Casino Planet Cash

Racecourse Carlisle
First Race Time 2.10pm
Going Chase course - Good, Good to Soft in places
Hurdles course - Good to Soft
Other Information Dry overnight, temperature dipped below 0ºC overnight but no problems anticipated with temperatures forecast to rise today

Racecourse Southwell
First Race Time 2.20pm
Going Standard
Other Information Dry overnight

Racecourse Wincanton
First Race Time 2.30pm
Going Good
Other Information Dry overnight, -1ºC, no problems

Racecourse Wolverhampton
First Race Time 5.30pm
Going Standard
Other Information

Going, race times and local information for today’s racing at Catterick, Fontwell, Lingfield and Wolverhampton

Was gonna write today about my having played a couple of sessions recently at the Palm Beach Kennel Club in West Palm Beach, Florida. Also might’ve written something about Annie Duke taking down the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship last night, defeating Erik Seidel in the finals. But we had some breaking news over the weekend, so I’ll save those topics for now.

And when I say breaking news, I really mean it. Tables, equipment, cashiers’ boxes. And order, custom, routine — all breaking, in dramatic fashion.

Like a lot of us poker people here in the States, we awoke Saturday morning to learn something unexpected had happened at the European Poker Tour Main Event in Berlin. “There has been an unscheduled break in the action,” reported Danafish over on PokerNews. Understated, that.

Soon we’d discover an armed robbery had taken place. I read through numerous tweets from colleagues and friends reporting it had happened, and while it was quickly evident no one was seriously hurt, the news was nevertheless mighty troubling to read.

I had just worked with a number of those same folks at the NAPT Venetian a week before, and have myself had the opportunity to work an EPT event during this sixth season of the tour — the opener in Kyiv, Ukraine last August. I could quickly imagine the strangeness and uncanny feeling of a carefully planned and smoothly run poker tournament suddenly being interrupted by shouting, running, and other types of chaos. I could also imagine the fright of being around people with guns who were not there to preserve the order, but to disrupt it.

Of course, I didn’t have to use my imagination for long, as clips of the robbery soon surfaced online. I got a chance to view some of those vids before they were taken down. Here is a PokerNews report that includes what it looked like on EPT Live when the interruption occurred, as well as an interview with an investigating officer:

Kevmath quickly compiled more information over on Pokerati in a series of posts, some of which were additionally accompanied by more video and photos. Click on through for more interviews of eyewitnesses and other unsettling reportage:

EPT Berlin halted by robbery attempt (3/6/10)
EPT Berlin armed robbery attempt (3/6/10)
EPT Berlin final table (3/7/10)

I suppose ever since The Blair Witch Project and various “reality” TV shows we’ve grown somewhat accustomed to viewing shaky cameras and unedited, raw footage. But when it’s really real… well, it’s no fun at all. Especially when guns and machetes are involved.

A lot of misreporting, apparently, regarding what exactly happened, including some exaggeration of the booty — called a “jackpot” in some places (like on MSNBC) — as being as much as €1,000,000. Also some loose talk of machine guns and other what not, when that apparently wasn’t true, either.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting today that four men, armed with pistols and a machete, made off with “more than €100,000 ($136,000)” following the Saturday afternoon heist, and that they remain at large. The article reports that eight people were injured amid all of the running around.

Detectives are now on the case, looking at the various videos and photos taken, and having obtained fingerprints of one of the robbers. And while the robbers were wearing masks — making identifications more difficult — Michael Gassen, speaking for the investigators, says “I am confident we will solve the case.”

I’ve reported from tourneys in American casinos, where I’ve generally felt especially safe thanks to all of the surveillance cameras and security everywhere you turn. When I went to Ukraine last summer, the event took place at the Kyiv Sport Palace — not a regular casino — and while there was security present I’ll admit to having wondered a little about just how secure the place was.

The event at EPT Berlin was not at a casino, either, but in a ballroom at the Grand Hyatt Hotel. There were security guards present, though they were not armed. Most accounts suggest these guys acted heroically, despite the threats of physical harm to themselves. That picture at left (from the Berlin news site B.Z.), shows one of the guards temporarily subduing a suspect. Apparently the guard forced him to relinquish some of the money before the suspect was able to flee.

The WSJ article quotes Kirsty Thompson, an EPT spokesperson, saying how the tour “works closely with all its venues to ensure that appropriate security is in place” and that they “will continue to do so going forward, and step up efforts even further after this incident.”

