The 2008 World Series of Poker kicked off yesterday at the poker room of the Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino. So if you happen to have $10,000 to spare and would like to sponsor a boy and his beagle in exchange for a share of the spoils, we’ll be happy to take the trip to Las Vegas.

Think of it as an infusion of venture capital … and not nearly as much as other real estate startups have requested and received the past couple of years.

For the truly insane, or morbidly curious, Gutshot.com had day-by-day coverage of the World Series last year that was quite entertaining. I didn’t see anything today when I looked but I’m hopeful it kicks in soon.

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Yesterday I received a question from a Canadian buyer who is looking for a property with an elongated escrow period. Closings in Arizona usually take place in 30 to 45 days. It’s possible to have shorter or longer escrow periods, but they’re the exception rather than the norm.

Why? Shorter becomes difficult because as a buyer you want to make sure you have the full benefit of the 10-day inspection period and the repair negotiation period that follows (up to another 10 days, depending on what takes place.)

Longer also is difficult because someone wanting to sell their house, well, wants to sell their house. There are some exceptions - I have one listing where the seller would welcome a 60-day escrow period - but for the most part, sellers want to sell.

This is especially true of banks … every day they own the home, every extra day in the escrow period, is another day of the bank bearing the cost of carrying the homes.

What about short sales, I was asked. Since it can take a month or longer to receive an answer from the bank, these could work for someone who needs to close later rather than sooner and who may not be particularly concerned if they don’t end up with an accepted contract on the home they’re seeking.

But here’s the catch … short sales also have a 30-day closing period in most cases. The difference is it’s 30 days from the day the bank approves the contract (give or take a day for paperwork to go up and back.)

So if you need to close in September and the bank doesn’t come back with a response until August, you’re golden. If you need to close in September and the bank comes back with an answer in June, however, you’ve got a problem.

You always have the option of canceling the contract during the inspection period if the time frame doesn’t work for you, but that defeats the entire purpose of writing the offer in the first place.

For all I’ve written about short sales, they can be a viable option in very, very specific circumstances. As a general rule, bank owned homes still present a far better opportunity but a short sale could work if you have time, patience and a lack of concern on your side.

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This one courtesy of Dee Johnson, an agent in Prescott Valley.

Someone in Indianapolis asks about “Fontana Lakes” in Peoria. What they really meant was “Ventana Lakes” which I happen to know a thing or two about.

Given the choice between remaining silent on a topic about which she knows nothing or sallying forth in hopes of convincing someone that they don’t really want what they’re asking about, Dee chooses the latter …

I have not heard of Fontana Lakes, but if you want a great place to retire in Arizona consider Prescott or Prescott Valley, about 1 1/2 hours north of Phoenix.

I’ll spare you the rest.

Thumbs down are a remarkably useless deterrent to agents who have no concept of providing value while begging for business. Still, if you happen to have an account there and have the time to provide a thumbs down, please do.

I’ve ventured back to Trulia Voices in hopes of being able to do what my friend Rudy has urged me and others to do … serve as a role model and provide value to the public when possible and remain silent when that’s not possible.

It’s hard to do when you’re throwing up in your mouth a little bit reading other answers.

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Sunset at Packard Stadium, home of Arizona State University’s baseball team.

If you’re a sports fan, your life often is marked in seasons. Twenty years ago this spring I watched Mike Kelly homer off the ASU flag in left-field some 30 or so feet in the air, the ball just beginning its downward decent as the horsehide met fabric. Also 20 years ago, I sat with my then-girlfriend as the news reported the Sun Devils’ has-to-be-a-typo 27-8 victory over UNLV.

She also happened to break up with me the day ASU lost to Stanford in the championship game. That, dear readers, was not a banner day.

I watched from my parents’ family room as Oddibe McDowell hit the towering home run into the Omaha Zoo at the 1984 College World Series. Listened on the radio when ASU lost to Lemoyne … and I still don’t know what a Lemoyne is.

Remember watching Dr. Jim Brock’s final trip to Omaha … he lost his battle with cancer a day before the Sun Devils whom he’d coached for two decades were eliminated one year.

As I write this, I’m alone on the top deck of the Packard Stadium press box; the regular writers have all the seats below, while I revel in the beauty of 90 degrees and breezes out of the north.

The Diamondbacks have been here for 11 years now, but the Diamondbacks aren’t the Sun Devils. Chase Field isn’t Packard Stadium. For six bucks as a student, I used to get admission to the park, a fresh-grilled Devil Burger and a Coke. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon, even if I was supposed to be in class.

This still isn’t a bad place to spend a few hours, even if the ladder leading to the roof of the press box is less friendly on the knees than it once was. There are gray hairs where they never existed and a paunch I never had (though svelte and I went our separate ways a long, long time ago.)

Once I was a kid reveling in the sights and the sounds. Now I’m hoping my own children will learn to appreciate these same things. My hope is they don’t share my curse - an innate ability to look at a street corner or a skyline and see what was rather than what is. (The view still doesn’t look quite right with water in the Salt River for Rio Salado and no Devil House to be seen.)

Or maybe this is what happens when you’ve lived in a place for three-plus decades. You become part of the fabric and it becomes part of you.

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Have I done this one before? I don’t remember and I’m going to be lazy and not look back in the archives to see.

Why would a Phoenician post this? Because I was born in Los Angeles and have been a Lakers fan my entire life, mostly to the annoyance of my wife.

Since this was playing last night at the conclusion of the Lakers’ 4-1 series win over the San Antonio Spurs, and since it will give my wife a chance to tell all her co-workers what a jerk she married, it only seems appropriate.

Love ya, Kathie … enjoy the tunes.

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