Dave Ferrara

Journalist and Grinder

LAS VEGAS - Writing, grinding and digging around for the best stories at the tables and in the card rooms across southern Nevada and beyond.

Posts by DFerrara:

• Panning for Bracelets

  On the Strip in search of WSOP seat giveaways

  13 May 2012

  In the weeks leading up to the World Series of Poker, grinders all over Vegas start making big plans. Even small-stakes guys like me and my friends want a piece of the action. But with the major online sites shuttered for US players, we must hunt for a way to qualify for a bracelet event. [...]

• A Bigger, Louder WSOP for 2012?

  Table talk and celebration encouraged at Series, required at feature tables

  08 May 2012

  Jack Effel expects a “huge and great” 2012 World Series of Poker. It certainly won’t be a quiet one. “The poker room is not church,” Effel, the tournament director for the past 6 years, told poker media today. “You can talk in the poker room. We just feel that we need to set the tone [...]

• More than Just No-Limit Hold’em for Tourists

  PLO, HORSE, AIOF, Mix-Max, and Chinese Hi-Lo (?) make for Challenge Series

  23 Apr 2012

  Matt Savage returns home to Las Vegas tomorrow to take the TD helm for the MGM Grand Challenge Series, which began on Friday anr runs through May 6. At first glance, this series resembles most “tourist stakes” festivals in Las Vegas — two-and-a-half weeks of two tourneys a day, with buy-ins ranging from $150 to [...]

• Flashbacks, Memories, and Lessons Learned

  Black Friday anniversary link dump

  16 Apr 2012

  Yesterday marked the anniversary of online poker’s Black Friday. Anyone who ever clicked a raise button remembers the fateful day, and many are reminiscing about how their world changed on April 15, 2011. Here’s a best-of list of links, tweets and general brooding from over the weekend: The cold anniversary was, of course, trending on [...]

• Cantor Gaming to Take over Poker Operations at the Palms

  New room (with hole-card cams?) part of high-tech sportsbook overhaul

  05 Apr 2012

  The poker room at Palms Casino Resort will close on May 2, with a new room, in a new location, under new management opening May 5. Cantor Gaming confirmed recently that an 8-table poker room will be part of the Palms’ redesigned sportsbook (currently under construction) and say the new room will be state of [...]

• Las Vegas @RandomPoker Buzz

  Jett & Savage sign with MGM, Aria big game relocates to Bellagio, farewell drunken shenanigans at O'Sheas

  22 Mar 2012

  It’s hard to play anywhere in Vegas as a non-tourist without hearing noise about the room you’re in or one down The Strip. No wonder so many regs wear headphones. But I keep my ears unplugged to filter through it all for Pokerati — and so Dan has at least half a clue about what’s [...]

• RE: Jamie Gold Residency Shuttered at the Trop?

  Namesake poker room “alive and well“, officials say

  16 Mar 2012

  Officials with Tropicana have responded to a story we posted Thursday about Jamie Gold’s relationship with the casino and recent changes in the poker room, saying Gold remains the ambassador and will focus on training seminars. After we published, the Tropicana released the following joint statement from Fred Harmon, vice president of talent and image [...]

• Jamie Gold Residency Shuttered at the Trop?

  Vegas Poker Roomers

  15 Mar 2012

  The unceremonious close of Jamie Gold’s short-lived affiliation with the Tropicana poker room. Less than one month after the “Official Grand Opening of the Jamie Gold Poker Room,” the relationship between the Tropicana and the 2006 WSOP main event champion has apparently ended — more quickly than it began. Though no word yet from either [...]

• Venetian Deep Stack Moves to Palazzo

  Replaces April DSE with new "Bounty Festival" amid talks of expansion

  08 Mar 2012

  Venetian has moved its Deep Stacks Extravaganza tournament series to the Palazzo and replaced one of the quarterly events with a new “Spring Big Bounty Festival.” The casino just released the schedule for its next Deep Stack series, set to run May 24 to July 15. There’s no DSE next month, however, meaning there will be only [...]

• Caesars Recruiting Dealers for 2012 WSOP

  Are you (and I) good enough to shuffle at the Series?

  08 Mar 2012

  The 2012 WSOP is looking for a few good dealers, or perhaps I should say a few hundred, and Caesars Entertainment still has a couple of 3-week boot camps to prep the troops. You won’t get paid while attending the academy, but as far as I can tell you don’t have to pay either. Caesars [...]