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We launched a new site design today but you won't see it here. From today forward, all our new and old content will be hosted at WickedChopsPoker.com only.
Go there now. Where? Here.
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As Lex 'RaSZi' Veldhuis and Vanessa Rousso, a woman, play in the $40k, on-lookers demonstrated the official "I'm standing here with my arms-folded" look of the 2009 WSOP.
:: Event #2 ($40,000 NLH):After his dinner break vlog, Justin Bonomo continued to crush, ending Day 2 as chip leader, stacked at 2,678,000. Right behind him is Ted Forrest with 2,586,000. Rounding out the top 5 big stacks are David 'WhooooKidd' Baker (2,367,000), Greg Raymer (2,287,000), and "Please stop referring to me as Evy's bf" Lex 'RaSZi' Veldhuis (2,103,000). Just like high school, many of the marquee names have busted. Chris Moneymaker took a quick tumble, missing the money by about 10 spots. Making the money but making exits shortly thereafter were Vanessa Rousso, a woman, the spectacularly-breasted J.C. Tran, and David "The Dragon" Pham*, all of whom happen to be on the Wicked Chops ESPN WSOP Fantasy team. Thanks for nothing. Only 24 remain. Get full chip counts here.
:: Event #3 ($1,500 Omaha Hi/Lo): A record-setting field of 918 entered play and 197 remain for Day 2. Big names still alive include Annie Duke, a going for bracelet #12 Phil Hellmuth, Lee Watkinson-Markholt, Brandon Cantu, Todd Brunson, and Jon "Pearljammer" Turner. Despite looking quite stunning in our previous post, Gavin Smith busted before play concluded. Get a more robust recap here.
For additional WSOP coverage, visit FOWCP sites: TaoPoker| Pokerati.com| Benjo| PokerListings| LasVegasVegas| AlCantHang| PokerRoad
* Not a real dragon.
Gavin Smith is looking good in Event No. 3. Real good.
They're down from a record-setting 918 to about 300 players in the $1500 Omaha Hi-Lo event. Some notables still in with decent stacks include Annie Duke (32k), Chip Jett (32k), Eli Elezra (28k) and Rafe Furst (23k).
Ok, that's pretty much all we got. It's late and you're asleep.
Team Bodog member Justin Bonomo has been right at the chip lead for the entire $40k NLH event. As of post-time, he's third overall, stacked at 1,273,000.
In his first vlog with RawVegas.tv (kid is a natural at this) and in between Chris Moneymaker trying to eavesdrop on the convo, Bonomo talks about the general ease he's had with the tournament.
With the 2009 WSOP if full swing, Daniel Negreanu is back to vlogging. In his first WSOP vlog, Negreanu discusses the big prop bet(s) he and Erick Lindgren have with a number of pros, his bad beat by Doug "Toolbox" Lee in Event #2, and why Omaha Hi/Lo is just like high school.
View all of Negreanu's vlogs here and learn more about his Big Swing charity event here.
The Milwaukee's Best Light Girls are back and it looks like we have a lot of the same ones we've had in past years, which is nice because it's always great to see a familiar set of breasts face. While the girls aren't necessarily new, their outfits are. For the past 3(?) years, they did the daisy duke, carpenter belt, tie-shirt thing. This year they're wearing some sort of Alison in Wonderland/French maid get up or as the Canadian sitting next to us said, "I think they're dressed as milk maids, eh." Whatever kind of maid they are, we'd like to give them a mess to clean up.
Poker Road's Bryan Devonshire trying to get a leg up on today's field in the $1500 Omaha Hi/Lo 8-or-Better event.
Event No. 3, $1,500 Omaha Hi/Lo 8-or-better, is underway at the 2009 WSOP and last we checked there were 908 runners (and rising), including pretty much every big name pro not still in the $40k event or who couldn't quite swing yesterday's buy-in. The size of today's field already tops last year's field of 832 so early on looks like The EconomyTM is not having the effect many thought it would.
Noticeably present in the Rio today are also a shit ton of gingers, including scary ginger from last year and this ginger dealer. So effing creepy. Really. Just gross. And they walk around this place without a care in the world, like it's totally acceptable. Anyway, don't expect for us to do the Ginger of the Day again like we did last year. That robbed our souls more than we thought possible.
Follow the live action here. Follow Wicked Chops Poker on Twitter here.
Heard that the NBA was considering a new logo on the radio today, and we think Erick Lindgren has the right idea for its replacement.
Let's just go ahead and declare: "It's over!"
Ok, maybe the search to find Las Vegas' hottest girl isn't nearly over yet, but the new RawVegas.tv Girl of the Month is a freaking hottie. Meet Brittani Cal-Williamson, a single model who likes to go off-roading, camping, and looks like the kind of girl you could even bring home to meet the parents. Just like Francine Dee. Just kidding.
Anyway, Brittani is our current "chip leader" to win the RawVegas.tv Girl of the Year, which we're not even sure they're doing but they should. More pics below of Brittani.
Given The EconomyTM, an impressive showing of 201 pros forked over $40,000 for 2009 WSOP Event #2, creating a first place prize of $1,891,012.
By the end of the day, 88 remained.
