A Lebanese Guy Named Joe Wins EPT London

Joe Mouawad from Beirut, Lebanon has won the European Poker Tour event in London, banking £611,520. Germany's Florian Langmann, who is not a woman, runner up'd. Another German, Marcel Baran, finished third.

France's Anthony Lellouche ended up in 6th place, winning £97,843, which he immediately surrendered to the two Germans.*

With his win at the Vic, the 47-year-old Mouawad joins the ranks of other Lebanese born poker players, including Joe Hachem, Freddy Deeb and Sammy Farha, who have made names for themselves in the poker world without having names that sound very Lebanese to us. Like Hakim or Bashir or Rafiq.

For an excellent recap of Mouawad's win head over to PokerStars Blog.

For full results and reporting from the EPT London, go here.

Photo courtesy of PokerStars Blog

* That maybe didn't happen.

Florian Langmann, Not a Woman, Marcel Baran, Also Not a Woman, Lead EPT London Final Table

Play is underway at the 2007 EPT London final table and a bunch of Euros you've never heard of remain.

The current chipleaders are Florian Langmann (1,241,000), who's not a woman despite a womany sounding name, and Marcel Baran (856,000), at right, who's not a woman despite a womany looking face.

Get full chip counts from PokerNews.com here.

The Premier of Turks and Caicos, Whose Capital is Cockburn Town, Probably Smokes Weed

If all premiers/leaders of all "nations" were as laid back as the Premier of Turks and Caicos, who subsequently also presides over Cockburn Town, this whole war in the Iraq probably wouldn't be taking place...Palestinians and Israelis would probably be friends...and Australia wouldn't really be that much different than it is now. Fucking degenerate criminals.

Anyway, WPT'er Kat interviewed the Premier of Turks and Caicos, Michael Misick, about the tournament taking place on his fine island. Soon thereafter they were pulling off a bong he crafted out of a coconut.*

Watch the video here. Get full chip counts here.

* Unsubstantiated.

Surinder Sunar Sits Atop the Leaderboard at EPT London

Surinder Sunar, our favorite Punjabi poker player who sometimes looks like a pirate, is the current chipleader on day 3 of the European Poker Tour event in London. The enigmatic card tosser is stacked at 470,000 with the nearest competitor, Anthony Lellouche, a Frenchie, with 350,000 in chips (ah, the irony that a Frenchman is second behind a guy named Surinder).

A bunch of foreign players with foreign names remain in the field with our favorite in the group being Phidias Georgiu, 'cause it just may be our first European entry into the Davidson Matthew club.

After being at or near the top of the chip count for the past two days, Chris Moneymaker is back to being Chris Moneymaker as he currently sits in the lower half of the field. He did recently take out one of the two remaining women, Katja Svendsen. That is unless Florian Abrahams isn't a woman. Can hardly tell with these foreign names. But sounds girly to us so we're going with it.

Stay track of the action here.

UPDATE: Moneymaker doubled up and is now in 6th with 21 players left and according to PokerNews.com Florian Abrahams has changed her name to Florian Langmann.

Have We Mentioned the Capital of Turks and Caicos is Cockburn Town?

With only 30 remaining, there are 107 eliminated entrants in the WPT Turks and Caicos who have nothing but free-time to spend in the Turks and Caicos capital city of Cockburn Town.

Cockburn Town is located on Grand Turk Island. Players likely spend time on long and narrow Duke and Front Streets (side note: Duke Street is not to be confused with Duke University, which is where Vanessa Rousso went to school). The historic 18th and 19th century Bermudian architecture make these Cockburn Town streets truly unique. At right is someone--perhaps Davidson Matthew Club charter member Davidson Matthew--biking down one of Cockburn Towns' beautiful streets.

The first permanent settlement was erected in Cockburn Town in 1681 by salt collectors, which is not ironic in any way. There is a lot of historical significance to Cockburn Town and the Grand Turk island. Cockburn Town supposedly lies where Ponce de León first laid the seeds of his quest for the Fountain of Youth. And Grand Turk Island could very well be the first place that Columbus penetrated in the "New World."

Get full chip counts here.

Poker Movie Deal Probably Will Suck; Studio Postpones Premiere

Robin Leach's Vegas Luxe Life is reporting that studio honchos at MGM have made a last minute decision to postpone the October 1 red carpet world premiere for Deal, the poker movie that stars 103-year-old Burt Reynolds and poker-er actress Shannon Elizabeth (at right).

Leach says the premiere for the Gil Cates Jr. directed film was postponed due to "studio requirements," which is fancy talk for "it really sucks bad right now and has no chance of doing well because shit we don't even have Drew Barrymore and that Hulk guy in it and that movie made less than a Jamie Kennedy film BUT we're still going to dump more money into it to try to make it suck a little less."

Insiders think Deal may still hit theatres sometime this winter.

If you don't know, Deal is about a young guy (actor Bret Harrison) who gets taken under the wing of an old poker player (Burt Reynolds) while falling in love with a girl (Shannon Elizabeth). In a surprise finale that you'll never see coming in a million years, the two poker players end up competing against each . . . wait, wait, wait just a second . . . isn't this Color of Money dressed up as a poker movie? Or Lucky You dressed up as another bad poker movie? If Hollywood's going to go that route at least make it interesting, like maybe steal the storyline from Kramer vs. Kramer but instead of a nasty court proceeding the couple fight over custody of their kid at a final table. Heck, the kid from Kramer vs. Kramer can even star in the film. He's a poker player.

Anyway, here's hoping Zak Penn's poker film The Grand, which also stars Shannon Elizabeth, lives up to the hype it got at Tribeca this year. Doing it right, Penn takes a comical approach to the poker film genre by making a mockumentary about a poker tournament. The Grand is slated for a limited release in theatres sometime in 2008.
............

As a side note, to promote the premiere of Deal Shannon Elizabeth had to pimp some "Win a Trip to Vegas" contest that was really one of those cheesy timeshare resort promotions. One lucky sucker blogged about it here.

Also as a side note, photos of Shannon Elizabeth prettying up a poker room after the jump.

Amnon Fillippi Has Something In Common with Rosie O'Donnell...

...and no, it's not that they both munch carpet.

If you recall, Rosie caused an uproar with her "Ching Chong" talk on The View late last year.

Apparently, Amnon Fillippi shares the same, uh, view as Rosie on the matter of Asian flavored humor. In an interview with Kimberly Lansing at the WPT Turks and Caicos (an island whose capital city, if we haven't mentioned it yet, is called Cockburn Town), Amnon tells Danny Wong that his name probably isn't "Danny" so much as it's "shoing shoing shoing."

Watch the video here.

We here at Wicked Chops Poker are outraged! We would never make offensive jokes of this nature--EVER--about anyone--particularly Asians. But if we did, it'd still be OK since 1/3 of the Entities is married to someone who is 1/2 Asian. So there's that whole thing. Makes it OK.

In related news, Kimberly Lansing is wearing a bikini in the below video clip.