After a delay of three hours or so, the Main Event was continued and played down to a winner on Sunday. I’m glad it was completed as scheduled, and especially glad the players and reporters all made it through in relatively good shape.

Like I say, something uncanny about a poker tournament, so carefully managed with rules of play, precise timing, and incessant order (or, at least, the effort to maintain such) being so brazenly disrupted. Then again, poker players and reporters are somewhat seasoned to expect the unexpected, which might explain why most seemed to have taken the incident in stride.

Tom McEvoy once characterized no-limit hold’em as “hours of boredom and moments of sheer terror.” He was of course speaking of surprise check-raises or awaiting a response to one’s all-in bluff — not uninvited, armed thugs suddenly forcing themselves into the game.

Even so, poker does encourage those who play to be able to adapt to unforeseen occurrences, including potentially violent ones. (Open up Doyle Brunson’s memoir, The Godfather of Poker, to just about any page for examples.) I’m guessing that skill served some or most of those who were forced to endure the 15 minutes or so of “terror” Saturday afternoon.

Even so, let’s hope no one will need to demonstrate that sort of adaptive ability on the circuit again anytime soon.

Was gonna write today about my having played a couple of sessions recently at the Palm Beach Kennel Club in West Palm Beach, Florida. Also might’ve written something about Annie Duke taking down the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship last night, defeating Erik Seidel in the finals. But we had some breaking news over the weekend, so I’ll save those topics for now.

And when I say breaking news, I really mean it. Tables, equipment, cashiers’ boxes. And order, custom, routine — all breaking, in dramatic fashion.

Like a lot of us poker people here in the States, we awoke Saturday morning to learn something unexpected had happened at the European Poker Tour Main Event in Berlin. “There has been an unscheduled break in the action,” reported Danafish over on PokerNews. Understated, that.

Soon we’d discover an armed robbery had taken place. I read through numerous tweets from colleagues and friends reporting it had happened, and while it was quickly evident no one was seriously hurt, the news was nevertheless mighty troubling to read.

I had just worked with a number of those same folks at the NAPT Venetian a week before, and have myself had the opportunity to work an EPT event during this sixth season of the tour — the opener in Kyiv, Ukraine last August. I could quickly imagine the strangeness and uncanny feeling of a carefully planned and smoothly run poker tournament suddenly being interrupted by shouting, running, and other types of chaos. I could also imagine the fright of being around people with guns who were not there to preserve the order, but to disrupt it.

Of course, I didn’t have to use my imagination for long, as clips of the robbery soon surfaced online. I got a chance to view some of those vids before they were taken down. Here is a PokerNews report that includes what it looked like on EPT Live when the interruption occurred, as well as an interview with an investigating officer:

Kevmath quickly compiled more information over on Pokerati in a series of posts, some of which were additionally accompanied by more video and photos. Click on through for more interviews of eyewitnesses and other unsettling reportage:

EPT Berlin halted by robbery attempt (3/6/10)
EPT Berlin armed robbery attempt (3/6/10)
EPT Berlin final table (3/7/10)

I suppose ever since The Blair Witch Project and various “reality” TV shows we’ve grown somewhat accustomed to viewing shaky cameras and unedited, raw footage. But when it’s really real… well, it’s no fun at all. Especially when guns and machetes are involved.

A lot of misreporting, apparently, regarding what exactly happened, including some exaggeration of the booty — called a “jackpot” in some places (like on MSNBC) — as being as much as €1,000,000. Also some loose talk of machine guns and other what not, when that apparently wasn’t true, either.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting today that four men, armed with pistols and a machete, made off with “more than €100,000 ($136,000)” following the Saturday afternoon heist, and that they remain at large. The article reports that eight people were injured amid all of the running around.

Detectives are now on the case, looking at the various videos and photos taken, and having obtained fingerprints of one of the robbers. And while the robbers were wearing masks — making identifications more difficult — Michael Gassen, speaking for the investigators, says “I am confident we will solve the case.”

I’ve reported from tourneys in American casinos, where I’ve generally felt especially safe thanks to all of the surveillance cameras and security everywhere you turn. When I went to Ukraine last summer, the event took place at the Kyiv Sport Palace — not a regular casino — and while there was security present I’ll admit to having wondered a little about just how secure the place was.