Bruno Fitoussi closed out Day 1 play as chip leader, stacked at 812,500. Fitoussi is a high-stakes player who finished second to half-man, half-amazing Freddy Deeb at the 2007 WSOP $50k H.O.R.S.E. event.
Second overall is Chris Moneymaker with 805,000. Suffice to say, if Moneymaker can make a deep run (something we were a year off maybe on predicting, as we tabbed last year as his John Daly-esque resurgence), that would be good for poker. Justin Bonomo is third overall with 738,000. It's just like high school. Evy Ng's boyfriend Lex 'RaSZi' Veldhuis is fourth with 646,500. And Kyle 'krisqueen' Wilson is fifth, stacked at 611,500.
On a side note, Haxton gets an honorary mention into our Top 5 New Poker Pro looks post. Thanks to FOWCP BJ Nemeth for the at left pic and notice. That Haxton kid cleans up well. Other notable big stacks include Brian Townsend (609,000), Michael "Glambert" DeMichele (519,500), Andy Black (449,500), Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond (443,000), Sorel Mizzi (431,000), Mark Seif (411,500), Ted Forrest (401,500), and Isaac Haxton (392,500).
Phil Ivey, Doyle Brunson, the spectacularly-breasted J.C. Tran, and Huck Seed are all still alive as well. Get full chip counts here.
Phil Hellmuth gets burned in a big hand against Alan Sass while we finally find a Girl on the Rail worth posting.
Unlike the fantastically-legged Girl on the Rail in the photo above, 11-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth isn't looking so hot today in the $40k buy-in event. Hellmuth just donked off nearly $235k in one hand to Alan Sass, who is now stacked near the top of the field with 450k. Hellmuth is currently around the 30k range.
Doing well still are Antonio Esfandiari and Justin Bonomo along with new chipleader Lex 'RaSZi' Veldhuis (aka Evelyn Ng's boyfriend) with 530k. We see that Chris Moneymaker is high on the chip count too but we're guessing he's like some sort of "rabbit," like they have in running races, going out ahead to set the pace for the real talent in the field, only to fall out of the race later on. Or maybe he's just getting lucky. It's happened before.
A few more snaps of our first legitimately hot Girl on the Rail of 2009 below.
Poker pros are debuting some new looks at the 2009 WSOP. Here are our top 5 so far (click all thumbs to enlarge):
5. ElkY: No shocker here. ElkY changes his look more than Shannon Elizabeth changes her online sponsors. Dang, we just went there. Zing!
Fortunately ElkY isn't going for the creepy Joker look this time, instead opting for "The Albino." Says FOWCP B.J. Nemeth: "It's just like high school."
We're expecting ElkY to sport red, blue, and a whole bunch of other colorful colors in his hair before the WSOP wraps.
Can you do that once you're in your 40's? Don't you usually gradually shrink with age? It's like he's the experiencing the reverse Benjamin Button effect or something.
Since we can't nail down exactly what it is with Watkinson that has changed, we'll just leave him at number 4.
3. Andy Black: We get Andy Black was a monk for a few years which we actually think is cool, so this isn't a really shocking look for him, but let's just say last time we saw what's on Andy Black's face, it was in a 1975 copy of Playboy.
Actually, scratch that, one time in college, one of the Entity's experienced what is on Andy Black's face and is still finding remnants that he's picking out of his teeth 14 years later.
Andy Black has a hairy vagina on his face.
2. Jennifer Harman: Wow. Jennifer Harman grew her hair out a few inches and got seriously cute.
We're all married to our current/first wives right now, and despite our good looks we're actually really faithful. However, if Harman approached any of the Entities TONIGHT and said, "Hey, do you want to cuddle?" we'd be like, "Cuddle? Awwww. That's so cute. But not as cute as you are with a couple extra inches of hair. So yeah, we'll cuddle," and we're pretty sure our current/first wives would totally understand and be like, "Well, she does look super cute with her hair a few inches longer so, OK, we get it. Cuddle her all you want. Do you want us to grow our hair a few inches longer too?" to which we'd reply, "You know, adding a few extra inches to your hair apparently makes you super cute, so why don't you try it, and here's the thing, if you don't like it, you can always get it cut again. That's what's so great about hair. Any way you slice it though, with an extra few inches of hair (that makes you look really cute) or not, we'd love you just the same." See guys, that's the key to a successful marriage: letting your wives grow an extra few inches of hair that makes them look cuter.
1. Michael DeMichele: Wtf. No seriously, wtf. Apparently Michael "Glambert" DeMichele was a huge Adam Lambert fan. Probably crushed he lost to Kris Allen on American Idol. This photo doesn't even capture the fingerless white gloves he was wearing before play began (not making that up).
But hey, if he's happy, we're happy. It's a pretty ballsy makeover, and we like balls. And when we say "we like balls" we mean that in the way where "balls" is a synonym for "intestinal fortitude." Let's see if he "owns" it and keeps it going for the duration of the WSOP. We suggest taking it further. Introduce some leather. Snakeskin boots. Go for it. Anyway, for putting himself out there like that, no question about it, DeMichele is our number one new look at the 2009 WSOP.
Poker pro Brett Richey is really short on chips. Really short. On chips. He's among the many short stacks right now in the $40k event. Also among the short stacks are Phil Laak (55,000), Shawn Buchanan (37,000), and Michael Binger (28,000). With dinner break approaching, we're sure they'll really try to grow their stacks and survive into Day 2.