Saving Bodog.com One Naked Girl at a Time

In a marketing gimmick that we swear we had nothing to do with, a group called the Coalition Against Patent Trolls has launched the "Save Bodog.com" campaign, demanding the return of Bodog.com from the so-called "patent trolls" at 1st Technology LLC, which had swiped the URL away from Bodog after it obtained a default judgment in a Nevada court.

Billed as a "non-profit sector of CAPT," the Save Bodog.com group has its own website, SaveBodog.com, that is blogging their photoshopped images well-orchestrated activities as well as providing links to a petition you can sign, t-shirts you can buy and even a "protester kit" you can download.

In a move straight out of PETA's handbook, so much so that they are using the exact same naked girls on the exact same street corner posing the exact same way with the exact same "muffs" as PETA, the campaign has Bodog Girls getting naked and hitting the streets of New York City wrapped in signs that say "Save Bodog.com."

Says one distraught Bodog Girl, "It's like, without bodoggirls.com I feel totally naked. Before all of this, I always felt safe behind our URL. Now it's been stolen and locked away by some slimy rat bastard lawyer. Do you know how exposed that makes us feel? That's why we’ve organized this naked protest. We want the world to see what we’re going through."

Uh, drop the sign sweetie and then we'll see what you're going through. Or better yet, how about getting Joanna Krupa to go naked for the cause, as we've been calling on Bodog to do for two years now.

In related news, Bodog's man-in-charge Calvin Ayre is using his personal blog to comment on a recent post by Frank Schilling, who thinks the whole Bodog.com to NewBodog.com to BodogLife.com was a poor move and that Calvin should have bought some generic domain like InternetCasino.com instead.

We thought long and hard about what Schilling had to say, and our counter-argument is that Schilling's a dumbass. There was something else we had to say in response but it pretty much drew the same conclusion, that the guy's a dumbass.

Ok, go look at some real Bodog Girls.

Moneymaker Current Chipleader on Day 2 of the EPT London

Day 2 action at the European Poker Tour event in London is already underway at the Vic, and with 93 players remaining, U.S. American Chris Moneymaker is the current chipleader with 140,000.

While Moneymaker's strong showing so far, despite years of sucking since his big win, is impressive, even more impressive is that two French guys, Nicolas Levi (115,000) and Pascal Perrault (100,000), have yet to surrender their chips to other players and are currently in second and third place.

Early casualties on Day 2 include Daniel Negreanu, Liz Lieu and DTD Girl groper, Roland De Wolfe.

A total of 392 players entered the EPT London bringing the total prize pool to an impressive £2,038,400, with £611,520 set aside for first place. Last year's winner, Vicky Coren, a woman, took home £500,000 for her win.

Keep track of today's action at the EPT London here.

For the ten greatest moments in female flatulence go here.

UPDATE: Despite the report from PokerNews.com that Roland was an early bust out today, he's still in.

Photo courtesy of the Bodog Beat

Mark Seif Leads WPT Turks and Caicos; Organization Headed By Leftist China-Loving CEO Ironically Turns to Democracy to Determine Payout Structure

As discussed yesterday, the World Poker Tour Turks and Caicos Poker Classic created an interesting dilemma, the kind of problem the WPT is uniquely skilled at creating for itself. In order to get players to show to the inaugural Turks tourney, the WPT guaranteed a $1M first prize. However, by the time event registration closed, there was only about $1M in the prize pool.

So Tournament Director Jack McClelland held a vote among remaining players with these options: 1) top 9-10 get paid, 2) top 6 get paid, 3) make it winner-take-all.

Eventually, the players settled on paying out nine places, with first getting $563,325 less than $1M.

Leading the way to get this -$563,325 first prize is Mark Seif, who is stacked at 91,225. He's followed by Lou White with 90,050. Other notables include Perry Friedman (79,575), Erik Cajelais (76,850), Michael "the Grinder" Mizrachi (75,050), Evelyn Ng, a woman (56,800), Haralabalososisi Voulgarilosoisis (38,475), Nam Le (38,275), Joe Sebok (26,250), Gavin Smith (15,850), Mike Matusow (14,175), Amnon Filippi (13,775), and Bill Edler (12,350).

Get BJ Nemeth's great Day 1 recap here, and full chip counts here. To learn more about the unfortunately named capital city of Turks and Caicos, Cockburn Town, here.

Poker News That Will Pay You Back Your Money Bro

:: The "Justin Smith" swindle-gate saga continues over at NeverwinPoker with more entertaining voicemails and 30 plus pages of posts to waste your time on. Is all this really over $12k? Can't Phil Laak hire someone to kill someone again? Please. [NeverwinPoker.com] :: Carrie Stroup, the poker model who we swear we didn't mistake as an escort at the Sapphire in Vegas, is following up her September appearance as Playboy Babe of the Month with a photo spread in the October issue of FHM magazine. [PokerListings.com] :: Shit heap casino Taj Mahal in Atlantic Shitty is the first casino in the country to let players register for live tournaments online. [Newsday.com] :: NSFW web model Jessica Kramer has been ID'd as the dumb drunk chick outside Crimson with the spectacularly enormous Keeley Hazell-like boobs. [WWTDD] :: Bud-drinking, mullet-wearing rednecks everywhere now have their own poker site -- Victory Lane Players Club -- where they can play against their favorite NASCAR drivers for schwag and race tickets. [Boston Herald] :: Bar Refaeli is the hottest girl from Israel since 1948. [DoubleViking.com] :: International trade experts are urging the US to embrace Barney Frank's internet gambling bill or else face penalties up to $100 billion. [Lou Krieger's blog] :: Former Laguna Beach-er Kristin Cavallari has landed a movie role which we're guessing/hoping involves wearing a bikini the whole time. [Egotastic.com]

Dusk Till Dawn Becomes UK's First Legal Poker Club

In what is being billed as a landmark decision across the Atlantic, a Nottingham Magistrates Court has issued Dusk Till Dawn a casino license, making it the first legal poker club in the UK, and with 45 poker tables, the largest in Western Europe.

"It's been a lot of hard work these last two years but we've crossed the final hurdle and we can look ahead to when we open later this year to make DTD the best poker club in Europe," said Rob Yong, Managing Director of Dusk Till Dawn, which we're most familiar with for using above average hot chicks to promote its brand and even letting them get groped by poker pros like Roland de Wolfe (as seen in photo).

The DTD license was vigorously objected to by three casino chains, Gala, Stanley's and London Clubs International, who all argued that there was not enough demand in the local area.

The deciding factor seemed to be that DTD was only seeking to open a poker room without other types of casino gaming.

The Chairman of the Betting and Gaming Committee said in his verdict:

"I can safely say that if you had come to us with the intention of obtaining a full gaming license we would have denied it . . . however as you wish to open a poker only club, we feel there is demand for the facilities you offer. As such we will issue you a license with the condition that only poker can be played there and no slot machines will be allowed."

The DTD website points out that this was the last case heard under the 1968 Gambling Act which has been replaced with the 2005 Gambling Act. Under the 1968 Act it is possible to apply for a gaming license with restrictions imposed on the licensee, such as not allowing slots. However under the 2005 Act a license automatically gives the licensee the right to host all casino games, and with the 1968 Act being replaced with the 2005 Act all licenses are now automatically converted effectively allowing DTD to host all casino games despite the magistrate's restrictions.

