King of Vegas TV Series

King of Vegas was a popular TV series of different gambling tournaments that first appeared on 17th of January 2006 on Spike TV. In this program players from different gambling branches competed in a variety of games for a winning prize of 1 million dollars.

The host of the program was a famous boxing commentator from ESPN Max Kellerman and his handicap co-host- no less famous Wayne Allen Root. The director of the tournament was Matt Savage, well known for his directing of the World Series of Poker tournament.

Tournament like no other

Unlike WSOB or other gambling televised tournaments like Party Poker TV King of Vegas was a tournament of 8 different casino games. It could be called a casino TV tournament. Each week began with blackjack and ended with Texas Hold’Em poker with two other games in the middle. Other games except blackjack and Texas Hold’Em, for example were roulette, Mini-Baccarat, PaiGow Poker, Craps, Red Dog, Horse racing and Caribbean Stud Poker. Each game players got chips for 10000$ as an addition to the bankroll they already had and the main prize of the game was 1 million dollars! All games had NO betting limits, the only limit was an air time of the program and, therefore, the number of rounds was limited.

King of Vegas began with 12 players for the whole season of tournament. Six of the players were famous pros from different gambling branches; other six were just beginners. For example one of the first six pros was David Williams – a poker pro, at the same time one of the beginners was “The Chainsaw” Steve Dempsey – a plumber! Each week, after a series of games one player was eliminated.

“Sitting Pretty”

All players had a chance for “Sitting Pretty”. The meaning is that on the beginning of each week players with the highest scores deserved the right not to be eliminated from the tournament for the whole week. Each week players were divided into two groups, where the first half of the players was “Sitting Pretty” and other half struggled for the right to stay in the tournament. At the end of the week two players with the least amount of chips played in a “Sudden death” round, and the loser of which was eliminated from the tournament with no winnings.

On the final week there were only 3 players left, and they had no “Sitting Pretty” right.

The winner of the first King of Vegas Tournament and the King of Vegas himself was Alan Borman – a producer of TV commercials and a beginner gambler.