Not short are chip leaders Antonio Esfandiari (395,000) and Justin Bonomo (330,000). Get full chip counts at wsop.com here.
Kathy Liebert (in purple) is looking good in Event No. 2 at the 2009 WSOP (Lacey Jones and Jeffrey Pollack in foreground).
Kathy Liebert, a woman, is one of the few (5 or so?) women in today's field for the $40k buy-in 40th Anniversary event. She currently is stacked with chips of some amount greater than zero. More chip counts here.
Unrelatedly, if we did things such as give "mad props" to people we'd be giving mad props to Dustin Iannotti right now for using our soon-to-be-THE-phrase-of-the-2009-WSOP "just like high school" in this tweet.
RawVegas.tv will be running regular vlogs with WSOP Commish Jeffrey Pollack. Above is the first, where Pollack runs down the happenings from the first couple days of the 2009 WSOP.
There is nothing funny about the above photo.
A respectable 201 players entered 2009 WSOP Event #2 ($40,000 NLH), creating a first place prize of $1,891,012.
In probably the first "wtf" moment of the Series, Phil Laak was the early chip leaders. Then in not so shocking news, he lost just about all of his chips and is under the starting stack level.
Current chip leaders as of about 4:30pm PT include Ted Forrest (310,000), Antonio Esfandiari (no, seriously) (302,000), Justin Bonomo (275,000), and Jeffrey Lisandro (270,000).
Get full chip counts and updates at wsop.com here.
At least one Entity who comprises Wicked Chops Poker will be chatting on espn.com tomorrow at 2pm ET, possibly joined by another Entity as well.
We'll be covering the latest 2009 WSOP news and other stories trending well on WCP and RawVegas.tv.
Get an early start on the question submissions here.
Pretty slim pickings for Girls on the Rail at the $500 buy-in casino employees event today (i.e. no pros with lots of cash around). That will probably change with the $40,000 NLH tourney tomorrow.
We think this girl made an appearance last year, but we're not sure. Also pretty sure when she plays poker she usually has top pair.
Not a ton of big WSOP events or parties going on yet. There was a party at Blush featuring Huck Seed that didn't allow media, and that's about it. So fortunately the Sucking Out On The Rivers charity poker tournament, hosted by Annie Duke, stepped up and filled some of that void.
A bunch of top pros and 20 Joan Rivers impersonators showed up, all to the benefit of Refugees International. Above is the red carpet video. It's just like high school. Highlights include Annie Dukes' take on American Idol and Jeffrey Pollack on anticipated WSOP turn-out.
Wow. Really? Russ Hamilton's mug dangling over media row? They must really hate us...
The 2009 World Series of Pokeris officially underway with the casino employees event. Commish Jeffrey Pollack and Phil Hellmuth kicked it off with the above shuffle up and deal.
Funny side story, but really only funny if you're an Entity or honorary Entity Eric Newby (our faithful producer of The TOKE). We had this following convo right before the vid went up:
Newby: "Not really much to edit. I'll probably just post as is, eh?"
Entity: "Ok, I'll just make up to watch for 'something shocking' at the 2:12 mark."
Newby: "Lemme check what's at 2:12 first just in case, eh?"
Entity: "Actually, that's kind of shocking, what he says. It's just like high school."
Newby: "Pretty sick call there, eh?"*
* Gratuitous use of "ehs" might not have happened.
We don't know much about Poker Battle. In fact, until today, we knew nothing about it at all. But apparently they are some sort of merch, social networking, soon-to-be online gaming site that sponsors some players whom they call "Warriors." There's a lot going on there. Sounds like they need to get Poochie as an endorser. It's just like high school.
Anyway, Bryan Micon is having some fun with it, as he wants to be your next Poker Battle Warrior. As he would say, vid below, obv. We'll say that if Poker Battle knows what they're doing, they snatch up that degen pronto.
UPDATE: Since the video autoplays, just watch it here.
Will our favorite 2008 WSOP Girl on the Rail, THO Girl, be making a return visit this year?
For our final 2009 WSOP Guide post, here's some things to look forward to on WCP (and through RawVegas.tv video) over the next two months:
:: A new site design (could be as soon as today or as late as Monday, so probably expect it in two more weeks...damn you technology!).
:: A Russian language site (only look forward to it if you're Russian).
:: Many, many Girls on the RailTM.
:: Regular Daniel Negreanu video blogs.
:: Caption This contests.
:: The occasional Phil Hellmuth video blog (including one today).
:: Absolutely random and arbitrary uses of phrases like, "It's just like high school." (Trust us, by the 50th time it gets funny)
:: Hopefully regular Jeffrey Pollack vlogs/updates (including one today).
:: A new vlog series starring the one and only Prince of Poker.
:: Many, many more vlogs from other top pros/personalities (more on this later in the week). Side note, Michael Fay should start a flog vlog. It's just like high school.
:: And finally (for now), a freeroll giving away two seats to a $1,500 buy-in event (guess what: more on this possibly today).
Stay tuned. For more "real time" "on the scene" updates, follow us on twitter here or @wickedchops. And if you're playing in the 2009 WSOP, book your hotel and club passes here.
