Daniel Negreanu to Be in X-Men Origins: Wolverine?

As reported all over the place the past couple weeks (we'll cite this one here), Daniel Negreanu will be playing poker against Hugh Jackman, aka Wolverine, in the upcoming movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Now comic books are for dorks who don't get laid but we hear the X-Men series and Wolverine are pretty cool. While Daniel can't officially comment on his appearance, he'll be in the flick.

He stopped by the RawVegas.tv office today to talk about all of the other stuff he's been up to lately. Watch the video below.

Daniel Negreanu vlog on X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Daniel Negreanu Video Blogs
X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Happy Easter from Mir, Ale and Mar

We're heading out for the Easter weekend, so until we're back on Monday, we leave you with three of our favorite Victoria's Secret/Sports Illustrated Swimsuit-ers Miranda Kerr, Alessandra Ambrosia and Marisa Miller.

Apparently the three of them are/were on some VH1 photog reality show called "The Shot," and the pic above is from one of the contestants, we're guessing.

For more photos and a video of Miranda, Alessandra and Marisa appearing on the show, go here. Relatedly, check out this Marisa Miller video.

Top Searches and Referrer-ers the Past 30 Days

Time to say thanks to our top referrers from the past 30 days according to Feedburner, which fuels our RSS feed and supplies us with anal-ytics that are somehow completely different than our main stat thingamajig, and we lack the intellectual curiousity to figure out why. By the way, if you aren't signed up to receive Wicked Chops Poker updates daily via email, you can do so by clicking here. To get our feed online only, click one of the icons on the top right of the site, or for bloglines click here.

No doubt, the Eliot Spitzer hooker scandal and the fact that Ashley Youmans aka Ashley Alexandra Dupre turned out to be a ho's ho drove a bit of traffic to WCP. Layla Kayleigh keeps bringing them in too. Apparently she is on some MTV show and whenever it airs people google the heck out of "Layla Kayleigh nude", only to disappointingly find out that the WPT hostess won't pose nude. As for referrers, Jesus Martinez's worshippers at DSF apparently wanted to see photos of Trishelle Cannatella playing poker. PocketFives, meanwhile, drove traffic to our RSS feed but not our site when a P5-er snatched code or something from our Trojan post and used it for a forum post. Yeh, we have no idea what we just said either.

All right, below are the top searches and referrers.

Top searches:

Ashley Youmans
Layla Kayleigh
Keeley Hazell
Ashley Alexandra Dupre
Olga Kurylenko
Shana Hiatt

Top Referrers:

DrunkenStepfather.com (NSFW)
PocketFives.com
Pokernyhederne.com
Wikio.com
TaoPoker.blogspot.com

Photo above of German singer and soap opera-er Susan Sideropoulos. More of her here.

Eliot Spitzer's Hooker Ashley Might Have Been a Dude

We've mentioned before that we aren't quite sure what to make of Eliot Spitzer's hooker Ashley Alexandra Dupre, aka Ashley Youmans, aka Ashley Rae Maika DiPietro. In some pics she looks pretty hot. Others, the girl next door. Still others, we've noted a certain degree of manliness to her looks.

Well, today, US magazine published some photos of Ashley from when she first started escorting and based on them we'd bet a crack whore's life that she was a dude at one time, and if not, the girl has a serious amount of testosterone in her body. Just look at those man hands on her. They make ours look dainty. Especially since we just had hot cream manicures done.

Anyway, so she probably ain't a dude but the online poker-hating, hooker-loving Spitzer should get a refund for the $4300 he spent on banging "Kristen" this past February in Washington DC hotel, because the girl is about as far away from being a 5-diamonds escort as Dancing with the Stars' Shannon Elizabeth is away from ever winning an Oscar.

Click on the photos below from Ashley's hooker debut, and if you can take it, one more photo after the jump below . . .

The Grand Rates 'Rotten,' Opens Tomorrow in LA and NYC

Zak Penn's improvisational poker movie The Grand, which we predicted will not be so grand at the box office, finally hits theaters tomorrow in Los Angeles and New York City and will open elsewhere on April 4.