The event at EPT Berlin was not at a casino, either, but in a ballroom at the Grand Hyatt Hotel. There were security guards present, though they were not armed. Most accounts suggest these guys acted heroically, despite the threats of physical harm to themselves. That picture at left (from the Berlin news site B.Z.), shows one of the guards temporarily subduing a suspect. Apparently the guard forced him to relinquish some of the money before the suspect was able to flee.

The WSJ article quotes Kirsty Thompson, an EPT spokesperson, saying how the tour “works closely with all its venues to ensure that appropriate security is in place” and that they “will continue to do so going forward, and step up efforts even further after this incident.”

After a delay of three hours or so, the Main Event was continued and played down to a winner on Sunday. I’m glad it was completed as scheduled, and especially glad the players and reporters all made it through in relatively good shape.

Like I say, something uncanny about a poker tournament, so carefully managed with rules of play, precise timing, and incessant order (or, at least, the effort to maintain such) being so brazenly disrupted. Then again, poker players and reporters are somewhat seasoned to expect the unexpected, which might explain why most seemed to have taken the incident in stride.

Tom McEvoy once characterized no-limit hold’em as “hours of boredom and moments of sheer terror.” He was of course speaking of surprise check-raises or awaiting a response to one’s all-in bluff — not uninvited, armed thugs suddenly forcing themselves into the game.

Even so, poker does encourage those who play to be able to adapt to unforeseen occurrences, including potentially violent ones. (Open up Doyle Brunson’s memoir, The Godfather of Poker, to just about any page for examples.) I’m guessing that skill served some or most of those who were forced to endure the 15 minutes or so of “terror” Saturday afternoon.

Even so, let’s hope no one will need to demonstrate that sort of adaptive ability on the circuit again anytime soon.

Going, local information and race times for Ffos Las, Lingfield and Stratford

The going, race times and local information for today’s racing at Doncaster, Lingfield, Newbury and Wolverhampton

Earlier this week I had an opportunity to attend a talk by Gloria Steinem, the feminist and political activist whose name is synonymous with the women’s liberation movement of the ’60s and ’70s.

Younger folks don’t necessarily recognize Steinem’s name or her once iconic cultural status the way those of us of a certain age do. Ask those who were around a few decades back, and we’ll instantly associate Steinem with women’s lib, Ms. Magazine (which she founded in the early ’70s), N.O.W. (the National Organization of Women), her support of “reproductive freedom,” and the (ultimately unsuccessful) fight for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment.

The talk was thought-provoking. Actually Steinem herself was suffering from laryngitis and so a younger woman delivered the speech while Steinem (now in her 70s) sat next to the podium. There were a few observations made in the lecture regarding cultural attitudes toward the older generation — thus did those points about ageism sound a little funny being delivered by a woman in her 20s. Steinem did step up to the mic for the Q&A afterwards, though, and gamely answered questions for at least half an hour despite her ailment. In both the lecture and her answers to questions, Steinem was highly engaging, witty, smart, and even occasionally inspiring.

Steinem is a controversial figure, of course, who has been and who continues to be opposed by many for her views. Not being fully acquainted with all of her writings or positions, I’m not ready to endorse her without qualification, although I will say I respond well to her general message to avoid prejudging people on the basis of categories like sex, race, class, age, or faith.

Listening to Steinem got me thinking a bit about that piece I wrote recently for Woman Poker Player. I mentioned last week how I’d written half of a “He Said/She Said” column with Jennifer Newell in which we discussed the issue of women and online poker site sponsorships. I believe the plan is to write more of those columns going forward. Here are links to those again — He Said: Women and Sponsorships / She Said: Women and Sponsorships.

Writing that caused me to think more specifically about stereotyping in poker — both in terms of the way men and women poker players are differently treated and judged in the media (and thus in the sometimes mysterious world of online site sponsorships) as well as how a person’s sex potentially is given a certain significance at the poker table. Indeed, while many of us instinctively resist stereotyping others — or at least try not to and/or are aware that it is wrong to do so — at the poker table such stereotyping is not only understood as acceptable but some would argue essential.

Those who play a lot of live poker develop certain ideas about, say, women players, or those of a certain race or ethnicity, or older people, and so forth. Such ideas are difficult to resist, and in some cases prove useful when up against a new opponent for whom one has little or no information about his or her playing style.

When this topic comes up, I can’t help but think about a book like Play Poker, Quit Work and Sleep Till Noon! by John Fox, originally published in 1977, in which Fox includes a chapter early on about game selection. (Click here for more about this historically significant poker book.) Amid his advice about picking tables at which to play, Fox unashamedly delivers his “general rules for identifying weak players,” many of which involve stereotyping.

