The TOKE: The Continued Fall of an Empire, Creating a World Poker Community, + Hachem Hugs it Out

:: The Empire Strikes Back?  Following up on an earlier story, Empire Poker is finally sort of thinking about putting its foot down. The snakebitten company is considering legal action against PartyGaming after recent buy-out talks fell through. PartyGaming's valuation of the company wasn't very good, through no fault of PartyGaming, of course (<--sarcasm). The Register

:: Spreading global harmony through poker.  WPTE has signed a strategic partnership with Chipleaders Inc., an online social network dedicated to poker.  The partnership will, "enable users to find other poker players, share their experiences, and to interact in a wide variety of ways." Or in other words, do what so many great poker blogs are already doing.  PR Newswire

:: You've got Gold!  Didn't realize how much we're missing Entourage until seeing this story and thinking of the comedic possibilities of Ari Gold representing a bunch of poker players.  Anyway, Joe Hachem has signed with the William Morris Talent Agency, which further goes to show how far poker has come the past few years.  Now, here's some great Ari Gold quotes.  And here's a Jessica Alba pic, whose house the Entourage entourage lived in during Season 2, to boot (a few more are at the jump).  Poker News