Matt Savage, host of the new Las Vegas Poker Series at the Hard Rock, served as tournament director in the 2007 movie Lucky You. Don’t hold that against him.

Storied tournament director Matt Savage is stepping back into Las Vegas poker events — for the first time since 2004 — bringing the Las Vegas Poker Series to my weekly donk-stomping grounds at the Hard Rock, August 13-22.

The LVPS will feature low buy-in events ($230-$550), most of which count toward CardPlayer Player of the Year standings … with the Savage-tested deep structures (as opposed to deep stacks) that just about all players except Allen Kessler vigorously applaud. Also a money leaderboard of some sort is in play, though I’m not yet sure if this is about crowning an overall champion or qualifying for a player-appreciation freeroll … more TK as the schedule and other PR info gets released.

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The Best Low-stakes Game in Vegas* (according to Pokerati.com!) needs help making a better logo for the tables.

The Pokerati Game at the Hard Rock — 1/2 NLH/PLO, starting Thursdays at 7 pm — is really starting to catch on. People are coming in and sporadically asking about it throughout the week, and I’ve had players from the Bike, the Commerce, and the Borgata all inquire about when their hometown poker room is gonna start spreading it — half-and-half the way we like to play it.

Last week was a particularly fun game, thanks to Dan R, a longtime Pokerati reader from Dallas who happened to be in town for an annual Vegas get-together with friends from Chicago who happened to play NLH/PLO round-of-each in their home game.

They wanted to play bigger at 2/5, but I insisted on keeping it small. (I have my reasons. Will explain later.) They all bought in for the $400 max, and several busts and rebuys later, the stacks were unusually big. Once they ordered their second round of Patron, the Vegas vultures uber-nitty low-stakes locals began to swarm, filling up the interest list. We almost made two tables — were just one or two players short. Oh well, maybe soon …

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Remember those rumors about Phil Ivey plausibly bringing the Big Game at Bellagio to the new high-stakes room at Aria? Well … unless these pricey invitations mailed out to an undisclosed few are just some sort of elaborate belated April Fool’s joke, they certainly seem to be true … with a poker christening in the form of a million-dollar freeroll that could-well rival the WSOP-TOC.

Take a look … The Ivey League $1,000,000 Poker Invitational … coming May 22:

More details in NVG at 2+2.

OK, that subhed might be geographically presumptuous and/or mathematically hard to prove. But hey, that’s how it goes in PLO! So allow me to do a little live poker pimping …

As twitter followers know, I’ve been hosting a new-ish game at the Hard Rock here in Las Vegas. 1/2 no-limit hold’em/pot-limit omaha. While there are plenty of 4-8 mixed games around town, there are, perhaps surprisingly, few if any low-stakes half-and-half games — and none where players have the option of running it twice. So in an effort to create what Dan personally wants to play top-quality action that serious amateurs, local grinders, and late-night drunks can’t find elsewhere in LV, you can now help your poker evolve by playing:

What: The Pokerati Game: 1/2 NLH/PLO (round of each)
When: Thursdays 7pm-? or upon request
Where: Hard Rock Poker Lounge
Buy-in: $100 min/$400 max
Who plays: Nitty locals, Euro-tourists, Action Junkies, Poker media geeks, loose-aggressive douchebags, off-duty Vegas dealers, disciples of Isildur1

We know you all know hold’em, but if Omaha’s not yet your game, check out this video of how gloriously painful PLO can be:

That comes from F Train’s assessment of poker’s #2 game. And across the pond, where they play it more frequently, our ole Betfair pal Marcus Bateman has his own strategy thoughts on the situational EV of running it twice.

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Our good pals at the Hard Rock wanna remind you that they have their $20,000 guarantee tourney tomorrow. They probably don’t want me to tell you that they had to add money to the prize pool the last time they ran this tourney to make the guarantee … but that’s good for you. There were about 60 players, and something like 9 got paid. (I got 12th-ish.)

Decent structure, too. 12k chips for $250 ($225+25) … with a $100 rebuy or add-on for 5k chips. (I didn’t take it. My starting table was soft.) Seriously, it’s not a huge tourney, but it’s a good one, with good payout possibilities. Starts at 6 pm. Details here.

