Annette Obrestad, A Woman, Among EPT Grand Final Day 2 Chip Leaders; Phil Laak Still Alive (!)

Vanessa Claudio, a woman, is not among the many female chip leaders at the EPT Grand Final. However, she IS among the hottest girls we've ever seen come out of Mexico. Granted, that list is like five girls deep, but still, we'd gladly self-inflict ourselves with the swine flu for a romp with Claudio...if we were single. Love you honeys! View more Vanessa Claudio in Max Magazine here.

Some big stories are developing in Monte Carlo at the EPT Grand Final: 1) Can Annette Obrestad, a woman, capture her second major live tournament title in two years? 2) Can Sandra Naujoks, a woman, capture her second EPT title? 3) Did Phil Laak really make it to Day 3 of a major event? How did that happen? Phil Laak? 4) Seriously though, Phil Laak?

Of the 935 starting field, 149 remain after Day 2 wrapped. Marc Naaldenis overall chip leader, stacked at 770,000. Among other chip leaders are the aforementioned Annette Obrestad, a woman (600,000), the aforementioned Naujoks, also a woman (280,000), Ilari "ziigmund" Sahamies (200,000), Sorel Mizzi (170,000), Alexander Kravchenko(157,000), seriously wtf Phil Laak (150,000), Dennis Phillips (135,000), J.J. Liu, a woman (130,000), and "Salty" Joe Hachem (130,000).

Also still alive going into Day 3 is Phil Laak. Wait, what?

Get full chip counts here.

Phil Laak.

Justin Bonomo Wins WSOP-C Caesar's Main Event

We stopped following WSOP-Cevents about the same time all of you did (2006ish), but occasionally a stellar final table pops up that is worth reporting on. Like this one.

Justin Bonomodefeated a field of 187 to capture his first WSOP-C title, banking $227,692. He defeated Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi heads-up. And finishing third was Men "The Master" Nguyen, who we didn't even was still playing anything other than $500 seven card stud tourneys that for some reason still count to him getting Card Player Player of the Year Points.

Get full payouts here.

And since that's all we got, some pictures of the South African hottie Gerda-Marie Mare.

Ante Up For Africa Fundraiser at EPT Grand Final

 

On Monday night at the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo, Poker Stars hosted a celebrity charity poker tournament to benefit Ante Up for Africa. A bunch of celebs attended, including Nelly, Christina Milian, The Dream, Joel Madden, James Kyson Lee (Heroes), and Jason Lewis (Sex & the City, Brothers and Sisters). It was a $5,000 buy-in tournament and raised a pretty impressive $341,500 for the cause. Some pics from the event below and above.

Daniel Negreanu in Katy Perry's "Waking Up in Vegas" (VIDEO)

When we heard that Daniel Negreanu was in the new Katy Perry video, we were like, "You mean the non-Jill Sobule 'I Kissed a Girl' girl? Or is that Lily Allen?"

Turns out our first guest was right. It's the non-Jill Sobule "I Kissed a Girl" girl, which is pretty girl, because any girl who kisses girls and likes it is OK in our book.

Go about 1:15 in for the clip of Negreanu in "Waking Up in Vegas."

With a (uber uber uber) brief cameo in the new X-Men: Origins movie, Daniel Negreanu is Mr. Cameo this month. Word up.

Waking Up In Vegas
by EnvBritney

2009 WSOP Media Conference Call Live Blogging

Last year we vowed to never do this "live blogging" thing again, but if there's one thing we learned from the Celebrity Apprentice, it's this: always give something a second chance.

The 2009 WSOP media conference call takes place today at 1pm EST (10am PST). We'll be on it, live blogging away.

Stay tuned...

7:50am PST: Finishing up post about live blogging today's conference call.

7:51am PST: Flushing toilet...

9:39am PST: All right, gearing up for the call. Any questions you might want to hear asked, please leave in the comments section. Here are some questions though we are definitely NOT asking: 1) Will the prize money given be soaked in blood? 2) Will Russ Hamilton's invitation to the Tournament of Champions be "lost in the mail"? (actually, may ask that one), 3) Do you anticipate Phill Hellmuth or Brad Garrett even being able to play a full event given the new Code of Conduct rules? 4) Will strippers be allowed back at the Pokerpalooza convention?

9:54am PST: Just remembered that last year forgot to write-down what we needed to do to ask a question. Mental note: write down instructions for submitting a question this year.

9:56am PST: Be sure to hit pokerati.com after the call for a full audio download.

9:58am PST: Dialed in. This hold music feels like we're all attending a funeral. Ok, now it's a muzaky/Scott MacIntyre sounding version of "One More Night" from...Phil Collins, right? Cause Iiiiiiiii can't wait forevvverrr!

10:02am PST: The call is running a few minutes late. Actually, we're off. And wrote down how to submit a question!

10:07am PST: Pollack says the headline for today's call is that this is the best ever year to play in the WSOP. He's reviewing the $40k NLH event, the Champions Invitational (the winner will receive the newly created Binion Cup, no word yet if Russ Hamilton got his invite for this one), and the Pokerpoolaza event. There will also be a new Hall of Fame process to make it more legit, plus the public will be involved in the voting process. Hopefully basketball follows suit so we don't get more obscure foreign players or mediocre college coaches inducted into that one.

10:14am PST: This new addition is cool: every day at 2pm there will be a formal "bracelet ceremony" for whoever won the previous day (or morning's) tournament. So just in case you wanted to honor this year's Gerry Drehobl, well, now you'll get your chance daily at 2pm.

10:16am PST: Jack Effel is now talking. You'll get triple the starting chips (vs. double like last year) for each tournament. This was done to benefit better players and ensure more stacked final tables/less random winners (see: Drehobl, Gerry).

10:18am PST: Last year's call was at 11am. So a quick thanks to Pollack and crew for moving it an hour earlier so those of us on the West Coast won't have to miss Maurey Povich, especially because today is a paternity test/DNA episode. Andrew, you are NOT the father!

