Weekend Poker News Link Dump

With the full Entity West Coast migration complete and recovery from Thanksgiving underway, let's catch up on some not just poker news from around the so-called "Internet." Back to full strength on Monday...

:: Can't forget we're just a day away from the 60 Minutes online poker hatchet job. [link]

:: With that in mind, here's Nat Arem's hierarchy of poker cheating. [link]

:: Players are criticizing the WSOP final table broadcast, but ratings were up 47% from last year. [link]

:: Phil Hellmuth's clothing line probably won't sell well in Northern Europe. [link]

:: Daniel Negreanu continues his big year, besting 690 to win the BC Poker Championship. [link]

And a final "thankful for..." before we become ingrateful for the next 360 days or so: Stripper 101 classes to teach girlfriends/fiances/wives how to swing from a pole.

Watch Fawnia's Move of the Week on RawVegas.tv

Things We're Thankful For...

(from our November Bluff Magazinecolumn)

The Wicked Chops Poker Annual “What We’re Thankful For” Article

Every November, sometime right around Thanksgiving, the Entities who comprise Wicked Chops Poker gather around a fireplace and share stories about what we’re most thankful for in our respective lives.

Just kidding. For the most part we take absolutely everything for granted.

Except for poker. Poker has always been there for us. Need an excuse to get away from our current/first wives for a night? Poker. Need some spare coin to help fund covert guerilla wars in developing nations with the hope of spreading democracy abroad? Poker.

With that in mind, here’s this year’s edition of our “What We’re Thankful For” Article.

The 2008 World Series of Poker – This was the fourth WSOP we’ve covered and this was easily and by far our favorite. Huge hats off to Jeffrey Pollack and crew for putting together a well run operation. And while this year may have lacked good Vinnie Vinh chair cashing moments, it did have plenty of big names rising to the occasion, often being railed by girls with even bigger racks.

The 2008 WSOP Rail Birds – See previous paragraph, last sentence. We’ve seen some hot railbirds in the past, but this year’s WSOP set new standards. We even dedicated an entire section of our website (and all but one of the pictures in this article) to these amazing young women.

Sure, people questioned us if snapping photos of girls without their knowledge and posting them on our site was “ethical.” But what are ethics anyway? Ethics are just a system of morals. And what are morals? Morals are the principles or rules that enable you to make the distinction between right and wrong? So then, what exactly is “right?” And what exactly is “wrong?” All we know is if taking pictures of beautiful women and putting them up on the so-called Internet is “wrong,” then we don’t even want to know what “right” is.  

Seriously though those girls were hot. (view them all again here)

Not One Ginger Punched Us in the Face – Not sure what this says about us, but two of our three “What We’re Thankful For” lists have included, “not being punched in the face.”

We had a little fun this year at the expense of gingers. For those who don’t know, gingers are red headed people with freckles, pale skin, and no soul (and actually have the capability of stealing your soul by just looking at you in the eye), like Bluff Magazine Managing Editor Lance Bradley. One of our favorite ginger gimmicks this year was a “Ginger of the Day” feature during the WSOP. For the record, we claim many a ginger as a friend. And we even had some gingers request to be gingers of the day. An overwhelming  number of gingers embraced the Ginger of the Day concept. A few didn’t. Fortunately none of those people took it out on us in the form of physical retaliation. Or by looking at us in the eyes.

Nicknames Coming Through – We certainly have a knack for picking the right people to nickname. From the spectacularly-breasted J.C. Tran continuing his winning ways (and giving us dozens of excuses this year to post photos of him on our site), to “Salty” Joe Hachem being, well, salty, to David “The Dragon” Pham* giving us a chance to asterisk his name more times then we can count, what a year for our stable of nicknames. We can only look forward with eager anticipation to who will get nicknames next year—and what those people will achieve.

Less and Less People Playing on UltimateBet and Absolute Poker – Screw them. They don’t deserve another cent from any of you.**  

The November Nine™ Hostages – Sometimes people get so wrapped up in their own sufferings that they forget about the plight of others. But not the Entities. Those brave souls—The November Nine—who were taken hostage by the World Series of Poker and held captive for four months, unable to access but a minimal amount of their winnings, unable to feed themselves, their families, or put a roof over their heads, they are the real heroes. They are the ones for whom we all owe a deep amount of gratitude.

* Not a real dragon.

** The views expressed by Wicked Chops Poker are not necessarily shared by Bluff Magazine.

60 Minutes to Air Online Poker Hatchet Job This Weekend

 

Well it's finally going to air.

After filming the piece at the WSOP this summer and supposedly set to air on November 9th (which they ended up delaying), CBS is ready to broadcast it's online poker hatchet job (as we first reported) this Sunday.

The story is called "The Cheaters" and will obviously detail the Absolute Poker and UltimateBet scandals. Here's the descript from the website:

60 Minutes and The Washington Post reveal how online poker players suspecting cheating were forced to successfully ferret out the cheaters themselves. That’s because managers of the mostly-unregulated $18 billion Internet gambling industry failed to respond to their complaints. Steve Kroft and The Washington Post's Gilbert Gaul report.

