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.
@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.
With the start of the $1K Stimulus tournament came the arrival of a number of familiar faces from the East Coast. Having spent the last couple of years handling the media and tournament coverage for Borgata during their Poker Open tournaments, I’ve come to know a lot of the players out East and it’s always a pleasure to see them make the pilgrimage to the world’s poker Mecca for the WSOP.
With players whose styles are as diversified as the United Nations, the visiting East Coast talent pool features cash game kings, online aces, and tournament prodigies. Among those seeing action over the last two days were Matt Glantz (who finished 18th in the $40k — $96k payday), Dale Pinchot, Alex Neponyaschi, Farhad Sinaei and Tommy “TommyGunz†Dobrilovic.
According to Glantz, a number of AC’s “Big Game” players are also in town and they met up to play a session of $600/$1,200 Stud, Stud 8/B and $100/$200 No Limit at Bellagio recently. As we get deeper into the WSOP, we can expect to see a sizable contingency of East Coast players make their way West, and I’ll do my best to make sure these guys don’t get overlooked here at Pokerati.
