellagio/no flash) above is also posted over at Calistri’s Corner - but I just think it pops out more on the black background. To me, a blog is as much a visual format as it is a written one.  Since I have yet to get my new host up and running, I’ve been trying to hold back on the pics. But I had to let loose a little today.  [...]