10:19am PST: Effel just said something about "role playing" in some seminar. Since he didn't follow that with the names "Lacey Jones" or "Liv Boeree," not sure if that is something we want to be involved with.

10:22am PST: ESPN will be airing fewer event, but the same amount of hours, plus about 2 1/2 hours of the final table.

10:24am PST: Sweet, more Taylor Makakoa pics.

10:30am PST: Open to Q&A...first question is regarding getting more women, a women, involved in tournament play. Really? What's the point? Seriously? Why even bother? A dude asked the question too. Maybe he's just looking for more dead money. Pollack gets in a good closing shot saying, "We want more women playing...unless it's Joan Rivers."

10:35am PST: Pre-registrations are up this year, surprisingly. Not "drastically" up but up. Given The Economy^TM, that's a good sign. Although this AP guy wants the number. Don't give him the damn number, Seth! Why are you buzzkilling the good news, Oscar from the AP? Why?

10:38am PST: Oscar from the AP is just hogging the phone. One question and move on, man! Come on! Oscar is four questions deep now. Leave some for the rest of us...

10:39am PST: Oscar now on question 5...if Oscar and Phil Hellmuth ever had to compete with each other for camera time, someone may die.

10:44am PST: Rates as low as $69 mid-week for the WSOP. Hey, book your hotel rooms here.

10:47am PST: Another question bogarter. This guy is three deep. Somewhere Gary Wise is like, "Wtf! I have 47 questions ready to go and you a-holes are taking all of them!"

10:51am PST: Celebrity Apprentice keeps coming up in questions and answers. Pollack says what a great group poker players are in general. Agreed, save for maybe this guy and this guy.

10:53am PST: So for those playing the "Guess Who Annie Duke Was Yelling At..." game, it was not Brian Balsbaugh (go three tweets down) or Jeffrey Pollack (confirmed via our question on the call).

11:03am PST: Interesting and haven't really heard this brought up much, but someone asked whether or not the rebuy event was KO'd do to the collusion that was taking place. It was? Effel didn't really deny it, but did say that it was done more to create a level playing field.

11:05am PST: Has a woman, a woman, asked a question on this call yet? Don't think so. Amy Calistri, you out there? Haley?

11:08am PST: Got Kev Math's question in re: live streaming, the answer is "yes, but hasn't been finalized yet."

11:18am PST: Concluding...only 29 days away from the start...follow the WSOP has twitter @WSOPliveupdates and via @JeffreyPollack. Be sure you know the tweeting rules at the table, definitely when hands are in play.

And there you have it. Go to pokerati.com for the audio. Should be posted shortly.

The Tao of Steve (Lipscomb)

Twitter is a phenomom on par with Beatlemania, Fernandomania, Pac Man Fever, the Summer of the Shark, and idiots in 1994 who claimed that Killing Zoe was their favorite Tarantino movie. Yep, twitter pretty much dominates conversation right now.

While 1/3 of the Entities despises twitter about as much as Joan Rivers hates Annie Duke, the other 2/3's are all over it, and are particularly keen on WPT head honcho Steve Lipscomb's tweets.

Call them little nuggets of wisdom or moments of bliss. Call them whatever you want. Just count us as fans. Here are some of our favorites:

"God love southwest airlines. Sat next to flav o' flave on the way to vegas, doubt my return will be quite so colorful ... Coaxed him to get on the plane mic"

"do you think someone will string all these twits together someday and make the monkey could write shakespeare argument?"

"Asking myself why the native americans didn't win -- they were right about the curse of owning things . . ."

"Tired of "What are you doing?" How about "Who are you doing?" Twitter could still be the name of the site . . . with feeling . . ."

"Okay, I think we should limit meetings to 140 characters each . . . . any objections (keep them brief please . . .)"

"Who are the fucktards that keep voting for Danny Gokey? That guy sings like a grizzly bear. Rather sit next 2 Phil Laak on an international flight than listen to Gokey sing for 90 secs..."*

Enjoy more here.

* Possibly made that last one up.

Taylor Makakoa Is New RawVegas.tv Girl of the Month

Now this is more like it.

Maybe Daniel or Barry were fans of last month's RawVegas.tv Girl of the Month, but Taylor Makakoa is a little more our style.

We think she says something about something somewhere in this video, but we're kind of fixated on those nearly perfect gams.

Of course, as always, (re)view the immortal Francine Dee here.

Watch Taylor Makakoa - RawVegas.tv Girl of the Month on RawVegas.tv

Celebrity Apprentice: Who Acts Likes This?

Glad we didn't stop watching the Celebrity Apprentice because this show is delivering drama we haven't seen since middle school (it would be insulting to high schoolers everywhere by comparing the drama to high school, really, it would).

Yeah, these reality shows are pressure cookers and edited for max effect, but most of the remaining contestants looked criminally bad last night. Clint Black comes across as a douchebag of epic proportions at all times. Melissa Rivers is a 43 year-old spoiled brat with seemingly no redeeming qualities. Joan Rivers (pictured here) we'll get to in a minute. And even the previously great Jesse James now looks like a big baby.

Interestingly, the two people who conducted themselves with the most class, and yet, are getting the most shit from the general public, were Annie Duke and Brande Roderick.

Annie is kind of like the Richard Hatch of season 1 of Survivor. She's manipulating everyone, they all know she's manipulating everyone, but she's so good at it nobody really cares to stop it. It's actually quite impressive.

In last night's episode, Annie, Brande, and Melissa were teamed up together. Annie and Brande clicked, worked well together, and kind of (consciously) boxed Melissa out. It was a well-played strategy on their (or more likely, Annie's) part, and Melissa got fired. Melissa then went on throw a temper tantrum that the 2/3 of the Entities who have children have never seen their kids even come close to equaling, and that's if you combine both kid's worst ever tantrum, multiply it by 10, and then square it.

