Partying like its 1999 has a lot of appeal and we have to hand it to The Pool at Harrah’s for coming up with the idea of a back to the 90s party Thursday (March 4). Pop in a Backstreet Boys CD, bring your Pokemon cards and laugh off the Y2K bug that freaked us out and then fizzled out.

But where we really have to give Harrah’s props is their choice of the ultimate ‘90s icon. Yes, it’s the dancing baby, first made famous on Ally McBeal and then popping up pretty much everywhere. Nothing says end of the Clinton era more than the dancing baby. So put on your cargo pants, tickle an Elmo and dance with the baby here and then again at The Pool.

The 1999 party at The Pool is brought to you by Dave Pena, the creator of Boogie Nights ‘70s and ‘80s Dance Club and Planet Rose Karaoke Lounge. The party will turn back the clock to celebrate the final decade of the 20th century — the heyday of Bill Clinton, Pam Anderson, Marky Mark in his Calvins, Biggie Smalls, Nirvana, Titanic, Ricky Martin, N’Sync, Cindy Crawford, Beavis and Butthead, Marilyn Manson, the original 90210, Minnie Me, the OJ trial, Arsenio Hall, and so much more. Pena aims to pull out all the stops to create a memorable and exciting salute to the nineties.
“I loved the nineties, and now that its 2010 we can look back with some sense of nostalgia for all the crazy things that happened and all the music we loved back then.” But as for what we can expect, Pena is being deliberately hush-hush. “I want to keep a lot of what’s planned for the 1999 party a secret so that it’s a real surprise for people when they come through the door. But one thing I can tell you is that it’s time to raise your gin and juice, and do the Urkel Dance while a sexy schoolgirl hits you baby one more time.”

Monopoly, the board game based on Atlantic City’s 1930s neighborhoods, is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. But if the game were constructed today, it would look much different.

According to a feature on dailyfinance.com, Baltic, one of Monopoly’s two cheapest properties, borders the Sheraton Hotel, which charges $170 to $259 a night, making it one of the more costly locations in Atlantic City. Even the Pacific/Rhode Island Avenue region, which includes all three of Monopoly’s bargain-priced light-blue properties, is among the city’s most valuable areas.

Some of Monopoly’s streets don’t even exist in today’s city as Illinois Avenue is now Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, and St. Charles Place has been torn down and replaced with the Showboat casino.

Monopoly also imitates a past era of public transportation. By 1987 all of four of its railroads had been surpassed by Atlantic City’s plethora of bus and train choices.

To get a more complete summary of the differences between Monopoly’s 1930s rendition of Atlantic City and today’s actual rendition, click here.

— Kelley Anne Essinger

The Tropicana is worried about your poker game and wants you to get better. They figure all it will take is a little poker boot camp. So to help, the casino will hold a World Poker Tour Boot Camp April 9-10 taught by poker pros Kathy Liebert, Nick Brancato, Rick Fuller and Nick Binger.

In a press release, the Tropicana says the about $1,895 camp “will teach players of all skill ranges how to become a consistently winning player. The pros will share their secrets of tournament play and help players learn to build a big stack, adjust play based on the rounds, learn to play based on their and their opponents stack size, use your table image to your advantage and not be fooled by your opponent and know how to get correct pot odds and keep your opponents from getting them.”

Kathy Liebert

The camp includes breakfast and lunch each day, an eight-and-a-half-hour lecture with the four tour professionals, two and a half hours of lab instructions, a private tournament on Friday night where the winner will receive entrance into the Alumni World Poker Tour Boot Camp, and two hours of sit-n-go tournaments on Saturday.

To register for the World Poker Tour Boot Camp at the Tropicana Casino & Resort go here or call 1-866-WPT-BOOT.

Tropicana Turf Club members can also win a spot in the boot camp by playing in the Poker Room. For info visit www.tropicana.net

UNITE HERE Local 54 has finished up its “Flash Mob” campaign in cities such as Philadelphia and Baltimore and is bringing its act home to Atlantic City. At 12:30-2:30pm. today (Feb. 18), union members will perform for home crowds at the local’s headquarters at 203 N. Sovereign Ave. in A.C.

Local 54 performers

If you don’t know what a flash mob is, it’s basically a spontaneous gathering of people in public who break out into a performance or other attention-getting activity. Local 54’s flash mobs have had a little more purpose and have been designed to promote the city.