It is expected the club will make its debut in late November 2007.

After the jump, photos from the DTD Girls photo shoot in Monte Carlo.

WPT Turks and Caicos Underway, Kimberly Lansing is Back

After a one day delay that had WCP fave Kimberly Lansing bikini vlogging from the beach, the World Poker Tour Turks and Caicos Poker Classic is now underway at the Players' Club Casino in Providenciales, which is on the opposite end of the archipelago from its unfortunately named capital city, Cockburn Town. Only 123 137 players entered the event, with the field consisting primarily of big name players from this side of the Atlantic, including recent WPT winner Bill Edler, the spectacularly breasted JC Tran (in photo below), Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, David Williams, Haralabalososisi Voulgarilosoisis, Phil Laak, Mike Matusow, Joe Sebok and Evelyn Ng. Among the early eliminations are Victor Ramdin, J.J. Liu, Antonio Esfandiari and Jennifer Tilly. Despite the small turnout, the WPT is guaranteeing a $1 million first place prize, and as the WPT live reporters have noted, "[w]ith the total prizepool yet to reach that number, there might be some changes to even out the prize money distribution a bit." Keep track of today's WPT action here and get your Kimberly Lansing fix here.

Could the EPT London Be Chris Moneymaker's 1995 British Open?

We've been sort of predicting that Chris Moneymaker will pull off a John Daly this year by winning his first major after pretty much sucking ever since he won the 2003 WSOP Main Event, and although he's come up empty handed so far, the flash-in-the-pan poker player is off to a good start at the EPT London, finishing Day 1A with the third most chips (79,700) behind current leader Nicolas Levi (100,300) and Daniel Mangas (98,500).

So could this be the one? Can Moneymaker pull off a win on the same soil that saw Daly make his triumphant comeback in 1995 at the British Open?

Yeh, probably not.

Others at the top on Day 1A at The Vic whose names we can spell and pronounce include Ola Brandborn (73,100), Barny Boatman (45,300), Marc Goodwin (43,000) and the forgiving husband of Rhowena Colclough, David Colclough (39,000).

Journalist, one-time porn producer and last year's EPT London winner Vicky Coren, a woman, was eliminated during day one action.

Day 1B is already underway with Daniel Negreanu, Gavin Griffin, Joe Beevers, Thomas Wahlroos, Ram Vaswanie, Sander Lylloff and Liz Lieu among the players in the field.

For live reporting on today's action, head over to PokerNews.com and for the title sponsor's slant jump over to the PokerStars Blog.

Bryan Micon Might Be a Sucker

Giving hope to Nigerian e-mail scammers everywhere and proof that the well of potential suckers has yet to run dry, NeverwinPoker's resident degenerate Bryan Micon (at right) reportedly got rolled $12,000 by some obvious grifter named "Justin Smith" that he met at the Red Rock Casino this past August.

To sum it up, Micon believed the guy was a big time "baller", "the main heir of the Chase bank fortune" worth $1.6 billion and friends with some O-Town singer and other F-list celebs, so he gave him $5k after Smith claimed he'd pay Micon back $20k within 24 hours.

A day later, Smith claimed the money was being wired and asked for another $7k, this time promising Micon that he'd reimburse him $100k within 24 hours. Micon forked over the $7k. The next day the money still wasn't wired and the guy, doing what any grifter would do when someone keeps giving you money, asked for $10k and promised that he'd repay Micon $1 million in a few days. Micon finally got suspicious.

Fast forward and Micon has posted his account of what happened on the NWP forum complete with a photo of the alleged puffy face scammer, his cell number and links to an "incriminating" video and voicemail messages, including one in which the guy says something about calling his mommy on Micon. As you'd expect, the NWP forum's been set ablaze, 2+2 has picked up on the mess, Micon admits he was dumb, says he needs the money back and is asking people to harass the fuck out of the guy, which one NWP'er decided to do so by posting a YouTube video claiming the guy's a sexual predator wanted for questioning.

As always with Micon, regardless of where the truth lies, this shit is worth the read for entertainment purposes so get clickin' above.

Also worth the read is the Ebola Monkey Man's website, which chronicles how one guy hilariously pisses off a bunch of Nigerian 419 scammers.

Poker News Regurgitated

:: The Associated Press regurgitated the Barack Obama is a poker player story again. Painful. [AP] :: Hearing from past Parting Shot Girl Savannah the other day made us think of her scandalicious photos from almost a year ago. [Savannah Redux] :: Absolute Poker's latest promotion is offering cash to players with creative avatars. Painful. [BluffMagazine.com] :: Colombian model Karen Carreno is worth being called a "fucken gringo" for. [Karen Carreno] :: The Granite State is a friend of poker tournaments that support that thing that Jerry Yang was giving some of his WSOP winnings to. [PokerListings.com] :: Spanish/Venezuelan model Ariadne Artiles is physically fit. [Ariadne Artiles] :: Sorel "Imper1um" Mizzi, one of a growing number of Canadians who isn't a lumberjack or fur trader or lives in an igloo, bested the likes of Barry Greenstein, Daniel Negreanu and others yesterday to take down another High Stakes Showdown on PokerStars.com. [PokerNyhederne.com] :: 22-year-old actress Arielle Kebbel is the epitome of sexy cute. [Arielle Kebbel] :: The main events for the EPT London, APPT in the Asian Countries and the WPT Turks (with Kimberly Lansing back in action) all kick off this week. [PokerNews.com]

Steve Lipscomb Miiiiiiight Be A Little Left of Center

As you know, World Poker Tour CEO Steve Lipscomb has a blog on TVWeek.com, because it wouldn't make any sense to have one on the WPT site.

While it's certainly his prerogative to blog about whatever he wants, most of his entries lately seem to be skewing more towards the political side.

We're definitely not the only ones who feel the whole political system is screwed, but Lipscomb's answers to what ails U.S. America makes you wonder if before heading up the company that produces the best poker programming on the planet, he spent a few decades wearing black turtlenecks, thin wire glasses, and sporting a goatee. On a side note, if Russia had been ruled by the girls below, then we might also consider this whole "Communist" thing.

Anyway, after beginning his latest blog (which we admit we are beginning to anticipate as much as the next Keeley Hazell topless photoshoot or episode of Meerkat Manor) by name dropping this gem, "I attended a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton at a swanky, high-powered Beverly Hills home last Friday," Lipscomb proceeds to detail his revolutionary plans to change political campaigns...forever (mwah-ha-ha-haaaaa)!

Daniel Negreanu On Man Boobs, Annette Obrestad (a woman), Poker After Dark

After a month layoff, poker pro Daniel Negreanu is back with a new vlog on RawVegas.tv. Over the course of 11 minutes, Daniel gives his take on his upcoming European Poker Tour event, man boobs on nude beaches, how well Annette Obrestad, a woman, played at the WSOPE Main Event, a key hand he had with Gus Hansen on Poker After Dark, and the start of the NHL season.