Joan caught wind of Melissa's firing and began spewing vile towards Annie (white trash, Hitler, etc.) and Brande (dumb blond) that only somebody who truly has no class is capable of doing. What's funny is how she repeatedly slams Annie (who went to two Ivy League schools) for being "white trash," but her tirades are something you'd see on any given episode of Jerry Springer.

What's not funny though is how, even after last night, the majority of people still seem to side with Joan Rivers over Annie (Melissa's tantrum killed her popularity). Read these comments on the EW message board. It's about 90% pro-Joan. Again, Annie is overtly manipulative, but she's never taken a personal, below the belt shot at anyone on the show. Joan looks like the undead and goes out of her way to say the worst possible thing you can say to someone when she gets mad. So how are the viewers siding with Joan? Damn people suck so bad.

Also, apparently Joan thinks that poker player money is "soaked in blood." What? What is this, 1880? However, her line about poker players not having any last names was pretty funny (see: Chops, Snake, Addict).

Anyway, if you watched it, or just watched the below clip, let us know what you think in the comments section.

Yevgeniy Timoshenko Wins WPT Championship; ElkY Secures Player of the Year Honors

Yevgeniy Timoshenko with a brown wig? Maybe? Or Ukrainian model Olga Kurylenko?

As expected, Yevgeniy Timoshenko ran away from the field and captured the WPT Championship at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

Timoshenko caught our eye earlier in the tournament, although not necessarily for his poker skills. But the Russian Ukrainian a woman who now resides in Washington State has been killing it online for years. Now, he adds the WPT's top prize and another $2.1M+ to his bankroll.

Timoshenko defeated Ran Azor heads-up for the title, ensuring Joe Bartholdi's status as the most random WPT Championship winner for at least another year.

ElkY Grospellier finished third, wrapping up WPT Player of the Year honors and adding another $776,245 to his tournament earnings.

Christian Harder finished fourth ($571,965), followed by "Good for" Shannon Shorr ($408,550), and Scotty Nguyen ($285,985).

Get a full recap of the evening and interview with Timoshenko here.

WPT Championship: Handicapping The Final Table

The WPT Championship final table is set.

Yevgeniy Timoshenko. Early on Day 2 of the event, we asked the WPT team if Yevgeniy Timoshenko, a woman, was a chick, because of this picture. Later we did a post on him. Come to find out the dude is SOLID. Most think he's the real deal. Plus, he's got the Russian thing going for him. After Slumdog Millionaire, Vivek Rajkumar's run, and Anoop Desai's early front-runner status on American Idol, we thought it was the Year of the Indian^TM. But then Anoop flamed out, killing that theory. In poker, it's clearly the Year of the Russian^TM, even if said Russian actually lives in Seattle. Whatever. Timoshenko is big stacked at 13,300,000. He's got the mojo. We've got him listed at 1:1.

Christian Harder. Who? What? Harder is second overall in chips with 7,425,000. He's played solid all week. Third place feels right. 6:1 odds.

ElkY Grospellier. ElkY could grab WPT Player of the Year honors with a fourth place finish, which we think he'll do, because he'll finish second. No non-Russian is hotter in poker right now. EklY is currently third overall with 5,955,000. Odds of winning: 3:1.

Scotty Nguyen. Nobody has more primetime poker experience at this final table than Nguyen. He's played great poker all week. He's been focused. It would be no shocker for him to make a run at this title, despite having a ways to go to catch up. A win would actually make Scotty tournament poker's all-time money winner, so there's some extra incentive if he cares about that kind of thing (like a Phil Hellmuth would, for example). Nguyen is fourth overall going into final table play with 3,275,000. Odds of winning: 5:1 just because he's Scotty Nguyen, baby.

Ran Azor: Who? What? Azor is fifth overall with 2,525,000. Odds of winning: 47:1.

Shannon Shorr: The common sentiment among most people upon hearing Shorr, the guy with the hot porn star sounding girl's name, made the final table has been, "Good for Shannon." The dude has been one of poker's most consistent performers and has been doing it the right way (except for this incident): building his bankroll on his own, no backers, still going to school, and just doing his thing. However, Shorr kind of has that "happy to be here" vibe. He's way short, with 1,130,000, although hopefully he'll cling on to a fifth place finish to milk just a little more TV time and maybe nab himself a deal with one of the online poker sites out there. Odds of winning: 10:1.

Final table play starts at 4pm PST.

What Daniel Negreanu Has Been Up To...

Daniel Negreanu has been a semi-hot topic lately in poker news/forums, but mostly for how people think his bankroll is busted and he's broke, which isn't remotely true. Regardless, it's been awhile since his last vlog, so here's what he's been up to recently.

Watch Daniel Negreanu Blogs From A Secret Location on RawVegas.tv

WPT Championship: Scotty Nguyen Adds Blue Diamond Almonds Bold Player of The Day To List of Accomplishments

A total of 32 poker titles. Five WSOP bracelets. One WPT title. One $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. title. One WSOP Main Event title. And now, finally, Scotty Nguyen can add a Blue Diamond Almonds Bold Player of the Day to his long list of accomplishments.

With just 10 remaining, Nguyen holds the chip lead at the WPT Championship, stacked at 5,880,000. If Nguyen wins this tourney, he'll end up just a few hundred grand behind Jamie Gold as the all-time poker tournament money winner.

Nguyen is followed by Yevgeniy Timoshenko, a woman, with 5,105,000.

Also remaining is porn star Shannon Shorr with 3,155,000. Shorr has been one of the most consistent players on the circuit for the past few years, is always near the top of various Player of the Year standings, yet receives practically no pub. A WPT TV final table appearance at this championship would definitely change that...if people still watched the WPT on TV.

We keed. We keed.

Also still alive is ElkY Grospellier with 1,965,000. We get it ElkY, you're good. Enough already. Leave some tournament money for everyone else.

Full chip counts here.

Lacey Jones' Dirty Thirty

Happy birthday to FOWCP and the hottest girl in poker Lacey Jones. 