Check out Dan Druff from NWP in the below clip.

(ironically, Michael Phelps will be on this show as well in a separate story)

Watch CBS Videos Online

Friday Poker News Link Dump

Been a busy week for the Entities. Catching up on some poker news from around the so-called "Internet."

:: Best Tao of Poker post ever? [link]

:: Like this "Poker in Pictures" post on Up for Poker. Reminds us how much we fucking love U.S. America. [link]

:: So maybe there was an attempt to get the November Nine^TM some more mainstream exposure...they just didn't want it. [link]

:: These Goldman Sachs and Lehman guys have the right idea. [link]

:: After taxes, Peter Eastgate will have earned less from the 2008 WSOP Main Event than Ivan Demidov. Go socialism! [link]

In the meantime, not sure if you've seen the below video. But basically the scenario is this: Andrew was brought on the Maurey Povich Show to take a paternity test to determine if he was the father of this child. Andrew was like, "You know, cute kid and all. But I'm not sure I wanna be a dad, especially to this chick who I just hit it with one night." Then Andrew found out he was not the father and was like, "Whew, that's a relief. That would've greatly impacted my life had I been the father. You know what, I think I'm going to dance now." Then he danced.

Caption This . . . and Joao Barbosa Won EPT Warsaw

We may have posted this photo of Isabella Mercier and Dario Minieri at the 2008 WSOP before, perhaps in the forum, but it's one of our favorites and we're loving the responses to our other Caption This posts. You guys are good. Plus we're feeling particularly lazy this week. 

It's also somewhat related to news today that the scarf-wearing, femmi-bambino-ish Minier just finished third at the EPT Warsaw. In first was Portugal's Joao Barbosa who takes home €367,141 on his 26th birthday. Maybe he can buy a consonant for his first name with that money, or borrow one from sixth place finisher Sergey Shcherbatskiy. 

Get full report on the EPT Warsaw from Owen Laukkanen over at PL here.

Caption the above photo by clicking 'comments' below.

2007 Playmate of the Year Sara Jean Underwood

We don't think it's possible to watch the below video of 2007 Playmate of the Year Sara Jean Underwood talking with RawVegas.tv's Andrea Tiede and not immediately start googling her name to find photos of her in various states of undress.

Unless maybe you're that Tony guy. Tony's gay.

So, to save you the 1.4 seconds it takes to find such photos, here you go (really, really NSFW). Enjoy.

Watch 2007 Playmate of the Year Sara Jean Underwood on RawVegas.tv

We Saw This Coming: Cycalona Gowen Hits Full Tilt Poker With $40 Million Lawsuit

A few of you, including Michael Binger, took notice back in June when we first reported that Full Tilt Poker's upper management was not happy with Clonie Gowen and that she was on the way out.

At the time both parties scoffed at the suggestion, and Clonie kept on wearing her patch.

Well, as you probably know by now, we were right. Gowen has been forced out and in return has filed a $40 million lawsuit on Friday in the Nevada District Court against Full Tilt Poker and all related parties including its CEO Ray Bitar and player/owners Howard Lederer, Andy Bloch, Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson, John Juanda, Phillip Gordon, Erick Lindgren, Erik Seidel, Jennifer Harman-Traniello, Mike Matusow, Allen Cunningham, Gus Hansen and Patrik Antonius.

According to PokerNews:

The filing details alleged meetings between Gowen and Tiltware executives where the deal for Gowen to endorse the website was struck. In the claim, Gowen alleges an oral contract existed while admitting no written contract had ever been signed, and that most of the alleged promises took place over the telephone or in meetings with Tiltware executives in Las Vegas in 2004.

In response to the suit, Tiltware issued the following statement:

"Tiltware, LLC, has been made aware of the recent filing of a meritless lawsuit by a former Full Tilt Poker endorser - Ms. Cycalona Gowen. All claims have no merit and there are many inaccuracies improperly and unlawfully asserted by Ms. Gowen within her frivolous complaint. Tiltware LLC expects that this lawsuit will be dealt with accordingly by a competent court in due course."

Love that they called her out as Ms. Cycalona Gowen, her real name as revealed in the lawsuit, in responding. Such a bitch slap. Almost as much as a bitch slap as naming your kid Cycalona.

Relatedly, considering we were right about this, what do you think the odds are we'll be taking Annie Duke and Joe Reitman to dinner in a year?

Unrelatedly, Victoria's Secret models parading around in next to nothing.

Caption This

They Done Did It: Feds Finalize UIGEA Rules, Banks Have One Year to Clamp Down on Gambling Sites

Because now is a stellar time to burden our financial institutions even more by requiring them to follow some crappy, poorly worded law designed to make nanny state, far-right fascist politicians and the NFL happy, the U.S. Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve finalized the UIGEA rules today. You can read the entire 66 pages of legislative bull crap here.

We can't really make heads or tails of what it says however Reuters dumbs it down for us explaining that the rules require "U.S. financial firms that participate in designated payment systems to establish and implement policies that are reasonably designed to prevent payments to businesses in connection with unlawful Internet gambling."

