Here’s the final nine and their chip counts:

1 Dennis Phillips 26,295,0000
2 Ivan Demidov 24,400,0000
3 Scott Montgomery 19,690,0000
4 Peter Eastgate 18,375,0000
5 Ylon Schwartz 12,525,0000
6 Darus Suharto 12,520,0000
7 David Rheem 10,230,0000
8 Craig Marquis 10,210,0000
9 Kelly Kim 2,620,000

There’s no “name” players at the final table this year. The highest finishing big name was Mike “The Mouth” Matusow who busted out in 30th place. The highest finishing female this year was Tiffany Michele who finished in 17th place.

Each player is guaranteed at least $900,670 in prize money with the winner getting $9,119,338 and the coveted bracelet.

As previously discussed the final table will he held on November 9. The ESPN coverage of the other tournaments will begin July 22 and lead up untill the final table, which will be on a 2 hour tape delay of the heads-up finale.  

The only connection I can see is that that South Point owner Michael Gaughan is the son of Jackie Gaughan, long time cohort and friend of Benny and former owner of the El Cortez in downtown.  I’m not sure whose idea the move was, only that the new owner of Binion’s, Terry Claudill , who owns the Four Queens downtown also, approved the move and Jack Binion, son of Benny and former president of the Horseshoe said it would be more appropriate at the new location and “it was a classy thing to do.”

 I’m kind of sad about this actually. Anyone whose only discovered Las Vegas in the last few years only knows Binion’s as just another old casino downtown. They really don’t know all that Benny Binion has done for this town and the casino business in general. Many of the things we take for granted were started by him. He was the first to offer free drinks for gamblers, the first to offer limo rided to and from the airport for high rollers. Hell the Horseshoe was the first downtown casino to have carpet! He also had the highest gaming limits of any casino at the time. He once said he would take any bet, and lived up to his word.

But perhaps his greatest legacy is the World Series of Poker. Started in 1970 as just a game between some of poker’s top names it’s become the premier poker event on the planet. The first year only 7 people played and the winner was chosen by a vote! A far cry from the thousands that are in the tournamant these days.

The statue is just on display at the South Point now, with no plaque or signage or anything to pay tribute to the man that was such a huge part of the history of Las Vegas. Kind of sad really.

It’s pretty much the biggest prize you can have in poker. The main event winner is more or less considered the king of poker. With the explosion in online poker the last few years what’s been called the “Moneymaker effect” the numbers of entries has skyrocketed! So named for Chris Moneymaker, who was the first main event winner to win his entry online back in 2003, the effect really kicked the popularity of poker into the stratosphere!

Although the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 pretty much took a lot of the wind out of the sails of online poker from the US players. It really didn’t make the act of playing illegal, it just doesn’t allow the transfer of money from a US-based bank account or credit card. I played mostly for fun online (I have about as much luck online as in the brick and mortal casinos, which is either none or less than none depending on the day) so it didn’t affect me very much but it really put a damper on millions. Plus they also made it against the rules to directly transfer your tournament buy-in from your online account which thousands of online players had been doing.  

It’s might seem weird to newer fans of poker but the crowds weren’t always this big, but realize the year Phil Hellmuth won in 1989 there was only 178 people in the main event! I remember the last year they held the whole thing at Binions, when it was still the Horseshoe, in 2004 and you couldn’t even move in there! They had poker tables jammed in every corner you could imagine! The whole thing almost got shut down by the fire marshalls too. Now they have the tournaments in one of the convention center rooms in the Rio.

Ok that’s enough rambling about the WSOP for now. I’ll update when the final table is set in a few days.

At least that’s the official story. I really have no reason to believe otherwise. Sometimes there’s hard opening dates set for shows and even hotel openings and there’s a couple of snags along the way. Stuff happens. I’m looking forward to checking out the show actually I think Criss does some pretty cool illusions. If you’ve ever caught his Mindfreak show on cable he does some pretty outrageous stuff.