Along with being a great girl, Lacey is defying genearlly accepted common logic. See, most girls peak around 19 and steadily deteriorate from there into almost untouchable "things" by the time they hit 32ish. However, occassionally you get these freaks of nature like Lacey who looks better at 30 than she did when we first met her four years ago and whatever 30-4 equals.

Watch Lacey Jones Dirty 30 Party at Lavo on RawVegas.tv

We Know Who Annie Duke Was Yelling at on Celebrity Apprentice

In case you missed it, before the whole Hitler and blowjob comments happened, on this past week's Celebrity Apprentice, Annie Duke just laid the fuck into somebody on the phone who was helping Natalie Gulbis get Phil Hellmuth to contribute to her charity. Instead of Annie's.

Lots of speculation on who it was (Hellmuth even addressed it on the Hardcore Poker Show today here). While there has been a lot of speculation as to what poker industry insider it was, we actually know.

It's one of these five below. Vote for who you think it is in our comments section. And by the way, the voice was altered on the phone in the episode, so no real clues there.

We will randomly select one of the correct answers for a Wicked Chops t-shirt.

1. Jamie Horowitz (ESPN)
2. Brian Balsbaugh (Poker Royalty)
3. Jeffrey Pollack(WSOP/Harrah's)
4. Steve Lipscomb(WPT)
5. Ty Stewart(WSOP/Harrah's)

Vote away...

UPDATE: Not announcing the winner yet, as we may have something in the works with this...developing...

UPDATE II: The big reveal and winner announced Tuesday, April 28.

WPT Championship: Eugene Katchalov Leads After Day 4

Day 4 is in the books at the WPT Championship. The field is down to 24 and Eugene Katchalov of Russia Brooklyn leads them all, stacked at 4,294,000.

Close behind him and third overall in chips is Victor/Victoria Yevgeniy Timoshenko with 2,613,000. Some of the big names remaining include Scotty Nguyen (1,823,000), half-man, half-amazing Freddy Deeb (1,575,000), Jeff Madsen (1,265,000), damn-this-guy-is-good ElkY Grospellier (1,230,000), damn-this-guy-is-good-too-and-has-a-hot-porn-star-name Shannon Shorr (1,200,000), Jennifer Harman, a woman (821,000),and Joe Sebok Zach Hyman Hyman Roth Matt Hyman (433,000).

Get full chip counts here.

We Didn't Start the Flame War

While we've never really actively participated in the comments on our site or in forums, we haven't disavowed the concept that flaming on comment sections and forums actually does exist. For all of you who do flame, enjoy.

All We're Saying Is This...

If Yevgeniy Timoshenko had a really sick and twisted sense of humor, he'd (yep, that's a he) would put on a long blonde wig, some high heels, and try to make out with a guy in a bar...after which he'd go all Crying Game and reveal he's actually a dude, so the friends of the poor guy he was making out with would be all like, "You were making out with a dude, dude! Ah dude! Hahahahaha! Dude!"

We're sure someone like Gavin Smith would pay top dollar to have Yevgeniy do that to Sebok, right? Greatest prop bet ever?

Timoshenko is currently among the chip leaders on Day 4 of the WPT Championship. Phil Ivey and Scotty Nguyen are making charges too. Follow the action here.

WPT Championship: Steve Billirakis Leads Day 3, Phil Ivey Lurking

Day 3 has wrapped at the WPT Championship with Steve Billirakis as the chip leader, stacked at 1,722,000. Billirakis you might remember as the youngest WSOP bracelet winner in history. Or you may not remember him. Either way, he's chip leader. Fuck off.

Billirakis is followed by Joe Sebok Zach Hyman Hyman Roth Matt Hyman with 1,663,000. Mark Seif is third for now until he gets too aggressive and spews off his 1,315,000 in chips. Nenad Medic will probably final table as he's fourth overall with 1,306,000. And David Singer is fifth with 1,116,000.

Only 62 remain. Plenty of notables, including but not limited to Phil Ivey (1,036,000), Jennifer Harman (828,000), Jeff Madsen (712,000), Scotty Nguyen (557,000), ElkY (378,000), Chris "Jesus" Ferguson (338,000), and Mike Matusow (272,000).

Get full chip counts here.

In related news, for those of you in Vegas, you've noticed it's gotten really hot this week, which means the pools are kicking, which means hot girls in bikinis (see below).

Watch SpyOnVegas.com Hot 100 Launch Party with Arianny Celeste on RawVegas.tv

Chip Reese's Estate Up for Auction

This past weekend, an auction was held for Chip Reese's estate.

Reese's house has been on the market for about a year with an asking price around $6M. But now the house and the valuables inside it are going up for auction. The big rumor going around today is that a casino magnate wants to buy the house, tear it down, and build a bigger house. Makes sense. That's what casino magnate kind of do.

While the estate is asking $6M for the house, most we've spoken with think it'll go for something closer to $3.5-4.5M.

View the auction info site here.

WPT Championship: Jean Noel Thorel Leads After Day 2

The WPT Championship played down to 168 on Day 2, and when the dust cleared (<--kidding about that phrase), Jean Noel Thorel, who we know nothing about other than he looks like this and he has a French-sounding name so he's probably a frog. Thorel is stacked at 743,500. He's followed by the still hot Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier with 678,300. ElkY is to 2008-2009 tournament poker what the spectacularly-breasted J.C. Tran (125,500) was to tournament poker from 2006-2008.

Among the top 10 big stacks are also Steve Billirakis (672,400), Dan Heimiller, a ginger (655,700), Jimmy "Gobboboy" Fricke (583,800), and Jeff Madsen (479,200) who is on his way towards getting a million dollars again (go about 2:45 in here).

Plenty of big names still remain. Some might say that the field is "littered" with big names. Some might say. Get full chip counts here.

Layne Flack With A Douchebag Comment In 3, 2, 1...