In the list of “desirable opponents” that comes at the end of the chapter, Fox includes some benign-sounding categories like “drinkers,” “nervous opponents,” and “players who expose cards.” However, many of his categories directly evoke — in a decidedly pre-PC way — the categories of sex, race, class, age, and even faith as useful indicators. Thus does his list include “rich people,” “young players,” “people displaying religious symbols,” and “ghetto residents.” And women? Important enough to list twice, with both “beautiful women” and “women in general” being desirable opponents for Fox.

Times change, and the significance of these categories evolve. Seems to me, though, that while we might think differently today about categories like sex, race, class, age, or faith, thereby assigning each different meanings to them than we might have back in the ’70s or earlier, we humans still nevertheless find it hard to resist prejudging others, with our prejudgments often affected by whatever ideas we possess about these categories.

Away from the poker table, many of us make a conscious effort to resist such stereotyping. However, at the poker table — where we meet strangers in order to compete with them — it’s a different story.

Earlier this week I had an opportunity to attend a talk by Gloria Steinem, the feminist and political activist whose name is synonymous with the women’s liberation movement of the ’60s and ’70s.

Younger folks don’t necessarily recognize Steinem’s name or her once iconic cultural status the way those of us of a certain age do. Ask those who were around a few decades back, and we’ll instantly associate Steinem with women’s lib, Ms. Magazine (which she founded in the early ’70s), N.O.W. (the National Organization of Women), her support of “reproductive freedom,” and the (ultimately unsuccessful) fight for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment.

The talk was thought-provoking. Actually Steinem herself was suffering from laryngitis and so a younger woman delivered the speech while Steinem (now in her 70s) sat next to the podium. There were a few observations made in the lecture regarding cultural attitudes toward the older generation — thus did those points about ageism sound a little funny being delivered by a woman in her 20s. Steinem did step up to the mic for the Q&A afterwards, though, and gamely answered questions for at least half an hour despite her ailment. In both the lecture and her answers to questions, Steinem was highly engaging, witty, smart, and even occasionally inspiring.

Steinem is a controversial figure, of course, who has been and who continues to be opposed by many for her views. Not being fully acquainted with all of her writings or positions, I’m not ready to endorse her without qualification, although I will say I respond well to her general message to avoid prejudging people on the basis of categories like sex, race, class, age, or faith.

Listening to Steinem got me thinking a bit about that piece I wrote recently for Woman Poker Player. I mentioned last week how I’d written half of a “He Said/She Said” column with Jennifer Newell in which we discussed the issue of women and online poker site sponsorships. I believe the plan is to write more of those columns going forward. Here are links to those again — He Said: Women and Sponsorships / She Said: Women and Sponsorships.

Writing that caused me to think more specifically about stereotyping in poker — both in terms of the way men and women poker players are differently treated and judged in the media (and thus in the sometimes mysterious world of online site sponsorships) as well as how a person’s sex potentially is given a certain significance at the poker table. Indeed, while many of us instinctively resist stereotyping others — or at least try not to and/or are aware that it is wrong to do so — at the poker table such stereotyping is not only understood as acceptable but some would argue essential.

Those who play a lot of live poker develop certain ideas about, say, women players, or those of a certain race or ethnicity, or older people, and so forth. Such ideas are difficult to resist, and in some cases prove useful when up against a new opponent for whom one has little or no information about his or her playing style.

When this topic comes up, I can’t help but think about a book like Play Poker, Quit Work and Sleep Till Noon! by John Fox, originally published in 1977, in which Fox includes a chapter early on about game selection. (Click here for more about this historically significant poker book.) Amid his advice about picking tables at which to play, Fox unashamedly delivers his “general rules for identifying weak players,” many of which involve stereotyping.

In the list of “desirable opponents” that comes at the end of the chapter, Fox includes some benign-sounding categories like “drinkers,” “nervous opponents,” and “players who expose cards.” However, many of his categories directly evoke — in a decidedly pre-PC way — the categories of sex, race, class, age, and even faith as useful indicators. Thus does his list include “rich people,” “young players,” “people displaying religious symbols,” and “ghetto residents.” And women? Important enough to list twice, with both “beautiful women” and “women in general” being desirable opponents for Fox.

