Pauly is a better faster writer than I am — so it’s always good to have him in town to make me work less. Read his detailed recap of Dream Team Poker weekend here and his less-detailed first impressions here.
Likewise, over at Wicked Chops, they’ve got the Hottie Beat covered … and PokerListings has manhandled the actual tournament action.
Tao of Pokerati Dream Team teammate Shaniac has some great music to listen to while you’re waiting for more.
Meanwhile, Team Aced did their thing to keep Aced.com in the public eye as a potentially legitimate newfangled online poker room with celeb-pro representative Jamie Gold, LV poker-room man Houston Waldie, and Gold-girlfriend Ashley Nataupsky — who is still alive for the individual championship — locking up the team title earlier today.
The vibe on Day 2 (final three tables) was quite distinct from Day 1 (field of 444 playing down to 27). From an informed source on the ground at Caesar’s:
It was great. People really had to watch the standings when making plays. They might have had pot odds on a few calls, but people were laying down hands to hold. It turned into one big last longer prop bet.
The guy behind Aced.com … or at least putting out the press releases is Houston Waldie. He’s the dude who was running poker room ops at the new Hard Rock Poker Lounge for its launch, and then was quickly shuffled out once the place was actually in business.
I know this is more of Dan’s area of expertise, but allvegaspoker.com is reporting that Houston Waldie, the Poker Room Manager of the recently opened room at the Hard Rock in Vegas, “voluntarily resigned”. The post in that forum mentions “darkish rumors” in Waldie’s past, whatever they are. More later from those in the know?
The Hard Rock Poker Lounge is almost ready to serve you.
The PR people at Hard Rock are trying to keep a tight lid on the unveiling of their new “Poker Lounge”, which opens to the public tomorrow — they don’t want any bad pictures getting out that fail to capture the venue in all its glory, nor any inaccurate information being spread widely for many to misconstrue. Er … ok, but that’s kinda what we do, ya know?
I’ve heard two numbers about how costly this new construction was — $12 million and $30 million. While there’s a big difference between the two, and at least one of them is probably wrong, either way, you get the picture … it’s a really nice place — built from the ground up and the inside out. Brian from the Poker Atlas and I swung by yesterday, where they were busily at work in their final stages of preparation, and we got a little tour from the Director of Poker Operations, Houston Waldie, who was brought to HRH after his success turning the Golden Nugget’s rinky-dink room into arguably the best game downtown. No cameras allowed as he pointed out features he was most proud of, but I did manage to sneak a few pics from behind the ropes to give you a sense of the space we’re talking about here.
I gotta say … Fuckin’ A …
Go Hard Rock. (General info and future reviews here; official site here.)
The luxe tables, couches, chairs, flatscreens, etc. were all expected, maybe a tad nicer. But the art, the architecture, the vibe — all created specifically to be a poker room, the most well thought out and well funded since the Venetian — make me miss living on the east side of town, where the Hard Rock was the most convenient casino to my old pad. And though I suspect it may take some time to build up a player base (perhaps when the new hotel rooms at the Hard Rock open?) that should make it one of the premiere poker destinations in LV, at least the set-up for the action seems pretty sweet. Here are a few tidbits I picked up without the benefit of tape recorder or notepad:
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