Foreshadowing: The scene at the Rio Amazon Room over the next few days will look eerily reminiscent to this picture from the 2005 Main Event (Entity's Note for New Readers: We use this picture a lot), except replace the PartyPoker banners with more mainstream sponsors and some beef jerky.
The 2009 World Series of Poker begins today at noon with the $500 casino employees tournament. So really, the 2009 WSOP starts tomorrow as far as you care. Regardless, we're pumped and we'll be there today to interview commish Jeffrey Pollack and 11-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth.
Lots of prop bets abound covering this year's WSOP. Here are a few we like from Bodog. Go throw some money down on bet on your favorite lines here.
Will a player win 2 or more bracelets in the 2009 WSOP occurring in Las Vegas beginning May 27th? Bracelets won in events #1, #17 and #43 do not qualify. (Entity's Note: Until the streak ends, take the Yes)
Yes +130 / No -180
Will a player win 3 or more bracelets in the 2009 WSOP occurring in Las Vegas beginning May 27th? Bracelets won in events #1, #17 and #43 do not qualify.
Yes +1200
Will a female win a WSOP 'open' event at the 2009 WSOP in Las Vegas? Bracelets won in events #1, #17 and #43 do not qualify. (Entity's Note: This one is laughable. Take the -180)
Yes +130 / No -180
Will Phil Hellmuth win his 12th bracelet at the 2009 WSOP occurring in Las Vegas beginning May 27th? (Entity's Note: Take the Yes)
Yes +300 No -500
How many of the living eligible WSOP Main Event Champions that have been invited to play in the Champions Invitational Event on May 31st will participate? (Entity's Note: Pump the over)
Over 18½ (-120)o / (-120)u
Which of the following former WSOP Main Event Champions will win the 2009 Champions Invitational to take place on May 31st? (Entity's Note: Assuming he plays, great value in Ferguson at 15/1, comparatively)
Peter Eastgate 13/1 | Jerry Yang 15/1 | Jamie Gold 15/1 | Joseph Hachem 23/2 | Greg Raymer 23/2 | Chris Moneymaker 15/1 | Robert Varkonyi 19/1 | Carlos Mortensen 23/2 | Chris Ferguson 15/1 | J.J. "Noel" Furlong 24/1 | Scotty Nguyen 23/2 | Huck Seed 23/2 | Dan Harrington 23/2 | Russ Hamilton 65/1 | Jim Bechtel 24/1 | Hamid Dastmalchi 24/1 | Brad Daugherty 19/1 | Mansour Matloubi 24/1 | Phil Hellmuth 9/1 | Johnny Chan 23/2 | Berry Johnston 24/1 | Tom McEvoy 19/1 | Bobby Baldwin 24/1 | Doyle Brunson 23/2 | Amarillo Slim Preston 24/1
Which pairing will have the most winnings in the Main Event of the 2009 WSOP (Event #57) beginning in Las Vegas on July 3rd 2009? (Entity's Note: Take Greenstein and Sebok)
Doyle and Todd Brunson 6/1 | Marco Traniello and Jennifer Harman 6/1 | Barry Greenstein and Joe Sebok 9/2 | Annie Duke and Howard Lederer 15/2 | Evelyn Ng and Justin Bonomo 15/2 | Phil Laak and Jennifer Tilly 6/1 | David and Shirley Williams 6/1 | Chad Brown and Vanessa Russo 10/1 | Tom 'Durr' Dwan and Tiffany 'Hot Chips' Michelle | 9/2 Patrik Antonius and Kathy Liebert 4/1
Again, place your bets here.
The spectacularly-breasted J.C. Tran (above) was our top pick in the ESPN WSOP Fantasy Draft. View more pics of his ESPN WSOP Fantasy Draft photoshoot here.
Pretty sure this is the fourth time we've participated in the ESPN WSOP Fantasy Draft. This year we went with the WCP All-Stars approach, picking only people who we obsess over, gingers, or women.
Our plans to start the draft with our new Official Pick To Win ItTM, Howard Lederer, was foiled by Mark Seif in Round 1 (clearly he's angling to get a FTP deal), but the rest of the draft stayed on point and we got everyone we wanted.
Our team: the spectacularly-breasted J.C. Tran, David "The Dragon" Pham*, guy with hot porn star girl name Shannon Shorr, Jon "Pearljammer" Turner, James Mackey, Vanessa Selbst, Lee Watkinson-Markholt, and Vanessa Rousso, a woman.
View the full results here.
* Not a real dragon.
The last Dream Team Poker event was pretty hot.
While in a mad rush to get the new WCP site up by mid-next-week (and the new Russian site, not kidding), there is one news item we couldn't let slip by: Dream Team Poker will hold a (non-bracelet) tourney during the 2009 World Series of Poker.
We played in the last Dream Team Poker event, and while the Entities didn't so much do well as they did the opposite of well, we all had a blast and it was a really well put together...and dare we even say...classy?...event.
The Dream Team WSOP tournament will take place on July 12-13. The buy-in is same as last time, $500 + $60 per player ($1,680 per team).
The first 300 registered teams get a personalized jersey, which will either be super-cool (like ours) or super-sleeveless (like Sebok's). So there is a little bit of a risk there.
