Las Vegas Life with Kristy Arnett: Tournaments and Fun
The past couple of weeks have been pretty busy in Las Vegas what with birthday parties, the World Poker Tour Festa al Lago and the World High Stakes Golf. I'm going to give you a glimpse into everything that went on in the last couple of weeks here in Las Vegas. Enjoy!
Hot Spot Pick of the Week: Maggiano's
Maggiano's is an Italian style restaurant with a prime location on the Las Vegas Strip. It's across the street from the Wynn Casino and attached to Fashion Show mall. The food is amazing and very reasonably priced. This week, I attended a birthday party, along with nearly 20 guests, that was organized by Lynn Gilmartin. We took advantage of the all-you-can-eat family style menu. For parties of 10 or more, you can opt for a preset menu of your choice. You choose two appetizers, two salads, two pastas, two entrees and two deserts for a price of $29.95 per person. Because our preset menu was chosen and organized ahead of time, we had our first course within minutes of sitting down. By the end of the night, we were stuffed, and there was no fuss when it came to organizing the bill. For a large group of people, this is a perfect way to dine out.
Festa al Lago
The $10,000 WPT Festa al Lago Main Event took place and ended two nights ago with 22-year-old Randal Flowers taking down his second WPT title. Having just met him earlier this year at EPT Tallinn, I've learned two things about him. The first is that he's an awesome dancer. The second is that he does great impressions. At the televised final table, Flowers was showing off his Mike Sexton impression, which is sure to get some air time. Here is the interview I did with him just after his win.
Tournament Series for Smaller Bankrolls
Now, if you didn't have the $10,000 to play the WPT event, two upcoming tournament series in Vegas are perfect for smaller bankrolls. The first is the Caesars Palace Mega Stack, which started Thursday. The prelims have buy-ins ranging anywhere from $235 to $555, with the Main Event being a $1,080 buy-in on November 1. The Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza begins Oct. 28. This series has preliminary buy-ins from $340 to $1,070 with a Main Event buy-in of $2,500, which takes place on November 21. I've played in both previous tournament series, and you really can't ask for better value on your money. The structures are generous, and it's a lot of fun. For a complete schedule on both these events, you can read the latest edition of The Vegas Grinder on PokerNews. Also, if you've never seen the Venetian poker room, here is a video we did during the 2010 NAPT Venetian.
Golf and Poker
It's no secret that lots of poker players love golf. The high-stakes players like Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, and David Oppenheim especially love it because of all the opportunities to gamble. One of the sickest bets in the past few years is the one in which Erick Lindgren reportedly won $350,000 against Gavin Smith, Ivey, and unnamed others for shooting under 100 for four consecutive rounds while carrying his own golf bag at Bear's Best course in Summerlin in 100-degree or more heat. This week, I caught up with these guys at that golf course for the qualifying round of World High Stakes Golf. Of course, I had to ask for more stories on their craziest moments at the golf course.
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