According to limited reviews recorded by Rotten Tomatoes, the film is currently scoring 44% on the Tomatometer, meaning it's received more "rotten" reviews from critics than "fresh" ones. Still, it's faring much better than Lucky You, which charted at 29%.

If you've missed our past posts about the film, The Grand is a Waiting for Guffman-like mockumentary of the poker world that stars Woody Harrelson as One Eyed Jack Faro, a degenerate pokerer who attempts to save his dead dad's hotel-casino from a real estate developer by taking down the world's most famous high stakes tournament, the Grand Championship of Poker.

Joining Harrelson in the cast are Werner Herzog, Gabe Kaplan, Michael "David St. Hubbins" McKean, Hank Azaria, Dennis Farina, Chris Parnell, Cheryl Hines, David Cross, Jason Alexandar, Ray Romano, Richard Kind, and Shannon Elizabeth, who if we haven't mentioned it yet, is on Dancing With the Stars.

Also in the film are a few poker pros including Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Laak and Phil Gordon.

Not in the film, Keeley Hazell.

Check out The Grand's trailer and links to reviews of the film after the jump . . .

2008 Irish Open Underway in Dublin

Sometime between looking at Audrina Patridge's Playboy audition photos for the hundredth time and looking at Audrina Patridge's Playboy audition photos for the two-hundredth time (link), we remembered that Day 1a of the 2008 Irish Open was underway at Dublin's Citywest Hotel in Ireland, the homeland of two thirds of the Entities that comprise Wicked Chops Poker.

Billed as Europe's oldest and largest poker tournament, the €4,200 buy-in event has drawn a pretty decent field of pros from the Emerald Isle, the UK and North America including Doyle Brunson, Barney Boatman, JJ Liu, a woman, Pascal Perrault, Ram Vaswani, Alan Smurfit, Mike "Timex" McDonald, Marc Goodwin and hometurfers Andy Black, Ciaran O'Leary and Padraig Parkinson.

Also present are Roland de Wolfe and Sorel Mizzi, who placed 2nd and 3rd, respectively, at last year's Irish Open, which was won by local Marty Smyth.

Finally, David "El Blondie" Colclough, the Silda Spitzer of poker, is among the field.

For live reports, Owen Laukkanen is once again all over the action like these two friendly lesbians on each other, except nowhere near as hot. Check out his reports here.

PaddyPoker, the host, is also live blogging the tourney, although we're kind of creeped by the one reporter who drank Doyle's beer after he walked away. Check their blog out here.

Photo above of Audrina Patridge, if you didn't guess.

Chris Moore Wins 2008 Wynn Classic, Ryan Young Runner-Ups

If you're reading this post hoping to learn more about what happened at the final table of the 2008 Wynn Classic, other than what is in the headline above, you're going to be disappointed. Because that's all we got for you.

However, if you happened to be asking yourself today, "I wonder what the Bulgarian version of American Idol is like?" well, it's funny you should ask. By the way, the language these people (in videos below and after the jump) are singing in, which you can't understand a lick of, is English.

Also after the jump, one more video demonstrating that the judges on Bulgaria's "Music Idol" are bigger freaks than the contestants.

Shannon Shorr Can Fly

You may recall seeing 22-year-old poker pro Shannon Shorr, a guy, playing last year's WSOP in a back brace and being pushed around in a wheel chair after he fractured two vertebrae and broke his heel. At the time he didn't say much about what actually happened, just that he was "horsing around" with his roommates when "a major accident happened at the house" (Shannon's blog post about it here).

Well, the accident, if jumping off a 15 foot ledge onto a deflated air mattress counts as an accident, was captured on film in all its jackass glory by his roommate Jerry "JLimbs" Limber, and it just got posted on YouTube today. Check it out below:

In related Shannon news, in case we haven't mentioned it yet, Shannon Elizabeth is on Dancing with the Stars.

After the jump, the video of Tiffany Michelle interviewing Shannon Shorr at the WSOP two days after breaking his back . . .

