Randy Couture, the UFC heavyweight champion (aka “The Natural”) who recently resigned from Dana White’s hugely popular MMA organization, is set to host a charity poker tournament on January 12, 2008 at The Joint in the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in (where else?) Las Vegas.

Jamie Gold, the 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event winner, and Dean Cain, the actor who starred as Superman in the popular television series “Lois and Clark”, have signed on to be part of the field in “Operation All In”.

With a buy-in of only $550 “Operation All-In” is a No Limit Texas Hold’em event with a guaranteed prize pool. The goal? To raise money for the Xtreme Couture GI Foundation, a non-profit founded by Randy and Kim Couture to honor the veterans of America’s armed forces. Its goal is to raise money and awareness for those wounded in action and their families.

For more information on how to participate in this charity tournament or how to donate to Couture’s non-profit, please visit his website.

The AAA (American Automobile Association) has completed inspections of over 60,000 hotels and resorts and the 2007 results are in. The Venetian has entered a class that represents only 0.27 percent of the hotels in the hospitality industry throughout North America and the Caribbean, by earning their first AAA Five Diamond Award for 2008. The Five Diamond Award is given only to establishments that show the ultimate in service and sophistication.

To win the award the Venetian had to undergo an inspection from 65 full-time inspectors annually. No other system for ranking comes anywhere near the scrutiny of the AAA Diamond Rating System. The Venetian joins four other Vegas casinos – Bellagio, Four Seasons Las Vegas, Wynn Las Vegas and Skylofts at the MGM Grand – which also have AAA Five Diamond status. Making this list puts the Venetian on a small list of the best places to stay in Vegas, and that’s impressive.