Times change, and the significance of these categories evolve. Seems to me, though, that while we might think differently today about categories like sex, race, class, age, or faith, thereby assigning each different meanings to them than we might have back in the ’70s or earlier, we humans still nevertheless find it hard to resist prejudging others, with our prejudgments often affected by whatever ideas we possess about these categories.

Away from the poker table, many of us make a conscious effort to resist such stereotyping. However, at the poker table — where we meet strangers in order to compete with them — it’s a different story.

Lou Krieger is one of the most prolific and well-regarded poker authors around, having written or co-written 11 different books on poker and gambling as well as numerous columns for various publications over the last two decades. Krieger is also the editor of Poker Player Newspaper and hosts a weekly podcast called “Keep Flopping Aces.”

Given his authorship of so many poker titles and his familiarity with the publishing industry, I thought Krieger would be an interesting person to talk to about the current status of poker books and how that status may have changed over the years. We ended up discussing a number of topics when I appeared on his podcast recently, but I’d like to share with you some excerpts from the part of our discussion that specifically dealt with poker books and publishing.

I began my questions of Krieger with one about an ad for an online poker site I recently saw that had something to say about poker books.

Short-Stacked Shamus: In the latest issue of Bluff Magazine one finds an ad for Full Tilt Poker. On the left-hand side of the ad there is a stack of books with the following written over them: “Books can tell you about the strategies, the common scenarios, the mathematics, odds and proven methods, and all the ways you are supposed to play the game.” Then over on the right one sees a photo of Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, next to whom is written “But books don’t play poker.”

As someone who has written a lot of poker strategy books and has thought a lot about the purposes they serve, how do you respond to the ideas present in an ad like that?

Lou Krieger: First of all, I think it’s a good ad, because it’s compelling.

SSS: Yes, it is.

LK: Secondly, I think where it sort of leads you astray is that yes, you know, [the ad is right to say that] books can tell you things but they don’t play poker… they certainly don’t play poker at the level of Chris Ferguson. Anybody who thinks that his book will make somebody a poker player of the ability of Chris Ferguson is absolutely mad. It will not.

For me, I consciously said to myself when I sat down to write my books, “Who am I writing for? What’s the audience?” I have always written pretty much for the beginning and moderate poker player because that audience is infinitely larger than a book I could write that will be helpful to somebody at Ferguson’s level.

SSS: I guess in terms of achieving the widest possible audience, too, you might write a very useful and interesting book to the more experienced player, but you’re destined to sell fewer copies of a book like that.

LK: Yes, absolutely. And that’s the truth of almost any how-to book that you can imagine. All of the books on how to improve your golf or how to play tennis, they’re not aimed at the pros. They are aimed at the players of limited ability like the vast majority of us are who are going to go out and buy those books.

SSS: You’ve written 11 books. The first one was Hold’em Excellence, yes?

LK: Right. That was written in 1995, I believe. Way before the poker boom started… it was a totally different universe.

I wrote Hold’em Excellence and More Hold’em Excellence, which was the follow up to it. Then I had a proposal to do Poker for Dummies. I really wanted to do a “For Dummies” book because I thought that, you know, there’s a book that’s a brand, and if I do a “For Dummies” poker book it really legitimizes me in terms of being a good poker writer and in the marketplace, because it’s a big huge publisher and not a small self-published book.

[So I did] Poker for Dummies [with Richard D. Harroch], then the poker boom hit. It sounds like the dark ages, but it was less than a decade ago. Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker, and every publisher and his brother wanted a poker book written.

Since I already had books out and I’d written a “For Dummies” book I was a known quantity so they called me. I wound up writing about five or six books in four years. It was just nonstop writing, and I knew that I might as well do it now because this poker boom is going to be like hula hoops… it ain’t lasting forever. So as long as they’re sending me advances and asking me to write a book for them, I might as well say yes. And so I kept writing books. I think one year I had four books come out, which is just insane.

SSS: Tell me about your motives for writing poker books.

LK: I think the motivation for writing is twofold. Number one is I like to write. So I enjoy writing. And [number two,] the process of writing, of having to put words on paper, forces you to clarify your thoughts. You can’t be ambivalent. You can’t believe it’s one way on Tuesday and another way on Wednesday. You have to take a position about something. You have to offer advice that’s clear, concise, works, and holds up, so you have to think it through.

As a result, the act of writing, like the act of teaching… the person that often gets the most out of it is the writer or teacher himself. I’ve learned more from writing books than I could have gotten any other way I can think of.

SSS: So how has the poker publishing world changed from before the poker boom to after?