Calling it “guerilla marketing,”union members toured around Philadelphia, Scranton, Allentown, Baltimore and Dover the past few weeks. The effort was designed to attract attention to Atlantic City’s casinos, boardwalk and hospitality businesses.

“Our union is made up of about 14,000 members,” says Raphine Smith, a bartender at Tropicana and a 15-year member of UNITE HERE Local 54 in a press release. “We’re doormen, food service employees, bartenders, and hospitality workers at Atlantic City’s biggest hotels and casinos. We wanted to do something fun to remind people about AC and the Jersey Shore as a place to visit.”

You can catch a clip of some Local 54 performers here.

Jeff Madsen

While “snowmageddon” was the big story around the region this weekend, poker pro Jeff Madsen generated some heat just in the nick of time Friday by winning $625,000 in the Borgata Winter Open’s main event.
Madsen’s win came Friday evening, just about when the flakes started to fall.
“It feels good,” Madsen tells The Borgata’s poker blog after beating Sirous Jamshidi (Broomall, PA) heads-up to take the title and the first place prize of $625,006. “It takes a while for it to set in, but in a few days I’ll look back on it. It was a really good tournament.”
Madsen was the tournament’s chip leader after day 2 and Jamshidi had the chip lead going into the final day. The two ended up playing the final hands for more than an hour heads-up. Finally, with about 10 big blinds left, Janshidi went all in for about $1.9 million in tournament chips with queen and deuce of spades. Madsen called with king of hearts, 10 of diamonds.
The board came out jack of diamonds, seven of hearts, six of clubs, king of diamonds, five of clubs, giving Madsen a pair of kings and the win.
Madsen, a two time bracelet winner at the WSOP now has more than $3 million in tournament cashes.
“I’ve had success in the past,” Madsen says, “but it feels good to get these big wins and to continue to prove myself in the poker world.”
Here’s a list of the final table payouts:
1. Jeff Madsen, $625,006
2. Sirous Jamshidi, $367,794
3. Tom Marchese, $190,027
4. Barkley Hamilton, $165,508
5. Nick Kamen, $140,988
6. Al Grimes, $116,468
7. Dave Fox, $91,949
8. Ross Mallor, $67,429
9. Chan Pelton, $49,039
10. Matt Matros, $31,876
For a recap of the last table action go here.

Jeffrey Madsen

Poker pro Jeffrey Madsen of Las Vegas is the chip leader at The Borgata Winter Open’s main event after Day 2. Madsen ended the day with $880,700 in tournament chips. Madsen won two WSOP bracelets in 2006 and has more than $2.2 million in tournament earnings in his career.
He’s looking to cash in on the tournament’s $625,000 winning payout from the about $2.45 million prize pool. Entering Day 3 today (Feb. 3) 134 players remain out of a field of 766 entries.
Pro Rahjesh Vorha of Pompano Beach Fla. is second with $591,500 in tournament chips. David Cairns, a pro from Toronto is at No. 3 with $492,700. And since we’ve highlighted his appearance in A.C., Bryn Mawr Pa.’s Dan Shak  is at 27th with $252,000.
The tournament will pay the top 72 finishers. Go here to follow the action,

The Borgata Winter Open poker tournament’s main event has gone past the guaranteed $2 million prize pool, coming in with 766 entries and a total pool of $2,451,966. The winner of the No Limit Hold’em tournament will take a $625,006 payout. The tournament will cash 72 players, with the following payouts, according to The Borgata:

1st: $625,006
2nd: $367,794
3rd: $190,027
4th: $165,508
5th: $140,988
6th: $116,468
7th: $91,949
8th: $67,429
9th: $49,039
10th-12th: $31,876
13th-15th: $23,294
16th-18th: $14,712
19th-27th: $11,034
28th-36th: $9,317
37th-45th: $7,846
46th-54th: $6,866
55th-63rd: $6,375
64th-72nd: $6,130

As predicted, Monday’s Day 1-B field was a little bigger than Sunday’s opening day with about 500 players entering the $3,300 buy-in tournament.