In the above video, Layne Flackshatters the world record for making a douchebag comment to start an interview, previously held by Pauly Shorewhen he said, "It's the weee-zelll...owwwww...glaze your do-nuts..." in 1993 on Mtv. Seriously, we go back and forth between not being able to remotely tolerate the guy to having the utmost respect for him as Flack clearly does not give a sliver of a fuck what people are writing/saying about him.

In related news, Justin Young is currently the chip leader at the WPT Championship. Absolute must to check out the worldpokertour.com site for continuing updates here. Their crew does the best job in poker...

Liv Boeree Is Single?

Liv Boiree is quickly turning into one of our favorite poker players. She's smoking hot. She's smart. She pounds beers. She's got that accent. Fuck, she could be a renown ax murderer and we'd be like, "Well, you know, she IS  smoking hot, and smart, and she pounds beers, and damn she has that accent too...Ok so yeah she may decapitate me with an ax but let's roll the dice and see where this one leads..."

Add to that list of pluses that she's also single (or at least she does not mention having a boyfriend in the below vid). So apparently we were wrong. She is not dating Jon Friedberg. To his credit, Friedberg is at least a good sport about it, giving her a lapdance to start the vid off. If we were him, we'd be posting fake Facebook status updates like, "Going to Target with Liv," or "All day Kate Hudson moviefest with Liv, OMG How To Lost A Guy in 10 Days is so LOL!" just to keep the myth going. Like Constanza in that Seinfeld episode, once you date a girl like Liv, you're pretty much "in the club." No less than 10's for him from here on out.

Celebrity Apprentice: Annie Duke Talks Hitler, Blowjobs

Everyone in the WPT Championshipat the Bellagio is talking about last night's Celebrity Apprentice with Annie Duke and Joan Rivers (pictured here).

Amanda Leatherman nabbed Duke during one of the breaks for her take on Joan Rivers' comments and the never-going-to-live-it-down-blowjob remark, which her ex-husband apparently is willing to confirm. Duke makes a pretty salient (pretty sure that's the first time we've used that word in 4 years...BJ Nemeth can you confirm?) point about people reacting to the blowjob comment more than the Hitler one.

Daniel Fuhs Closes Day 1B of WPT Championship as Chip Leader

J.C. Tran's spectacular breasts are among the Day 1B chip leaders at the WPT Championship. View more of his latest photoshoot here.

Good turnout for Day 1B of the WPT Championship, as 211 entered. Today the fields combine, with 301 of the registered 337 remaining.

Daniel Fuhs closed out Day 1B as chip leader, stacked at 254,200. Other big named big stacks include Steve Billirakis (232,450), the spectacularly-breasted J.C. Tran (218,300), and half-man, half-amazing Freddy Deeb (210,425).

Notable eliminations include Clonie Gowen, a woman, and Allen Cunningham. Get full combined field chip counts here.

Celebrity Apprentice: Hitler vs. the Crazy Bitch

So we were flipping through the channels last night and since American Idol, Flight of the Conchords, Big Love, The Office, and South Park weren't on, we decided to give Celebrity Apprentice one more try.

Glad we did. Tuned in a little late, but from what we gathered, Annie finally stepped up as project manager. The task was auctioning off some of Ivanka Trump's jewelry. Whichever team raised the most money won.

Annie was talking about all of the rich friends she has and delivered, including getting Scott Ian from Anthrax to show. Apparently the competing project manager (golfer Natalie Gulbis, sexy time pics here) knew Phil Hellmuth and had called the Poker Brat to contribute as well. Annie caught wind of this and immediately kiboshed that from happening. Annie's team crushed, Natalie got the ax, but before that happened, there was a big board room blow up where Joan Rivers (pictured here) compared Annie to Hitler (clip below). Yes, Adolf Hitler. Whatever you think of Annie, pretty sure she ain't trying to exterminate the Jews. Annie later said she thought Joan was a "crazy bitch," which she probably is, although a different kind of crazy bitch than Tiffany Williamson.

Later in the episode on the second task, Annie was cooking and said something to the effect of her being the "total woman" because she cooks, raises four kids, works hard...and gives a great blowjob. Check out the blowjob clip (not an actual blowjob, but Annie discussing it) here.

UPDATE: From Annie Duke's twitter page: "Joan rivers just tweeted, " I just compared Annie to Hitler. I feel terrible. My apologies to Hitler." Look at her page. WTF?"

Vadim Trincher Running Good, Leads World Poker Tour Championship Day 1A

We're no math wizards, but somewhere around a week or so ago Vadim Trincher won the WPT Foxwoods Poker Classic. He banked over $731,000 and won a seat into the WPT Championship, which began Saturday.

Trincher is still running good, as he ended Day 1A of the aforementioned WPT Championship as chip leader, stacked at 309,725.

This is a mega-deep-stack event, as everyone starts with 100,000 in chips. That makes it even more surprising that Phil Hellmuth showed up late (he twittered that he was at Antonio Esfandiari's VIP cabana) and then busted about 15 minutes after he arrived.

Other Day 1A big stacks include second overall in chips (seriously? really?) Johnny Chan (291,675), Burt Boutin (281,000), and Shaun Deeb (269,900).

Only 19 people from the starting 126 busted, with notables including Kevin Saul and Daniel Alaei.

Get full chip counts here.

Third Annual Jennifer Harman Charity Poker Tournament Red Carpet

Watch 3rd Annual Jennifer Harman Charity Poker Tournament on RawVegas.tv

With most of the poker world in town for the start of the WPT Championship, Jennifer Harman held her third annual charity tournament yesterday. Some of the better interviews from the red carpet are above.

Go herefor WPT Championship updates and check back on WCP for our take daily as well.

The TOKE Host Dave Farra Gets a New Radio Show Starting This Monday

We met host of The TOKE, Dave Farra, two years ago during Gavin Smith's infamous belly slapping turned porn star getting chowdered prop bet at X107.5 in Las Vegas. Since then, he's been in increasing staple of our poker vids.

This Monday, Farra's DAM Radio replaces Adam Corrolaas the new morning drive-time show on the aforementioned X107.5. If you're up at 6am on the West Coast, or the more manageable 9am on the East, be sure to tune in for the live stream here.

