Where to Join the Poker Crowd

"For high limits, the Bellagio is the only place to play," said Jennifer Harman, a professional poker player and owner of two World Series of Poker bracelets. "Everyone wants to play there. It's replaced the Mirage as the top casino, the action has increased and it's on TV now. "

Perhaps it was the Bellagio's star turn in the film "Ocean's Eleven," but the casino has acquired new cache in poker circles. In April, the Bellagio played host to the World Poker Tour Championship, handing out more than $2.7 million to the first-place winner, the most ever paid in a televised poker tournament. And even when the television cameras are off, the Bellagio is all about high stakes. The casino's high-limit room, which sits in a top section above the regular tables, is slowly becoming legendary for its million-dollar pots and the homegrown poker pros who hang out there even when they're not playing tournaments.

Staying and playing at the Bellagio, however, can be a pricey proposition. But as one of the few five-star hotels in Las Vegas, you get what you pay for. Rooms cost about $360 on the weekends, when vacancies are scarce, and $200 during the week -- of course, you can always stay elsewhere and visit the poker room.

And while the casino has a reputation for being a haven for high-rollers, it offers a number of betting levels ranging from $1 to $5 for a game of seven-card stud into the hundreds of thousands of dollars at the no-limit table -- which was a special request from a deep-pocketed Texas billionaire who sought to up the ante significantly.

"There's no other place where you can see a billionaire come in and lay down $15 million with the greatest players in the world," said Lipscomb. "That happens a lot at the Bellagio -- all of the faces on our TV shows, their home base is Bellagio. It's becoming the cornerstone of the professional poker world."

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