Melanie Wesiner

Meanwhile, opening day play had a valuable lesson for tournament play — Don’t muck your cards until you know you’ve read your hand correctly. Melanie Weisner of Houston was sitting on ace, queen when the board came out A-K-10-K-Q. That reads as two pair, aces and kings with a queen kicker as her hole queen was no help. Her opponent had ace, 10, but misread the cards and mucked them thinking he’d lost. He hadn’t since he too had aces and kings with a queen kicker by not playing his own 10.

Long story short, what should have been a chopped pot went to Weisner. Remember, haste makes waste.

For more stories on the action go here.

There’s a lot to report from the Borgata Winter Open poker tournament, which moved into its main event, a $2 million guaranteed prize pool no-limit hold’em tournament, on Sunday (Jan. 31). Day 1-A (today is Day 1-B), saw about 279 players register for the $3,300 + $200 buy-in. Borgata officials expect a larger crowd today as there were some major online events happening Sunday.

Dan Shak

One of the clear day one stars has to be Dan Shak, who just won the $100,000 Challenge at the 2010 Aussie Millions in Melbourne to the tune of $1.2 million. Shak beat Phil Ivey, who you may recall from an earlier blog, became the all-time tournament money leader with his $600,000 finish. Shak’s ex-wife and poker pro Beth Shak, is also expected to play in the main event.

Michael Phelps

The open has seen its fair share of pros so far. At last week’s $2,000 buy-in heads up event pros included Gavin Smith, Matt Glantz, Jeff Madson, Jason Mercier, Adam Gerber, Michael Binger, Nicholas Binger, Paul Wasicka, this past September’s Borgata Poker Open Champion Olivier Busquet, and in a celebrity sighting, Olympian Michael Phelps. Despite the names, the winner of the tournament was listed as Freddie Najafabadi.

Meanwhile, in one of the last big buy-ins before the main event, Daniel Garon of Sunny Isles Beach, Fla. won  $143.051 in a $1,500 no-limit hold’em event Sunday.

You can follow the main event action here.

Poker pro Phil Ivey may not live near Atlantic City these days, (Like The Miss America Pageant, he moved to Las Vegas), but the resort’s casinos are still where he cut his teeth and learned the game. So that now means A.C. has produced poker’s all-time leader on the tournament money list.
Ivey moved past pro Daniel Negraneu with a second place finish Monday at the $100,000 Challenge at the 2010 Aussie Millions in Melbourne. Ivey’s about $600,000 payday leaves him with about $12.8 million in tournament cashes.

Dan Shak

Ivey lost to Dan Shak of Bryn Mawr Pa., who took in $1.2 million. On the final hand, Shak pushed all in on the short-stacked Ivey with ace, seven of clubs. Ivey called with ace, 10 of diamonds. Shak then hit a seven of hearts on the flop and no help came to Ivey on the turn or river.
“This is something I’ve been working towards for such a long time and I may not show the excitement, but inside I’m extremely excited.” Shak told PokerListings.com after the tournament. “I’m not going to jump up and down, but inside I probably already am.”
The 24 player tournament carried a $100,000 buy-in.”

Beth Shak

And in a startling coincidence, Shak’s ex-wife is poker pro Beth Shak, who is scheduled to be in the main event of the Borgata Winter Open that starts Saturday. Beth Shak posted a “congratulations” on twitter after the tournament — “Congrats 2 Dan..not enough money in the world to change my marital status,” she joked.
Go here for more on the story.

Grammy-nominated and Billboard Magazine’s group of the decade, Nickelback, announced they have extended their Dark Horse World Tour into June 2010, including a stop at Boardwalk Hall on Saturday, April 3. Nickelback will be joined by Shinedown and Sick Puppies for the Atlantic City performance.

Tickets go on sale Saturday (Jan. 30) at 10am and are available through the Boardwalk Hall Box Office, all Ticketmaster locations, Ticketmaster.com, LiveNation.com and by-phone at 800-736-1420. Tickets for this event are: $35, $69.50 & $89.50.

Nickelback fan club members will have access to pre-sale tickets beginning Thurs., Jan. 28. Citi® cardmembers will have access to presale tickets beginning Fri., Jan. 29 at 10am local time through Citi’s Private Pass® Program. For complete presale details visit www.citiprivatepass.com. Additional information on the tour, ticket on sales, fan club membership and VIP packages is available at Nickelback.com and LiveNation.com. Go here for Boardwalk Hall.