When online poker players go to Las Vegas to play live poker
VEGAS & CELEBRITY My annual visit to Las Vegas beckons as I seek to put a year of online practice to work at America’s gambling Mecca. Most people visiting for the first time would call Vegas a culture shock, which stretches the word culture to breaking point. A city where one of the lesser hotels is an entire scaled down replica of New York, complete with its own Statue of Liberty, and surrounded by America’s biggest roller coaster, might not be everyone’s idea of an alternative to Venice. I recall, a few years back, eating a delightful room service dinner at the hotel “New York” and looking out of the thirtieth floor window to see someone pulling 3 G’s on the downward slope of the big dipper and parting with what I felt sure I’d just been served. It’s this kind of madness which sets the scene for some other-worldly poker, and the Bellagio is generally the best place to find the big games. Doyle Brunson regularly holds court at the Bellagio and many of the big celebrity players are on hand to go up “High Noon” style against any of the high rollers who feel they’ll be faster to draw to a straight than anyone else in the wild west of Nevada. The Bellagio was built by Steve Wynn, who has since constructed the modestly named “Wynn” casino complex. At a tad under $3,000,000,000, the 2,700 room “Wynn” is the largest hotel in town and features 24 carat gold window frames and its own Ferrari-Maserati showroom within the casino! So spare a thought for my chances of winning against a system that can afford to build this kind of real estate and even manage to have a fake volcano erupt every fifteen minutes.
POKER TIP OF THE DAY With all of the above Vegas info in mind, my tip of the day is a relatively obvious one: You’ll make more money PLAYING ONLINE! But holidays are holidays and maybe it’s possible to enjoy the experience of WYNN-ING almost as much as winning.
CELEBRITY VEGAS FACTS 1) Matt “Rounders” Damon was once knocked out of a WSOP encounter by the maestro Doyle Brunson. Damon had pocket Kings to Brunson’s pocket rockets. 2) Hollywood star James Woods regularly makes $500 a day playing online poker. With a reputed IQ of 184, I guess no-one should be that surprised. 3) Regular celebrity poker players in Vegas to look out for include: Robert Downey, Jnr. Matthew “Friends” Perry, Martin “West Wing” Sheen and of course, Ben Affleck.
VIVA LAS VEGAS
Bright light city gonna set my soul Gonna set my soul on fire Got a whole lot of money that’s ready to burn, So get those stakes up higher There’s a thousand pretty women waitin’ out there And they’re all livin’ devil may care And I’m just the devil with love to spare Viva las vegas, viva las vegas
How I wish that there were more Than the twenty-four hours in the day ’cause even if there were forty more I wouldn’t sleep a minute away Oh, there’s black jack and poker and the roulette wheel A fortune won and lost on ev’ry deal All you need’s a strong heart and a nerve of steel Viva las vegas, viva las vegas
Viva las vegas with you neon flashin’ And your one armbandits crashin’ All those hopes down the drain Viva las vegas turnin’ day into nighttime Turnin’ night into daytime If you see it once You’ll never be the same again
I’m gonna keep on the run I’m gonna have me some fun If it costs me my very last dime If I wind up broke up well I’ll always remember that I had a swingin’ time I’m gonna give it ev’rything I’ve got Lady luck please let the dice stay hot Let me shout a seven with ev’ry shot Viva las vegas, viva las vegas, Viva, viva las vegas
(words & music by doc pomus and mort shuman)
ALL THE ACES poker column: Sunday, March 26, 2006: Wynn-ing Poker In Las Vegas