Daniel Negreanu Is Ready for The 2009 WSOP

Is the 2009 World Series of Poker really just five weeks away? Really? It seems like it was just last week that we were snapping these photos of hot girls on the rail. What do we have in store this year? Among the many new things, let's just say one involves Somali pirates. Leave it at that.

Anyway, or as the girl that Danny Gokey is trying to get with now would say, "anyhoozer," Daniel Negreanu is getting ready for the 2009 WSOP by playing as little poker as possible.

Watch Daniel Negreanu is Ready for WSOP 2009 on RawVegas.tv

Oksana Pochepa Is The Friday Night Parting Shot Girl

This week's Friday Night Parting Shot Girl is Oksana Pochep, the 24-year-old Russian pop star and model who claims to be getting it on with 53-year-old bigot/actor Mel Gibson, whose wife of 28 years is divorcing him right now for a bazillion dollars.

It isn't known if Oksana is the reason why the couple are splitting or if even Gibson and her are actually in a relationship. It is known that we don't give a damn. We only care about the important things and what's important here is Oksana's insanely hot body. Sure, you could probably order a Russian bride who's hotter in the face and have her on your doorstep in 3 to 5 weeks, but Oksana's ridiculously perfect ass (photo) more than makes up for any of her Fergie-ish facial fug.

Photos of Oksana below. Her music video here. She has the voice of an angel alien.

Layne Flack Might've Blown a .00...

...but he was definitely drinking the night before the NBC National Heads Up Poker Championship when he got the DUI.

Not that it's a shocker. Andrew Robl had already blogged about drinking with him at the event (before deleting that bit from his post). And now Layne admits to some glasses of champagne as well.

Yet he still managed to blow a .00 hours later. Flack's tolerance level for booze is like Superman's for heat. Unbelievable.

Watch Layne Flack Comes Clean on RawVegas.tv

Brad Garrett Getting Heat for Racial Remarks

Makes-us-wanna-slit-our-throats-open-with-a-rusty-spork-because-he's-somehow-rich-and-famous celebrity blogger Perez Hilton is reporting that poker player Brad Garrett made racially insensitive remarks to a paparazzi a couple days ago.

Apparently Perez has never seen Garrett at the WSOP Main Event, where he regularly yells across the Amazon Room for Phil Ivey to go valet his car and takes some jabs at the Jews that aren't fit to print. Point is, that's kind of what he does. He's like a younger, taller, less funny version of Don Rickles.

Anyway, Perez reports:

"Garrett screamed "In English! In English!" to the paps snapping away at the actor!

Before speeding off, Garrett lost verbal control and yelled, "Wear the turban! Wear the turban!"

This isn't Garrett's first bad encounter with a pap either, as he had this run in late last year.

Good for him. If paparazzi have carte blanche to be overly aggressive and get in your face, you should be able to yell at them or punch them with anything you'd like.

Read more here.

In somewhat related but not really at all news, below is a clip from an old Dean Martin Roast with the aforementioned Don Rickles and the Entities' all-time favorite President, (then Gov) Ronald Reagan.

BREAKING: Andrew Still Not The Father

Just doesn't get old...

Kevin Smith Plays Poker Too

Model actress Kim Smith (above) shares the same last name as writer/director/producer Kevin Smith.

Since Clerks came out, Kevin Smith hadn't made a movie worth seeing for about 15 years (ok, fine, we'll listen to your Dogma arguments, but we won't listen to your Chasing Amy ones, a movie that fell apart in an epicly bad way in its final 30 minutes). Then Zack and Miri Make A Porno dropped last year, which while not spectacular, was solid and worthy of repeat viewings. So hey, Smith's back on the [Entity] radar. More Zack and Miri and less Jersey Girl, please.

Anyway, like Christian Vieri, Smith is also taking up poker, although not in a professional pursuit kind-of-way.

And like any true poker player, Smith is active on twitter.com, where he recently tweeted:

I feel like playing some poker. Full Tilt, anybody? I play the six-handed sit&go's. Name's askewsme. Please don't identity-theft me.

ThatKevinSmith * Apr 11 * 19:09

Apparently his stats aren't that good, but whose are on Tilt? Russ Hamilton could super-user on Tilt and still probably get two-outered enough that he'd be like, "You know what, fuck this shit. I'm going to go play slots."

Soccer Star Christian Vieri To Take Up Poker?

Soccer players pull crazy mad ass. If you're a soccer player in Europe, you could look like Joan Rivers and still bang 10's. Take Christian Vieri. No Patrik Antonius in the looks department, Vieri is married to Italian model/actress Elisabetta Canalis (above). View more pics here.

Little known fact: one-third of the Entities had a soccer scholarship in college and all three Entities played on a rec soccer team in our 30's (named Bling Bling United, no less). So we kind of now a thing or two about soccer.

For example, no matter what you look like, if you're a soccer star in Europe, you're dating models. It's like a law over there.

Christian Vieri is a (currently teamless) Italian striker who is (currently homely and) married to a model and is planning on taking up poker when he retires from non-U.S.American-football:

"I enjoy cards a lot, but my future is still in football. I will stop when I'm fed up chasing after a ball and I am not bored yet. When I'm retired, who knows, I could become a professional poker player."

In related news, Poker Stars probably just jizzed in their pants and are probably already drafting a contract for him.

Read the full Vieri article here. Get more soccer news here.

 

Daniel Negreanu in X-Men Origins: Wolverine

About a year ago we learned that Daniel Negreanu may have a brief cameo in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Looks like Daniel's footage made it off the cutting room floor and into the movie. Not sure if this is all there is, but hey, if that was any one of us Entities, we'd have it on imdb.com faster than Jason Biggs blew a load on Shannon Elizabeth in American Pie.

TOMS Chief Shoe-Giver Once Started Online Poker Site

If you watched the Masters^TM at all last week, you definitely saw the AT&T commercial for TOMS with "Chief Shoe-Giver" Blake Mycoskie (video below).

