After many talks and rumors, Harrah’s finally announced today a $1 Billion expansion of Caesar’s Palace.

According to Harrah’s Release:

Octavius Tower

The heart of the Caesars Palace expansion is the Octavius Tower, located along Flamingo Road on the southeast corner of the Caesars property. The new Octavius Tower will include:

665-room, 23-story hotel tower rising 350 feet;
594 hotel guest rooms (floor plans from 600 square feet);
19 1 1/2-bay suites;
41 two- or three-bay suites;
4 four-bay suites;
3 five-bay suites;
1 six-bay suite; and
3 lavish pool villa suites.
Named for the great-nephew of Julius Caesar, who later changed his name to Augustus, the $375 million Octavius Tower will adjoin and resemble the resort’s Augustus Tower that opened in August 2005 with a new hotel registration lobby and VIP check-in lounges. In addition to convenient access from the hotel lobby and VIP reception areas, Octavius guests also will enjoy panoramic views and direct entry to swimming pools and gardens.

In addition to the new Octavius Tower, the resort’s existing 512-room Forum Tower will undergo a major refurbishment. A regal new front entrance and expanded valet parking will open to expansive new casino interior decor, inviting guests to a remodeled buffet restaurant, redesigned Cypress Street Marketplace casual restaurant and enlarged Race & Sports Book.

Wow, doesn’t this sound exciting? Not sure if they will offer any of the round beds with mirrors on the ceiling that Caesars had in the older days but I’m sure the new rooms will be nice. Perhaps this is to get ready for the WSOP relocation? If so, I may actually miss the Tilted Kilt (even though they don’t serve dessert).

LAS VEGAS–Be sure to check out Tiffany Michelle’s interview with newly crowned WSOP champ Jerry Yang. I gotta say … seems like a great guy. In this vid, he spells out the details of his poker tithes — to Make-a-Wish, Feed the Children, and Ronald McDonald House — and about two minutes in, gives us some insight into what went really went down on those bathroom breaks. On your knees in front of the urinals? Sounds like a crazy prop bet you might see on RawVegas. Either that or those Full Tilt guys must play rough!

OK, seriously … I don’t think we could ask for a better WSOP main event champ/Miss America of Poker. “The Shadow” clearly knows poker, but doesn’t claim to have done anything beyond the basics at the table. Pretty cool that a guy like this can win … and looks to be a lovable ATM spokesman for the game.

LAS VEGAS–The WSOP dealers, as mentioned before, were wanting to see Jerry Yang win for the sake of a bigger tip. He couldn’t have had a reputation as a big tipper — because as a guy playing in his first WSOP and with no noted accomplishments high-stakes or otherwise, how could they know? Perhaps they saw him as a mark … an inexperienced player who had already committed 10 percent of his winnings to charity might be easily persuaded to “give a little back,” if you know what I’m sayin’.

Not sure what Yang’s intentions were as he walked into the payouts room … but Chris Ferguson reportedly joined him — not because he was invited, but because he was a Full Tilt guy looking after a Full Tilt player. When the payout ladies asked what he would like to leave for the dealers, Ferguson supposedly informed him that he had already given 2 percent. Nolan Dalla corrected him, saying, “Actually it’s 1.8 percent.” [Ed. Note: Inaccurate as originally reported. We regret/apologize for the error lazy journalism.]

At that point Ferguson pointed out what that came out to — $148,500 by my calculations, but not certain that’s the number he cited — and said, according to a mostly reliable source who was in the payouts room, “So I recommend zero.”

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Just before reaching the Amazon room the carpet turns to marble and suddenly one is faced with an option…straight ahead – food and poker, turn to the left – poker and poker sweatshirts and juuuuust right…the media room.

Every morning I made the right choice of the media room to set up shop and claim my spot. I can only wonder if everyone else had the same thoughts during the long haul of the hallway…Will there be a stranger in my seat? Will I be able to get a seat? Has someone eaten the last chocolate croissant?
These questions would remain unanswered if you didn’t posses the goods (a media badge) to pass through security (at least the first and last week of the 2007 WSOP).

John was our afternoon security guard who smiled, waved and always asked how we were doing.

John, who was in the ARMY and recently moved to Vegas, liked Gary Wise the best of the media crowd because he was “funny.”

Gary, seen holding an ice cream cone in photo, said it was mostly because he gave him the knuckle thing. What is that hand thing called? You know, the one that’s like a high five/hand shake but avoids germs by just touching knuckles?

Congratulations Gary! You made John’s job enjoyable.

LAS VEGAS–Remember how I was telling you that Full Tilt honchos henchmen weren’t too excited about the prospects of Jerry Yang winning? Well something must’ve changed by the time they got heads-up.

The players had just gone on break, and Jerry Yang had a 6:1 chip lead over Tuan Lam. An Asian guy in a suit grabbed Oliver Tse (who represents Yang for now, but is already trying to plan for the likelihood of bigger agencies wrestling his World Champion client away from him) and the two started walking away. Following not too far behind the was Yang, who was headed to the bathroom, with a small entourage following him.

