While two of us were in LA for the kickoff party and first night of play at the WPT Celebrity Invitational, we didn't so much cover the event as we did not cover it; that is, unless you consider trying to figure out if that ridiculously hot Hawaiian-looking girl at Bai Ling's table was Kelly Hu (it was), or debating whether a $1 Commerce Casino poker chip or Paris Hilton's tongue carried more disease-causing bacteria or deciding which Playboy Playmate in attendance we'd most like to have "clean our house" (we picked Shanna Moakler--seen with plunger below--over Donna D'Errico) as covering the event. If so, we were all over it.
There were, however, a few poker media folks there actually reporting on the action, and we wanted to give them mad props, if we used phrases like that, for their work. Like John Caldwell and his PokerNews crew, who were there interviewing celebs in attendance (see videos here) and John Stern and his self-professed big-footed camera girl, who were on hand to liquor it up photograph the action at the table for Pokulator.com (see their gallery here, including the shot above of Kelly Hu).
Our favorite coverage of the event though came from Matt Showell and Owen Laukkanen at PokerListings.com, who along with PokerWire.com and the WPT's own people, were there from start to finish. If you're not a regular reader of PokerListing's live reporting, you can always count on the multi-tasking/talented Matt and Owen being all over the action at tournaments like Ray J taking a whiz on Kim Kardashian, except unlike Ray J, Matt and Owen get it done sanitarily by blogging, live reporting, and photographing their subjects rather than pissing on them.
So for a complete wrap-up of the action at the WPT Celebrity Invitational, we suggest checking out:
:: Owen's excellent wrap-up blog on the Day One action here.
:: Photos of the celebs, pro players and unknowns playing in the event here.
:: Their live reporting of the tournament here.
:: Interview with the winner and ridiculously nice guy Adam Weinraub (seen in photo) here.
For those who opted not to cover the WPT Celebrity Invitational for one reason (NBC Heads-Up) or another (NBC Heads-Up), definitely put it on your "coverage" radar next year. The WPT folks do a great job putting this event on, especially their PR girls, and its charitable purpose, relaxed atmosphere, great mix of celebs and pros in attendance and steady flow of free drinks and food avail to all make it a great event to cover, or in our case, just show up to tell you to get your coverage elsewhere.