Poker News Roundup Brought to You By the Hottest Girl Ever Named Debora

:: Doyle Brunson and Patrik Antonius are closer to going heads-up for millions, on television (Click here)

:: Harvard prof Charles Nesson, aka "Billion Dollar Charlie", rallied against a Massachusetts bill that would make online poker a crime (Click here)

:: Did poker play a role in the double homicide of a poker pro and his wife? (Click here)

:: Did we mention Shannon Elizabeth is on Dancing with the Stars yet? (Click here)

:: PokerNews.com's man-in-charge John Caldwell confirms The Grand is the best poker movie since Rounders, because all the other ones sucked (Click here)

:: The Swedish government is no longer going to prosecute media outlets who publish or air online poker ads from non-Volvoland-based sites (Click here)

:: Congrats to the purported mother of our Brazilian bastard children friend Maria Eduarda Mayrink, aka Maridu, a woman, for finishing 5th out of a field of 500+ at the Rio Poker Fest, winning $40,000 in some type of currency (Click here)

:: The best poker show on television just may be on . . . BET? (Click here)

Photo above of the absurdly stunning Italian model Debora Salvalaggio. Two more pics of the hottest girl ever named Debora after the jump . . .

Shocker! Eliot Spitzer's Hooker Did Girls Gone Wild When She Was 18, Possibly 17

In news every bit as surprising as having to take a crap in the morning, Eliot Spitzer's hooker "Kristen" (aka Ashley Alexandra Dupre, aka Ashley Youmans, aka Ashley Rae Maika DiPietro, aka Nina Venetta) did Joe Francis' Girls Gone Wild in 2003 when she was celebrating her 18th birthday in Florida, thus fulfilling the official rite of passage for any teenage slut seeking to become an adult slut.

While the AP reports Ashley was 18 at the time the video was filmed, we read somewhere that her attorney is saying she was 17. We also read somewhere that if you put an egg in a bowl of water and it floats, it's bad, but that doesn't have anything to do with this post. But it's still very important to know.

Word is that Joe Francis was originally going to offer Ashley $1 million this week to team with his porn shop but then realized they actually had footage of her on file. How much footage? Apparently seven tapes worth, including girl-on-girl stuff, which of course is what Girls Gone Wild is all about. That and making it a bitch to cancel your subscription of 7 years despite repeated efforts to do so because your current/first wife isn't cool with them anymore.

A video clip of Ashley Alexandra Dupre going wild and a few more pics after the jump . . .

2008 WSOP Europe Dates Announced, Jeffrey Pollack Challenges U.S. Americans

Yesterday the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE), which will be in Europe for some reason again this year which is the home continent of Doutzen Kroes (at right, must watch commercial here, schritting never seemed so sexy) announced that it will run from September 19th to October 1st, 2008 in London, England. This year's WSOPE is presented by Betfair. Last year's WSOPE Main Event was won by Annette Obrestad, a woman.

Like last year, the tournament will be hosted by London Clubs International and will be held at St. James (Fifty), Leicester Square (The Casino at the Empire) and Marble Arch (Sportsman).

WSOP Commish and famed blogger Jeffrey Pollack even threw a bit of a challenge to U.S. American players, who more or less avoided the European extravaganza like it was the Great Plague of London in 1665:

“It was a clean sweep for the Europeans last year. There are many, many talented players in the European poker community and I think it caught some of the world’s best known poker players by surprise. It’s safe to say the pros haven’t forgotten about last year and the young guns should expect a tougher fight in 2008.”

The schedule of events is still being finalized.

Video: Shannon Elizabeth's Dancing with the Stars Debut

So our favorite poker playing, sponsor logo-naked, American Pie top-dropper Shannon Elizabeth made her Dancing with the Stars debut tonight, and while we didn't quite catch the airing of the show, a clip featuring Shannon and her partner (Ricky Schroeder?) is already up on YouTube.

We're not really sure how Dancing with the Stars works or quite understand the concept of ballroom dancing but if having ridiculously perfect legs and not wearing much of a dress (is it a dress if it pretty much stops at the waist?) are a part of the judging criteria, we'd say Shannon Elizabeth kicked ass tonight.

Watch Shannon Elizabeth's debut on Dancing with the Stars here.

"That Ain't Right"

The below video has nothing to do with poker and everything to do with a punk-ass drunk guy decking a girl on St. Patrick's Day. Keep your eye on the chick in red.