That’s when the Full Tilt guys both, almost simultaneously, clapped their hands together and started rubbing their palms with wide eyes and grins on their faces. I let them go through the door in front of me, saying, “Please, you have serious business to attend to.”

“‘Wha…? I’ve just gotta go to the bathroom,” the smaller Full Tilt rep said.

“Like I said, serious business.”

They chuckled and kept walking briskly.

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LAS VEGAS–Tuan Lam moved all-in with AQ, got instacalled by 88.

Flop: 5-Q-9
Turn: 7
River: 6

LAS VEGAS–Raymond Rahme, the first ever African to make a main event final table, just went out (on a questionable play running a quasi-bluff with KK after an ace flopped) … so they’re heads-up now. “I made one mistake this whole tournament,” Rahme says.

The dealers are rooting for Jerry Yang. Not only is he apparently a very nice guy who reportedly plans to give a huge chunk of his winnings to the Make-a-Wish foundation, but also he is known as a very generous tipper. (Just confirmed — 10 percent of his winnings will go to three charities.)

A high-ranking source within Full Tilt, however, said (when Alex Kravchenko was still alive) that his people were pulling for Kravchenko over Yang, even though both signed on with Full Tilt upon making the final table. For starters, Yang has never before played online, and learned the game only two years ago. Not quite a “Play with the Pros” kinda guy. And as a family man who looks at pictures of his six kids throughout a hand and says prayers that praise the non-Chris Ferguson Jesus upon moving all-in … “Not exactly the style we’re looking for.”

NOTE: Rahme also has six kids. “Battle of the Brady Bunch x 2″ ESPN’s Howard David just dubbed it.

As for the people who have little stake in who wins between Tuan Lam and Jerry Yang, they are suddenly Yang fans just because that will lead to a quicker end.

Shame on them!

LAS VEGAS–OK, so maybe the Euros didn’t totally dominate this year as I predicted … and the internet young punks — much to the relief of non-ranting poker traditionalists — couldn’t quite hack it at the final table. Perhaps all the dancing and fist pumps were giving away tells. But what is notable is that of the final five players in the main event this year … not a single American passport.

John Kalmar (who went out in 5th place) hails from England.

Raymond Rahme (currently 2nd in chips) is a South African.

Tuan Lam (originally from Vietnam) is now a Canadian.

Alex Kravchenko, from Moscow, has been doing his part all Series long to establish himself as the Doyle Brunson of Russia.

And Jerry Yang (the chip leader) is from California-via-Laos. But as a refugee, he carries an American green card … not a passport. Apparently refugees have a special piece of paper for traveling internationally.

Interesting, no? I think it all means something.

UPDATE: Yang just busted out Kravchenko — seven hours passed between the 5th place finish and fourth — and the crowd began chanting, “U-S-A! U-S-A!”

LAS VEGAS–Tom’s doing the live radio broadcast right now on Sirius 119 and Bluff Radio … with ESPN’s Howard David and Robert Williamson. Go Tom … sorta. Even Howard pointed out that Schneider isn’t on his “A-game.” Considering that I’ve seen Tom down at least four Milwaukee’s Best Lights since dinner time … well I think that might have something to do with the string of bad jokes and non-sequiturs.

(But congrats to Tom, who was just personally invited by Jeffrey Pollack to be part of the WSOP Players Advisory Committee.)

UPDATE: Players are on break — so they’ve been temporarily replaced by Gary Wise and Scott Preston … who pointed out the RW3 was drinking Milwaukee’s Best Light with Tabasco sauce. As this broadcast is being blasted through the media room, it’s absolutely delightful for all the media people to have Gary echoing overhead. Everyone is cheering and applauding and singing his praises. If only he could be here to hear for himself.

Oh, almost forgot … if you want to hear Tom on his radio-ish A-game … be sure to listen to the latest episode of Beyond the Table. Well actually not the latest episode — there is a new one up — but maybe two or three episodes ago.

UPDATE: OK, you can go back to listening live (for free). Tom is back on his game … wait, never mind, joke about owing money. He’s off again. He is apparently nothing without Sit’N'Go Steve.

LAS VEGAS–It’s been a multicultural international affair at the WSOP main event final table today. Here are the bios of the players in contention, courtesy of Nolan Dalla.

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LAS VEGAS–”Have you seen a big black Navigator come back here?” asked Craig Abrahams, the official WSOP “new media” guru. My answer was no, with a joke about being a white navigator, which clearly didn’t amuse him. He was waiting for the money to arrive.

They’re down to six players in the 38th annual World Series of Poker. To follow along online live-blogging style, click here. Or for $20, you can watch the action on a one-minute delay — without hole cards — here.