FYI the show’s name “Believe” comes from Harry Houdini. He uttered to his wife on his deathbed that he would try yo contact her from the dead and the word “believe” would be the codeword. Criss chose it as the title of his new show as a tribute to one of his magic heros. There’s your Vegas trivia for the day!

One weird thing about our seasons is that our spring & fall are really short, maybe 3 weeks. That’s the best time of year, in between jacket weather and putting the AC on. Get to open up the windows and enjoy the breeze. I’d much rather the heat than the cold personally. Having grown up in South Florida we got used to really mild winters and it’s just a bit too cold for me in the winters here. I don’t mind the change but around March I just go “Ok enough already!”

 One expression you hear a lot is “But it’s a dry heat!” Yeah, maybe we don’t have the high humidity here but don’t kid yourself, 110 degrees is HOT! Plus the relative humidity is usually less than 10%.  One thing you gotta do is keep yourself really hydrated in the summer. Always have some water handy and especially if you’re drinking. You’ll thank yourself. Trust me on this one! I used to laugh at the water bottle people until I became one! Just something to keep in mind if you’re coming from a cooler climate or you’re from a place like Florida where it’s 90 degrees but it’s 95% humidity. Certainly don’t let it alter your travel plans but just keep it in mind that it is the desert and it’s a different climate.

 Honestly it’s not a big surprise. With the way the economy is going now people have less money to spend on big projects and with no real way to see any solid returns on your investment there’s a lot of smaller projects that will suffer the same fate.

 To be honest Hooters isn’t a bad place. It’s got a cool vibe to it, a nice pool, decent food,  and hey, it’s got Hooters girls! It’s really about a 5 minute walk from the Tropicana and the MGM Grand so it’s really not out of the way. Plus, c’mon who doesn’t love chicken wings!

Time will tell what will happen there but for the time being feel free to enjoy Hooters!

They had planned to have the tallest tower in the US, but the FAA said that their plans would have interfered with the flightpaths at McCarran airport. At first they wanted to build a tower that was 1888 feet! In comparison the Stratosphere tower is 1,149 feet high. They did redesign their tower to be 1,064 feet which was approved by the FAA.

The head of the company behind the project is James Packer, son of the late Australian billionare and Vegas gambling legend Kerry Packer, who in his time was one of the biggest whales that Las vegas has ever seen. He had won and lost literally millions over the years.

The company though is going full speed on it’s other project, the Fountanbleau, which is right next door. And yes it’s named after the famous Fountanbleau in Miami in case you were wondering!

There’s been countless mega projects here that have been proposed and weren’t ever started and this is just another. I’m sure it won’t be the last. As the strip gets more saturated there’s gonna less big projects in my opinion in the coming years. Between the CityCenter, Echelon Place, Encore, and the Fountainbleau that’s 4 huge projects currently underway and that’s a lot of rooms, restaurants, retail shops and entertainment coming up to open in the next 18-24 months. We’ll just have to see what kind of impact those projects will make and we’ll take it from there! Just as always, never a dull moment in Las Vegas!

It’ll be interesting to see how the main event final table pans out. I made my feelings known about that situation previously with this post. With the internet gaming ban still in effect I’m predicting another drop in the total players in the main event. Before the ban the online poker sites would let you directly transfer the buy-in to the WSOP. But after the ban you can’t do that anymore, making the aquiring of the $10,000 buy in a lot more complicated. in 2006 before the ban the Main Event had 8,773 players. In 2007 there was 6,358. I’m predicting 5,600 this year. We’ll see how things pan out.

Well, I’m happy to report that downtown is looking up. I had some family out here this week. My parents came out from Florida along with my aunt & uncle from Massachusetts. My parents had been here before but it was the first trip for my aunt & uncle. I shuffled my work schedule around so I could spend some time with them. They really enjoyed their trip here. They confessed they really didn’t know what to expect and me, being the Las Vegas “expert” (hey my business card says so) made sure they had a good time.

