Caesars Palace

LAS VEGAS -- The strong betting on Larry Holmes in his title fight with heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield tomorrow night has apparently caught some of the leading sports books by surprise.Holmes, who opened as a 7-1 underdog a month ago, has been bet down to 4-1 by his supporters."We have a lot of money being bet on Holmes and grocery money on Holyfield," said Russ Culver, who manages the sports book at The Mirage.Added Vinnie Magliulo, who operates the betting parlor at Caesars Palace, "The public is buying this fight and rooting for Holmes, and that's quite a turnaround."

A lot of things get blowed up real good in "The Strip," and if that's the height of what you expect from television, then, friend, welcome to hog heaven.There are major explosions in tonight's series premiere. There are also, as befits the series' Las Vegas setting, plenty of buxom babes in bikinis, gaudy neon, flashy cars and high-rolling gamblers. There's an evil, leering man with a foreign accent and a beautiful woman tied up and getting slapped around. Throw in throbbing music and stars who don't talk so much as quip, and you've got a handle on this brain-dead mess from executive producer Joel Silver, who specializes in keeping things moving so fast on screen that no one really thinks too much about what's actually happening.

LAS VEGAS -- There is nothing like a devastating loss for a heavyweight contender to discover his true friends.It seemed everyone has been dumping on Tommy Morrison after his one-round knockout at the hands of Michael Bentt in Tulsa, Okla., last week.It was bad enough that the loss cost the Oklahoma native a potential $8 million payday with World Boxing Council champion Lennox Lewis at the new MGM on March 5, but now Bob Arum, president of Top Rank Inc., has severed promotional ties with Morrison.

Having already established the popularity of its own World Series, the poker world is now rolling out a made-for-television version of March Madness. Hijacking the NCAA's format for crowning men's and women's basketball champions, NBC is backing the second National Heads-up Poker Championship being held March 4 to 6 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The winner will get $500,000 and the total prize pool will be $1.5 million with NBC adding more than $200,000 to the pot. A field of 64 players - familiar poker professionals and celebrities with an acumen for the game - will vie in one-on-one contests building to a best-of-three finals.

NEW YORK -- Mike Tyson became a defensive fighter yesterday at the kickoff news conference for his challenge of undisputed heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas on Nov. 8.Ground rules were set before the two fighters began fielding questions from the media in the main ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria. No one was allowed to directly question Tyson about the rape charges filed by a teen-age Miss Black America beauty pageant contestant that are being investigated by a grand jury in Indianapolis.

LAS VEGAS -- Dennis Kelley, a nurse from Pittsburgh, came prepared for Super Bowl Sunday at Caesars Palace. Kelley had his Ben Roethlisberger jersey. He wore his gold football pants. He even pulled on his throwback Steelers leather helmet. And he had a pillow. If you want a good perch to watch the Super Bowl here, you better have a game plan. Kelley's strategy was to get to the Caesars Palace sports and race book, one of Vegas' premier spots to watch the game, early enough to save seats for his fiancee and her aunt.

NEW YORK -- The Evander Holyfield-Mike Tyson fight officially has been knocked out for January by a combination of Tyson's sore ribs, Holyfield's cold feet, the World Wrestling Federation and a horde of Las Vegas conventioneers.That, in a nutshell, is why the fate of the Holyfield-Tyson fight rests in the hands of an Indianapolis jury -- unless Tyson's legal team can find a way to get his rape trial pushed back from its scheduled Jan. 27 starting date.After several hours of heated meetings at the Manhattan offices of Home Box Office, all parties -- Holyfield promoter Dan Duva and manager Shelly Finkel, Don King and his lawyer, Bob Hirth, and executives of TVKO and Caesars Palace -- agreed to disagree on a suitable January date for the fight, which was postponed from its original Nov. 8 date because of a rib injury suffered by Tyson.

LAS VEGAS - On Jan. 1, 2000, the story goes, Celine Dion, exhausted from touring and wanting to be a stay-at-home wife and mother, came to Las Vegas with her manager-husband and 250 of their family and friends. The couple renewed their wedding vows. They also saw O, the Cirque du Soleil spectacular on water at the Bellagio, and so moved and flabbergasted was Dion that she came to an inevitable conclusion: She wanted one for herself. She's getting one. In A New Day, which is what her new Vegas extravaganza is called, Dion, strapped to a harness, soars 50 feet in the air, to the top of the gargantuan proscenium, as she belts out the love ballad "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face."

NEW YORK -- Larry Holmes took undisputed heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield to school yesterday.With the strains of "Pomp and Circumstance" playing in the background at the St. Regis ballroom, Holmes, wearing cap and gown, was bestowed by promoter Bob Arum with a degree as "Doctor of Pugilism."The former heavyweight king, 42, who challenges Holyfield at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas on June 19, waved his mock sheepskin and said, "I never thought I'd get one of these. I stayed a whole day in school -- once."

LAS VEGAS -- By process of elimination, Riddick Bowe, the unbeaten (30-0) title contender from Fort Washington, Md., appears next in line to take a whack at undisputed heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield, who is planning his next defense here, Nov. 13.And after watching Holyfield's uninspiring 12-round victory over flabby ex-champion Larry Holmes at Caesars Palace on Friday night, Bowe's manager, Rock Newman, was all but measuring Riddick for his heavyweight...