Full Tilt Poker Pro Phil Ivey Will Have Card Room in Vegas

The Aria Resort & Casino at CityCenter will be opening a high stakes room named in honor of Team Full Tilt Poker pro Phil Ivey. 

The Phil Ivey poker room will feature a single table and high limit games.  It opens today (May 22) with a VIP tournament where one can go head to head with Ivey himself.  $250,000 will be rewarded.

Casino operator MGM Mirage runs the resort.

Ivey is widely considered the best player alive today and nearly won last year's World Series of Poker after making it to the final table. 

The Team Full Tilt poker pro won two tournaments earlier in the 2009 series and reportedly made a windfall - though he won't say exactly how much - on side bets he made with other players about his results in the events.

The Aria Resort is Las Vegas' newest strip casino, costing an estimated US$9.5 billion. 

MGM Mirage, which owns CityCenter with Dubai World, reported a bigger than expected first quarter loss, in May.  Losses totaled $US66 million

John Bischoff, the vice president of international brand strategy for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, believes the tide soon may be turning.

"We have seen signs of improvement," Bischoff said.

"Our visitor numbers have increased for five consecutive months through January, which is a positive sign.

"Occupancy continues to remain approximately 25 to 30 points above the national average, which shows there is still a demand to travel to Las Vegas."

Patrick Flanigan, Gambling911.com