Layne Flack: Official Statement on DUI

From Layne Flack's reps:

"I attended the Draw Party at Pure on Friday night and then met with my brother, who had flown into Vegas for Heads Up. I was under the impression that I was to play in the last bracket the next evening at around 8 pm. I was pulled over for speeding and refused a breathalyzer test as I have been instructed to do. I have no idea why I was written a ticket for failing to yield to an emergency vehicle. There were no emergency vehicles around, besides the police car. A test, given by the Las Vegas PD, later revealed that I had a blood alcohol content of zero. I also took a blood test, as I have nothing to hide. I was held for the mandatory 6 hours and released. I always go out of my way to not drink and drive. I regret that I was not able to play in NBC Heads Up and hope to be invited next year to play in this prestigious event." 

Ok, this Layne Flack DUI arrest statement is just going to fan the flames. We're really to believe Layne had a blood alcohol level of zero? Sure, maybe if he was sober (as in, kicked the drinking in rehab) we'd be willing to suspend our disbelief just a little bit. But dude was drunk last weekend at the WPT Invitational, so we know he's kicking a few back. We're really expected to believe a guy known for having some alcohol issues was pulled over for driving 21 mph over the speed limit and was subsequently thrown in jail for no other reason? Come on, Layne.

UPDATE: Andrew Robl writes that he did tequilla shots with Layne at the draw party. Hard to believe a few hours later Layne would have a blood-alcohol level of zero. Read here. Thanks to reader Faybarpio for the link.

UPDATE II: Robl for some reason took the part about Flack off his blog. Yeah, nobody saw it man. It wasn't pasted all over the place. You deleted it off the face of the Earth like it never happened! Sly one, that Robl.

Lastly, I was admittedly quite drunk and somehow convinced the legendary Layne Flack to take shots of tequila with me. I was not thinking straight, so it was not the most responsible idea to convince someone who has had his battles with his vice demons to jump back into the hell of temptation. We ended up getting quite drunk and I went home to get some sleep while his night continued. This afternoon, I was alerted to a 2+2 gossip post that revealed that Flack was arrested for a DUI and had to forfeit his tournament entry. I feel pretty guilty about it. As anyone who knows Layne knows he is a super nice and charismatic guy regardless of the mistakes he made.

Huck Seed, 31 Others Advance in NBC National Heads Poker Championship

Round 1 of the 2009 NBC National Heads Up Poker Championship is done. Some notes:

:: Obviously the big story of the day was Layne Flack's DUI no-show. His 2009 so far is the equivalent to Baumer's epic meltdown at the U.S. Nationals. Not good.

:: One story we actually will follow sort of is Vanessa Rousso's "journey." Her profiles was "raised" a bit with the SI Swimsuit pic, and she's actually very relevant for this tournament because of the GoDaddy.com commercial. After beating Doyle Brunson in Round 1, if she can tackle Phil Ivey today and make a deep run, Rousso could be the epicenter of talk for this year's tourney.

:: While it probably won't get much T.V. coverage, one of the more interesting matches today is Ilari "ziigmund" Sahamies v. Bertrand Grospellier. Sahamies because he's not only nuts but one of the best online poker players in the world today, and Grospellier because he's one of the best live tournament players in the world today.

:: The other really interesting match is the other online superstar, Tom "durrrr" Dwan, who takes on Barry Greenstein.

:: Jerry Yang actually won (!) his first round match and plays John Phan.

:: And finally, of course, our pick to win it all, Huck Seed, won again, and will go up against Gus Hansen in what would be a compelling match if Seed ever showed some personality.

Get all of the match-ups here.

Hillary Fisher Is The Friday Night Parting Shot Girl

Hillary Fisher is a lingerie and bikini wearing wunderkind.

This week's Friday Night Parting Shot Girl is 25-year-old Hillary Fisher of South Carolina. We don't know much about her except that she appears to be some kind of world champion bikini wearer, and on her MySpace page she claims Martha Stewart is her hero so she's probably good around the kitchen, which pretty much makes her perfect. Actually, with a body like hers, she could not know how to boil water and still be perfect. Credit goes to HollywoodTuna.com for turning us on to Hillary. Click away at the photos of Hillary below. For a hot video of Hillary parading around in a bikini, go here.

Layne Flack Arrested for DUI

 

So Layne Flack is having a bad year.

Flack failed to show for his first round match and was replaced by David Oppenheim. Reports Poker News:

Earlier we reported that Layne Flack missed his heads-up match. Producer Mori Eskandani told us it was because Flack was in an accident on his way home last night.

It's unclear whether or not there was any accident, but we can now confirm that Flack was arrested last night on his way home from the bracket-drawing party. The stated charges are driving 21MPH or more over the speed limit, failure to yield to an emergency vehicle, and driving under the influence.

Douche.

Update: Here's the police report.

UPDATE: NWP does a verification of his arrest/bail out here.

NBC National Heads Up Poker Championship Red Carpet Photo Dump

All right, let's wrap this all up with some pictures (below) closing thoughts on the NBC National Heads Up Poker Championship red carpet/draw party last night.

First, job well done to Jon Miller of NBC for growing this event to what it is. This was easily the biggest red carpet crowd with the most excitement around it we've seen in the three years we've been covering it. Plus adding GoDaddy.com as a sponsor brings yet another big name mainstream advertiser into the fold (which = good for the game).

