Las Vegas Weekly

November 9, 2009 · 12:24 PM

Photo Gallery: Vince Neil’s poker event makes everyone feel good

By Robin Leach

Vince Neil and his wife Lia with Zowie Bowie's Marley Taylor and Chris Phillips at the 5th Annual Celebrity Charity Poker Tournament at The Rio.

Photo: TVT

The timing was perfect! Poker players and fans waited yesterday and today for resumption of play at 10 tonight between Darvin Moon and Joe Cada to see who wins the $8.6 million top prize in the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event. What to do in the meantime with all that down time while these two guys are sleeping off their battle over the other seven players in the November Nine that ended at 6 a.m.?

Motley Crue frontman Vince Neil came up with the ultimate solution. Throw your own celebrity charity poker tournament and use the time for a good cause. Now that makes everybody feel good, Dr. Neil!

I joined Zowie Bowie stars Chris Phillips and the stunning Marley Taylor for the auction, and I even wound up buying an amazing charcoal portrait of Vince. We sold a priceless Led Zeppelin-autographed guitar and not one but two private golf packages with Vince for a total of $10,000. All the funds raised went to the Skylar Neil Foundation in honor of the rocker’s 5-year-old girl who died of cancer in 1995.

Two hundred players signed up with a $550 entry fee for a shot at a $50,000 grand prize in the 5th Annual Celebrity Charity Poker Tournament. WSOP tournament director Matt Savage emceed the event. Poker pros actress Jennifer Tilly, boyfriend Phil “Unabomber” Laak, Antonio Esfandiari, Todd Brunson, Hall of Famer and six WSOP bracelets winner T.J. Cloutier, plus Flamingo comedy headliner Vinnie Favorito were in on the fun and the action in the tournament area near Buzzio’s in The Rio.

Vince held court at Table 1 while his wife, Lia, held court at Table 2. Music and poker fans were able to get close to the players at the 15 tables during the competition and peek over their shoulders at the winning cards. Most of them, like me, however were in awe of the stunning, blinged-out watch created by artist Michael Godard, who also played in the tournament.

Phil told me that he has a side bet of $100,000 on Darvin winning tonight but fears he’ll lose when Joe becomes the youngest-ever player at 21 to win it all.

“Either way, it’s a great story,” Phil said. “The youngest kid ever or the Maryland logger who won his seat playing a $140 entry in a West Virginia casino tournament. Darvin doesn’t even have a cell phone to call home if he wins!”

Our special correspondent Emily Jillette will fire up her live Twitter reports at 10 tonight for us from her husband Penn Jillette’s theater at The Rio, and we’ll have photos of the new WSOP champion and his $8 million haul right here tomorrow.

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

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