Banks have until December 1, 2009 to comply.

As for what constitutes unlawful Internet gambling, the Treasury said: "For purposes of the rule, unlawful Internet gambling generally would cover the making of a bet or wager that involves use of the Internet and that is unlawful under any applicable federal or state law in the jurisdiction where the bet or wager is initiated, received or otherwise made."

PPA Chairman and Former Senator Alfonse D’Amato fired back at the Treasury saying, "Today's action finalizes a truly bad public policy—one that even the banks and Federal regulators called unworkable in Congressional testimony.

"However, the PPA remains optimistic that the new Administration and the new Congress will recognize the failures of UIGEA and will act swiftly in the New Year to overturn this flawed policy."

Read Haley Hintze's breakdown on the regulations over at PokerNews.com here.

Wait, That's Not Peter Eastgate

Screen grab below of The Money Times article on Peter Eastgate winning the World Series of Poker Main Event.

Justin Bonomo does kind of look like one of them Northern Euros.

Jonathan Little Wins Second WPT Title

Nothing else going on so not sure why it took so long to get to this, but Jonathan Little won his second WPT title by capturing the Foxwoods World Poker Finals.

Little defeated Jonathan Jaffe heads-up for the title. For the win, Jonathan Little banked $1,120,310. Jaffe took home $670,636.

In related news, David "The Dragon" Pham* failed to capture yet another WPT title after making something like his 197th final table.

The rest of the final table payouts went Charles Marchese ($337,256), the aforementioned David "The Dragon" Pham** ($240,344), Jack Schanbacher ($182,196), Mike Matusow ($124,048).

* Not a real dragon.
** Not a real dragon.

Peter Eastgate Signs with Poker Royalty, Is Going to Be Huge In Europe

On the heels of banking 9 mil and becoming the youngest WSOP Main Event champ in history, Peter Eastgate has signed on with Poker Royalty for representation.

According to the press release, Eastgate will rely on PoRo for "worldwide management and marketing representation across all major platforms, including media, sponsorship, licensing, commercial endorsements and appearances."

Poker Royalty recently opened a European office, which would likely spearhead these efforts, because Eastgate is going to be huge in Europe. He probably already has a best selling album in Belgium.

Read the full press release here or after the jump.

Brad Garrett Fights Paparazzi

Poker player Brad Garrett got into a mini-scuffle with the paparazzi somewhere in Hollywood last night.

Garrett, who is best known from being featured multiple times on WSOP broadcasts and has had minor roles in sitcoms like "Everybody Loves Raymond," broke one paps camera. The photographer then challenged him to a fight, then backed off a little claiming he wasn't a tough guy, which is probably wise because even if Garrett is pushing 50, he's a big dude and probably maul paparazzi guy.

We wish he would've. Paparazzi are total scum. It's not like they sneak around and take photos of people without their knowledge, because that's cool. But shoving a camera in someone's face when they're just enjoying a night out, not cool.

Not Again: Bush Administration to Use "Midnight Rules" and Sneak Through UIGEA Finalization

Just when Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass) was making headway in clarifying and carving out poker from the UIGEA, word has hit that the Bush administration plans to sneak finalization of the Act into law before it turns the lights off in the White House.

If pushed through, the UIGEA would come into effect on January 19, 2009.

From the PPA:

The current Administration is hastily finalizing a number of “midnight rules” before they leave office and the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) is on the list. See the 11/06 story in Dow Jones. Just like UIGEA was snuck into legislation in the dark of night in 2006, our opponents are again trying an 11th hour sneak job. We need you to help us expose and stop this reckless rulemaking.

Please call the U.S. Federal Reserve and tell them not to approve the UIGEA regulations — Board of Governors, 202-974-7008 or Public Affairs, 202-452-2955.

• Tell them: The federal agencies responsible for our nation’s economy should not be focused on Internet poker regulations. 
• Finalization of the UIGEA rules will add additional burdens on our already crippled financial systems.
• Internet poker is a game of skill and form of recreation for millions of Americans; it should be exempted from the UIGEA.
• Please do not finalize the UIGEA regulations until their impact on our banking systems and average Americans has been fully studied.

If you care at all about playing online poker, take a minute to call the above numbers or take 15 seconds to go online and fill this form out and email this address.

Again, at a minimum, fill this form out and email this address.

MORE: Following the money, it's once again the NFL that is behind getting the Act pushed through, with former NFL lobbyist and now Bush administration appointee Bill Wichterman running point.

(Read Barney Frank's letter to the Federal Reserve and Treasury after the jump)

Don't Ask Chino Rheem How He Feels After Busting Out of a Tournament

Who knows what they'll show during tonight's 2008 WSOP Main Event broadcast, but emotions were running high for Chino Rheem after he suffered a brutal bad beat from eventual winner Peter Eastgate and busted from the final table.

So when a reporter asked how he was feeling after the bust, let's just say he felt like "poo-poo" and the question itself he thought was "making love" "not too intelligently."