Originally found here on the TheBigLead.com

Shannon Elizabeth Gets 15/1 Odds to Win Dancing With the Stars

Can't remember if we've mentioned this or written about it (years of super-heavy drug-use can really ruin brain cells), but Shannon Elizabeth (naked without logo here) is on Dancing with the Stars this season.

And since we're willing to bet that most of you bet, if you want to place a wager on her chances this year, Bodog has her listed at 15/1 to win (down from 10/1 earlier today), right in the middle of the pack.

Penn Jillette, who also plays poker but looks significantly worse without a shirt on, is in "last" at 25/1.

And Miami Dolphin Jason Taylor, whose poker buddies gave him a pink tu-tu (sp?), is the current male favorite at 3/1.

Full Dancing with the Stars odds
Shannon Elizabeth Naked

Rally Against Governor Deval Patrick's Bill to Criminalize Online Poker

As we've mentioned before Barack Obama's goober-natorial pal and plagiar-speech writer Deval Patrick (D - Governor, Mass.) is trying to push a bill through the state legislature that would allow the licensing of three resort casinos in Massachusetts while subjecting those who gamble on the Internet, including online poker players, up to a maximum term of 2 years in prison, a fine of $25,000 or both.

Yes, it's ass backwards, and Harvard law professor and grand poobah of the Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society, Charles Nesson, is calling on poker players to rally at the state house tomorrow morning in protest.

Here's what Nesson wrote on the rally's Facebook page:

"Deval Patrick's casino bill (H. 4307) would make online poker players into criminals — even if no money is changing hands. Rally at the State House TOMORROW (March 18) to help stop this nightmare from becoming a reality!"

For poker players who live in the area, the rally is from 8:30 am to 11:30 am, at the Massachusetts 54th Regiment Memorial (across from the State House) on Beacon Street.

For more details, check out the rally's Facebook page here or go to the GPSTS site here.

Tell Deval Patrick what you think about his bill here.

See the hottest girl hailing a cab today here.

Related post:

Poker Advocate Charles Nesson on The Colbert Report
Governor Deval Patrick Wants to Send Online Poker Players to Prison

Shannon Elizabeth Naked

Dancing with the Stars premieres tonight on ABC, and for the first time in a long time you'll see poker player Shannon Elizabeth naked, as in, she'll be without a sponsor logo somewhere on her body.

Not sure if you've noticed, but Shannon (seen at right, not naked, at The Grand's recent premiere) tears through the poker sponsors like no one else on the circuit (to date, Poker Stars, Bodog, Full Tilt, Mansion, and now Doyle's Room - photo evidence).

And while part of this is surely because she's a hot property, the other part is she's kind of known within the industry as a pain in the ass for sponsors. Bailing on interviews and tournament appearances is all standard fare.

But we're ok with this, so long as she goes deep in Dancing with the Stars.

Obviously, DwtS is a career godsend for her. We expect her to do well. She's going to look fantastic in whatever she wears (for a reminder of how good she can look when in shape, go back to these pics from the 2005 WSOP). And she definitely knows how to flaunt her sexual appeal on national TV when needed.

So make a 2007 Heads-Up National Poker Championship type run Shannon. The poker world could use some positive press (Can we get a Doyle Brunson appearance in the front row?). And when you return to the circuit, instead of wearing a Poker Blue or Noble Poker or Poker Syndicate or ChanPoker.net logo this time, maybe you can bring a couple of bigger brand advertisers with ya instead.

Photos showing Shannon Elizabeth pimping various poker sites after the jump . . .

Keeley Hazell is Interactive

Our favorite top-dropper Keeley Hazell is at again.

FHM is letting its readers pick the Top 100 Sexiest Women in the World and has launched an interactive "Lady Selector" web page in which Keeley helps you choose your favorite hotties by dressing and looking exactly the way you want her to and then sharing with you some of the famous girls who match that criteria.

For example, you can tell Keeley you want her to be a brunette, American girl-next-door type with a nice ass and like magic, although not creepy like magic, Keeley is a brunette, American girl-next-door type with a nice ass. She then tells you some of the girls who match that look, like, say, Jessica Alba.