Anyway, we don't do this much, but the Entities give Dream Team Poker their official endorsement. You should play. It's different and fun. Go to dreamteampoker.com to register/learn more.
Watch our March Dream Team Poker updates:
Interview with WSOP Commish Jeffrey Pollack at March Dream Team Poker Event
Dream Team Poker Pre-Event Party (Update #1)
Dream Team Poker Tournament (Update #2)
Totally forgot about this. Time for our second installment. All we gotta say about this one is, "fuck yeah."
We'll be continuing our Girls on the Rail feature this year as well, much to this hot blondes delight.
The World Series of Poker is too big for just one media outlet to cover. Fortunately the powers that be at the WSOP recognize this and do a great job managing and regulating a number of content providers to give poker fans a full view of the happening (even if that full view includes Girls on the Rail). Here are our recommended picks for reading during the 2009 WSOP.
WSOP.com: Get chip counts and full tourney reporting.
BluffMagazine.com: Stepped up their online reporting efforts the past year or so, lots of timely and relevant news.
PokerListings.com: Solid coverage, often with a funny take.
Tao of Poker: Dr. Pauly is the hardest working man in poker, and is a staple and fixture of WSOP reporting.
Pokerati.com: Good scoops and perspective, tons of updates.
PokerRoad.com: More pro perspective than you'll find anywhere else, plus the awesome Poker Beat and other shows.
ESPN.com: Aside from keeping track of the Fantasy Draft (oh crap that's today), the Poker Edge podcast are worth the price of admission (which is free, but whatever) alone.
Poker Stars Blog: Otis keeps this a great source of news for the site that most of you probably won your WSOP entries from.
RawVegas.tv: Between our new episodes of The TOKE (our fave from last year below, the Girls of the GLE), plus Daniel Negreanu vlogs (and many, many more pros this year, more on that later), a great video source of WSOP action.
As you've noticed we're not posting much this week because of all of the excitement around the American Idol finale our sheer laziness The EconomyTM some site updates we're working on. So for the sake of getting a post up we give you another video of that girl from those other videos, like this one, this one, this one and this one. Enjoy.
Autumn Reeser is one of the 6.77 billion people on Earth who did not receive an invite to the WSOP Champions Invitational. However, she looks significantly better in a bikini than the 27 people who did. View more of Autumn in a bikini here.
One of the "buzz worthy" events at this year's World Series of Poker is the WSOP Champions Invitational.
To recap: the event takes place from May 31-June 1 and airs on ESPN (one of the few WSOP events making it to TV this year) on August 4th from 8-10pm ET. The winner gets a commemorative Binion Cup (presented by Jack Binion) and a new car. And bragging rights, which you can't fade, man. Because as any one of our friends whose wife we slept with can attest, bragging rights can go a long way. You can rub that shit in people's faces for years and they literally have no comeback. We love us some bragging rights.
Further recapping: the previous 39 Main Event winners got invites (although four of those have multiple titles: Doyle Brunson, Stu Ungar, Johnny Moss, and Johnny Chan). So that leaves 34 invites, except that none of the departed obviously get an invite either, which sucks actually because we'd probably bet that a dead Stu Ungar could outplay an alive Jerry Yang but whatever. So unless Doyle Brunson loses his Bucket Bet before May 31, there are seven former Main Event champs who have passed on, leaving us with math math math seven less than 34.
Of those 27, there are still a few unconfirmed/disappeared off the face of the Earth.
Straight up NOT playing are Russ Hamilton (who had disappeared off the face of the Earth until this happened, and let's face it, his invite probably got lost in the mail anyway) and Bobby Baldwin, which isn't a surprise.
That leaves just four other former champs who are AWOL and yet to be confirmed: Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, Noel Furlong, Mansour Matloubi (no fly list?), and Jose Canseco Hamid Dastmalchi.
So consider this an APB of sorts. All of you Team Full Tilters who read this site, get Jesus off his ass and in the game. Otherwise it's just Jerry Yang wearing your patch, and like having Scott Lazar involved in your movie, that's never a good idea.
What's funny is this may be the only tournament ever in poker where the most patches you'll see is for Doyle's Room. They love patching up the old guys.
Anyway, if any of you readers know Noel, Mansour, or Hamid, get them to respond already by emailing [email protected]. Proof that you personally got them to personally respond to Harrah's will get you a WCP t-shirt and Skull Candy headphones. For reals.
Get more of the same info over at Pokerati here.
It's easy to forget that a world exists outside the Rio during the World Series of Poker. And after sitting on your ass for days on end, getting pasty white, and eating meals exclusively at the Sao Paulo and Lucky Strike, the last thing you may want to do is show off your body at a Las Vegas pool. However, while you may look like shit, the girls at said pools don't. So see the light of day and make your way to TAO Beach (featured above) or any of the spots below whenever you get the chance.
Ditch Fridays at the Palms
Rehab at the Hard Rock
Wet Republic for regular shows, like LMFAO
Aside from some 2009 WSOP Guide updates and a few other stories, it'll be a slow week on WCP as we do some technical updates and site maintenance. For now though, here's a poker news update from around the so-called "Internet."