And, of course, they’re always happy to spread 1/2 NLH/PLO … and they usually have enough people interested in dipping their toes into 4-card hold’em waters to make it happen. Just ask them to put your name on the list for the Pokerati game and they’ll be sure to accommodate. You can always text “pokerati” to 25827 and you’ll get a text whenever this game is running. I won’t be able to make it this week, but next week I’m back in action, so you probably need some practice.

UPDATE: Tournament didn’t make. Not sure where the fine print may or may not come in for “guarantees”.

The Hard Rock Poker Lounge is getting its weekend poker orgy underway — this is the “relaunch” of the poker room there … under new management, with new ideas, and more action than usual …

They’ve got a full slate this weekend — beyond just the free food, splashed pots, a 20k guarantee Friday tourney and stuff like that … they’ve got a whole slate of events, including a Sharon Osborne celebrity charity event (Trash Talk Championship of the World they are calling it), a party for the launch of Victory poker. Currently filming (for ESPN 360, I believe, is a $100/$200 NLH cash game. $50k buy-in … with Antonio Esfandiari, Andrew Robl and others on the table … we’ll have some more names for you. And I think that’s The Maven waiting in the wings for a seat.

Click here for a rundown of all they’ve got going on.

Of course the game next table over is what really interests me — $1/$2 NLH/PLO … just an option to run-it-2x today, not automatic. But in my jaded opinion, that’s where the real poker is going on. The plan is to keep this game running throughout the weekend — as Super Bowl raffle is currently my 2010 bankroll plan.

More TK throughout the weekend … but here’s a glimpse of surprisingly early Friday night action taking off at the Hard Rock’s big poker weekend:

The Poker Beat is back … (attempting) to make sense of all that is going on in the poker world. In this episode, BJ, Huff, and I discuss (at length) PokerStars’ record-setting 149,000 player $1 tourney; the opening of the Aria poker room (and what this may or may not mean over at the Bellagio); the ridiculousness of 17 $1k rebuy tourneys at Bellagio’s upcoming 5-star Classic; everything that is the PCA; PokerStars getting in bed with the Venetian for the new NAPT; and over at Full Tilt, all things Isildur … and, of course, the second red-pro suspension of Brian Townsend.

on PokerRoad

The Poker Beat
Huff, Nemeth, Michalski
1/07/10

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BTW, a little breaking-ish news on this episode — and perhaps an indication of the perceived threat of the NAPT-Venetian, which just so happens to coincide with the LAPC, the usual early-year destination for the LA-LV poker masses … anyone who buys into the $10k WPT-LAPC main event at the Commerce before February 19 now will receive a seat in the televised $200k WPT Invitational. Neato!

@JessWelman has more info over at PokerNewsDaily about the new Aria poker room … and specifically some details about their highest-stakes salon/fishbowl:

Fans of Bobby’s Room at the Bellagio will be happy to hear there is an equivalent in the Aria poker room and it has already been put to use. Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte, David Benyamine, Tom “durrrr” Dwan, and Patrik Antonius were all spotted playing in the secluded VIP lounge on Thursday evening, the day after the casino opened. While the room is semi-private, ogling railbirds can get a peek at their favorite high-stakes players through the glass front door. According to one of the employees at Aria, Phil Ivey is currently in talks to loan his name to the room in the same fashion that Bobby Baldwin did at the Bellagio, so news of big games being played in “Phil’s Room” could be on the horizon.

Two questions come to mind:

1. Is there enough room for two “Big Games” in this town?
2. Big-name players supporting poker rooms or poker rooms supporting big-name players?
3. What’s MGM/Mirage’s vision for poker across its competing properties?
4. When are they gonna put this highest-stakes shit on 24-hour webcam?

OK, that’s four. But hey, CityCenter is big … and so far, just a few days old, it raises more questions about Las Vegas’ future than it answers.

Here’s a better look at the new Aria poker room in CityCenter … with Aria photos and info coming from Flipchip at LasVegasVegas:

photo: Flipchip/LasVegasVegas

24 tables.

Games being spread in the opening days:

1/3 NLH
2/5 NLH
5/10 NLH
4/8 Mixed (Badugi, 2-7, Razz, Stud 8, O8)
100/200 PLO

Photo: Flipchip/LasVegasVegas

NOTE: According to @LasVegasMichael, while this room was absolutely packed throughout the evening, the games totally died by morning, with only two 1/2 tables, and some heads-up 2/5 going on shortly after sunrise this morn.

Perhaps to be expected on an overall slow Vegas weekend, in a room without a loyal following yet, with most of the players being just passersby?