Watch next week for the re-start of The TOKE, where Daniel gives his opinion on Shawn Sheikhan's possible deportation.

Mike Matusow, Voulgabalosisisis Do Not Win WPT Borgata Poker Open

Fresh off a 33rd place finish at the 2007 WSOP Main Event, Roy Winston has captured his first WPT title at the Borgata Poker Open.

For the win, Winston banks over $1.5M. Winston bested Heung Yoon ($832,725) for the title.

Harbabalosis Voulgabalosisisis finished 3rd ($434,560) and Mike Matusow finished last sixth ($271,600).

Get full final table results here.

Speaking of Poker News

:: With the possible deportation of poker pro Shawn Sheikhan to Iran, RawVegas.tv put together a touching video tribute of the whiny little bitch. [RawVegas.tv] :: Speaking of video, Keeley Hazell finally does one without dropping the top. If hosting this cable-access-quality online show about computers is her next career move, she needs a new manager. [ByteMeTV.com] :: In a move sure to please spaghetti-eatin' poker players from Turin to Trapani, the Italian government is expected to define poker as a game of skill sometime next week. [PokerNews.com] :: Speaking of Italian, Giorgia Palmas is handsdown the hottest one we've seen in the past cinque minuti. [Bastardly.com] (NSFW) :: PokerStars.com's clampdown on online poker ranking sites has pros like Scott Fischman talking. [CardPlayer.com] :: Speaking of clampdown, we're putting an end to these segues with a bikini-licious video of Brazil's hottest swimsuit model since the last one, Isabeli Fontana. [Heavy.com] :: Owen Laukkanen and Lance "The Biz" Bradley can stop playing Scrabulous on Facebook and start playing poker thanks to two really smart guys. [PokerListings.com] :: Katie Downes, Rhian Sugden, Louise Cliffe and Imogen Gray apparently forgot to pack their bikini tops when they went to Ibiza. [Maxim UK] (NSFW) :: Freakonomic's author Steven Levitt reveals in his latest blog post that he is working with an online poker site to catch cheaters. Which one it is, we don't know but we're guessing it isn't Absolute Poker. [Freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com]

Jose Canseco Plays Poker Like a Girl*

Former slugger, Madonna banger, steroid abuser, wife beater, whistle blower, Surreal Life cross-dresser, and distinguished baseball author and historian Jose Canseco, along with five other men, played in the Ladies Event at the California State Poker Championship over the weekend.

The six took advantage of the Commerce Casino's "no discrimination" policy that allows men to play in ladies-only events, which is not to be confused with the WSOP's "no discrimination" policy that allows women who look like men to play in its ladies-only event.

According to Kristin over at PokerPadz, who snapped the photo to the right, Canseco was the first man to bust out of the event, a feat which we think surpasses Carlos Martinez's fly ball turned home run off Canseco's head in the embarassment department.

A guy named Gerald Foreman did finish second in the Ladies Event, which when you put it into perspective is about as much of an accomplishment as a woman finishing second in a men's-only "cleaning the house and cooking dinner" competition.

* A girl who isn't Annette Obrestad.

Jean-Robert Bellande, That Kind of Obnoxious Poker Player with the French Sounding Name, Stars In Survivor: China Tonight

We didn't even know Survivor was still on TV. But apparently it is and it's still a ratings powerhouse. Guess we need to lay off the meth, midgets, and general bedlam that ensues whenever we go places and keep our finger more on the pop culture pulse.

We do, however, have some reason to watch Survivor: 15 as it features professional poker player Jean-Robert Bellande, the guy from Long Island with the froggy name.

You probably best remember Jean-Robert from his final table appearance at the WSOP Circuit event at the Rio in 2005, when he finished third behind Jennifer Harman, a woman, and Doug Lee. Bellande has over $739k in career tournament earnings.

How will Bellande do? Hard to say. Poker playing Boston Rob once co-won the million bucks, so that's a good sign. And Bellande both looks and seems cunningly conniving like a non-gay Richard Hatch, so that's good too. Can New Live Planet Bodog Life World Lifestyle get some odds up on this?

Shawn Sheikhan May Be Shipped Back to Iran Over Sexual Battery Conviction

Shawn "Sheiky" Sheikhan, the Persian poker pro best described as arrogant, combative, abrasive and shitty at golf, is facing deportation back to Iran over a 12 year old California conviction on charges of "sexual battery and annoyance or molestation of a child," reports the Las Vegas Review Journal.

Whether the 1995 conviction was of the Michael-Jackson-is-a-sick-fuck variety or the David Sklansky "You mean, you aren't 18?" kind is unclear. Regardless, immigration officials want the 38-year-old Sheikhan sent back to the land of Ayatollahs as soon as possible.

"[Sheikhan] was targeted for ICE arrest because of his criminal history," Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told the LVRJ. "ICE has an ongoing initiative called Operation Predator targeting individuals, including foreign nationals, who prey upon and sexually exploit children."

Kice said Sheikhan's conviction is "a deportable offense, but ultimately it will be up to an immigration judge to make that determination."

"We want to see him removed from the United States," said Kice.

Sheikhan, who served nine months in jail and five years of probation for the 1995 conviction, resides in Las Vegas and has been a legal resident of the US since 1983 and is married to a U.S. citizen. He has a 9-year-old daughter.

Developing . . .

Sources: TexasHoldem.com and Las Vegas Review Journal

Matusow, Voulgabalosisisis Highlight WPT Borgata Poker Open Final Table

While most people who visit Atlantic Shitty can't get out of there fast enough, six men are inexplicably prolonging their stay, as they defy common logic for a chance to win a $1.5M prize, which is about the only way you could get any of us Entities to stay there for a week. In fact, you could say something like, "Hey, Entities, we'll give you $1.5M to stay in Atlantic City for the next week," and we'd say something like, "Hmmm...yah not really sure about that can we get back to you?" We'd say that because Atlantic City sucks.

The final table is set for the WPT Borgata Poker Open, with Roy Winston as the chip leader, stacked at 5,355,000. He's followed by Heung Yoon (3,090,000), Mike "the Mouth" Matusow (2,965,000) Eugene Todd (2,190,000), Mark Weitzman (1,750,000), and Harbabalosis Voulgabalosisisis (1,465,000).

Get chip counts from the WPT here and live reporting from the Borgata team here.

