I would like to thank Tunica area poker professional Bob Talbot for introducing me to so many good people while I was in town. I would also like to thank MGM Resorts International Regional Director of Public Relations for Mississippi, Mary Cracchiolo Spain, for helping me out with some very necessary details which went into this piece.
Ken Lambert, Jr. is a former Director of the WSOP. He is has also had a hand in developing some of the best tournament directors in the poker industry. (picture courtesy of MGM Resorts International)
MGM Resorts International Mississippi Director of Poker Operations Ken Lambert, Jr. discussed all things poker in a 40 minute interview for Poker Pro Magazine. A former WSOP Director of Tournament Operations for Harrah’s, Lambert has spent his career working around and with some of the best minds in the poker industry.
MB: How did you get started in the casino business?
KL: My Father got me started in the casino business. I was 16 years old and he got me a job working as a busboy at Binion’s Horseshoe in Las Vegas. I was a busboy from 1979 until 1981 and then moved up to room service until 1984. I turned 21 in 1984 and then became a Security Officer until 1987.
What I looked most forward too throughout the entire year, was the World Series of Poker. I was very fortunate to get to know most all the big players through my father and it also helped working for the most well know poker icons in the business, Benny and son Jack Binion.
During the World Series of Poker, I would get off of work as a busboy; go upstairs to see the big poker players. At times some of them would want ice cream, and of course I happily volunteered to walk across the street to the Four Queens Casino as they had a great ice cream shop. The guys would give me money to get the ice cream, (and always a little to much) then tell me to keep the change. Wow, I thought I was in heaven.
MB: Can you talk a little bit about being in Las Vegas and breaking into poker back in the 1980’s?
My dad (Ken Lambert, Sr.) was always in the business–he gave me my first job in poker. If it weren’t for him, I would not be standing here today. As soon as I turned 21, I wanted to work in poker, but my dad didn’t want to hear it, as he had always told me, “Casino’s are a tough business Son”. He told me that I needed to teach my self to deal. I said what is the first step? He said learn to pitch and then come back and see me.
Well, he wasn’t easy on me and told me I had to pass an audition before he would hire me. I think he was a bit lenient. At the time he was the poker room manager at (Bob) Stupak’s Vegas World.
After I passed an audition at Vegas World, I was in, in for a lot! The first game I dealt would be A-5 and 2-7 No- Limit. Bob Stupak and I believe Billy Baxter, among a few other great players were in the game. What an experience on the first day of my dealing career.
My first tournament I worked was in ’84–it was Jack (Tree Top) Straus’s tournament, and again, poker great, Ken Lambert, Sr. (dad) was the tournament director. It seems as though he is in this picture a lot. Thanks Dad!!
The Mirage was thought to be a big gamble when Steve Wynn opened it in 1989. It was the first of Wynn's three masterpiece mega-casinos on the strip, with Bellagio and Wynn (opening in 1998 and 2005 respectively) being the other two. The Mirage was the center of the poker universe for a decade, before the biggest games in town moved to Bellagio.
After my dealing career, in 1989, I helped opened the Mirage with another poker great, Eric Drache. I started as a brush person and moved up to Assistant Shift Manager until I left for the Poker Room Manager’s position in Tunica, Ms. with Jack Binion.
Looking back, I was pretty lucky to get to know a lot of these wonderful people. Poker has been great to me. I could call up the best players in the world and ask them a question if I needed to.
I just talked to Todd Brunson last night about coming out to the Southern Poker Championship at the Beau Rivage in Biloxi, Ms.
There are and were many great players and minds that a lot of the newer and up and coming players have never heard of, a couple that I liked to watch, Stu Unger, Mickey Appleman and a friend and favorite of mine, Jesse Alto. There are so many more.
MB: That’s a lot of poker history right there. What was next for you after The Mirage?
KL: I was at The Mirage when and I approached Jack Binion about coming on as a manager at the Horseshoe Casino in Tunica, Ms. I knew a lot about poker and was eager for a chance to get to show what I had learned.
So, sixteen years ago I opened the Horseshoe as the poker room manager–that’s how big poker got started in Tunica. Splash casino had poker before the Horseshoe, but as far as bringing big name players in, that happened with Jack Binion and I and the introduction of tournaments that we brought in. I ran the very first big tournaments ever to come to Tunica. The first was in 1999, the Mid-America Poker Classic at the Horseshoe. We started the World Poker open in 2000, which was later turned into a WPT Event . . . and eventually moved down to Beau Rivage in Biloxi.