Chino Rheem's 2008 WSOP Main Event exit interview

Peter Eastgate Wins 2008 WSOP Main Event; At 22, Becomes Youngest Champion

More to come throughout the day but Peter Eastgate defeated Ivan Demidov to win the 2008 WSOP Main Event.

On the final hand, Eastgate turned a wheel, Demidov hit two pair, all the money went in, and that was that.

At 22 years-old, Eastgate now becomes the youngest Main Event champion in history, breaking Phil Hellmuth's record.

For the win, Eastgate banks $9,152,416. Demidov will take home $5,809,595.

UPDATE: Interview below with Eastgate.

Peter Eastgate Dressed Like a Girl

We like this Peter Eastgate kid.

In his press conference interview today, Eastgate says that Ivan Demidov was definitely the player he was most worried about going heads-up against (feeling is mutual), what the hell that "ooga ooga ooga blah blah blah" his fans were chanting meant, and that he dressed like a woman for Halloween.

Just 90 minutes away from final table play now...

WSOP 2008 Main Event Finalist Peter Eastgate on Ivan Demidov and more...

Ivan Demidov Isn't Nervous

For our latest webisodes of The TOKE, we talk with Ivan Demidov and Peter Eastgate.

Demidov said he thinks Eastgate was the best of the remaining November Nine^TM and shares his thoughts on Tiffany Michelle's performance.

WSOP Finalist Ivan Demidov pre- 2008 World Series of Poker final table news conference

Bond Girl Olga Kurylenko Photos Make For A Good Post

Olga Kurylenko just may be the hottest Bond girl ever. Or at least since Eva Green.

Who would have thought that when we picked some little known Ukrainian model named Olga as our Friday Night Parting Shot two and a half years ago, she'd go on to become a Bond girl? Yep, stick with us ladies. You'll go places. Hmmm..wonder what Savannah is up to these days. Probably curing cancer or something.

You can catch Olga Kurylenko in the latest and awfully named 007 flick Quantum of Solace when it hits theaters this Nov. 14. For now, a bunch of photos of Olga in the German Maxim and French FHM.

Hey! Over Here! We Have a Final Table Too!

We'll make this super quick since we need to start gearing up for the 2008 WSOP Main Event final table. Ten played down to six at the WPT Foxwoods World Poker Finals, an ironic name for a tournament that's taking place during the WSOP Main Event final table conclusion.

It's a solid final table. Jonathan Jaffe, who has been at or near the chip lead the entire tournament, takes the big stack to final table play with 4,131,000. More importantly, after probably thinking, "I've been at or near the chip lead this whole damn tournament. Who do I have to fuck to win the Blue Diamond Almonds Bold Player of the Day around here?"...well, he won the Blue Diamond Almonds Bold Player of the Day. Whew for him. Watch his reaction below or here.

In second overall is David "The Dragon" Pham* with 2,038,000. While The Dragon** has made something like 147 WPT final tables, he's still looking for his first title.

Joining him at the final table are Jonathan Little (2,021,000), Charles Marchese (1,718,000), Jack Schanbacher (1,592,000), and Mike Matusow (816,000).

Get full chip counts he--wait, just reread the last paragraph.

* Not a real dragon.
** Not a real dragon.

Hey! Hey Look Over Here! WPT Foxwoods World Poker Finals Down to 10

Since there are some big names remaining (including one of our favorite nicknames and one we just retired), we'll go ahead and report that only 10 are left at the WPT Foxwoods World Poker Finals although we know your attention is likely focused elsewhere.

Mike Matusow not only holds the chip lead, stacked at 1,857,000, but he also won his first Blue Diamond Almonds Bold Player of the Day (video below). Now Mike can enjoy delicious almonds for a year-- a healthy food alternative for a guy who cleaned up, dieted, and has turned his life around. It's a classic win-win situation right there.

Jonathan Jaffe, who has been at or near the top of the chip lead the entire tournament, is stacked second overall with 1,780,000. Also still alive are Jonathan Little (1,407,000) and David "The Dragon" Pham* (1,242,000).

Get a full recap here.

* Not a real dragon.

Meh for Poker

Who would you rather?

Well, we're kind of at a loss here.

The 2008 WSOP Main Event will come down to a Russian vs. a Dane, with Ivan Demidov going heads-up against Peter Eastgate sometime around 10pm tonight.

Barring some info on either that we don't know about yet, we can say that neither of them would be categorically bad for poker.

But we're not sure if either would be categorically good for poker either.

Which, like last year when that one guy beat the other guy, they are more likely just categorically Meh for poker.

Categorically.

The good news is that neither appears to be a fluke, like the guy who won last year. Demidov finished third at the WSOP-E Main Event, cementing his poker creds. Eastgate appears to be the real deal too. If Eastgate does win, he'd break Phil Hellmuth's record as youngest Main Event champ, which would get some decent press among the so-called poker media and maybe some mainstream pubs.

But bottomline is neither is a U.S. American, a woman, or a particularly dynamic personality. Daniel Negreanu they ain't. So we can't see either moving the needle much and getting more than a few die hards excited. More likely, the winner will be greated with a collective "meh" and shoulder shrug from the mainstream public.