LK: [With those pre-boom titles] there was some [degree] of the market crying for [them]. Unfortunately that’s not the case anymore. The market for poker books is pretty swamped. And during that same time [i.e., the mid-90s to today] the publishing industry at large has been undergoing incredible changes, shrinking and collapsing, etc. So you have that happening.

SSS: How about the very recent past — the last year or two. It seems as if in the industry there is less buzz now about books. I’m really just speaking of the last year, maybe two years…. There is so much more to compete with books today. If you’re a poker player and you want information, you can go online, you can go to the forums, you can go to training sites or forums… there are a lot more exciting ways to get that information than from books.

LK: There’s also that phenomenon of how publishers are a lot more risk averse than they used to be. It used to be that 10-15 years ago they would take chances on a book if they liked it, if it was literate, if it had something going for it, whereas now they are looking for pretty much sure things…. More and more publishers are looking for “me too” kinds of books, whatever the subject matter is. And the general thinking in the publishing industry is that poker, at least for right now, has pretty much played out as an interesting topic for a book….

[You could say] the publishing industry is hunkering down. They are getting very conservative about what they release, and they’re unwilling to take risks. They are only playing aces and kings. Whereas in the past they would take a flyer on a nine-eight suited.

SSS: Yeah, that’s right.

LK: You know what’s a very interesting phenomenon… when we talk about poker books being played out, we’re really talking about hold’em books being overdone. Nobody’s writing about the other forms of poker. In fact, Mark Tenner, who came in second in last year’s WSOP Omaha/8 event, he and I wrote a book called Winning Omaha/8 Poker in 2003. And we are in the process now of doing a second edition, adding a substantial amount of new material.

But in the seven years since this book has come out there’s not been another book written about Omaha. There have been a gazillion books written about hold’em, and Omaha at one time was called the game of the future. Yes, there’s been one or two PLO books written…

SSS: Yes, Jeff Hwang has written a couple of PLO books that I like a lot. [Note: Hwang's first Omaha book, Pot-Limit Omaha Poker, does contain a section devoted to Omaha/8.] There probably is an Omaha/8 book [written since 2003] somewhere, but you guys are pretty much alone on the shelf there.

LK: Yeah, and so we’re going to come out with a second edition. The publisher says he’s getting interest from some people who want a new one, so we’ll see what happens. But when we talk about the poker book business we’re really talking about the no-limit Texas hold’em book business.

Much thanks to Lou Krieger for taking the time. If you are interested in hearing the full interview — as well as Krieger asking me questions about my background and poker writing — you can download and listen to the archived episode of “Keep Flopping Aces” over on the Rounders Radio site. Also, for more information about Krieger, his blog, and his books (including ways to order), visit his website at LouKrieger.com.

Smashburger, the burger restaurant making a “better burger”, will open several restaurants in Las Vegas, with the first opening on March 17th. Smashburger will set itself apart in Sin City by offering visitors a delicious, made-to-order $5 Smashburger and specialty items, created for specifically for Las Vegas.

The first restaurant will be located at 7541 W. Lake Mead, Suite #2 at the corner of Lake Mead and Buffalo and will offer a special menu to highlight the spirit of Las Vegas.

The Sin City Smashburger is made with a 1/3 lb. or 1/2 lb. patty of 100% certified Angus Beef, fried egg, applewood smoked bacon, American cheese, grilled onions, haystack onions and smash sauce on an artisan egg bun. The Sin City Smashburger can also be ordered in a chicken version.

Another item, created especially for the Vegas locations, is the All-Nighter salad with crisp romaine and iceberg lettuce, with chopped Applewood smoked bacon, fried eggs, guacamole, fresh diced tomatoes, haystack onions and cheddar cheese and all topped-off with buttermilk ranch dressing.

“We’re excited to bring our ‘better burger’ to Las Vegas,” says Smashburger Founder Tom Ryan. “Smashburger’s big flavors and unique concept will make Smashburger a favorite among area residents.”

Smashburger is named for the method it uses to cook the burger patties and to further elevate the “better burger” experience, Smashburger serves their hamburgers on a toasted artisan bun and a quality selection of real cheeses, with the best-quality produce and condiments.

“Smashburger is great for any occasion. Whether out for a date night or having lunch with the kids, there is something for everyone. It’s a great product at a great price and we’re excited to be introducing Smashburger to Las Vegas,” says Kim Gunderson, vice president of marketing for SB Las Vegas LLC.

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