Poker News You Don't Have to Taser Bro

:: Some suspicious play on Absolute Poker has some saying there's a "superuser" account that can read people's hole cards. [PartTimePoker.com] :: Sofia Vergara is proof that Colombia exports more than just the yeyo. [DoubleViking.com] :: British mainstream media apparently likes to use poker images in news reports about problem gambling even when poker isn't being discussed. [PokerNews.co.uk] :: Arianny Celeste is a UFC Octagon Girl worth fighting for. [UFC.com] :: England's Dusk Till Dawn, a cardroom that knows how to use ridiculously hot escorts models to promote its brand, will have its license hearing next week as it attempts to become the UK's first legal poker club. [CardPlayer.com] :: Fashion model Jarah Mariano is of Hawaiian, Korean and Chinese descent, a deadly hot combination that has one of the entities turning Japanese. [Popoholic.com] :: Greg Raymer's WCOOP win on PokerStars.com has been slightly marred with allegations that something fishy was going on at the final table. [PokerListings.com] :: Absurdly sexy American Idol-er and actress Ashley Harman deserves her own post one of these days but this will have to do for now. [GorillaMask.net] :: South Korea, home of the sensationally hot Hyori Lee, is set to host the first ever "world-class poker tournament" in the Asian Countries this month when the Asia Pacific Poker Tour comes to Seoul Sept. 28-30. [Korea Herald] :: One of our earlier picks to win Maxim's 2007 Hometown Hotties contest, Erin from Port Orange, FL, has made the finals but we're now going with Nicki from Louisville, KY to win it all. Actually we just watched Erin's new video and damn if she doesn't have what it takes to win. As does Juda, Jaime, Leticia.... [Maxim's Hometown Hotties]

WPT Borgata Poker Open Update: Roy Winston, Tom Nguyen Chip Leaders

A lot of action and bust-outs so far at the WPT Borgata Poker Open, as the field is down to 20 at post time.

Roy Winston is currently the chip leader, stacked at 1,725,000. Tom Nguyen is second with 1,575,000.

Victor Ramdin (1,130,000), John Hoang (780,000), Harbabalosis Voulgabalosisisis (675,000), and Mike "the Mouth" Matusow (430,000) are still alive.

Get chip counts from the WPT here and live reporting from the Borgata team here.

And for those wondering where Kimberly Lansing is...she'll be back doing video updates at the WPT Turks event next week.

Chinese Man Dies From Three Day Internet Gambling Binge

In a story we're still having a hard time believing, the AP has reported that a man has died after spending three days gambling online in a cybercafe in China.

Says the AP:

The 30-year-old man fainted at a cybercafe in the city of Guangzhou on Saturday afternoon after he had been playing games online for three days, the Beijing News reported.

Paramedics tried to revive him but failed and he was declared dead at the cafe, it said. The paper said that he may have died from exhaustion brought on by too many hours on the Internet.

Wow. If all Chinese men are this dedicated to online gambling, the WPT has stumbled into a real goldmine.

Read the full story here.

Bodog Makes BodogLife.com Its New Permanent Home

In a move similar to when Coca Cola introduced New Coke then launched Coke Classic, but completely different because that didn't involve a patent troll but instead a new soda that tasted like Pepsi crap, Bodog unveiled yesterday that its new permanent domain name is BodogLife.com, which it says more accurately captures what the Bodog brand is all about.

"Hey, the world changes, and if you don't change with it, you get left behind. We've been leading the good times for a long time, and nobody will leave us behind," said Bodog's Calvin Ayre. "That said, although the Bodog address is changing the bottom line is: at Bodog, it's business as usual. Same great site, just a new Web address."

The new address now replaces newbodog.com as Bodog's main domain name, which was the URL Bodog had initially switched to after a patent troll swiped bodog.com with the help of some shady shyster named Raymond Niro.

Those with newbodog.com bookmarked will be automatically redirected to bodoglife.com, and it appears Bodog branded sites like the Bodog Beat, Bodog Fight, Bodog Music and the Bodog Nation, home to the Bodog Girls, are keeping their "new" domain names for now, although they can be accessed directly from bodoglife.com.

For Calvin's personal take on the new domain name go here and for videos of him living the Bodog Life, which is exactly the same as the Wicked Chops Poker Life minus current/first wives, go here.

Bodog's press release on the new home on the Internet after the jump.

Keeley Hazell is 21 Today

Further proof that the world has yet to change since Annette Obrestad, a woman 5 foot nothing teenage girl, bested the world's top poker players to win the WSOPE Main Event, Keeley Hazell has found her way onto Wicked Chops Poker again. This time it's because the British glam model is celebrating her 21st birthday today, which means she's about two years away from being too old for us and maybe six or seven years away from gravity doing some serious damage to her impossibly natural 32Es.

Fuckin' gravity.

While turning 21 isn't much of a milestone in Keeley Hazell's home land of England, where we understand 8 year old kids can get pissed drunk in pubs and bet on the horses at Newmarket, it does mean Keeley can now freely drink, gamble and get into clubs in Las Vegas. So we're expecting a visit soon.

Until then, you can celebrate Keeley Hazell's birthday by clicking the photo on the right for the half-birthday suit NSFW version. Also one more new photo after the jump. Ok, make that two.

Out From Our Deep Underground Bunker, It Appears As If Alan Goehring Is Chip Leader at WPT Borgata Poker Open

Just like The Toadies, we're not going to lie. We were a bit surprised after we came out from our bunkers this afternoon to see a world that looked exactly the same as it did before Annette Obrestad, a woman, won the WSOPE Main Event. Because seriously, what "crazy" thing could possibly happen next? A woman pilot? A woman doctor? A woman lawyer? A woman president? Where does it end? Where does it stop?

So the sky is still blue, the Internet is still a great place for finding fantastic NSFW pics, and mankind has survived for another day, at least.

Maybe it's because there's no Kimberly Lansing video updates, or maybe just because we were secluded in bunkers for the past 36 hours, but apparently there's a WPT poker tournament going on at the Borgata in shitheap Atlantic City.

560 players entered and currently 63 remain. Alan Goehring is big stack, with 971,000. He's followed by Chris Lardaro (865,000) and John Hoang (570,000). Others remaining include but are not limited to Mark Seif (545,000), Victor Ramdin (290,000), Haralabos Voulgaris (285,000), Joe Cassidy (280,000), and Mike "the Mouth" Matusow (265,000).

Get full chip counts from the WPT here and live blogging from the Borgata team here.

Annette Obrestad, A Woman, Wins WSOPE Main Event

We had a good run. Mankind. It was fun while it lasted, wasn't it? From learning to create fire to conquering the air with fancy jet planes...from developing complex spoken languages and communication systems to creating a world wide web that seemed to make our planet a smaller place with a lot of porn...from blasting off to the moon to creating a society where women almost feel obligated to get boob jobs if they don't like the size of their breasts...we had a good run. Mankind. Yes we did.

If there is a heaven, we hope to see you there.

Get final table payouts here.

Yet Another Lackluster WSOP Main Event Final Table

When Scotty Nguyen busted in 11th place from the 2007 WSOP Main Event final table back in July, it assured one of the--if not the--most lackluster final nine in World Series of Poker history.

That was until today.

Just like the U.S. American WSOP Main Event, the WSOP European version had tons of promise as the field whittled. Antonius. Gold. Hellmuth. Hansen. They all remained.

But when Gus Hansen busted in 10th, most of the final table intrigue left with him.

The sole American remaining, Bodog'er Matthew McCullough, is big stacked at 1,278,000. He's trailed by Magnus Persson, who is stacked at 1,231,000. Also remaining is Annette Obrestad, a woman, with 697,000. At least if she wins we can unleash the thousands of jokes we've had lined up in case a woman were to ever win the Main Event, either U.S. American or European version.