Outside of the soon-to-be rich Demidov and Eastgate, the big winner in this is really Poker Stars, who can promote the hell out of these guys in Europe, where poker is still booming and where these two may have some broader appeal.

For a more play-by-play recap of the action, go here or to Dr. Pauly's here.

2008 WSOP Main Event Heads-Up: Ivan Demidov vs. Peter Eastgate

Over 6,800 players. 4 months. 1 hostage crisis. The 2008 WSOP Main Event is finally heads-up.

More information to come, but it's going to be Ivan Demidov (79,500,000) vs. Peter Eastgate (57,725,000).

No real shocker as these two looked the best and got the cards all day.

More to come...

Scott Montgomery Was Bound to Get Knocked Out Soon

At least a Canadian won't win this year's WSOP. We're tired of those Junior Americans up north winning poker tournaments.

Having just lost something like 23 million chips a few hands earlier to Ivan Demidov, Scott Montgomery was down to around 7M and bound to go out soon. We just can't see Montgomery patiently waiting for a monster. He's the type of guy who would shove with one card and a pretzel if he could and say something with his Canadian accent like "Well I'm pretty sure you don't have a pretzel so I know I have at least one live card even though a pretzel isn't really a card eh but please don't call but even if you do and I get knocked out I can probably afford to buy the Vancouver Canucks now."

So he shoved with A-3 and was called by Peter Eastgate's 6-6. Montgomery flopped an Ace and turning a set, but a 6 fell on the river giving Eastgate a boat.

Montgomery is gone in 5th place, banking $3,096,768.

Follow the action here or with Dr. Pauly here.

Darus Suharto Didn't Need to Go All-In

For some reason, every final table someone who doesn't really need to go all-in with some Ace-rag does and gets knocked out.

This year's winner is Darus Suharto.

With blinds at 250,500 and 8,550,000 in chips, Darus re-raised Scott Montgomery all-in with A-8. Now open shoving with A-8, ok. Or repopping with two cards that are likely live, great. But A-8 you're just asking for it. Montgomery went in the tank (Darus had molded a tight table image) and eventually called with A-Q, which held when the board turned the nut flush.

Suharto's A-8 now joins last year's winner, Lee "The Panther" Watkinson-Markholt's A-7, as hands that didn't need to be re-raised all-in leading to eventually elimination something something.

With Suharto's elimination, the stacks are getting pretty closely lumped together.

Chip counts: Peter Eastgate - 40,500,000, Scott Montgomery - 31,950,000, Ivan Demidov - 25,125,000, Ylon Schwartz - 19,375,000, Dennis Phillips - 19,275,000.

Chino Rheem Will Not Win the 2008 WSOP Main Event

Well, it was still a sick call.

When we picked "David" Chino Rheem to make a deep run in the 2008 WSOP Main Event, most people (like Andrew Feldman at ESPN.com) thought, "who"?

6,800+ eliminations later, Chino, the most experienced pro in the field, was knocked out of the 2008 WSOP Main Event in seventh place. Chino's A-K was sucked out on by Peter Eastgate's A-Q.

But thanks for making us look smarter than we really are, Chino.

Actually, we're pretty f'in smart, so thanks for validating that.

At the dinner break, the chip stacks are: Ivan Demidov 30,725,000, Peter Eastgate 27,175,000, the back in contention Dennis Phillips 26,950,000, Ylon Schwartz 20,475,000, Scott Montgomery 20,300,000, and Darus Suharto 10,600,000.

Kelly Kim Can Now Go Home

Having clung on to a "redunkulous" short-stack for the entire final table without ever doubling up, Kelly Kim finally went all-in and all out of the 2008 WSOP Main Event.

Having nitted it though for over 50 hands and watching Craig Marquis bow out before him, Kim was able to earn an extra $386k or so.

Chino Rheem is now the short-stack with 2,900,000. Dennis Phillips is making a comeback with 11,550,000.

Follow the action here or with Dr. Pauly here.

Screw You Russ Hamilton

Hey Russ, go screw yourself.

We are some spite-loving mofo's at Wicked Chops Poker. So even better than NOT including Russ Hamilton's WSOP championship banner in the Penn & Teller theater for today's final table is including it--but sticking it behind the escalators. It's like a big middle finger to a big cheating slimeball.

Nice work, Jeffrey Pollack or whoever did that.

Great job by Pokerati for noticing it. See their full photo dump here.

Craig Marquis Busts First

As we wrote in our "Good / Bad for Poker" article on espn.com, Craig Marquis definitely fell into the "Good for Poker" hole and one (or three, as in, the Entities) might argue that of the November Nine^TM, he might've been the best for poker if he won (definitely the most marketable).

Well that ain't happening.

Marquis busted out first, falling to Scott Montgomery.

In a hand you'd typically only see on Full Tilt, Marquis was all-in pre-flop with pocket 7's. Montgomery called with A-Q. Marquis flopped a set, but Montgomery runner-runnered broadway for a straight.

Kelly Kim, who is clinging on to dear life with only 600,000 in chips now, did this upon Marquis' busting, as he's now a millionaire.

Dennis Phillips Is Shell-Shocked

Has anyone down there seen Dennis Phillips' chip lead?

Somewhere, difficult to tell in this photo but in the stadium seating behind the final table, there are about 200 white-shirt-wearing, St. Louis Cardinals ball capped Dennis Phillips fans. Outside the Penn & Teller theater, there are probably 100 more.

All are there, of course, were brought there by Dennis Phillips.

So it kind of sucks for him that he's gone from chip leader to near short-stack, dropping to around 4M in chips.

Phillips lost a monster pot to Ivan Demidov, and has continued to slip. The once vocal Phillips minions (who we spoke with many, all good, friendly people) have gone silent.

That party Phillips promised for all if he won looks highly improbable now.

Phillips in general looks shell-shocked and a little lost. Maybe he's feeling the pressure of not having to disappoint so many supporters out there.

Follow the action here or with Dr. Pauly here.

UPDATE: Ok as soon as we posted this Phillips doubled up through Chino Rheem and is now stacked at 9M. Chino is down to around 6M.

Bluff Magazine Pre-WSOP Main Event Final Table Party

The big party last night in Las Vegas was Bluff Magazine's 4th anniversary/WSOP Main Event final table party.

And now we're off to the final table...

Watch Bluff Magazine Anniversary Party at The Bank Nightclub - Raw Red Carpet on RawVegas.tv

Interview With Dennis Phillips, 2008 WSOP Main Event Chip Leader

Here's what 2008 WSOP Main Event chip leader Dennis Phillips has to say right before play begins.

Watch Dennis Phillips Chip Leader Challenge at the Hard Rock Poker Lounge on RawVegas.tv

Mike "The Mouth" Matusow Makes a Charge at WPT Foxwoods World Poker Finals; WCP Retires His Nickname With This Post

Day 3 ended at the WPT Foxwoods World Poker Finals with 33 players remaining and some big names atop the leaderboard.

Mike "The Mouth" Matusow, whose nickname we're retiring with this post because in order to have a nickname people outside of the media actually have to call you that on occasion, closed strong ending up second overall in chips with 1,076,000. He only slightly trails yesterday's chip leader Jonathan Jaffe, who is stacked at 1,100,000.

A couple of other strong closers yesterday were Jonathan Little (477,000) and the still sober Gavin Smith (375,000). Both sit with above average chip stacks.

Other notables remaining include the vastly underrated/Marxist-Lenonist-looking Alex Bolotin (435,500), Phil Ivey (225,500), Bill Gazes (214,500), David "The Dragon" Pham* ** (192,000), half-man, half-amazing Freddy Deeb (154,500), and Kevin Saul (93,000).

Daniel Negreanu just missed making it to Day 4, finishing in 35th, but with this cash, ties the record for most all-time WPT-in-the-monies at 17. He now shares the record with Erik Seidel, Barry Greenstein, and Lee Markholt-Watkinson.

Follow the action today (if you're not following WSOP Main Event final table play) here.

* Not a real dragon.
** Never retiring that nickname. Ever.

The 2008 WSOP Final Table Is Tomorrow...Does Anyone Care?

After four months in captivity, November Nine^TM hostages are finally ready to be released.

We are less than 24 hours away from the 2008 WSOP final table. Do you care?

What happened to all the promised ESPN build-up? Where's the hype? Where's the PR push around the fact that somebody, perhaps a 50-something truck driver or 23 year-old whiz kid, is about to win $9M? People lose their mind after watching the seventyeththousandth Survivor winner bank just one mil. Why not give this some more reality treatment during the lay-off?

This is a great story, yet it hasn't seeped into the mainstream at all.

Why hold these nine people hostage for four months if you're really not going to do anything that much outside of airing the episodes like you'd normally do to hype it?

So we ask...are you really excited about this final table tomorrow? Anyone?

Anyone?

EXCLUSIVE: Tiffany Michelle Interview

On the eve of the November Nine^TM final table, we catch up with 2008 WSOP Main Event Last Woman Standing^TM Tiffany Michelle.

Tiffany has caught a lot of shit for her TV persona. Is it warranted? In our latest webisode of The TOKE, she discusses that, plus when she stopped reading her now infamous 2+2 post, and post-WSOP life.

Tiffany Michelle Interview - Part I

Exclusive Tiffany Michelle Video Interview: Part 1

Tiffany Michelle Interview - Part II

Exclusive Tiffany Michelle Video Interview: Part II

Jonathan Jaffe Leads WPT Foxwoods World Poker Finals

Play has just gotten underway for Day 3 of the WPT Foxwoods World Poker Finals.

Currently, 90 of the starting 412 remain. Jonathan Jaffe holds the chip lead, stacked at 491,000.

Other notables still in the field include a bunch of bolded names such as half-man, half-amazing Freddy Deeb (258,400), Chris "Jesus" Ferguson (239,800), Toto Leonidas (214,200), Kevin Saul (199,700), Phil Ivey (187,900), Gavin Smith (187,800), David "The Dragon" Pham* (123,200), Glum Girl Svetlana Gromenkova (120,700), pwner of Foxwoods tourneys Raj Patel (119,300), Erik Seidel (114,000), Bill Gazes (101,400), Daniel Negreanu (98,000), Jason Potter (90,000), Jonathan Little (85,900), Michael Binger (84,500), and what the hell why not Jason Mercier (51,000).

