The ultimate poker event is about to begin in Las Vegas with the World Series of Poker, and as usual it draws all sorts of people from around the world. The buzz is definitely our there online with qualifying tournaments and WSOP poker “classes” and prize packages, and Vegas will be buzzing with side games and all sorts of extracurricular activities as players and fans descend on Sin City.

Las Vegas always draws celebrities, and with the World Series of Poker you have another event that brings in the big names. The latest chatter involves Michael Phelps, who is known to be a poker fan and is now reportedly going to enter the World Series. You have to respect great athletes who take their competitive spirit to other challenges. Michael Jordan is a great example with golf, as is Tony Romo. Yet there are cautionary tales there as well, as Jordan allegedly had some problems when it came to gambling. His legendary confidence and competitiveness was actually a huge problem for him.

Phelps has discussed his very aggressive betting strategy, and while that suits some players well, you have to wonder if he has a ton to learn and whether his ultra competitiveness will be a liability at the poker table.

Still, at the end of the day this is all about fun. If Phelps keeps his head on straight and understands that poker is a skill that has to be developed over time with practice, then he doesn’t have to worry about squandering the millions he’s earned through endorsements. It will also be interesting to see if he can function in the setting of the World Series with all of the distractions that a celebrity must face.

The World Series is such an awesome event, and the celebrities just add to all the hoopla, so I’m glad to see guys like Phelps develop an interest in the game.

I feel like the most consistently underrated element of video game design is level design. Whether you call them levels, segments, missions, or whatever, the parts of our favorite video games that make up our favorite video games deserve the proper recognition, and it’s the purpose of this column to make sure they get that.

And since the recently released “GTA V” screens have got me reminiscing about the last time the “GTA” series paid a visit to the west coast, I’ve decided to start with my favorite entry in the “Grand Theft Auto” series for this column, by looking back at the best missions from “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.”

10. Drive-By

One of the great thrills of the GTA series is how it allows you to live out all of those great crime fantasies that film and possibly literature has instilled in you. In “GTA: III” is was planting a bomb on a car mob style. In “GTA: Vice City” it was intercepting a coke deal with a speed boat like Crocket and Tubbs on “Miami Vice.”

Since “San Andreas” was inspired by the west coast gangta films, like “Boys in the Hood,” one of the great thrills is living out inner-ghetto turf wars, and any good inner-ghetto turf war needs a drive-by. Drive-by’s are so common in “GTA” that there is a feature on the control for it, but here is the only place where you get to roll up on enemy gangs with your friends and rain ammunition on them while listening to N.W.A. just like most of us modern suburbanites figured happened all the time in the early 90’s. It’s as simple as a mission in “GTA gets,” but it’s so satisfying.

9. Fender Ketchup

So you’re working for the Triads and the Italian mafia has been messing with their operations in the “San Andreas” equivalent of Las Vegas, Las Venturas. One of the thugs have been caught, and to make him talk your friends decide to strap him onto a car which you are to drive at top speed until he gets scared enough to figuratively spill his guts ( or not and literally do so).

Driving around in a convertible at night on the Venturas strip is always a fun experience, but doing so in the most reckless way at your disposal so that a mob thug will rat his gang out makes it all the sweeter. Much like Drive-By this is one of those missions that takes a simple gangland pleasure and lets you run wild with it.

8. Amphibious Assault

When most non-stealth games try to have stealth sections, they tend to suck almost without exception. Of course, this being “GTA,” it’s not like other games and therefore enjoys the distinct advantage of defying normal conventions.

Of course to be fair, this isn’t a strict stealth mission as you are tasked with infiltrating a boat, planting a bug, and making your way off, but are free to kill at will as long as you do it quietly. However, the atmosphere the mission sets is just perfect, and the approach to the boat itself is very dramatic. The “GTA” series has always had an incredible sense of scale, and the ship makes for this perfectly ominous opposing figure in the distance, that makes this mission feel like a true accomplishment for having finished.
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