The premiere name in poker, World Series of Poker, is now officially part of Total Rewards, the premiere name in casino loyalty programs. As reported by the premiere Las Vegas blog. (Note: We may have just made that last part up.)

For the first time, World Series of Poker (WSOP) tournament entrants will get Reward Credits (sometimes called “loyalty points”) for playing in gold bracelet events. They’ll also get Reward Credits for playing in daily “Deepstack” tournaments and mega-satellite events at the Rio Las Vegas, where the World Series of Poker takes place each year.

This year’s World Series of Poker begins May 27. See the full schedule.

In poker parlance, being dealt a pair of aces is called a "Cha-Ching!" hand. Probably.

Following this year’s WSOP, poker players will also receive Reward Credits for tournament play during the 2012-13 WSOP Circuit tour at Total Rewards (Caesars Entertainment) casinos around the country.

Reward Credits can be redeemed for a variety of perks, including WSOP tournament entry fees, hotel rooms, dining, shows and merchandise. They can also be used to buy this blog a cocktail. Not that we think you should do that. Just tossing out some hypotheticals here.

Find out all the details about the WSOP and its partnership with Total Rewards.

The world of poker is a fascinating one, and “All In: The Poker Movie,” a new documentary about that world, is one this Las Vegas blog would be inclined to watch.

The film’s billed as, “The definitive story of the rise, fall and rebirth of poker.” It features many of the game’s most prominent figures, including Chris Moneymaker, the man whose 2003 Main Event win at the World Series of Poker is often cited as the reason for the boom that’s kept poker in the spotlight ever since.

The person pictured below is not him.

Matt Damon is a great poker player. We hear he also acts a little on the side.

Here’s the trailer for “All In: The Poker Movie.”

“All In” was directed by Douglas Tirola and includes segments with Matt Damon, Phil Hellmuth Jr., Annie Duke, Chris Ferguson, Howard Lederer, Daniel Negreanu and others.

The World Series of Poker happens each year at Rio Las Vegas.

The film is currently available on iTunes and through Video on Demand. It didn’t get rave reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, but this blog doesn’t live by society’s rules, and we’re watching it, anyway.

Get all your poker needs met at the official World Series of Poker site.

The game of poker lost a legend, “Amarillo Slim” Preston, on April 29, 2012, at the age of 83.

The five-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner was one of the pioneers of modern-day poker, including raising the game’s visibility through media appearances (including 11 guest spots on “The Tonight Show”) and his colorful personality.

Amarillo Slim once bet someone that a cat could pick up a Coke bottle, and once beat daredevil Evel Knievel in golf using a carpenter's hammer.

Among his many accomplishments, Preston won the World Series of Poker Main Event in 1972. He was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 1992.

There was even a song written in his honor.

Read more about this WSOP champ and pop culture icon on the official World Series of Poker site, and listen to a radio interview with “Amarillo Slim.”

They just don’t make ‘em like Slim anymore.

What awful news. Because this blog loves karaoke. Totally.

We’re pretty much despondent having to report that the Karaoke Club inside the Imperial Palace has closed.

Yes, we realize some people like karaoke. We pity and forgive them.

We can hardly contain our sadness. Because we love karaoke so darned much.

We understand the poker room will be moving into the space formerly occupied by the Karaoke Club. After an appropriate grieving period, of course.

The world’s premier poker tournament, held each year at Rio Las Vegas, the World Series of Poker, has announced its schedule for 2012.

The event will begin May 27, 2012, with the gathering’s first open event on Memorial Day (May 28), a $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em tournament.

In Vegas, poker's a pretty big deal.

The World Series of Poker got its start at Binion’s in downtown Vegas, back in 1970, several years before they had those player “hole card” camera thingys that make watching poker on TV so much more fun.

This year’s event, which runs through July 16, will be televised exclusively on ESPN from the Rio. Sixty-one WSOP gold bracelets will be up for grabs in 2012, three more than last year.

The 43rd annual WSOP concludes with the always-entertaining $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Championship, also known as “The Main Event.” Play begins on July 7, and will reach its final table (with nine players) on July 16. The Final Table will take place earlier than in recent years, in two stages, with the nine finalists playing down to two on Oct. 28, and heads-up (one-on-one) action taking place to determine a WSOP champ on Oct. 30.

An event to watch: For the first time, the WSOP will have a $1,000,000 buy-in event. This high-stakes event will start July 1 and last three days. It’s likely to result in the largest first-place prize in poker history. Bonus: The event will benefit Onedrop.org.

The 2011 World Series of Poker had 75,672 entrants from 105 different nations. (Hint: There are 105 countries?) Players competed for more than $192 million in prize money. See this blog’s stunningly inept coverage of the 2011 World Series of Poker.

Last year's WSOP Main Event winner, Pius Heinz, won a cool $8.7 million. He was 22.

Pre-registration for the 2012 WSOP will be available online starting Feb. 8, 2012. Register here.

Visit the official WSOP site for all the details, including the full schedule of events.

A 22-year-old student and professional poker player, Pius Heinz, has won the World Series of Poker Main Event inside the Penn & Teller Theater at Rio Las Vegas.

German Pius Heinz wins the World Series of Poker Main Event at Rio Vegas. Like that earlier paragraph said.

Heinz, of Cologne, is the first resident of Germany to win the prestigious poker tournament.

This Las Vegas blog was there to capture every minute of the action. Well, not every minute, because there were a whole lot of them. The Final Table ran about six-and-a-half hours.

The World Series of Poker is a pretty big deal.

A memorable moment from the Final Table was the elimination of one of the three finalists, Ben Lamb, a mere (wait for it) four hands into Final Table play. Hey, in Vegas, you go big or go home. Or in some cases, you go big AND go home. Still, Lamb walked away with $4 million as a consolation prize.

If you blinked, you quite possibly missed poker pro Ben Lamb's bold strategy.

Then there were two.

Pius Heinz would play Martin Staszko, the first player ever from the Czech Republic to make a WSOP Final Table, head-to-head for six more hours, with the chip lead switching from one player to another nine times.

The new WSOP champ was crowned at 12:15 a.m. (Nov. 9, 2011).

A few million in cash on the table? No pressure.

International groups of supporters kept things lively, thankfully, since Heinz and Staszko rarely showed emotion or spoke (if at all) during long stretches of the Final Table.

The stoic Martin Staszko, who lists chess and "long periods of glaring" among his hobbies.

There’s a reason it’s called a “poker face,” folks.

There was a lot of this.

The crowd at the Penn & Teller Theater was on its feet for the dramatic final hand.

A suspenseful moment as Heinz waits for the "river" card.

The final hand of the 2011 Final Table? Heinz had an ace of spades and king of clubs, and those cards held up against Staszko’s 10 of clubs and seven of clubs.

With that, Heinz nabbed a highly-prized World Series of Poker bracelet, as well as some pocket change. To be exact, $8,715,638 in pocket change. Did we mention this bubble-gum chewing player is just 22 years old?

We weren't making up the bubble gum-chewing thing.

Interestingly, the last four WSOP world champions were 23, 21, 21 and 22 at the time of their wins.

Staszko (below right) got $5.4 million for second-place. Not a bad pay day!

Two words: Cha. Ching.

A memorable moment from the WSOP Final Table event? Once Heinz was announced the winner, his group of supporters began doing a chant his opponent’s friends had done throughout the evening, a sign of great sportsmanship. Staszko’s supporters did the same, honoring Heinz for his historic win.

Warning: It's probably best to wait before accepting proposals made after you just won $8.7 million.

The Final Table was the culmination of a Main Event that began in July, with a field of 6,865 players from 85 different countries. The WSOP Final Table was televised on ESPN with a 15-minute delay.

In other notable poker news: Earlier in the evening, Barry Greenstein and Linda Johnson were inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame. Read more.

Get all the details of the World Series of Poker Main Event Final Table at the official WSOP site.

To the victor go some serious tax implications.

Now, please enjoy our exclusive photo gallery from the WSOP Final Table that we risked being Tasered by security to bring you.

After nearly eight hours of play on Nov. 6, 2011, the 2011 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event is down to its final three players. Pius Heinz, Ben Lamb and Martin Staszko will return to the Rio Las Vegas on Nov. 8 to compete for game’s top prize: $8.7 million and a sweet WSOP gold bracelet.

The second-place finisher will receive $5.4 million, with the third-place finisher snagging a mere $4 million. We kid. That’s a lot of clams.

All the WSOP action will be carried nearly live (15-minute delay) on ESPN and ESPN3 beginning at 9 p.m. (Eastern).

Pius Heinz: "Re-raise." Ben Lamb: "Oh, no, you di'int." (We're paraphrasing.)

Thanks to Jon Boncek for the great Final Table pic.

For the final day of play, German Pius Heinz has the chip lead. Ben Lamb, a 26-year old poker pro, is second in chips and Martin Staszko, 35, of Czech Republic, has the short stack, which is not a euphemism for anything as far as this blog knows.

The players who filled out the “November Nine” went out as follows: Sam Holden (9th place), Anton Makiievskyi (8th), Badih Bou-Nahra (7th), Eoghan O’Dea (6th), Phil Collins (no relation, in 5th place) and Matt Giannetti (4th).

The aforementioned sweet bracelet.

The 2011 WSOP Main Event began in July with 6,865 entrants. The World Series of Poker (made up of 58 events), as a whole, attracted a record 75,672 players from 105 different nations this year.

Good luck to the final three, and not for nothing, but it’s probably time to hire a tax lawyer, guys.

The dream lives! A lucky Three Card Poker player recently hit the game’s relatively-new $1 million jackpot.

We introduced the million-dollar twist for this popular casino card game back in May, as it was rolled out exclusively in Caesars Entertainment casinos in Vegas. So, even though the $1 million win in question was scooped up at Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City, you have a shot at the cabbage right here in Sin City, too.

We said it could happen, and it did. So, there.

The $1 million hand was a “6 Card Bonus,” or a “super royal” (9, 10, J, Q, K, A), all in diamonds. The player in Atlantic City had wagered a whopping $19 before getting his super royal, at which time he was crushed beneath a giant bag containing a million dollars in pennies. Oh, please. Don’t believe everything you read in a blog.

But the million dollar jackpot part is true! That’s nearly $241 after taxes!

Here’s one of those fancy promotional videos about the game. You’ll enjoy it more if you just ignore the annoying music.

We started calculating the odds of getting this particular hand in Three Card Poker, but we stopped after we realized our head might implode. “Odds, scmodds!” we say. Then again, we are the blog of a major casino-entertainment corporation. Ahem.

Please let us know if you hit the million-dollar jackpot during your next foray to the Strip. Because, technically, you owe this blog a finder’s fee.

If you want a blog that lives by society’s rules, go somewhere else!

We just found a fun puzzle in the upcoming winter edition of the Total Rewards magazine (Total Rewards is the player loyalty program of Caesars Entertainment), and we’re posting it here for your amusement. We didn’t even ask if we could. That’s how this blog rolls.

The top and bottom halves of this card don’t match (the top half is accurate). Try to spot all 16 differences, eagle eye.

Dude, careful with that blade.

In case you need a closer look, you can click here to download a larger version.

If you can’t spot all 16 differences, like we totally did in about 30 seconds, visit this Web page to see all the differences spelled out for you, you big baby.

Here’s early look at the new issue of Total Rewards magazine, which we expect to lift liberally from for future blog posts.

This year’s World Series of Poker at Rio Las Vegas started as the third-largest live poker tournament in history, with 6,865 entrants. Now it comes down to just nine players.

The November Nine, a truly international bunch, are pictured below, left to right: Badih Bounahra (Belize City, Belize), Phil Collins (Las Vegas, NV), Matt Giannetti (Las Vegas, NV), Pius Heinz (Cologne, Germany), Samuel Holden (Sussex, UK), Ben Lamb Tulsa, OK), Anton Makiievskyi (Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine), Eoghan O’Dea (Dublin, Ireland) and Martin Staszko (Trinec, Czech Republic).

Nine very happy, and exhausted, campers.

Four countries have a finalist in poker’s world championship for the first time: Belize, Czech Republic, Germany and Ukraine, only one of which this blog can actually locate on a map. Probably.