:: Hedge fund manager Bradley L. Ruderman, 46, is accused of stealing $44 MILLION from investors, of which $5.2M allegedly was used to cover losses at the poker table in a Beverly Hills home game. Any of our high stakes LA readers play against this guy? [link]
:: Poker pro Jody Garaventa (who? stats here) wins the World Series of Golf, banking $300,000, or about $200,000 more than he's won in live tourney play. [link]
:: Funny thread on whether Mike Matusow's taking of prescription drugs gives him an unfair edge. [link]
:: Tom "durrrr" Dwan continues takes another beating in Full Tilt cash games, erasing all the money he made back up. [link]
:: And finally, big thanks to Poker Listings for holding another Run Good tournament, with the winner earning a $1,500 WSOP seat. Entity Chops final tabled, but eventually lost out to Poker Grump. [link]
Hottest Girl in Poker Lacey Jones and her friend Teresa Kae bring you this week's Friday Night Parting Shot
We're under contract with our libidos to post any photo of Lacey Jones in a bikini so here you have it, Lacey Jones in a bikini along with another hot chick in a bikini (Teresa Kae) during yesterdays' World's Largest Bikini Parade in Las Vegas. The feat of 281 girls in bikinis parading around the Strip was recognized by the folks at the Guinness Book of World Records, and while it doesn't actually sound that impressive to us--like couldn't they just go to Rehab on any given Sunday and tell all the girls to march out the parking lot and that would be a world record--we're not complaining. If there's anything the Guinness Book needs is more girls in bikini records and less crap like fat twins on motorcycles.
Pic courtesy of Lacey Jones on Twitter. Stalk her here.
Arguably the biggest "free agent" name in poker has a new sponsor, as Expekt.com has signed Scotty Nguyen to be its new "global poker ambassador."
According to the press release, Scotty will do regular vlogs and strategy articles for Expekt and presumably play a little poker too. Watch his introductory video below or read more about it here.
Now this begs the question, who is the biggest name left in poker without a sponsorship? Is it one of the online superstars like Durrrr or Phil Galfond? An old-schooler like Johnny Chan? Former Main Event winner Jamie Gold? Thoughts?
The 2009 World Series of Poker is just two weeks away, so we're probably a little overdue to begin our annual WSOP Guide.
We'll kick off this year's guide with a look at one of the best (and most expensive) ways to blow-off some WSOP steam: Las Vegas clubs. However, we're not starting this year's WSOP Guide with Las Vegas clubs completely and solely because we have a semi-NSFW video of the Hot Girls Kissing Girls Contest at LAVO last night. Except replace "we're not starting" with "we're totally starting."
We always thought that "the hot lesbian couple" was kind of an urban myth. However, this video completely and utterly proves that wrong. Watch the above video for all of its hot-girl-tongue-action goodness and click the below links for a more in-depth look (with less girl tongue action) of the Las Vegas club scene.
Lavo Bathhouse
Christian Audigier, The Nightclub (not to be confused with Cristian Dragomir, The Fragrance)
Jet Nightclub
LAX Nightclub
PURE Nightclub
The timing of Barney Frank's bill to oust the UIGEA was well timed. The WSOP is just two weeks away (more on that in a bit), and over 10 million people watched Annie Duke finish second on the Celebrity Apprentice (more on that later today too), so there is way more mainstream attention paid to poker in general now than normal.
On the heels of having Jeffrey Pollack on discussing the general economic enormity of the WSOP, Bloomberg TV ran a feature on why online poker should be legalized.
Our regular readers know that our frequent use of the term "U.S. Americans" is a tribute to our favorite ever pagaent contestant, Miss Teen South Carolina.
Now we don't speak Panamanian, so for all we know she really said something intelligent here about the positive impact of microeconomics in African countries, but since this video is on the Internet, then there's a 99.99% that the translation in it is accurate, because 99.99% of what you read on the Internet is true.
So with that out of the way, here is Miss Panama trying her best to out-do Miss Teen South Carolina.
We've written ad naseum that having Scott Lazar involved in your film is never a good idea, and apparently that sentiment is now echoed by Gambling Times, Inc.
According to a L.A.-based lawsuit, for a $50,000 up-front investment, GT was promised prominent product placement (what, a URL?) in Lazar's movie, the epic "Deal." For those who forgot, Deal starred Shannon Elizabeth and Burt Reynolds and banked about $78,000 in box office receipts. Rewatch the premiere red carpet below.
As reported on tmz.com, GT is suing Lazar "for no less than $1,000,000 in damages."
Really? Didn't Lazar kind of do them a favor by (allegedly) cutting them out of the movie? If Meryl Streep had a cameo in Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever that made its way to the cutting room floor, do you think she'd complain? She probably would've paid them after the fact out of gratitude for keeping her out of that shitfest.
As you know, we typically don't report on online tournaments or live prelims unless something noteworthy happens.
So when FTP pro Gavin Smith, who is notably and admittedly not much of an online tourney player, wins a FTOPS event, it warrants mention.
Smith took down FTOPS Event #7 ($100 no-limit hold'em with rebuys), beating a field of 1,806 to bank $123,600.
Also warranting a mention is that this edition of the FTOPS is seriously missing its guaranteed marks. Whether it's The EconomyTM, poor marketing, over-saturation, or some other factor, it seems like the FTOPS has lost some of its luster.