Yep, it's a genius concept, and a total time sucker. So clear your afternoon and start interacting with Keeley here.

Other great moments in Keeley Hazell doing the fantasy dress up/dress down thing:

Keeley Hazell as a WWII pin up girl
Keeley Hazell as a Simpson character
Keeley Hazell as Audrey Hepburn
Keeley Hazell as Jennifer Lopez and Jessica Simpson
Keeley Hazell as Madonna
Keeley Hazell as Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera

Madison Welch in Front of Green Beer and Shamrocks on St. Patrick's Day Makes for a Good Post

As two-thirds of the Entities that comprise Wicked Chops Poker are Irish, it's important for us to note that St. Patrick's Day is not just about green beer and shamrocks. It is first and foremost a holy day of remembrance in honor of the patron Saint of Ireland, Pádraig, who was brought to Ireland as a slave, escaped and then traveled back to Ireland as a Christian missionary also about girls like Madison Welch dancing in a bikini in front of green beer and shamrocks, which you see her do below and after the jump.

Watch this video on YouTube here.

Mike "The Mouth" Matusow Leads at 2008 Wynn Classic

With the WPT Bay 101 done and the next big stop on the tour more than a week away, many of the top pros headed back to Las Vegas this weekend to play the $10,000 buy-in main event of the 2008 Wynn Classic at the Wynn Las Vegas.

Only in its second year, the poker tournament quickly earned "classic" status last year when Scott Fischman, Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, Johnny Chan, Ted Lawson, Mike "The Mouth" Matusow and Chau Giang all were among the final nine competing for the $750,000 first place prize.

This year will likely see another pro-loaded final table, as 183 players started play yesterday with most of the field consisting of big namers including The Mouth, The Grinder, David "The Dragon" Pham*, Gavin Griffin, Mike Sexton, Layne Flack, Gavin Smith, Eli Elezra, Dutch Boyd, Darrell "Gigabet" Dicken, Cliff Josephy, Toto Leonidas, Max Pescatori, Justin Bonomo, and Brandon Cantu, hot off his WPT Bay 101 win.

Also among the field, Rick Salomon, who made it to Day 2 today but may have a hard time focusing at the tables knowing his estranged wife is riding the Klock in Berlin right now.

According to CardPlayer and PokerListings, who are both covering the event, the end of Day 1 chip leader was Mike Matusow with 107,700 and Roy Winston is close behind at 104,550. Blair Hinkle, who was a one-time chip leader at both Bay 101 and the LA Poker Classic and who we're gonna go out on a limb and say he's probably more of a Passover than Easter kind of guy, is also among the top five, stacked at 73,200.

Get live Wynn Classic updates from Matt Showell here.

Get stretching exercises from a hot Japanese girl here.

* Not a real dragon.

Eric "Sheets" Haber Wins WSOP-C Atlantic City + Seat Into 2008 WSOP Main Event

In a post that only exists because we previously used it as an excuse to post photos of "Kristen," aka Ashley Alexandra Dupre, aka Ashley Youmans, aka Ashley Rae Maika DiPietro, aka Nina Venetta, noted online pro Eric "Sheets" Haber has captured this year's WSOP-C Atlantic City event.

Much like the new photos, one of which is at right, of Ashley Alexandra Dupre (aka Ashley Youmans...we're KILLING IT on SEO with this girl, btw), Eric "Sheets" Haber also very much looks like a dude.

As we've noted, we just don't know what to make of Ashley Alexandra Dupre. She's like that two-face girl that Jerry dated in the Seinfeld episode "The Strike." See below:

GEORGE: So, attractive one day - not attractive the next?

JERRY: Have you come across this?

GEORGE: Yes, I am familiar with this syndrome -- she's a two-face.

JERRY: (Relating) Like the Batman villain?

GEORGE: (Annoyed) If that helps you..

JERRY: So, if I ask her out again - I don't know who's showing up: The good, the bad, or the ugly.

Anyway, for the win, Sheets banks $431,136 and earns a seat to the 2008 WSOP Main Event.

Other people finished in various places at the final table. You can read about that on Poker News here.