The Aria’s new VIP room opening Saturday honours Phil Ivey

5/21/10 – A prestigious new poker room on the Las Vegas Strip has been titled The Ivey Room in honour of online and land international poker ace Phil Ivey, reports Associated Press.
 
Casino operator MGM Mirage said Thursday this week it plans to open a one-table, high-limit poker room named for Phil Ivey at the Aria Resort & Casino at CityCenter.
 
Ivey is widely considered one of the best, if not the best, card player alive today, having won millions in cash games and tournaments and seven World Series of Poker bracelets.
 
Ivey is not the first to be recognized by a top poker room; another famed, exclusive poker room built to draw the world's best and richest poker players springs to mind in Bobby's Room at the Bellagio.
 
The room honours MGM Mirage's chief design and construction officer, Bobby Baldwin, who is known for being an accomplished gambler.
 
Baldwin, nicknamed "The Owl," won the 1978 main event and three other World Series of Poker tournaments. He supervised the construction of CityCenter, the $8.5 billion joint venture owned by MGM Mirage and Dubai World that opened in December 2009. Aria is the centerpiece of the 67-acre complex and its only casino.
 
MGM Mirage plans to open The Ivey Room with a celebrity and VIP tournament on Saturday, with the winner getting $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.