The ARIA poker room, at CityCenter, along with the rest of the casino around it, is now open for business. Here’s a picture of last night’s festivities, celebrating the addition of 4,000 more hotel rooms to the relatively unoccupied Strip:

photo: Scott Harrison

The AP reports some guy named “Daniel” was the first person to sign up for action — putting his name on an interest list for 1/2 no-limit hold’em two hours before ARIA opened for business at midnight.

Now that all the multibillion-dollar pomp and circumstance is over (ha) … low-stakes Vegas pokerers may want to head to the Hard Rock, where we’ve got a Pokerati 1/2 game (nlh/plo round of each, w/ automatic run-it-twice) getting underway tonight at 7 pm. #MoreFireworks

UPDATE: The Pokerati Hard Rock game made a full table … even has a very brief wait for seats, but broke by 11 pm. Everyone was headed to Aria … where there supposedly “like 37 tables!” all full with a $1/$3 waiting list some 30something deep. I guess people really like new shiny things.

RE-UPDATE: Here’s more on the Aria, with specifics about their poker room, from Gaming Today:

The entire race and sports books is located in its own wing near the north entrance of ARIA, which also features the casino’s poker room.

Poker Room Manager Adam Altwies has created a beautiful room with 24 tables, 18 of them located on the main floor, with five in a high-limit alcove and one reserved for an exclusive VIP room.

The room is designed so players have plenty of elbow room, with comfortable chairs and food and beverage service available.

A nice touch is the Genesis-Bravo reservation system, which allows the poker room to summons the guest through a text message to his cell phone, rather than using some of the pager-type systems.

This (long) weekend’s #WPBT festivities are coming to a close … and as I type the poker bloggers are gathered for Sunday football at Lagasse’s Stadium in the Palazzo. There some of them are experiencing, for the first time, what many say is the future of gambling: handheld, semi-portable real-money action.

A new-ish device, “eDeck”, lets you gamble Blackberry/iPhone-style theoretically from anywhere, but currently within the confines of three Las Vegas casinos — the Venetian, Palazzo, and M Resort. Global Gaming Business Magazine named it Best Table Game Product or Innovation for 2009. And none other than Doyle Brunson has been pimping it:

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Everybody likes a sneak peak into high-roller hotel rooms … and this YouTube vid gives more than a glimpse of the Bruce Willis and Marilyn Monroe suites at Planet Hollywood. PHo’s poker room is under new management, btw, that seems to be working hard to bring good, friendly customer-servicey low-stakes action ever since their previous management team turned out to be a bunch of (alleged) crooks:

Back in the day, you know, like 2007, rooms like these — with amazing views, foosball, and a bidet — were reserved for people willing to pay a few thousand a night or gamble with 10s of thousands. Now, as 2009 comes to a (bittersweet?) close, such suites are being given away for free to semi-famous YouTube bloggers who know a guy who knows a guy who once worked at Best Buy and sold stereo equipment to a previous high-roller with leftover comp points.

Economy prediction: Bargain luxe + favors will be hot in 2010, too.

It’s been conventional wisdom around LV for nearly two years that as goes the fate of CityCenter, so goes the fate of Las Vegas. The multibillion-dollar project and biggest construction endeavor since the Pyramids (and maybe the Great Wall of China?) has had its shaky ups and downs … Five workers have died building it, and the project almost was abandoned under bankruptcy until Dubai World bailed out MGM/Mirage, which saw a 10 percent drop in stock price Friday after Wall Street learned of Dubai’s own $60 billion debt problems. But the stock price did rebound …

The artistically bent glass-and-steel center-Strip monstrosity begins opening in phases tomorrow, with the Aria casino putting cards in the air on Dec. 16.

Your very quick look at the newest poker room in Las Vegas — at what’s supposed to be the crown jewel of the MGM/Mirage gambling empire — comes at 1:37. Cheesy (but apt) poker metaphor at 1:54.

Annie Duke’s Celebrity Apprentice friendmate Brande Roderick is apparently sticking with the poker thing in some capacity. A series of $100 tourneys at Binion’s over the next few months include a chance to qualify for a Tournament of Champions … and the winner of that gets to spend the Super Bowl with the business-savvy Playboy bunny:

This one isn’t for a special occasion or tournament or anything … just pretty standard 5th-floor parking at the Venetian on any given Wednesday:

This player is not nearly as creative as he thinks he is.