The Venetian Poker Room: Grand Opening Review.

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The Venetian Poker Room: Grand Opening Review.
The highly anticipated poker room at The Venetian opened tonight, and All Vegas Poker was right in the middle of all the action.

Date: 04/03/06
Room: Venetian
Summary: The highly anticipated poker room at The Venetian opened tonight, and All Vegas Poker was right in the middle of all the action.

Content: During the past two years, I have attended a lot poker room "grand openings" around Las Vegas. But nothing compares to the grand opening of The Venetian poker room tonight. This was truly a "grand" opening – an event that included all of the pageantry and spectacle that one would expect from, quite possibly, the finest poker room in Las Vegas.

First there was the pre-party. The venue for this warm-up was the über-cool Tao Nightclub at The Venetian. Here VIPs and celebrities rubbed shoulders over rock'n tunes, Kobe beef mini-burgers, and Grey Goose martinis, before the poker room actually opened its doors.

Then there was the main event. The focal point of the grand opening of The Venetian poker room was an invitation only celebrity poker tournament. The winner of the poker tournament was to receive a brand new Lotus Elise, which was conveniently parked right in front of the poker room.

Evidently a free-roll for an exotic sports car is enough to attract the attention of most professional poker players, because almost all of them were in the house. In fact, the list would be shorter if I wrote the names of the name brand poker pros that were not there. Just a few of the poker pros that I had a chance to personally speak with include: Johnny Chan, Layne Flack, Amir Vahedi, Sam Farha, and Mike "The Mouth" Matusow. There were countless others I saw, but did not have a chance to speak with personally.

And poker pros were not the only celebrities that came out for the grand opening either. There were more than a few movie stars, including the gorgeous Shannon Elizabeth. Shannon even took a moment to snap a picture with me, and boy is it a good looking picture. I don't know; it must be the lighting.

Robin Leach kicked off the opening ceremony by saying a few words, and shortly after 9:00 p.m. it was time to shuffle up and deal.

Executives at The Venetian graciously invited me to participate in the poker tournament, so there I was, seated at table 12. On my left was poker legend Tom McEvoy and on my right was the super-suave card shark "Stevie Vegas".

Three hands into the tournament I sucked out about 50% of Tom McEvoy's chips when my failed attempt to steal the blinds with a garbage hand miraculously turned into two pair. Tom wasn't thrilled, but it was still exciting to put a beat on a four-time WSOP bracelet winner and poker authority that I have a lot of respect for. Tom happily took a picture with me later, and of course I gave him an All Vegas Poker chip (which he promptly began using as his card protector).

The staff and management at The Venetian poker room were doing a great job too, especially with crowd control. After the celebrity poker tournament began, the public was slowly allowed into the poker room for cash games. There was an enormous crowd of people standing outside the poker room, and I felt that management was wise to control the flow of people into the poker room.

I did not play in a cash game, but the tournament dealers I experienced were competent and mistake-free. Also, the cocktail service was fantastic! Even in the slam-packed poker room, a cocktail waitress stopped by my table every five to 10 minutes. They serve Red Bull in the can too!

One detail I appreciated was that the cocktail waitresses individually asked each player for their drink request. Service this personal is rare. At most Las Vegas poker rooms, players shout drink requests at cocktail waitresses standing halfway across the poker room. That was not necessary here because each waitress took the time to ask each person individually whether that person would like a drink. Nice touch.

It is really refreshing to see executives at a Las Vegas casino treat poker with such passion. As I mentioned, not only did executives at The Venetian invest considerable resources to build a first-class poker room, but they also put together a genuine "grand" opening.

When the crowd dies down and the poker room begins its regular operations I will conduct an editor’s review to fully test the facilities and service. Until then, go check out the poker room if you have not already. It is certainly worth seeing.

And no – I didn't win the Lotus. I busted out early when I made an all-in bluff into a large pot and got called by the chip leader at my table. Oh well. I can barely drive a stick anyway.