Read a good breakdown of the FTOPS missing its mark at the Poker-King here.
We kind of felt this one coming.
There was somewhat of a running theme on the Celebrity Apprentice this season that Annie Duke was "just a poker player." Yeah, she may be pwning the competition every week, but look what she does for a living. It's a deceitful way to make a living so of course she's good. Plus she's nowhere near the "celebrity" of some of the other contestants. So would Donald Trump really make his final "hire" a poker player instead of arguably the biggest celebrity name he had on the show?
Nope. In the end, as expected, Trump awarded this season's Celebrity Apprentice (title? hire?) to Joan Rivers instead of Annie Duke.
Before watching the finale (having determined that Rivers was going to win no matter what), we were originally going to make the headline of this post, "Annie Duke Andy Blochs The Celebrity Apprentice, Finishes Second."And believe it or not, the headline wasn't going to be a shot at either them. At the inaugural $50k H.O.R.S.E. event, Bloch outplayed Chip Reese heads-up. Straight-up outplayed Chip and outplayed the field leading up to the heads-up showdown. It was similar to how Annie outplayed everyone on the Celebrity Apprentice. In the end though, it wasn't meant to be for Bloch. Chip consistently got his money in with the worst of it, but kept winning hand after hand. Fate just wasn't going to let Andy win that tournament. We figured the same thing was going to be true here, as "fate" (NBC/Donald Trump) wouldn't let Annie triumph.
However, that wasn't so much the case last night, because Joan won the final challenge by taking 3 of the 5 criteria being judged. She wisely picked Herschel Walker (DAWGS...everybody knows you've got to give Herschel Walker the ball) as the first person to join her team, leaving Melissa Rivers, who there was no way Annie was choosing, on the bench while Annie picked Brande Roderick first, who there was no way Joan was choosing. Ultimately that move left Joan with a better overall team, particularly because two of Herschel's ideas were critical to Joan's overall win.
It was a tactical error on Annie's part for sure. Bottomline is bottomline, and despite some controversy caused by Joan with the event planning firm, Joan won 3 of the 5 criteria in the final challenge. Surprisingly, little was made in the boardroom though of the fact that Joan's behavior was the cause for the event planning company to quit on both teams. It's fair to assume that, from the sounds of it, Annie's decor would've topped Joan's for the silent auction before the firm quit. Had that happened, Annie would've won 3 of the 5 criteria. And all the evidence was on TV for everyone to see that Joan was the cause of the firm quitting. However, she denied it (despite millions of people having just watched it unfold), and Trump didn't seem to really care. Joan once again acted like a spoiled 10 year-old brat when Annie very calmly tried pointing this all out, but again, Joan was never put in her place by Donald for her behavior. Annie very smartly told Trump that Joan's boardroom remarks throughout the season would have gotten her immediately fired in any other company (shown above(, and again, Trump just kind of brushed it off. The result just seemed predetermined.
Interestingly, with the exception of when she was skillfully pleading her case to win (the above clip again), Annie wore defeat on her face the entire final two boardrooms (the task one and the live one) as if she knew this as well. So it was surprising to see that, for a split second, she actually thought she won as Donald addressed her in the final seconds of the show. But Trump ultimately dropped the ax on her, and gave Joan Rivers (pictured here) the non-existent job.
Not sure how we feel about all of this. If judging on the strength of her play throughout the season, Annie definitely deserved to win. However, Joan did capture the final challenge, even though her bad behavior in causing the event planning group to quit might've swung that last project to her favor.
Amazingly in all of this, Joan somehow still seemed to have the overwhelming support of Internet posters, critics, casual fans, and the live audience. Her general behavior throughout the season was despicable. She was constantly condescending to Annie and to the poker community in general, telling Duke tonight repeatedly that she was "beneath" her. She got away with verbal murder all season, and Trump never had the balls to call her out on it and put a stop to it. Yeah, it was good for ratings. We get that. But to never make a mention of it is pretty pathetic, especially at the end when making his final decision.
It'll be hard for the Celebrity Apprentice to top this season in terms of drama and interest again. Unless, of course, they take Daniel Negreanu up on his offer to join the show. If they do, count us in on watching it again. If not, and we've said this before, but this time we're really done with the show.
UPDATE: The event planner, David Tutera, confirms Annie was telling the truth and that Rivers is "a monster." Read here.
We were kind of creeped out at this at first, but like the act of sleeping with a friend's mother, we got over it pretty quickly. Insta-classic, and happy mother's day to all of you...a woman...out there.
Will Annie Duke win the Celebrity Apprentice on Sunday? Or will Donald Trump give it to Joan Rivers because she's the bigger celebrity and she'll bitch like a spoiled brat 5 year-old if she doesn't win?
Many in entertainment are calling this year's Celebrity Apprentice"the best worst reality television in history." And 99% of why it would be dubbed that [compliment] is due to the feud between Annie Duke and Joan Rivers (pictured here).
Sunday night, NBC airs its three-hour finale. Annie and Joan have been making the media rounds this week to promote it. Joan of course has been adding fuel to the fire by taking her shots at Annie and the poker community in general, telling Page Six:
"How can I hate poker players? Did you ever look at the cards? Everyone knows I love queens. Poker playing is a very noble profession. A little-known fact is Florence Nightingale had to choose between nursing and cards."