Here’s how the final table started off:

Seat 1 – Raymond Rahme – 16.32 million
Seat 2 – Alex Kravchenko – 6.57 million
Seat 3 – Lee Childs – 13.24 million
Seat 4 – Jerry Yang – 8.45 million
Seat 5 – Lee Watkinson – 9.925 million
Seat 6 – Tuan Lam – 21.315 million
Seat 7 – Philip Hilm – 22.07 million
Seat 8 – Jon Kalmar – 20.32 million
Seat 9 – Hevad ‘Rain’ Khan – 9.205 million

And here’s where it all stands at 5 pm Vegas time, with five four players left, whereupon they have all crossed the millionaire’s line:

Jerry Yang – 69,790,000
Raymond Rahme – 29,890,000
Tuan Lam – 18,105,000
Alex Kravchenko – 9,700,000

FUNNY: Somewhere out there the ESPN live feed can be seen for free. Benjo informed us of this with his angry Frenchman’s smirk, and when ESPN’s Andrew Feldman, with great concern, asked for the link, Benjo responded [thick accent here], “I am note go-eeng to tell you!”

Anyhow, eventually Ty Stewart, the official WSOP marketing maestro, did drive up — in a white BMW SUV (not a black Navigator) and started unloading the metal money suitcases. (Properly branded with a Milwaukee’s Best Light logo.) He grabbed three of them out the back, at which point I joked vociferously, “That’s one million, two million, three million …” Not even a smile … but he did walk off into a tunnel while leaving the back of his SUV open, at which point I mustered up all the discipline possible not to grab a money suitcase to find out if they were fully loaded or not.

Inside it’s another story. All about the money — but not necessarily the $8.25 million at stake for first place …

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LAS VEGAS–Here’s Tiffany Michelle’s bustout interview with John Armbrust from Austin, where he gives a shout out to Austin Pete’s friend … and seems to be a pretty nice guy — a teacher who loves his kids — non-Dario RaiNKhaNish at all.

WSOP: Great way to spend your summer vacation.

LAS VEGAS–Texas’ last man standing is no longer sitting. Ray Henson from Houston went out in 12th place … banking $476,926. Nice job, Ray. Though it woulda been nice if you coulda taken down that Scandi Philip Hilm with you!

Oh well, better luck next year?

(And I guess that’s what we get for overlooking Hilm.)

Here’s an animated look at the hand Henson went out on, against Scotty Nguyen.

LAS VEGAS–This new batch of freshly legal internet wisehands … not sure what to make of ‘em. It’s kinda hard not to like the savant-ish ability of RaiNKhaN (I think I’m getting the way he does the funky caps right). But there’s a clear leaning toward the WWE as opposed to the PGA that they seem to bring to the table with them.

Hevad “Rain” Khan is currently 4th in chips with 12 players remaining. I know I really do hope he makes the final table — for pure entertainment value and to, you know, yo, represent. But were he to win? Yikes … that would create 10s of thousands of young punks wanting to be like him … and that would be either a really good thing, or a really bad thing.

Here’s the video of RaiNKhaN playing more sit-n-gos than any normal person would know what to do with:

And here’s a “secret” video of one of his tamer outbursts during main event play:

(The comments he’s getting are also rather telling about Gen-Y poker players and what they think matters.)

LAS VEGAS–With the Scandis dropping like flies, a couple “unknown” Texans have stuck around to show their super-high-stakes hold’em prowess.

Click here to follow the weekend action as we work our way down to the all-important final table.

Currently, Ray Henson from Houston (left) is the chip leader — with 10.965 million chips third in chips with more than 10 million. He’s playing on the ESPN feature table, where previous main-event champ Scotty Nguyen seems to be the key camera draw.

This is different from the Bluff feature table, where John Armbrust from Austin (right) also has about 10 million in chips. Lee Watkinson, the new chip leader (14 million), is at his table, along with Accused Internet Robot “RaiNKhan.” Yesterday RaiNKhan, perhaps trying to show that he is indeed descended from monkeys, climbed up the ESPN scaffolding to celebrate a victorious hand. Yeow. Click here to see a video of some RaiNKhan celebrations in action.

Armbrust, by the way, is related by multiple marriages and maybe a little blood to the Fresh Princess. And Austin Pete Blackberry’s in to inform us:

If Pokerati is looking to endorse anyone-John Ambrust is the proverbial “friend of a friend.”. Difference here, is that my friend has a 200 dollar one percent interest in Amburst. At a minimum that interest would worth 2.5k. Amburst was shortstacked sitting 49th out of the last 60 with 700k before going on a nice run. Her now sits 17th out of 37. I also checked the almanac, and if Amburst wins the main event, it would be the first time a main event champion and the Pokerati Invitational were won by players haling from the same city. Go Austin Poker!

CCExplore also has some great stuff about Armbrust here, and here.

UPDATE: And just like that, Armbrust is out. Damn, thought he was gonna win it.

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