One thing I insisted they get to see was the Fremont St. Experience. So one night we all piled in my truck and headed on down. They really enjoyed the whole deal, even though we didn’t see all of it.

I was, however, pleasantly surprised at just how many people were there. And it was on a Wednesday night, typically not a real busy night. Along with the kick ass light show, they had 2 different bands playing on the stages set up.

They really have tried to fix up downtown the last couple of years and it looks like they’re succeding. For people that say they miss the ”old Vegas”, well, it’s alive and well right where it all started. Downtown. You have several casinos all within a short walking distance, plenty of good food, free entertainment, and better (as in lower) limit gambling than the strip. Try to find $5 blackjack at the Venetian or the Wynn on a Friday night! You wanna stay in a nice place? The Golden Nugget is as nice as any casino on the strip. (I’ve had the buffet recently and it’s excellent)

So next time make it a point to come downtown. I’m sure you’ll have a great time. We all did!

For some reason this time they played at the Mandalay Bay Events Center instead of the MGM, which was ok with me it was my first time to check out that venue. They’re pretty similar really, basically an all-purpose arena.

I had a pre-show meal at one of my favorite places, the Burger Bar, which I reviewed here. It was great as always, only made better by many Rush fans also enjoying a pre-show meal! I chatted with several people & all were eagerly anticipating the show. I had my usual & headed on over to the venue.

Ahh but what about the show you ask? (Yeah yeah I’m getting to that!) After getting inside & checking out the venue I found my seat.  Seeing as I’m on the short side and the decent floor seats were gone quickly I chose a seat on the side section about half way back on Geddy’s side, almost the same seats I had at last year’s show but a little closer. I like sitting there you get to see over the crowd.

On the last few tours they’ve not had an opening act, just doing an “Evening with Rush”, which suits everyone just fine. Opening acts tend to not be received as well, plus it gives the boys more time to play!

At about 8:05 the lights went down and it’s showtime! They basically have the same show they played last year, save for a couple of changes to the setlist. Even though they’re playing a lot of songs from the latest album they are including some decent older stuff and some songs not played in quite a few years.

They played for about an hour and 10 minutes then took a 20 minute break, being that they’re “about a hundred years old” LOL

They kicked off the second set with 5 in a row from the new one and then got into some more older stuff. Also on the second set was the highlight of any Rush concert, the drum solo. Anyone whose not seen Neil Peart’s solo live really is missing a treat. “The Professor” lived up to his name once again. He has made his solos a lot more musical the last few tours, not quite as show off-y as in the past, which is a good thing.

All through my past days as a musician, my biggest influence was always Geddy Lee, and it’s always such an experience to see him live. You really are amazed at just how talented the man is with all the duties he has in concert. Being the lead singer, playing some of the most complicated bass lines, playing keyboards and also triggering stuff with his feet. Also his voice is in fine form still. They have to transpose a couple of the really older songs but for the most part he pulls if off.

Alex was his usual self, really enjoying the show, making faces and being the “class clown.” He’s the overlooked one of the group but not for lack of talent. He can shred with the best of them when he wants to. In some ways he helps hold things together, letting the other two be more adventurous, which is opposite from how a lot of rock bands are.

The show was about 85-90% sold out, pretty good considering they had played here only 9 months previously. A lot of people had come in from elsewhere, as is usually the case for Rush. I wish I had the opportunity to travel around and see shows in different places. Some people stayed for a few days too (c’mon you can’t just come to Vegas for 1 day!)

All in all it was a great evening. The one thing I really admire about Rush is they’re doing it for the love of music. They don’t need to do it for the money anymore. Plus you really get your money’s worth. It’s almost a three hour show, plus don’t forget they’re not kids anymore they’re all in their mid-50’s now! They have some of the most loyal fans and for 30 years now I’ve been one of the biggest.

I have heard rumors about them working on a new record next year, so hopefully we’ll get to see them again in a couple of years. And I’ll be right there cheering them on!

Here’s some cell phone pics: