Phil Ivey High Limit Poker Room

by Bodog Casino | May 24 2010

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You don't even need to know a lot about poker to know that Phil Ivey is a force in the game. He's the Tiger Woods of Hold'em without the sex therapy and piano-key teeth, winning millions in tournaments around the world.

For that reason the Aria Resort and Casino have realized that he deserves some Doyle Brunson type of props for his accomplishments.

The new casino on The Strip has decided to pay tribute to Ivey by opening an exclusive high limit poker room that will be named after him, and it will be the spot for the highest of high limit games in Sin City.

The only other poker player to recently get their own room was Bobby Baldwin. The Bellagio named one of their high-roller poker rooms The Bobby Room. Now the Ivey Room looks to takeover as the hangout for poker's pros.

Baldwin, nicknamed "The Owl," won the 1978 main event and three other World Series of Poker tournaments.

To celebrate the grand opening of the room, Aria will be hosting a celebrity tournament with a cash prize for the tournament winner. The winner gets $250,000 and a chance to play Ivey heads-up for $250,000. The player that knocks Ivey out of the tournament wins $100,000.

For those who never heard of Aria it's the new super casino on the block. It's part of the CityCenter, essentially a city that towers over The Strip. So trust us when we say they've got the space to host a whole bunch of poker's ballers. The $8.5 billion joint venture owned by MGM Mirage and Dubai World opened in December. Aria is the centerpiece of the 67-acre complex and its only casino.

Coincidently Baldwin supervised the construction of CityCenter.

We guess the tourney at Aria will be a warm-up for Ivey before the World Series of Poker kicks off.