When Harrah’s bought the Horseshoe (2004) I was working for Jack Binion. They reached out and said they needed someone with experience in running big tournaments; I welcomed them and was up to the challenge. As the WSOP director in 2005 and the first to run a WSOP event outside of Las Vegas, I traveled for an entire year–I think I slept in hotel beds 300 out of 365 days that year. It was an exciting opportunity that I will never forget. Thank you Harrah’s for giving me the opportunity.
Horseshoe Tunica, opened as Jack Binion's Horseshoe in 1996, set the bar of excellence for Tunica area casinos.
MB: The Horseshoe has turned out some of the top tournament directors and poker personnel in the business, that’s not a coincidence is it?
KL: It is wonderful to see that some of the people that I hired as poker dealers 13 years ago and where they’ve taken their own careers. When I see how successful guys like Johnny Grooms, Jack Effel, and Jimmy Sommerfield have become, it makes me feel good to know that I was given the opportunity to train with them.
Next door at the Horseshoe, (Poker Tournament Director) Dale Carden and (Poker Room Manager) Lisa Crompton are also among the tops in the business and I have had the pleasure of working with both of them.
Another great Tournament Director and one of the most well known is Jack McClelland. He now works at the Bellagio. I was his assistant in 1985 and 86 and in those two years was able to learn many things regarding tournaments that I would need to further my career. Back in the day before the internet and Chris Moneymaker, when it comes to major Poker Tournaments, including to World Series of Poker, a few of the best come to mind, Ken Lambert, Sr, Eric Drache, Jack McClelland and Frank Catrona. I know that every tournament that happens today as a little bit of each one of those guys in it.
MB: Can you yell me about your current employer?
KL: I work for MGM Resorts International and I travel back and forth between Biloxi and Tunica, Ms. In Biloxi We have the Beau Rivage and in Tunica we have the Gold Strike.
Recently renovated, Gold Strike's casino floor and poker room are on par with those in either Atlantic City or Las Vegas.
MGM Resorts International President and COO of Regional Operations, George P. Corchis, Jr., who I also had the pleasure of working with at the Horseshoe a few years ago, is very big supporter of poker as well as our general manager at Gold Strike, George Goldhoff.
When Mr. Goldhoff came to the Gold Strike Casino, he opened up a whole new world for this property. With the leadership of George Corchis, Mr. Goldhoff was ask to leave his position as VP of hotel operations for the Beau Rivage and become our General Manager and with him, came his expertise in hospitality. We’ve been able to experience a different level of service with his leadership.
We have 1133 newly renovated hotel rooms and sell out most weekends. People who have never been to Tunica have wonder why anyone would go there. After their first experience, they can’t wait to come back. Great rooms, food, entertainment and let’s not forget, the comps and the gambling.
In our company and also the largest project to ever take place in Las Vegas, is City Center, our newest and most beautiful property. The President and CEO of City Center is Mr. Bobby Baldwin. Also a former WSOP Champion. That helps our tournaments not only at Gold Strike and Beau Rivage but all tournaments throughout our company.
I’m lucky to work for a company that supports poker as much as they do. I truly believe the company recognizes that having poker at the properties is an asset. It’s not just one individual, it is the entire company.
MB: The WPT and WSOP Circuit have now expanded into Florida. Is Florida a place you and MGM Resorts International are keeping an eye on?
KM: We are concerned about the growth of gaming in the Florida market, as we draw a lot of players to the Biloxi area. Florida will be a force to be reckoned with when it is all said and done.
Right now the majority of the poker that I see isn’t in a resort or a full-blown casino–it is at the dog tracks as well as the Hard Rock. The (pari-mutuals) don’t have all the bells and whistles that a casino can offer, so when a guy wants to take his wife or whole family somewhere on vacation and also do some gambling, he has to think, where can I go that has a salon for his wife and something for the kids, The answer, Beau Rivage or Gold Strike. When it comes to gaming, couples and families can come to the Gold Strike and the Beau Rivage and get the full gaming experience as well as gourmet meals, a salon and activities for the kids. I do not believe all Florida gaming can offer all those options . Mississippi offers everything, and players who want that full experience are still coming to us.
It will be interesting to see how the (WPT) tournament at the Hard Rock does. I think it will do great and a lot of people will show up to experience it. They’ve never done a major event, but I’m sure they will get some good people to come in. There are some people from the WPT who can offer some very good advice. We’re looking forward to it, because they can introduce the Florida market to poker on that level. A lot of the players there have never experienced poker on that kind of level. If they receive a great experience, and people are wowed by it, they may just come to our events here in Mississippi next.