Follow the action here.

In unrelated news, this.

Borgata Lays Off 400

What's worse than living and working in Atlantic City? Living and not working in Atlantic City. Get it? Atlantic City is a crap hole.

Anyway, like the headline says, the Borgata, our favorite casino in AC because we don't worry as much about getting stabbed there, has given the boot to about 400 employees, or 5.5% of its workforce.

These are the first layoffs in five years and more are expected to come.

Read the story here.

Kim Kardashian and Her Cleavage Video

Kim Kardashian was in Las Vegas recently for her Vegas Magazine photoshoot and RawVegas.tv has the video. For those who are curious to know what Amy Winehouse would look like not all f-ed up with some meat on her bones, a normal person's nose and huge tits, today's your lucky day. Sicko.

Surprisingly Kim isn't banging some black* dude in this video.

Watch Kim Kardashian Behind the Scenes Footage on RawVegas.tv

* It's cool, we can say this. Some of us voted for Obama.

Ashley Dupre Bikini Photos Because Eliot Spitzer Got Off

Story on the whore banging, anti-gambling crusading Eliot Spitzer not being charged here. Photos of his hooker Ashley Dupre looking very doable in a bikini below.

Phil Ivey Leads WPT Foxwoods World Poker Finals

WPT events have been filling Phil Ivey's wallet this year.

While most of the poker world is looking ahead to the WSOP Main Event final table on Sunday, the WPT Foxwoods World Poker Finals just concluded its two Day 1's, ending up with a stellar 412 entrants and $1,120,310 first prize.

Jason Potter (this guy) and Phil Ivey (this guy)* are atop the leaderboard, both stacked just over 183,000.

Plenty of big names among the big stacks. They include but are certainly not limited to Kevin Saul (135,350), Jonathan Little (131,400), the still running good Gavin Smith (124,325), and David "The Dragon" Pham** (109,200).

Get full chip counts here.

* It's cool, we voted for Obama.
** Not a real dragon.

More November Nine(TM) Love On ESPN

One of the worst things that ever hit our ears was when Tommy Lee, during an episode of Cribs, thanked Starbucks for hooking him up with some "coffee love" when they installed a bean machine in his basement.

The only thing that really has ever sounded worse than that are those horrible Carl's Jr commercials with people loudly eating their disgusting hamburgers. So many letters/emails were written to Carl's Jr's ad agency about our hatred of the campaign, we're surprised a restraining order wasn't filed.

Anyway, along with the words "plethora," "synergy," and "philanthropy," anything "love" was officially banned from the vocabulary of the Entities.

However, we're brain-dead today and getting a little bit lazy. So with the November Nine^TM just days away, here's some more love for espn.com's coverage of the happenings:

• Hey, it's the first Wicked Chops article on espn.com. [link]
• Listen to the Poker Edge: Predictions and analysis Friday and find out how to enter in and win a free 30 minute poker lesson from Phil Gordon. Also listen to all the N9^TM interviews. [link]
• We don't believe in philanthropy but Dennis Phillips does (we're covering the event as a TOKE tomorrow too). [link]
• Most think Scott Montgomery is a maniac. He would agree. [link]
• If you have a lot of time on your hands... [link]
• Great video interview of a surprisingly interesting and candid Ivan Demidov. [link]

Annie Duke, If We Are Wrong, We'll Take You to Dinner

Here's the thing, we like Annie Duke, a woman. She's smart. She gets great mainstream exposure, which in turn, raises the profile of the game for all. She's been a good ambassador for poker.

We reported that Annie will be leaving Ultimate Bet and signing on with another site. We had multiple sources on this. Didn't know a timeframe, but heard it was inevitable.

Annie disagrees with us. She has come out and said this to Gambling911.com:

"Lord...I'll tell you.  It is amazing that if someone just says something on the internet all of a sudden people think it is true.  The other day Wicked Chops posted that I am leaving Ultimatebet.com for another site.  I can tell you that if it is true that was the first I had heard about it!  I would love someone from the site that I am moving to to call me and tell me the deal I am getting to leave UB."

Annie, if you are not with another site by November 6th, 2009, one year from today, we will treat you to a steak dinner at the restaurant of your choice. If you've gone veg, we'll take you somewhere else. Doesn't matter. But the offer is out there. Dinner, wine, all the fixings. We'll take both you and Joe Reitman. 1/3 of the Entities who comprise Wicked Chops Poker has met Joe and likes him too, although he'd probably like to punch us collectively in the face. Regardless, it'll be good times.

Seriously though if you pick N9ne Steakhouse, that's cool. We'll get the s'mores for desert.

Caption This

Post Presidential Poker News Brought to You By Andrew, You're Not the Father

Pretty sure we can all agree that Barack Obama winning U.S. American President yesterday, at the very least, is not a bad thing for online poker. Below are some post-election links and poker news, all brought to you by "Andrew, You're Not the Father." Happy days indeed.