Joan also is taking her shots through Twitter, calling Annie "Ann-ME," and saying:
"If you really look closely, Ann-ME did a lot of sobbing when she won but not one tear came out...[Watch] how Annie Duke does EVERYTHING and lets us know every second how brilliant she is...."
Actually, looking at Rivers' Twitter page, her hatred of Annie Duke is bordering on maniacal and unhealthy, similar to the way we feel about Danny Gokey.
Doyle Brunson has jumped into the fray to poker's defense via Twitter as well, tweeting:
"Joan Rivers went to the doctor for a zit on her butt. He told her it was a brain tumor....[ouch]"
And:
"Why is Joan River's brain the size of a pea in the morning?.......It swells at night."
Doyle had about 10 more slams (read here) and said that, "I'll quit tweeting about Joan Rivers when she apologizes to the poker world."
Tune in NBC tomorrow at 8pm to watch how Donald Trump arbitrarily gives the title to Joan even though Annie out-played her the entire season, because let's face it, you know that's what's going to happen.
Fridays are kind of filler days on WCP, so before we get to the Friday Night Parting ShotTM, here's a new series of great old school music. We'll start with hip hop until we get tired of it (next week? two Fridays from now?).
Anyway, if there's one thing we learned in 1990, it was to never trust a big butt and a smile. Fortunately black chicks didn't want to date us until a few years later, so it wasn't a problem for a little while.
We're not necessarily in love with 21-year-old model Alanna Kolette. We save that word for the girls who do our laundry, make us dinner and give us back rubs while we watch the American Idol results show and hold our fists up to the heavens and say "why God? Why must Allison and not Danny Gokey go? Why God? Why?" But let's just we're really digging Alanna Kolette. The girl's freaking gorgeous and has a sick body and just might be the hottest girl we've seen in the past 5 minutes. So skip all the filler links below and just get to the photos of Alanna.
:: Poker players sue LA area card rooms over jackpot. [link]
:: Worm apparently can kick One Eyed Jack Faro's ass at poker but is scared of the Lemur (See, told you this was all just filler). [link]
:: Minnesota resorts to the 48 year old Wire Act that has nothing to do with online poker to ban online poker. [link]
:: PokerStars to be title sponsor of WPT Season 7 in the lands of igloos, porn with poo, hot brunettes and windmills. [link]
:: Clonie Gowen ain't doing so well in court. [link]
:: This has nothing to do with poker but Cassie, one of our past Friday Night Parting Shot Girls, had topless photos "leaked out" on the Internet and by "leaked out" we mean in support of her new album coming out in June. God bless new albums. [link]
:: And finally, Poker Listings publishes their Top 5 Least Popular Main Event Winners ever. See who we think should be on the list. Probably no surprise, nor who made number 1. [link]
Barney Frank's UIGEA-repealing bill that is being supported by Harrah's and will bring in more than $50 billion in revenue to the US government and most importantly stimulate our own economy by bringing the donk-laden PartyPoker back to US soil is garnering decent media attention, including a mention on CNN's Lou Dobbs Wednesday. Watch what Franks had to say above or here.
Remember that girl back in February from this video, and this one, and this one? Well, here she is again and this time she's really coming on to us, moving all sexy like with her hands running down her body as she stares at us. She must not know we're currently, at this time, for the moment, today, married.
Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) introduced his
only reason why we're still doing this site anti-UIGEA bill at a press conference this morning.
Frank's bill estimates over $63 billion in revenues for the government if it regulated online gaming over the next 10 years. Interestingly, Harrah's Entertainment is also backing the bill, which probably has everything nothing to do with the "maybe" hiring of ex-Party CEO Mitch Garber.
We'll post a video from the press conference if/when it becomes available (readers, please send link if you find it). In the meantime, read about Harrah's backing of the bill here and the press release on today's press conference here.
UPDATE: Good recap of the bill by Bluff here.
If there's one thing we've learned from the Celebrity Apprentice, it's that Annie Duke gives good head Annie Duke is a whore pit viper Annie Duke is Hitler Joan Rivers' face is about to fall off being married to Joan Rivers would deduct about 20 years off your life Melissa Rivers is a 40 year-old baby Clint Black is creepy with squinty beedy little eyes Herschal Walker still fucking rules go DAWGS fuck yeah Jesse James reminds us of Sling Blade poker players are an extremely philanthropic bunch.
One of the biggest givers (no jokes please) is Daniel Negreanu, who yesterday announced his first annual Big Swing a charity golf event to be held at Rio Secco Golf Club on June 25th, 2009.
The tournament benefits the Lili Claire Foundation and is what Daniel was planning for when he was vlogging from a secret location here (note that 1/3 of the Entities' progen pops into frame around the :58 second mark).
The event will feature 30 amateur teams, each of whom will be paired with one professional poker player. Poker Stars is running qualifiers for team buy-ins, so try to play your way in there.
Get more information on this great cause here.
Because you can only talk about poker so much . . . Click Here
We sort of have this thing for Keeley Hazell and ...
We're kind of digging the snorgtees girls. You should buy their shirts. Check 'em out.