Talk about a turn-around. Four years ago this same guy was a driving force behind GreenTiePoker.com (read more about it here), a site that gave "men what they really want: the green, the girls, the glory." Started in conjunction with UltimateBet, it eventually went the way of other poker DoDo bird sites like Poker Blue and Duplicate Poker. 

Blake used to walk around in nice suits wearing a green bow-tie (which, much like having Scott Lazar involved in producing your film, is never a good idea). Now embracing his inner-tree-hugger, Blake is giving away shoes to needy kids.

Good stuff/good for him. Hopefully this means the unfortunately-named Anurag Dikshit will be curing cancer soon.

Doyle Brunson Beer Pong Challenge II Was Fun

It's almost impossible not to have fun playing beer pong. You're about as likely to hear, "Yeah, that was a boring night of beer pong" as you are "I just wasn't a fan of that blowjob."

Throw some sick gambling in there to boot, and the experience is even that much better (would hold true for both the beer pong and the blowjob, actually).

With that in mind, the Doyle Brunson Beer Pong Challenge II happened on Monday. Some highlights you'll find in the below vid: 1) Whoever developed the use of trick mirrors and CGI to create the Lee Watkinson/Markholt team should win an Oscar...impressive stuff, 2) Liv Boiree is hot, cool...and possibly dating Jon Friedberg? Really? Nice enough guy but really wtf? Is this true?

Anyway, this is one of our favorite poker videos so far this year. Enjoy.

Watch 2nd Annual Doyle Brunson Beer pong Tournament on RawVegas.tv

Ok Now We're Done Watching Celebrity Apprentice

So the "blow-up" between Joan Rivers (pictures here) and Annie Duke on Celebrity Apprentice wasn't really that big of a deal. Joan (seen here) is a bit of a drama queen and over-protective of her daughter (as she should be).

Annie caught some shit for not being a project manager yet, but stepped up for this week's episode, even though for all intents and purposes she's PM'd every challenge.

Otherwise Donald Trump, who we used to love and even played his board game, is too annoying of a TV personality to handle the show anymore.

And we're done. To paraphrase Daniel Plainview, "We're finished."

 

Harrah's Hires Ex-Party Poker CEO Mitch Garber to Head Up WSOP.com

Spanish model Marisa Jara is probably unfamiliar with Mitch Garber.

Read in between the lines on this one, but Harrah's has hired ex-Party Poker CEO Mitch Garber to run it's wsop.com website.

Reports the Times Online:

"HARRAH’s, the Las Vegas gaming group that owns Caesars Palace is to install Mitch Garber, a former chief executive of Party Gaming, as the head of a new company formed to house its internet operations and the popular World Series of Poker.

The gaming giant is spinning these businesses out into a newly-created [non-Wicked Chops] entity. The move is likely to fuel speculation over the possibility of Harrah’s making acquisitions in the online-gaming sector."

So...the unfortunately named Anurag Dikshit settles with the U.S. American government. Then Party Poker does the same. Then Harrah's hires ex-Party CEO Mitch Garber to run the wsop.com.

Interesting...VERY...interesting.

Read more here and here.

Rick's Cabaret Strippers Playing Poker at the Hard Rock Poker Lounge

The Hard Rock Poker Lounge held a Stripper Poker tournament last Friday. To paraphrase Dennis Green, "It was what you thought it was." Pretty much a bunch of strippers from Rick's Cabaret showed up for a regular tournament that included way more old old old people than we expected.

Says one of the exotic dancers there on if she even knew how to play poker, "I had a cram session this morning." We bet you did.

Watch Ricks Cabaret Strippers Playing Poker at the Hard Rock Poker Lounge on RawVegas.tv

Day Dream Pool at M Brings You Today's Poker Link Dump

Watch Grand Opening of Day Dream at M Resort and Spa on RawVegas.tv

One thing not in recession due to The Economy^TM right now are hot girls in bikinis at Las Vegas pools. The newest pool at the newest casino, Day Dream at M, opened this week. While we don't think that looking hot in a bikini should be your top professional goal if you're a girl, it's right up there jockeying for first position along with administrative assistant skills, flight attending, and sewing (hello 1909!).

:: The NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship begins airing on the aforementioned NBC this Sunday at noon (relive this year's excitement here). [link]

:: Apparently there was a rumor circulating that Clonie Gowen's lawsuit was being dismissed, but that's not so much "true" as it is "untrue." [link]

:: Apparently the Durrrr Challenge is still going on. After a number of short sessions, durrrr and Patrik Antonius logged their longest heads-up battle to date. Antonius banked a $110,000 lead when the dust cleared. [link]

:: For the first time in his life, Barney Frank plans to play it straight...with anti-UIGEA legislation, that is. [link]

:: Hey, buy Dr. Pauly's book, "Lost Vegas," when it comes out. It's got a 1000000% chance to be a better read than "Take Me to the River." [link]

:: The SCOOP is in full swing, with Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi taking a Seven-Card Stud title. [link]

:: Finally, meet MookNam, the latest to give "making the great poker song" the old college try. [link]

:: Finally finally, we're huge South Park fans, and this week's "Fish Sticks" episode is an insta-classic. While Kayne West may be a "gay fish," good to see that Ray J is not (zoom to the very end). [link]

Lee Watkinson/Markholt to Team Up For Doyle Brunson Beer Pong Challenge II

We just got the so far confirmed list of players for the Doyle Brunson Beer Pong Challenge II to take place next Monday--and one team particularly stood out: Lee Watkinson/Markholt.

What? How can this be?

Seriously, how exactly is this feat going to be accomplished? Trick mirrors? CGI? Some hocus pocus or slight of hand from Antonio Esfandiari or... heaven forbid... Scott Lazar?

Anyway, below is a partial list of confirmed players that will be competing along with Team Markinsonholt^TM. RawVegas.tv will be there filming as well. Below below is last year's event. Should be fun.

