As the Summer season starts to slowly wrap up and the kids start to shop for back to school clothes and supplies, the last hurrah of the Summer break kids and tourists come out to Las Vegas. Though the occasional rainstorms have damped some of the Vegas valley, the temperatures continue to be above 105 degrees every day this week, with Thursday expecting to hit the 111 degree mark! This Week in Vegas will be one of the hottest of the Summer, and along with the heat comes new conventions, entertainment, and poker rooms continuing to attempt to stay competitive with unique offerings. Let's take a good look at This Week in Vegas!

Starting off with the lifeblood of the Vegas hotel room economy, the conventions. This week sees over 6,000 eager industry shoe buyers hitting the Venetian for the annual ENKWSA trade show. This special convention is not open to the public and is for industry professionals and buyers of the footwear and related accessories industry. Hundreds of vendors are there to sell and promote their value minded footwear to the masses, and the only requirement is that you are part of the retail trade industry. A more technical industry show is being held over at Mandalay Bay. Over 8,000 are expected to attended the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International. This technical educational trade show will host over 500 exhibitors of the robotics and machine trade. Over at MGM Grand, the Shaklee Corporation Global Conference is hosting some 7,000 attendees. This company based seminar is for employees and vendors of the Shaklee Corporation, which specialize in dietary supplements and vitalizers. Down the street at Caesars Palace, the National Flute Association is bringing together over 3,000 flautists for the largest Flute convention of the year. Finally, one of the most talked about and anticipated conventions of the year is occurring at the Rio (instead of the long standing Las Vegas Hilton, now LVH). Yes, the annual Star Trek Convention is occurring at the home of the World Series of Poker and nearly 4,000 Trekkies are expected to attend, many of which in full costume. This is one of the busiest convention weeks in Vegas, with medium and larger sized conventions going on across a variety of industries all over town.

This is also the inaugural week of the AVP Weekly Showdown, which is basically a weekly loy buy in tournament that AVP'ers agree to support and play at. This week is the first tournament on the schedule, and will occur at the Stratosphere's 7Pm on Thursday. This tournament is a popular choice for locals and tourists and is frequently discussed on here. The tournament provides complimentary pizza at the first break, and the cost of entry is only $45 (a single $20 rebuy is available which will get you 8,000 total chips). Next week, the AVP showdown moves over to Planet Hollywood, then to Golden Nugget, then to Flamingo. It should be a great chance to meet up with local and visiting AVP'ers in an organized event!

The entertainment spectrum of Las Vegas this week includes the return of Celine Dion to the Caesars Palace Colosseum, Beck over at Palms, and Taylor Hicks at Bally's. Upcoming entertainment includes Rod Stewart, Justin Bieber, Garth Brooks, and even David Spade. The comedy and music scene of Las Vegas never disappoints, and this week is certainly no exception.

In the poker front, MGM is hosting their Tuesday HORSE tournament and is followed by a weekly 6/12 Mixed Game every Wednesday night. The Wynn has successfully gotten the 10/20 Omaha 8/b game back with a vengeance, and is currently running on two tables in their poker room. The Venetian and Aria continue to offer nightly Pot Limit Omaha, with some very deep pots and lots of cash on the table, even in the 1/3 version of the game. Finally, the Sunday Night Mixed Game at Imperial Palace continues to flourish, even 4 years after it was started back in March 2008.

This hot week in Vegas includes a host of everything across the spectrum. Try to stay cool and enjoy the festivities everyone!

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--LasVegasMichael