After the recent announcement that the 2009 NHL Awards will be held in the gambling mecca on June 18, the NHL said this week that it will hold a celebrity/athlete poker tournament as part of the festivities.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said the charity poker tournament will be held June 17.
“For years there has been a charitable component to the Awards program,” Bettman told news media at the Palms Hotel. “I am pleased to announce today that the NHL will team with Pokerstars.net and the NHL Players’ Association to present [the poker tournament] in connection with the 2009 NHL Awards.”
Bettman was joined in remarks at the podium by George Maloof, owner of the Palms Hotel Las Vegas, which will welcome hockey’s greatest players after the 2009 Stanley Cup Final is decided.
Las Vegas mayor Oscar B. Goodman and Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority CEO/president Rossi Ralenkotter were also on hand to mark the occasion.
Maloof said he was “thrilled that his hotel” could establish a “Las Vegas first” by hosting a sports league awards event.
“Another Las Vegas first is it will be the first time ever that the NHL Awards have been broadcast live in the U.S.,” said Maloof.
The 2009 NHL Awards will be broadcast on a Thursday night from the Pearl Concert Theater inside the Palms Hotel, which hosts big-name acts every week. Versus will handle the U.S. telecast and CBC will do the honors in Canada.
The format will be the popular No Limit Texas Hold’em familiar to television viewers.
Related posts: