The Aces Club is the VIP room set up across from the Amazon Room. Players who paid $2,500 as a donation to the Nevada Cancer Institute were granted access throughout the World Series. The ability to pay the fee and gain access is also not publicized, so only those “in the know” are offered the opportunity to buy in.

I’ve heard about it. I even tried to get in one night with WSOP media guru Nolan Dalla, but players were on their break and hovering about the VIP room, so security denied us access. Yep, there is a 24-hour security guard at the door to keep the riff-raff out.

Today, I was conducting an interview with an unnamed poker pro. He just busted out of the $10K stud championship and suggested the VIP room as a quiet area to chat. I didn’t want to like the Aces Club, but I have to admit it was a sweet set-up – very comfortable leather couches, an enormous food spread, and video games. One was a PokerTek-ish flat table heads-up poker game.

Aforementioned unnamed pro told me that he witnessed a game earlier in the day between Phil Ivey and David Williams on the heads-up machine. Evidently, Phil didn’t look at his cards once and smoked David. Smoked like a fine cigar. Smoked like a dinner salmon. Smoked like a…well, you get it. Quite embarrassing.

I’d like to think we’re not missing anything by not having access to the Aces Club, but I’m not so sure. Next mission: Get back into the VIP and beat David Williams at heads-up poker roll around on those couches naked nab some of that free VIP food.