by Dave Ferrara, Mar 22, 2012 | 12:38 pm

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 real, what’s bullshit and what’s a live tell.

Some of what I’ve picked up lately:

Karina Jett is the MGM’s new poker room ambassador, meaning she will promote the room and host the weekly $120 HORSE event at 7:15pm every Tuesday. Jett has hosted the HORSEament previously at the Palms and then M Resort before settling into her new gig at MGM. The inaugural running at MGM featured a drinks-flowing pre-party that saw Cyndy Violette, Gavin Smith, Layne Flack, Allen Kessler, and Erik Seidel.

DonkDown Radio founder Bryan Micon won the tournament last week, beating a pro-filled field of about 80 for a $2k score, along with besting several others in a last-longer bet that paid an added $4k. The next running, earlier this week, attracted a field of about 60 players.

Meanwhile, WPT Executive Tour Director Matt Savage is also on board with MGM, serving as tournament director for the upcoming Grand Challenge Tournament series. Savage apparently was looking for something else to do in Vegas now that the Epic events are off his calendar.

Occupy Aria?
Players take Ivey Room mixed game back to Bellagio

This hasn’t been confirmed yet, but according to at least one regular player in one of the bigger regular games in Vegas:

For everyone that plans on playing mixgames in Las Vegas…We are no longer playing at Aria… Come join us everyday at @BellagioPoker

— Mike Thorpe (@RealCrazyMike) March 21, 2012

Politics don’t allow us to be able to play at Aria now…Aria is a great place and has great staff and I love it and prefer Aria overall.

— Mike Thorpe (@RealCrazyMike) March 21, 2012

I Hate politics… So easier to move to Bellagio…Come join us everyday @BellagioPoker and get your picture for “playing with this guy”

— Mike Thorpe (@RealCrazyMike) March 21, 2012

FWIW I saw Jean Robert Belande (@BrokeLivingJRB) still playing in Ivey’s room with David Williams (@DWPoker) just last night, so there could be more to this schism. If it’s all political, as Crazy Mike says, that could explain why Barack Obama was in town yesterday.

Under New Management
@WynnPoker Classic draws heat

The Wynn has a new poker room director, Joe Vigurs, a former graveyard shift manager at Venetian. And true to form, poker players on 2+2 and Twitter welcomed him to the fray by getting panties in serious wads at the Wynn Classic, which wrapped up last week. Jimmy Fricke called the preliminary events “absolutely brutal” while Allen Kessler said fellow pros complained that the main event was “the worst run 5k ever.” Other complaints included skipped blind levels and a floor supervisor allowing David Levy to “buy the button” in a tournament when he moved tables. For all the reported wrinkles, however, several local tournament grinders at Wynn tell me they “thoroughly enjoyed” the structures.

Last Call
O’Sheas Closing to Make Room for Caesars Wheel

Time is running out to donk around with the drunks. O’Sheas, the 23-year-old center-strip hub of drunken poker, and drunken everything, is shutting down April 30 to make room for Caesars Entertainment’s new $500 million Linq project, expected to open next year.

The Irish-themed casino has been known as a “break-in” room for poker room staff across Vegas, and many of them work there part time. Caesars notified them earlier this year that these jobs would be eliminated, though they were offered work during the WSOP.

There was no “strip poker” Saturday, because St. Patrick’s Day crowds overwhelmingly packed the front of O’Sheas. But my friend Andrew Neeme (@andrewneeme) and I played a few hours of 2-6 spread limit and 1-2 no-limit hold’em in the four-table poker room just a few feet away from the beer pong section. We each collected a little holiday green, as most of the players drank far more beers than us.

Until it closes, O’Sheas will continue to offer daily tournaments and their standard 1/2NL and 2-6 spread limit cash games. The poker room at the Imperial Palace is also expected to close temporarily as the Linq construction gets underway. Part of the plan includes tearing down O’Sheas to make room for a 550-foot tall “observation wheel” called the Las Vegas High Roller.

Also-Rans around Town …

Silverton and Fitzgeralds recently closed their poker rooms. The former because they simply had no players, and the latter seems to fit with a rebranding of the downtown casino. The name is changing to the D, and a Fremont-facing bar will replace the rainbow marquee, which eventually will be headed to the nearby Neon Boneyard.