New Club Opening

(From the Western Chronicle 19/07/08)

Eight
The word for "eight" in Chinese (Pinyin: bā) sounds similar to the word which means "prosper" or "wealth" (发 - short for "发财", Pinyin: fā). In regional dialects the words for "eight" and "fortune" are also similar, eg Cantonese "baat" and "faat".

There is also a resemblance between two digits, "88", and the shuang xi ('double joy'), a popular decorative design composed of two stylized characters 喜 (xi, 'joy', 'happiness').

Telephone number 8888-8888 was sold for USD$270,723 in Chengdu, China.

The Summer Olympics in Beijing are scheduled to open on 8/8/08 at 8:08:08 p.m.[2]

A man in Hangzhou offered to sell his license plate reading A88888 for 1.12 million yuan.[2]

Dragon Fish Industry in Singapore, a breeder of rare Asian Arowanas (which are "lucky fish" themselves, and, being a rare species, are required to be microchipped), makes sure to use numbers with plenty of eights in their microchip tag numbers, and appears to reserve particularly numbers especially rich in eights and sixes (e.g. 702088880006688) for particularly valuable specimens....

After almost one year of meticulous planning, The Kings Private Members Club will open its doors.

The Club is the latest project of poker aficionado Rob Acton who was previously employed as General Manager to Basement Jacks Card Club, London and as Food and Beverage Manager to The Merrion Casino Club, Dublin.

After a brief tour of the building we spoke to Mr. Acton about this new venture.

"We aim to provide players with an unparallelled gaming experience in an unthreatening environment. Value and transparant payout structures will be paramount while our slow clock deepstack freezeouts will ensure that the skilled player will prevail" commented Acton yesterday.

The club is located in Abbey St. Ennis, Co. Clare, Ireland on the third floor of the building previously known as the Kings Bar. Access is gained by elevator at ground level and upon arrival on the third floor we were greeted with a scene straight out of Las Vegas. I can honestly say with hand on heart that this reporter has seen nothing like this before.

Blackjack,Roulette and poker tables adorn the floor while the carefully placed sky lighting add a certain Zen-like tranquility to the gaming area.

"We will officially open on the 8th August 2008. This is a very lucky number in Chinese culture and being superstitious so-and-sos we felt right about choosing this date.

Our first tournament will begin at 8:08pm on 08/08/08.

It will be a €50 freezeout with added prizepool and novelty bounties. Players can expect a boutique style tournament with plenty of bubbly and a masseuse on hand to relieve weary souls.

At the moment we are limited to fifty entrants in our poker area but plans are afoot to aquire a second floor which will be converted into an e-Gaming room. This will provide patrons with a 24 hour cash in/out facility. We have the utmost confidence in our carefully chosen host site POKERTRILLION.COM who share our ideals of value, transparancy and promotion of skilled play while not being to far up ones derriere"

"A long anticipated complete overhaul of Irish gaming laws is imminent.We aim to set the regulation bar for others to follow. For far too long many unscrupulous operators have held the gaming community to ransom due to Irelands opaque and obsolete laws regarding gambling. As a professional organisaton we welcome regulation with open arms and look forward to working shoulder to shoulder with the government to made sure a fair and relevant common ground is reached".

Membership to the club will be complimentary for the first 10 weeks but cost a staggering €4,500 per annum after this promotional period. For that one can expect 24 hour chauffeur and concierge service, use of the clubs humidor as well as free entry to club outings.

For a unique alternative to the perilous drinking 'culture' we strongly recommend you pay the club a visit and sincerely hope it will remain a permanent fixture on the Ennis Skyline.