The tournament now takes a recess. Players will get three months to gear up for the Final Table which will be played Nov. 5-7, 2011 at Rio Las Vegas.

Each of the players who made it this far are guaranteed at least $782,115 in prize money. The top prize will be a whopping $8,711,956. Oh, let’s just say $8.7 million. What’s a few tens of thousands between poker buddies?

The winner will also receive the coveted, custom-designed WSOP gold and diamond bracelet.

It's all about the WSOP bling! And the stacks of cash. But, you know, mostly the bling.

You can catch comprehensive TV coverage of the World Series of Poker starting July 26 on ESPN. Coverage will continue in two-hour blocks each Tuesday for 16 weeks, culminating with Main Event Final Table coverage on Nov. 8, 2011. No, we did not read that in a news release. We are a Las Vegas blog, so we know this stuff off the top of our head. Hello.

A final WSOP fact: In the 42-year history of the World Series of Poker, the prestigious tournament has given out more than $1.4 billion in prize money.

For more information about all this, visit the official WSOP site, or check out articles in the Las Vegas Review-Journal here and here.

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) has announced it’s adding a new $1 million buy-in poker tournament (that means it’s going to cost a cool $1 million to enter) as part of next year’s World Series of Poker at Rio Las Vegas.

The new tournament, set to launch in 2012, will benefit One Drop, an organization which aims to fight poverty worldwide by providing access to water and raising awareness about water-related issues.

The “Big One for One Drop” tournament is expected to generate one of the largest prize pools in tournament poker (outside the WSOP’s Main Event).

One Drop helps people drink. This Las Vegas blog strongly approves of that concept.

The tournament is slated to begin Jul. 1, 2012 at the Rio and will be a three-day tournament. Officials say 11.1% of the tournament buy-in will be donated to One Drop, with $889,889 of each buy-in going toward the tournament prize pool.

This blog knows what you’re thinking! A million-dollar buy-in? Well, One Drop has already gotten commitments from 15 participants so far.

They include Guy Laliberte, Chair of One Drop and founder of Cirque du Soleil; Bobby Baldwin, four-time WSOP gold bracelet winner and President & CEO of City Center Group; Phil Ruffin, owner of Treasure Island and poker pros Patrik Antonius, Gus Hansen, Daniel Negreanu, Johnny Chan, Tom Dwan and Tony Guoga.

Note: "Riffling" your chips is much more difficult when you're riffling a million dollars worth.

WSOP gold bracelet winner Gus Hansen said, “Supporting [fellow poker player] Chris Ferguson’s charity, I spent four weeks in Africa last year, and I came to realize what a precious resource water is. Therefore, it is a pleasure to enter the biggest poker tournament ever and at the same time support the One Drop organization.”

Caesars will offer additional entries to two lucky poker players. One will go to the winner of a Mega Satellite, whatever that may actually be, and the other will be given away in a yet-to-be determined promotion.

Learn more about One Drop at its official site, and find out more about the World Series of Poker. Get more details about the new tournament from ESPN.

The world’s premier poker event, the 42nd Annual World Series of Poker (WSOP), kicks off today (May 31) at Rio Las Vegas.

The World Series of Poker is the world’s largest, richest and longest-running poker tournament. Not only that, it looks darned handsome in an ascot. (We have no idea what that means, so let’s move on.)

The poker action starts off with some of the biggest names in the game competing for bragging rights in an exclusive $25,000 buy-in Heads Up No-Limit Hold’em Championship. If all those words sounded akin to a chicken in heat to you, it’s time to brush up on one of the world’s most popular card games. Get all the information you could ever want at the official WSOP site.

Answer: Happy to see you.

On Jun. 4, thousands of poker players and fans will make their way the Rio for a $1,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em tournament at noon. Other WSOP highlights include the Ladies No Limit Hold’em Championship on Jul. 1 and Poker Players Championship on Jul. 2.

The climax (in case you forgot which blog you’re reading) to the World Series of Poker is the Main Event. The Main Event runs Jul. 7-10. The grand prize is the coveted World Series of Poker Gold Bracelet. Oh, and mammoth stacks of millions in cold, hard cash.

