Poker Back in a Big Way at Caesar’s
The poker room of Caesar’s Palace in Los Vegas will be a busy place for
the next two weeks. As everyone from race car drivers to poker stars
will be participating in two high profile events. First up is a
tournament on Saturday, where the winner will get a seat in the 2006
National Heads-Up Poker Chamionship, which will take place March 4-6 at
Caesar’s. Ten hours of the show will be broadcast on NBC on Sundays
during April and May. The field is determined by invitation only, except
for the one of 64 who wins Saturday’s big prize. Saturday’s satellite
has unlimited rebuys for the first hour and a half.
The prize pool for the Heads-Up competition is $1.5 million dollars, and
contestants include the likes of 2005 victor Phil Hellmuth, who will
have to once again defeat some of the toughest competitors in the poker
world if he wants to defend his title.
A day after the end of the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, race
car driver Jeff Gordon and his crew of celebrities and players will roll
into Caesar’s poker room for the Jeff Gordon Foundation Poker Classic.
The buy-in for the event is $1,000, and Caesar’s is expecting 1,000
players at the event, which includes prizes of a money purse and a seat
at the World Series of Poker’s Main Event. The evening is set to be
hosted by Chris Moneymaker and Gordon, and players will include Chris
“Jesus” Ferguson, race car driver Tony Stewart, Robert Williamson III,
and last year’s World Series of Poker runner up Steven Dannemann.
Players shouldn’t be intimidated about not making it deep into the
tournament with all the expertise flying around. The Classic has a
little rule which keeps the poker royalty and celebrities out of the
games until the last 20 tables are determine, and they are then
distributed among those who are left.
The Jeff Gordon Foundation provides support for children and their
families through the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, the Make-A-Wish
Foundation, and several other charitable groups.
Caesar’s Palace poker room is the newest poker room on the Las Vegas
strip, having just opened in December. The main poker room has 25 high
definition television sets and is decorated with eleven LeRoy Neiman
paintings that chronicle 40 years of Caesar’s Palace history. Caesar’s
owes its new poker room to recent purchasers Harrah’s Entertainment
Inc., which bought the casino hotel last year. Before the purchase,
Caesar’s had been without a poker room for 16 years.
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