:: Hold on, hold. In beaming about Obama's victory, is Jeff Madsen saying he believes in the 9/11 conspiracy here? Really? [link]

:: Sebok is stoked too. Less conspiratorial believing. [link]

:: A discussion on how Obama's win + the Democratic Congress could = good things for online poker. [link]

:: Good recap of all the personalities involved with getting a poker carve-out from the UIGEA. [link]

:: One last recap of who poker players were picking for President. [link]

:: Some dude won some other LAPT tourney. [link]

:: Cheating scumbag site Ultimate Bet finally pays everyone back. [link]

Avatars Getting Banned on 2+2...Sort Of

There is more banning happening on the 2+2, but this time it's surprisingly not from the powers that be running the popular forum.

Poster Mephisto uses an avatar of image created by Japanese artist Takashi Murakami. For use of this 80×70 pixel avatar on 2+2, Takashi wants to get paid. $500.

For use. Of an avatar.

And we thought China was the communist country.

Read more about it on Techcrunch here.

Annie Duke to Leave Ultimate Bet? Annie Duke Wins Celebrity Apprentice?

So we're hearing that Annie Duke may be leaving Ultimate Bet. If it happens, what the f' took so long? And will Phil Hellmuth follow?

The speculation is Duke will join Team Full Tilt, which wouldn't be a shocker given her brother's affiliation with the site. This would make Duke Team FTP's most prominent female personality, which probably won't sit too well with Jen Harmon.

In related Duke news (and this is more speculative than the above), word is she at a minimum finished in the top two in this season's Celebrity Apprentice and may have in fact won it.

These two stories would make sense when tied together. While 60 Minutes may have put a brief hold on its hatchet job on online poker and Ultimate Bet, it will still run, and Duke's association with the site would surely be brought up. And with an appearance (and possible deep run) on Celebrity Apprentice, Duke's profile would never be higher.

Developing...

60 Minutes Hatchet Job on Online Poker NOT Airing November 9th

So our sources are telling us that 60 Minutes will not air it's "hatchet job" (as first described to us here) on online poker sites Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet on November 9th.

They may want to get more interviews, like one with Russ Hamilton (good luck with that). Or more likely, this Sunday is going to be all about Barack "BAM!" Obama.

Hopefully, it just doesn't air. Bury that thing. 

Developing...

Not Necessarily Just Poker News Brought to You By Helena Houdova

Super-model Helena Houdova (above) is holding a charity poker tournament in a couple weeks (read here). So we figured this image was appropriate, given we love poker...but charity? Not so much. Hot girl in short dress? Awesome. Puppies? Not so much.

Catching up on some poker news from over the weekend and non-poker links worth checking out:

:: Hevad Khan banks a million by winning the Caesars Palace Classic. To quote Pokerati, "That dude is the troof." [link]

:: Steve 'MrSmokey1' Billirakis goes wire-to-wire at the WSOP-C, banking $208,885, which is about the amount of money it would take for us to want to spend a week in Hammond, Indiana. In related news, they're still holding WSOP-C events? [link]

:: But the biggest tournament cash of the weekend came at the EPT Budapest, where Will Fry [shrugging shoulders] banked €595,839. [link]

:: Wrapping up on the Halloween costume tip, here are some sexy villian/super hero costumes, or at least that's what it says. It really just more like girls dancing around in lingerie. [link]

:: Friend of a friend has a friend who made a pretty funny "I'm F'ing Sarah Palin" video. [link]

:: And while we're thinking of elections, Vote for Lando Calrissian. [link]

:: This didn't go so well. [link]

:: And finally, the November Nine^TM is this week(end). ESPN.com has chats and vids running of all the N9^TM Mon-Fri. [link]

Evelyn Ng Wins Best Halloween Costume

We stopped playing video games when we retired the Intellivision in 1984. So we don't know much about Guitar Hero other than it's wildly popular and Evelyn Ng kicks ass at it.

With that in mind, her Halloween costume was fittingly appropriate. We surmise that it's of one of the bandmates in the game (uh, the one at left), and she looks really hot in character.

They need to have an Oscars-type awards ceremony for Halloween costumes, btw. Best Sexy Cop. Best Slutty Nurse. Etc.

Lacey Jones Was Mia Wallace

"Why do we feel it's necessary to yak about bullshit in order to be comfortable?"

Now there's about an equal chance of finding the Entities chilling in a cave in Afghanistan with the Taliban as you would finding us dressed up for Halloween. Not our style. Halloween is really only to be enjoyed by 1) children, and 2) adult women.

And since this ain't the kind of website where you'll find pictures of kids on it, let's focus on the adult women aspect of Halloween.

Lacey Jones did Halloween right, looking like a spot-on Mia Wallace. She nails the trifecta of a good Halloween costume: 1) looks the part, 2) not overdone (i.e. she's not the Joker or Sarah Palin), and 3) hot.

* Photo credit sort of from poker hottie Liz Lieu.