Jewish Poker Championships at the Palms

What do Jews do on Christmas Day?

Eat Chinese Food. 

That’s an old joke.  You see, the only eateries open on Christmas Day (outside of Vegas, that is) are Chinese Restaurants.  Even Jewish Delis usually close for Christmas.

This year, maybe some Jews will be playing poker at the Palms, competing for the title of “Best Jewish Poker Player.”  Check out the website PlayJewishPoker For the second straight year, these folks are sponsoring the Jewish Poker Championships over Christmas in Vegas.  It will be held on Dec 24-25.

I did plug last year’s event (held at the Venetian) in my Ante Up column.  I wanted to do that again, but unfortunately by the time they announced the venue, it was too late to get it mentioned in the magazine before the event actually occurs.  So I’m mentioning here on the blog.

As I said, this year it will be held at the Palms.  I find that slightly amusing, because the actual name of the Palms poker room is the Cantor Palms Poker Room.   “Cantor” comes from the fact that Cantor Gaming owns the poker room, and not because there’s an actual Cantor associated with the casino.  However….last year, when I dropped in on the event at the Venetian, Moses was there.  So perhaps they will have an actual Cantor there this year.  I just hope they don’t have a Mohel.

Last year’s event drew 18 people and they are hoping to triple that (at least) this year.  They’ve reduced the buy in from $1080 to $550 to entice more players to show up. 

I’ll probably drop in, and perhaps this time I can write something about the event afterwards.  I won’t be playing in it, however, I’m too much of a schnorrer for that.

The event is open to everyone—you don’t have to be Jewish to play.  Anyone who likes poker and doesn’t do the traditional family Christmas thing should consider playing.  What could it hurt?

There’s a nice article about the tournament and the promoters here. And you can follow the very activeTwitter feed of the promoters here.

Now, below is a picture of model Bar Refaeli.   To the best of my knowledge, Ms. Refaeli will not to be attending this event, and is not a poker player.  But she is Jewish, and since, as you can see, she’s friggin’ gorgeous, I’d rather include a picture of her than some male Jewish poker player.

So sue me.