And that's pretty much all we got. Get final table chip counts here

Big Names Bust Early at Day 4 of WSOPE Main Event

Following the trend established at this summer's WSOP Main Event at the Rio, what looked like a potentially star-studded final few tables at the 2007 WSOPE diminished quickly today, as former chip leaders Patrik Antonius and Lanne Jamsa Janne Lamsa, as well as Erick Lindgren, Marco Traniello, and Jamie Gold (yesterday) all busted early once the money bubble burst.

Even more distressing is our chip leader is now Annette Obrestad, who is a woman. Annette is currently stacked at 726,000. She's followed by Theo Jorgensen at 605,000.

Still in contention are Gus Hansen (375,000), Annie Duke, a woman (262,000), and Kenny Tran (62,000).

Only 21 remain. Get live reporting updates here.

UPDATE: Annie Duke, a woman but not a woman from Duke like Vanessa Rousso, has been eliminated. Annette "Annette_15" Obrestad, who is also a woman, is up to 902,000.

UPDATE II: Annette Obrestad, a woman, took a huge hit and is now just under 400k.

2007 WSOPE Main Event Update: Hansen, Antonius Lead Day 3

Day 3 play is underway at the 2007 WSOPE Main Event with Gus Hansen and Patrik Antonius as chip leaders, stacked at 391,000 and 340,000, respectively.

Big movers so far today include Jamie Gold (210,000) and Daniel Negreanu (150,000). Annie Duke, a woman (191,700), and Johnny Chan, who still plays poker (133,000) are also among the big stack.

Phil Hellmuth was eliminated early on.

Get full chip counts here and great live reporting here.

Watch Your Back, Prahlad Friedman - It's the Wicked Chops Poker Rap

We are HUGE fans of ourselves. Just huge.

So when all of our scouring the Internet for pictures of hot girls and loosely tying them into posts about poker hard work gets noticed, it makes us feel, oh we don't know, "validated" we guess.

On Saturday night, we got a text message from Nordberg alerting us to watch out for a WCP rap from our favorite WPT girls, Kimberly Lansing and Layla Kayleigh. So we watched for it. We waited. And it has arrived. Part I is below. Part II is after the jump. Also, some Layla Kayleigh pics from a 2005 Maxim here.

Pamela Anderson Engaged to Poker Player?

According to E! Online, Pamela Anderson is either dating or engaged to a professional poker player.

So apparently the rumors about her and Hans Klok are not true. Dammit, we knew that that German Dutch magician wasn't into chicks. Or Pam wasn't into German Dutch magicians.

In the E! story, Pam admitted to Ellen Degeneres that:

"...she was primed to swap vows with a professional poker player she met while down $250,000, who said that "if I made out with him, that I could clear the thing...Then I fell in love and now we are engaged." But on second thought, "I’m not really engaged," she admitted. "I don’t know what I am. But yeah. It worked out. I liked it...I paid off a poker debt with sexual favors and I fell in love. It’s so romantic. It's romance." To which Ellen replied, "It is romantic. 'Let me tell you how mommy and daddy met...'"

God bless Pamela Anderson. Ladies of the world, we hope you're listening and learning.

The fact that Pamela would be into a pro player shouldn't be a huge surprise, as she has shown a penchant for poker in the past, as she briefly launched an online site in July of 2006.

But the big question is...who is she dating? Is she cougaring a younger player, or has she sidled up with a more grizzled vet? And how the f' have we not heard about this before? Screw you, grapevine. You've let us down again.

Gus Hansen Day 2a Chip Leader at 2007 WSOPE Main Event

Jennifer Harman to Gus Hansen: "You know you've busted every player at this table..."* That pretty much sums up the Great Dane's 2a at the 2007 WSOPE. Hansen went on a tear, busting Greg Raymer, Ram Vaswani, and a bunch of others on his climb to chip leader status. Hansen ended the day stacked at 349,400. He's followed by Day 1a chip leader Janne Lamsa (253,800). Other big stacks include woman Annie Duke (191,700), the Arabic Alien Huseyin Yilmaz (143,500), Erick Lindgren (108,800), David Colclough (105,800), and Farzad Bonyadi (102300). The day's wildest ride belongs to Phil Hellmuth. Starting the Day 2a as one of the chip leaders, Hellmuth took a few big hits and was crippled (figuratively) when he flopped second set. Short-stacked, he managed to stay alive, ending the day just over 10k. Read some of his rants along the way here, here, and here. Get full Day 2a chip counts here. Day 2b just got underway so getting live reporting for all of the action here. * As reported by PokerNews.com.

Poker News that Can Get You Fired

:: We have no idea where South Africa is on a map but we hear they may soon legalize online poker. Now if only the U.S. Americans did the same, and The Iraq and Asian Countries, and everywhere like such as. [CardPlayer.com] :: If you've never seen photos of Aussie glam model Krystal Forscutt before, welcome to the Internet. This set is a good place to start. [HollywoodTuna.com] :: Daniel Negreanu is enjoying the WSOP Europe so far, even if it's a bit "scummy" and lacking in media coverage. [Bodog Nation, PokerListings.com] :: Jessica Simpson and her nipply norks are back in the limelight. [Egotastic.com, HollywoodTuna.com] :: We're gonna go out on a limb and say that the Poker Agency's sultan of self-promotion and spin, Catman, is a big fan of the WSOP Europe and maybe drunk. [PokerNews.co.uk] :: Eastern European Playmate Alena Seredova is a model worth Czech-ing out. [HornyOyster.com] :: The other other WSOP is underway in Tunica with the Circuit Event at the Grand Casino, and FOWCP Shannon Shorr is among the leaders on Day 2. [PokerNews.com] :: We've likely linked to this set of photos of Rocio Guirao Diaz before, and will likely do so again. [GorillaMask.net] :: The search marketing experts at MediaPost give an in-depth analysis of Bodog's response to losing its domain names and the SEO implications. Fascinating read if you're fascinated by these things. [MediaPost]

Sarah Taylor May Be Attractive

We're not exactly sure where Sarah Taylor is on the attractive scale but we do know that she is at the least stuck-on-an-elevator pretty, and word on the ground is that she's the best thing going for superficial bastards like us at the World Series of Poker Europe, where the 20-something-year-old Brit was one of the Day 1A chipleaders and is playing today on Day 2A. We suppose that's not saying much considering her competition: Pamela Brunson, Annie Duke, Annette_15, Jenn Harman and Vicky Coren. And before you send your hate mail, please understand that we're not trying to take away anything from any of those girls. They're all great poker players, for women, and some, not all, have great personalities. It's just that we're not so much guys who believe beauty is only skin deep (we don't even know what that means) as we are guys who think good looks trump everything in life. Even the ability to juggle. Ok, just got word that Sarah Taylor was eliminated a second ago, thus possibly elevating Vicky Coren into the spotlight. Slim pickings at the WSOP Europe.

Mike Gracz: Police Raid a Waste of Time

If 2001 was the summer of the shark/Gary Condit, and 2005 was the summer of the hurricane, will 2007 be remembered as the summer of Mike Gracz?

After nearly joining "Temp Hutter Club" status*--an exclusive organization of poker players who were big at the onset of the boom and have faded into obscurity, which is not to be confused with the Davidson Matthew Club, which is an exclusive organization of people with first names for last and last names for first-- Gracz reemerged on the scene this year with three 2007 WSOP cashes and two final table appearances (including one televised).

This weekend Gracz made national headlines when he was nabbed in a gambling raid in North Carolina. Now he's speaking out against the raid and has temporarily made the lead story on AOL.com.

Says Gracz:

"They could go catch sexual predators or something that has a real impact on society. If they had gotten two guys to come there, they could have asked us to leave the premises and we would have left. It is illegal in North Carolina, I understand that. In every state, whether it's legal or not, people are playing poker."

Yep, he pulled the "sexual predators" card. What's next? The "You know there's a war going on in Iraq" card? The "these cops are racist" card? Sure, illegal gambling laws are ridiculous given the prevalence of gambling every minute in every state in the U.S. Americas, but it's still a law, so it's going to be enforced.

Read the full story here.

* Other Temp Hutter Club members include Chris Karagulleyan, Tomer Benvisitsi, and Mattias Andersson. Soon-to-be inaugurated members include Tom Sartori and Brad Kondracki. If you have any other nominations, please comment them below or email them to [email protected].

** Photo from John Sciulli, WireImage.com

Patrik Antonius Looking Good at End of Day 1B of the WSOP Europe ME

Finnish poker pro and former "blue steel" poser Patrik Antonius, who we guess is kind of like a Keeley Hazell to chicks and gay dudes, ended today as the Day 1B chip leader at the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event with 76,150 in chips. That amount puts the Flying Finn or Black Lotus or whatever people call him in 5th position overall when grouped with the players from Day 1A.

Close behind Antonius in chips today are American poker blogger Shaun "Not Freddy" Deeb, with 71,825, and Tino Lechich, of Melbourne, Australia, with 71,725.

Adam Junglen, another poker blogger, ended the day with 69,275 in chips, the 4th most of the Day 2B bunch. The 19-year-old Ohioan and noted online player just finished 6th at the EPT Barcelona Open. Rounding out the top 5 from today with 67,025 in chips is Kenny Tran, of Arcadia, CA. Tran will be looking to follow up an impressive summer that saw him go deep in this year's Main Event and final table in the $50k H.O.R.S.E. championship.

Also worth mentioning, Scotsman Gerry Kane, a male nurse, or in other words, a man doing a woman's job, is stacked at 66,675, and he just may be our pick to win the Main Event for the sole reason that we came across some ridiculous YouTube videos he made to pump himself up, we assume, for London's big event. Watch them below and after the jump and see if you can spot RawVegas.tv's very own Andrea Tiede in the first one.

Other players still in the mix at the end of today include Jon "Pearljammer" Turner (60,975), Daniel Negreanu (60,900), Jamie Gold (53,400), Theo Jorgensen (50,825), Johnny Chan (47,250), Tony G (44,750), Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo (39,000), Isabelle Mercier (32,400) and a bunch of other players you can read about here.

Play starts up Wednesday at 2pm London time at The Empire with only the players from Day 1A, including 11-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth. The Day 1B group will return to the tables on Thursday with both groups merging on Friday.

OFFICIAL NUMBERS ANNOUNCED:

The official numbers from the WSOPE are in and only 362 players entered, about 400 short of what they had hoped for and about that much less than what the EPT Grand Final drew in Monte Carlo. Only the top 36 players will be playing for a share of the £3,620,000 prize pool, and BetFair had to toss in £56,000 of its own money to ensure the top prize was an even £1,000,000.

Mike Gracz Nabbed in North Carolina Casino Raid; Chris Bell Named in Warrant

Late Sunday night, poker players Mike Gracz and Chris Bell were nabbed in a casino raid in North Carolina.

According to the News & Observer, the casino was a major operation that had "craps and blackjack tables, a roulette wheel, more than a dozen Texas Hold 'em poker tables, [and] a full-service restaurant..."

Gracz owns both a WPT title and a WSOP bracelet and has banked over $2.8M in tournament winnings.

With two WPT final tables to his credit, Bell has over $1.2M in career tournament earnings.

According to the article, a search warrant "indicated the casino was operated by Christopher Bell of Raleigh," Jody McClure Garaventa of Youngsville and Marvin Ray Johnson.

However, rumors are swirling in the poker world that while Bell is named in the warrant, he is not, in fact, one of the casino operators, and the article states that "efforts to reach those charges failed."

Read the full News & Observer article here.

Thanks to WCP reader Rob for the link to this story.

Janne Lamsa Not As Good Looking as Keeley Hazell Pics From Last Post, Is Day 1a Chip Leader at WSOPE Main Event

The second biggest thing going on across the pond today (the first being Keeley Hazell's new spread) was the 2007 WSOPE Main Event.

Day 1a just wrapped with Fin Janne Lamsa (at right) as chip leader, stacked at 115,850. Lamsa has two previous cashes in "major" tournament play in Helsinki.

Lamsa is followed by Huseyin Yilmaz (99,575), whose name sounds like some kind of Arabic alien. Also among the chip leaders are Phil Hellmuth (82,825), somebody named Andrew Feldman (76,650), who we have confirmed is NOT this Andrew Feldman, and somebody named Joseph Serock (60450), who we have confirmed is NOT Joe Sebok.

Day 1b starts tomorrow at 2pm London time, which is around math math math EST and math math math PST.

Get full chip counts and live blogging from PokerNews.com here.

Keeley Hazell Would Be Just as Hot 65 Years Ago

In what may be the hottest set of photos Keeley Hazell has ever done since her last set of photos, our all-time favorite girl with God-given 32Es posed as a World War II era pin-up for a campaign promoting EA Sports' new game Medal of Honor: Airborne. "I've always loved the sexy style of the 1940s and it was great fun to dress up as one of the forces sweethearts and get to play the new Medal of Honor game too!," Keeley Hazell told The Sun, after likely being paid six figures for the gig. By the way, looking at the photos of Keeley Hazell as a WWII pin-up girl, we can't help but to think that our soldiers got robbed when it came to hot chicks to think about when storming beaches and gunning down "Nips" and "Krauts." Especially considering that Betty Grable was the number one pin-up back in the 1940s. Number one average chick with decent legs and a pancake butt maybe but today she wouldn't even catch our eye on a Sunday night at Body English in Vegas, unless perhaps she was kissing another chick like the girl in this RawVegas.tv video. Photos of Keeley as a WW II pin-up after the jump . . .