Todd Brunson and Brett Jungblunt / Hoyt Corkins and Doyle Brunson / Erica Schoenberg and Dave Stann / Scott Ian and Mike Murray / Marshall Reign-Jason and Corey (a country band) / Brandon Cantu and Jeff Madsen / Joe Sebok and [partner not yet confirmed] / Bryan Micon and [partner not yet confirmed]

Watch Beer Pong with Doyle and Todd Brunson on RawVegas.tv

Vadim Trincher Wins WPT Foxwoods Poker Classiczzzzzzz

Vadim Trincher a 48 year-old ex-commie from the Soviet Union Russia took down the WPT Foxwoods Poker Classic, defeating Amnon Fillipi heads-up for the title.

With the win (banking $731,079), the uber-aggressive Trincher, who now lives in NYC, pushes his career tournament earnings to over $1M.  

Fillipi takes $409,405 for second.

Get full final table payouts here.

We're Done Watching Annie Duke on Celebrity Apprentice

A few days late getting to this, practically a week, but better later than never, so after giving the Celebrity Apprentice with Annie Duke (who is clearly pwning the show) a good month of run, we're done with it.

Until next week. Then we're officially done with it. More on that in a minute.

This past week's episode had Donald Trump making two inexplicable eliminations when there were way more deserving people (total douche Clint Black, either of the creepy as fuck Rivers's). While the two people he axed (Khloe Kardashian and T-Boz) we could care less about, his reasoning/rationale was totally arbitrary, and it kind of ruined the show for us.

So we're done.

Until next week.

In the preview, it showed Joan Rivers (pictured here) and Annie getting into some all out argument, which probably is the base cause for Joan (pictured here) to call Annie "a piece of garbage" a few weeks back. So we're gonna at least watch that one.

Then we're done. Unless Herschel Walker makes it to the final, because the fucking DAWGS rule.

Below is Trump's firing of Khloe.

Lacey Jones Featured In The Grouch and Eligh's Video For "All In"

Screen grab from The Grouch and Eligh's new single "All In" starring Lacey Jones.

If underground hip hop act The Grouch and Eligh's new single "All In" was actually about poker it would rank right up there as one of the best poker songs ever. But besides it's title, the song really has nothing to do with poker. Instead it's all about, well, who knows. Hard to understand what they're saying.

Regardless, none of that stopped them from getting Lacey Jones, the hottest girl in poker, to star in their video wearing nothing but lingerie while playing poker. And if you know Lacey like we do, and you don't, that's her favorite way to play poker. So good move there The Grouch and Eligh. Not a good move though: not showing Lacey for the full 4:53. Way too much random rapper guy staring at the camera rapping the whole time and not nearly enough Lacey Jones standing there looking hot.

Check out the full video here. For a video of Lacey in lingerie sans dudes rapping, go here.

More of Lacey Jones here.

PartyGaming to Pay U.S. Government $105 Million

PartyGaming Plc, the parent company to the much missed daily donkfest known as Party Poker, has agreed to pay the U.S. American government $105M "to settle charges that it illegally offered gambling to players in the United States," according to the Washington Post.

How PartyGaming the company got off with only having to pay $105M while one of its founders, the unfortunately named Anurag Dikshit, had to pay $300M, is beyond us. But this development does raise two important points: 1) with Dikshit having to pay $300M and with Anoop Desai's possibly elmination from American Idol either this week or one of the next two, it's maybe not the Year of the Indian after all, and 2) with the state of The Economy^TM today, we'll take a collective $405M any way we can get it.

The news sent online gaming stocks soaring internationally. Analysts believe PartyGaming's actions will lead to other settlements and industry consolidation (increasing profits for all). And the settlement could ease the way for Party Poker's reentry to the U.S. market when the murky laws sort of making online poker kind of illegal are eventually lifted.

Read the full Washington Post story here.

Chip Reese's Son Casey Died

Chip Reese's son, Casey, has passed away.

Rumors are swirling on forums that Casey was battling drug issues and his death was related to that, and given that he was only 20 and presumably in good shape as he was a talented baseball, it could make sense, but we have no idea if that's true or not. Of course, a toxicology report is being conducted.

Regardless, more sad news for the Reese family. Well wishes to them for sure.

UltimateBet Inks Chuck Liddell to Sponsorship for UFC 97

Whether or not UltimateBet has any staying power in sponsoring major MMA fighters/events after this month remains to be seen (we say "no,"), however, Bluff Magazine is reporting that they did just finish a deal to patch up Chuck Liddell for UFC 97.

Liddell wore Poker Stars at the 2008 WSOP Main Event and is one of the few fighters not to have a big Full Tilt sticker on his ass during a fight in recent months.

Unlike Full Tilt Poker, who slapped patches on just about every fighter in the octagon, UltimateBet seems to be taking a cheaper more targeted approach.

Tilt may still end up as a UFC sponsor after this month though, as UB has nothing guaranteed past 97. And Bluff notes they are still carrying on promotions:

"Full Tilt has been running a series of freerolls for Canadian players that would see them travel by train with Howard Lederer, Erick Lindgren and Gavin Smith to see UFC 97. Given the relatively quick notice it is unlikely that Full Tilt would cancel their promotion."

Read more here and here.

In completely unrelated and way sexier news, below is a vid from last year of UFC ring girl Arianny Celeste doing a Maxim photo shoot.

Lee Markholt/Watkinson Gunning for Second WPT Title

It'll be a short day at the WPT Foxwoods Poker Classic. Only 10 remain, with play starting at noon EST and wrapping when the six-man TV final table is set.

Among those still alive is Lee Markholt/Watkinson, who is second overall in chips with 1,314,000. He only trails Lenny Cortellino with 1,520,000. In related news, has anybody born after 2000 been named Lenny? That name has pretty much been retired, right?

Amnon Filipi (1,248,000) and Allen "Chainsaw" Kessler (394,000) are also still alive.

Get full chip counts and recaps here.