Last year's Main Event champ, Jonathan Duhamel. We were not kidding about the stacks of cash.

Overall, the WSOP features 58 events, and viewing of the World Series of Poker is free and open to the public (21 or older). Players from more than 100 countries are expected to participate in this year’s World Series of Poker.

Learn more about the WSOP, and let us know if you enter and win. We’ll take your picture.

Las Vegas casinos in the Caesars Entertainment family have upped the ante with a new $1 million jackpot in its popular Three Card Poker table games.

Players can win $1 million in just one hand with the “6 Card Bonus” side bet (with a total wager of as little as $15). The winning hand is a “Super Royal” in diamonds, or the 9, 10, J, Q, K and A cards.

Check out this video that shares the low-down. Or the skinny, whichever you prefer.

As usual, we do not have the time or energy to calculate what the odds are of hitting the “Super Royal in Diamonds” hand, but we will certainly “borrow” that information for this blog should an actual journalist or mathematician care to bust out an abacus.

What we do know is that analysts estimate there could a $1 million winner about three times a year.

There are other ways to win big at Three Card Poker, of course, including $100,000 payouts for the “Super Royal” in hearts, clubs or spades.

With more than 1,500 Three Card Poker tables worldwide, the game (licensed by Shuffle Master, Inc.) is the most popular specialty game of all time.

Somewhat unrelated fact: Shuffle Master, Inc. gets bonus points because it’s a supporter of one of our favorite Vegas charities, Spread the Word Nevada, a literacy nonprofit for at-risk youth.

Caesars Entertainment has exclusive rights to the $1 million payout for the Three Card Poker “6 Card Bonus,” and Las Vegas is the only city currently offering the jackpot. Translation: Only in Vegas, baby.

Sorry, stock photography agencies, you just got schooled by this blog. And a guy named Eric's hand.

Some small print, of course: To be eligible to make the “6 Card Bonus” $1 million wager, a player must place an ante wager and a “Pair Plus” wager based on the posted table minimums.  The “6 Card Bonus” wager is offered at $5-$100 with odds paid on all hands of three-of-a kind or better, except for the $100,000 and $1 million “Super Royal” hands, which are fixed payouts.

We’ll see you at the Three Card Poker tables! We’ll be the ones rolling around in our million, naked. Actual results may vary. Thank heavens.

As a Las Vegas blog, we’re endlessly fascinated with casinos and their games, and today we’ve got some gambling jargon we’re 94% sure you didn’t know before right now.

If you’ve ever played craps, you’ve seen a variety of small discs (or tokens) with words on them like “On” and “Off” and “Lay” and “Buy.” Some discs have numbers. In craps parlance, these discs are called “lammers.”

See all the "lay" jokes we're not making here? Maturity, thy name is us.

Now you know! We love the word “lammer,” and have decided to use the word often in conversation from here on out.

Lammers are sometimes called “buttons,” too. Lammers can also be found in poker rooms (with words like “Dealer” or “Big Blind”) or at a baccarat table (reading “Bank” or “Player”).

On an unrelated note: There is a Lammer river in Austria.

Now (Apr. 14) through Apr. 30, Caesars Palace is playing host to the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Circuit, a series of tournament events with thousands in prize money at stake.

Caesars Palace is the lucky 13th (out of 15) stops during the 2010-2011 World Series of Poker Circuit season.

Poker events range from $70 buy-in tournaments every morning to the three-day-long $1,600 buy-in Main Event Championship.

To succeed at poker, it helps to also have an engineering degree.

Players who participate in WSOP Circuit events are eligible to compete in the National Championship point race. The top 100 players who qualify at each WSOP Circuit stop will compete in a nationally-televised championship, which will take place at Caesars Palace, May 27-29, 2011.

The World Series of Poker Circuit and its championship should not be confused with the annual poker extravaganza that is the World Series of Poker (May 31 to Jul. 19, 2011) culminating in the No-Limit Hold’em Championship at Rio Las Vegas. Yes, it can be confusing, and we are a trained Las Vegas expert.

Get all the World Series of Poker Circuit event details at the official WSOP site.