Poker News that Doesn't Blow Like Britney

:: In a formal response to the swiping of Bodog's domain names by patent troll Scott Lewis, Calvin Ayre announced on his blog that he is hosting the "Scott Lewis Patent Troll Dance Contest", asking people to submit videos of themselves dancing like a hick to "Dueling Banjos." Winner gets $1000 plus an iPod. Sounds like something Cooter Ayre and the BoDawg Cracker Pack should jump on. [Calvin Ayre's Blog] :: We couldn't help noticing that the Hooter's Swimsuit Pageant featured more cameltoe than an afternoon rush hour in the Sahara, if that in any way indicates lots of cameltoes. [Mediabom.tv] :: Apparently CardPlayer's exclusive live reporting deal with the World Poker Tour isn't exclusive so much as it isn't really exclusive at all as ex-CardPlayer-ers Michael Friedman, Johnnie Walker and Matt Story are live reporting the Borgata Poker Open for the tournament's host casino. [Borgata Poker Blog] :: Fernanda Lima is the hottest Brazilian model we've seen in the past cinco minutos. And that's saying a lot. [DoubleViking.com] :: Good news for online poker? Chris Costigan reports that the gaming trade org iMEGA will make a fresh announcement of some type regarding its case against the US Government this week. [Gambling911.com] :: Hopefully Miss England 2007 Georgia Horsley knows the drill and will do something foolish, preferably naked, soon. [Horny Oyster] :: Nineteen-year-old Søren Kongsgaard, whose name sounds a lot like a dead existentialist Danish philosopher, won the Danish No-Limit Hold'em Championship. [PokerListings.com] :: If you didn't think Sarah Silverman's impersonation of Britney Spears' nasty hairless va-jj was dead on, well here's proof, this time from last night's MTV VMAs. [IDLYITW]

Bodog Poker Bloggerament is Back on Tuesday with Double Stack and Bonuses

We weren't so much told about the Bodog Poker Blogger Tournament series that is running every Tuesday night from our good friend Calvin Ayre as we were not told by him.

Nope Calvin just tells us the important stuff like that there's a new Bodog Girl named Chasta, who we have to say is pretty darn hot although she has major breast implant-age separation going on that's kind of weirding us out. Check it out for yourself.

Anyway, we actually first came across the $10 +1 NLHE tournament held exclusively for poker bloggers and their readers over at Haley's Poker Blauggh!! a few weeks ago. The series is held on Tuesday nights at 8:35 pm EST and starting this week (tomorrow) it will be a deep stack event with players getting $3k in chips to start off with. To sweeten the pot, Bodog is also throwing in $125 of bonus money into each tournament.

For more on this Bodog poker blogger series, including the bonus payouts and the password you need to play, click "continue" below. If you win the tournament and have a blog, let us know and we'll pimp you on WCP.

Mama Mia! Dario Alioto Wins £5000 PLO

Italian Dario Alioto captured WSOPE Event #2 (£5,000 PLO), banking £234,390, which can probably buy him a lifetime supply of designer scarves like countryman Dario Minieri as well as a few cannolis to boot. By the way, for those of you who don't speak British and have been wondering what that little symbolly thing next to the big numbers is in our posts this weekend, that's a "pound" sign. And for those of you not up-to-date on current exchange rates, a pound equals about two U.S. American dollars right now. We'd do the math and calculate what that translates too in U.S. American dollars, but that would require us doing math.

This is Dario's first major tournament win. He did cash in two WSOP events this summer, including the $10,000 PLO championship.

Istvan Novak of Hungary came in second (£137,280). Tony G finished third (£94,380). Hopefully Card Player doesn't try to steal this from him too.

Get full payouts and results here.

Bill Edler Is A Pretty Good Poker Player

First off, did the Entities who comprise Wicked Chops Poker lose a war this weekend or something? With all of this poker going on, we've barely been away from our laptops. No yachting. No leisurely drives through the wine country. No morning sex with the wives. It's what we imagine life to be like in China every day.

One person who would probably like that kind of oppressive, stifling lifestyle is China-lovin' Steve Lipscomb, whose World Poker Tour just crowned a new champion. That, our friends, is what we like to call a helluva "segue."

The new WPT champ is noted all-around-great-guy Bill Edler. "The Great One" or "The American Dream" or whatever everyone calls him (always forget) captured his first WPT crown (to go along with his first bracelet back in June) by taking down the Gulf Coast Championship in Biloxi. For the win, Edler banks $747,615. Edler now is second overall in the Card Player POY standings, trailing only David "The Dragon" Pham*.

Edler defeated David Robbins heads-up for the title. Robbins will bring home $411,185. Hank Sitton finished third ($210,265), John Davidson fourth ($163,540), Tim Frazin fifth ($140,177), and The Notorious POB Tom Franklin sixth ($116,814).

Get full payouts here.

For the story on Edler's miraculous come back today after being down to just 2k in chips with 17 players remaining, watch Kimberly Lansing's video interview with the new WPT champ.

* Not a real dragon.

WSOPE and WPT Tournament Updates

To end the update thread from our previous post, Jennifer Harman, a woman, finished second in the £2,500 H.O.R.S.E. event, meaning a woman will not win the first ever WSOPE bracelet.

That honor goes to Thomas Bihl, a German. For the win, Bihl banks £70,875. Harmon takes home £40,688. Kirk Morrison finished third for  £26,250.

In the £5,000 PLO Event, Tony G leads, stacked at 150,000. Other notable bigs include Eli Elezra, Andy Bloch, and Roland de Wolfe.

And in the WPT Gulf Coast Championship, POB Tom Franklin takes the chip lead to the final table, stacked at 1,040,000. Bill Edler is third overall with 1005,000. Of course, all of this is overshadowed by the latest Kimberly Lansing and Layla Kayleigh vlog (below).

Get full WSOPE reporting here. And full WPT reporting here.

WSOPE H.O.R.S.E. Final Table Underway--Atlantan Yuval Bronshtein Chip Leader

Final table play got underway a little while ago for the WSOPE HORSE event, and 23 year-old Atlantan (and FOWCP) Yuval Bronshtein is the chip leader, stacked at 224,000. Bronshtein finished 3rd in a WSOP event earlier this summer.

Two of Daniel Negreanu's closest friends trail Yuval. Kirk Morrison continues his killer 2007 run with yet another major event final table appearance. Morrison is second overall with 212,000. And Jennifer Harman, who is a woman, is third with 211,500.

Rounding out the final table is Thomas Bihl, who is German so he probably likes weird porn, is fourth with 168,000. Chris "Jesus" Ferguson is fifth with 145,500. 2007 WSOP Main Event final table-ist Alex Kravchenko is sixth with 100,000. On Hendon Mob'er Joe Beevers is seventh with 46,000. Green-haired Brit Gary Jones has already been eliminated.

Get live reporting here.

UPDATE: Dinner break just ended. Yuval was eliminated during the RAZZ round in sixth place, banking £14,438. Kravchenko went out in fifth for £17,850. Kirk Morrison is currently the chip leader with 568,000. He's followed by Thomas Bihl (221,000), Chris Ferguson (182,000), and Jennifer Harman (85,000), who is a woman.

UPDATE II: Jennifer Harman, who is a woman, is currently the chip leader heads-up against Thomas Bihl, who is a German. Harmon has Bihl out-stacked 2-1. Kirk Morrison was eliminated in third place.