No Monkey Business
The Rio Hotel & Casino and World Series of Poker honchos axed one company’s brilliant promotional plans to have a trained monkey enter the high stakes poker tournament. According to Max Wright of Pokershare.com, Mikey the Monkey has been trained to identify face cards and aces and to make bets according to the cards in his hand. The promotion, titled ‘Chimp vs. Chump’ even offered to cover the $10,000 2007 entry fee for any player eliminated from the tournament by Mikey. While officials were quick to prevent the WSOP from turning into a circus side show, literally, Wright told the Eye that his company received enough media coverage from the stunt, including hits on ABC and FOX, to satisfy Mikey’s growing appetite. While his tournament life ended before it began, it didn’t preclude Mikey from enjoying the spoils usually reserved for bracelet winning champions. At the accompanying Gaming Lifestyle expo, Mikey stole the show as hundreds of onlookers and fans clamored for a photo with the poker playing primate. The WSOP is currently in the process of slimming down the competition to the final table of 10 players. Former champions already knocked out include the legendary Texas Dolly, Doyle Brunson (1976, 1977), MGM Mirage executive Bobby Baldwin (1978), Dan Harrington (1995) and, thankfully, Phil Hellmuth Jr. (1989).

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