52 pickup, Dome-town Vegas style

Yes, there I am -- Clueless, on the right -- going all-in with a 9 and 7 against this crazy eyed guy in a media poker charity game at the Poker Dome in Vegas the night before it opened. I was out on this hand, thankfully, and could return to my hotel in downtown before I got mugged.

But I digress ...

We'd like to show you a map of where ... oh, here's one on the side of a building that's been boarded up. So there's the Poker Dome. Well, it's not on this drawing. it's spot No. 12, more or less.

See the El Cortez Hotel, just to the right of it? Here's a little bit of Vegas history:
Bugsy Siegel came to town in 1941 and was one of a group of bookies and ex-bootleggers who took over the El Cortez in '43. The profits from the casino sale helped finance the Flamingo. So there you go: Downtown has plenty of these little historical tidbits.

In general, the Poker Dome is past the Stratosphere on the Strip, at the end of a stretch of mall known as the "Freemont Street Experience," where an old man in a motorized adult stroller can wear a T-shirt that says, "Here I Am: What Are Your Other Two Wishes" as he wheels up to the nickle progressive slots at Binion's; where one live garage band playing "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone" tries to drown out another playing "Sweet Home Alabama"; where a couple of skanks outside Glitter Gulch can try to lure men, women and/or young children into their "Free Topless Party," especially if you've got another T-shirt that reads "Support Single Moms One Dollar at a Time;" that is, if you're not using that dollar to buy a 99 cent Coney Island hot dog, or you're putting it toward the $4.99 fannie pack -- which is an offer than can only be topped by the fact they're also three for $12 .... or you're dying to go into the Walgrens to get the Vegas-logo "grip-it can coolers" at two for 3 bucks ... or you want to save your money to go see Steve Connolly as the Elvis impersonator at Fitzgerald's ...

Now you've found the Poker Dome.

Downtown Vegas is like that final scene from the flick, "Casino," where all the wide-body grandmas are running in slow motion out of the glass doors with their buckets full of quarters barreling in to get to the slot machines before someone else gets their favorite spot. It's a sight to behold. At least once.

But then, so is Poker Dome.

Before we get too far into the Dome, we gotta show you a few of downtown's finer sights:

The "Freemont Experience" begins here ...

One of middle-America's finest, trying to blend in with a fire hydrant ...

Jerry Rice wouldn't be caught dead down here, but you can get your name scrawled on a piece of rice. As long as you promise not to eat it ...

The Women of Glitter Gulch (watch your wallets)...

The famous neon cowboy, for a long time, the cultural icon of Vegas long before the Bellagio fountains were built.... and if you like neon, there's plenty of it downtown, like this:

and this:

That will take us back to Dome, Dome, Dome, Dome ... and all that neon at the top of this posting....

............... .............................. ........................... ........................

The Dome sits atop Jillians, across the street from Hennessey's, and close enough to any tatoo parlor or check cashing outlet. Access is across a ramp from the parking structure, or up a few escallators.

Once inside, you're in a typical cineplex theatre -- No. 12 -- watching the players behind a sheet of one-way glass. You can see all the graphics, the heart monitors, what cards they've got, and they can't see you. So go ahead, stand up, and moon 'em. Everyone will laugh, except them.

The participants can cajole all they want with each other. They've got no idea if the audience is half full, half empty or half asleep while they play.

Did we mention half naked? That's Leeann Tweeden, the FSN "sideline" reporter for this Mansionpoker.net Challenge. Sorry it took this long to get to her picture. Wasn't it worth the wait. We could get fancy here and start linking you to all of Leeann's official website, some others where she's showing off her stuff ... maybe one of her with Dale Earnhardt Jr. on his No. 8 car ... OK, you back yet?
Wait, do a Google search for this five-foot wide Budweiser 2006 calendar poster where she's covered only with a few bottlecaps. A few will pop up on eBay.com once and awhile if you're diligent about it... and she even has one for sale (autographed) on her own Website for $49.95 if you hustle ....
At least she's not wearing that beehive hairdo that she had in Pittsburgh during the FSN Red Carpet show before the MLB All-Star Game. Looked like she was trying out to tryout for the Supremes.
But we digress.
Leeann was telling us how she interviews these people who've never been on TV before, because all the participants are winners from online events. Imagine how tongue tied you'd get if she put a mike in your face and asked for your honest opinion about getting smoked at the table.
"I like to imagine how they're playing poker at home," she said.
"Maybe they're naked, just got out of the shower, and this is such a shock to them when they have to get dressed and play."
I told her they probably try to imagine how she's dressed when she plays.
Her eyes got big. ...

OK, so back to the Dome ...
In the control room, another TV legend. John Faratzis, winner of a gob of Emmys for his work at NBC doing the Olympics and Super Bowls. "I never had this kind of equipment for a big sporting event," he admits. "There's two times the cameras I had for the 2004 Olympic diving at Athens." Covering this is like any sport event, he said. "The emotions are what you want to convey. These players have no visors or helmets to get in the way. It's unobstructed story telling. It's great to watch them sweat while they're trying to be cool. Each person has two cameras on them. We just watch it unfold and try to document it."

Speaking of the numbers, here's what a FSN press release says about all that's gone into this Dome that's enough to make anyone's eyes bug out:

One: Custom computer-controlled poker table.
Two: Card Tracker systems
Six: Suunto team Pod Heart Monitors, via a wireless transmission, that gives the heart rate and respiration information for all six players.
26: Cameras.
30: Channels of wireless microphones and communications.
41: Recording sources.
50: LED fixtures with over 1000 individual LEDs.
56: Moving lights.
120: Light dimmers
250: Linier feet of consoles
300: Monitors
1,500: Amps of power
700,000: Feet of cable
1 million: Prize money, in dollars, to the winner at the final table.

The numbers really to watch for are the heart rates of the players as they throw cards back or go deep into the blind (I'm talking as if I actually have a clue what poker is ... honestly, I have none). From the audience, you see monitors not only of each player and their cards, but of their heart beat per minute. So, yes, you could be witnessing someone going into cardiac arrest live. Pretty cool, eh?

And that's the Poker Dome Challenge.... dig it?

So gather your chips .. find a nice stack ... and prepare to lose. It's Vegas. They don't build these huge Domes because someone's going t lose money, right?

And sure enough, we'll see you next time... Either here or at the Bun Boy in Baker crying in your hamburger.