Now some random notes: Not sure if it was because he saw Phil Hellmuth talking to the RawVegas.tv crew or not, but Layne Flack couldn't have exited stage left into the party (and by-passed the video crews) any faster than if his ass was literally on fire and the only bucket of water within a three mile radius was in PURE Nightclub itself. / Congratulations again to Vanessa Rousso for landing a spot in that GoDaddy.com commercial with Danica Patrick. Also congrats on rocking a skin tight outfit that revealed a remarkably clear, um, something that rhymes with "mammal doe." / Speaking of Danica Patrick, while not super-model pretty, in person she's definitely better-looking than you'd think. Kind of "take-home-to-mom" pretty. / Jamie Gold had no problem immediately admitting he screwed up on getting a fake tan. / And while Annie Duke kind of makes sense on why she's not switching to FTP, we're still standing by our steak dinner offer.

Click the thumbs below for larger scale images.

Vanessa Selbst Is No Jodie Foster

The "hot lesbian couple" is kind of like "heterosexual AIDS" in that it's a total myth.

However, there was something oddly hot about Vanessa Selbst showing up with two girls around her arms last night on the NBC National Heads Up Poker Championship red carpet. Maybe it's the thought of the inevitable girl-on-girl-on-girl threesome that was bound to ensue. Don't know. Maybe we're just sickos. You probably just had to be there. Screw off. Anyway, props to Selbst for clearly not giving a fuck and showing up with two girls. That's a solid way to make an entrance.

2009 NBC National Heads Up Poker Championship Bracket

The draw party has wrapped and the pairing are announced.

Not a bunch of "must see" first round match-ups although Daniel Negreanu vs. Chris Moneymaker, Phil Ivey vs. Jennifer Tilly, Mike Matusow vs. Dario Minieri, and ziigmund vs. Gavin Smith should make for decent TV. And Erick Lindgren vs. Howard Lederer and Huck Seed vs. Jonathan Little are very solid pairings.

View the full bracket here. Review our "seedings" on espn.com here.

Look for some red carpet photos from last night, including Vanessa Selbst showing up with not one but two girls on her arm, later today.

Go HERE for all of our red carpet interview from last night.

Annie Duke on Celebrity Apprentice and Our Dinner Bet

Maybe we won't win our (still not accepted) dinner bet with Annie Duke afterall.

After dishing on some cutting-room-floor parts of last week's Celebrity Apprentice, Duke spends some time talking about why she won't be switching affiliation from UltimateBet to Full Tilt.

While her argument makes all the sense in the world, we'll see what site she's with by the WSOP. If it's still UB, then yeah, we're probably drawing dead. N9ne it is!

Watch Annie Duke on the Russ Hamilton Ultimate Bet Scandal and The Apprentice on RawVegas.tv

Jon Miller and Jeffrey Pollack Make for a Good Interview

WSOP commish Jeffrey Pollack and NBC exec (and the man behind this event) Jon Miller walked the red carpet and gave us a really solid interview on the fast Heads Up format and changes at this year's World Series of Poker, respectively. Respect.

Watch Jon Miller and Jeffrey Pollack at the 2009 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship on RawVegas.tv

Hevad Khan Is Just Happy To Be Here

Sounds like Hevad Khan maybe knew he was next on the list for the NBC National Heads Up Poker Championship. Also sounds like he won't be screaming like a gorilla anymore either.

 

Watch Hevad Khan is on a Roll on RawVegas.tv

Daniel Negreanu Is In a Good Mood

Right before we interviewed Daniel Negreanu, we just wrapped a good five minutes with our perennial pick to win it all, Huck Seed. While we're not going to post the Huck Seed interview, let's just say that Daniel was definitely NOT smoking whatever Huck was...

Watch Daniel Negreanu at the 2009 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship on RawVegas.tv

Mike Matusow Has A Wish For Russ Hamilton

Hey, while we're talking about Russ Hamilton, (not surprisingly) Mike Matusow had some things to say. Matusow is kind of like a (degenerate gambling version of) fine wine...the dude is getting better (and more entertaining) with age.

(    )

Watch Mike Matusow Is Very Angry at Russ Hamilton on RawVegas.tv

Phil Hellmuth Speaks on the UltimateBet Scandal

Let's kick off the first of our NBC National Heads Up Poker Championship red carpet coverage with Phil Hellmuth. We weren't planning on "going there" regarding asking about Russ Hamilton and the UltimateBet cheating scandal, but after mentioning golfing with Layne Flack for a Golf Magazine story, well, it kind of opened the door...

Watch Phil Hellmuth on the Russ Hamilton Ultimate Bet Scandal on RawVegas.tv

Exclusive: Vanessa Rousso and Danica Patrick Star In GoDaddy.com Commercial

A follow-up to our earlier post: big thanks to those involved for giving us access to the new GoDaddy.com commercial today featuring Vanessa Rousso (looking pretty solid on the NBC National Heads Up Poker Championship btw, pics coming soon). Hats off to GoDaddy.com for really getting behind/so involved with the NBC National Heads Up as well. Good sign for poker sponsorships in general.

Behind-the-scenes footage of Rousso and the other GoDaddy.com models below.

Watch Vanessa Rousso New GoDaddy.com Girl on RawVegas.tv

Vanessa Rousso Tapped As New GoDaddy Girl

We ass-ume "I'd like to rear end her" is the IndyCar equivalent of bad "I'd poke-her" jokes.

This post was supposed to be about poker player Vanessa Rousso, who went to Duke and whose photoshop replica recently appeared in the SI Swimsuit Issue, joining IndyCar hottie Danica Patrick as a spokesmodel for domain name registrar GoDaddy.com, but somewhere between reading that news and starting this post we found these photos of Danica and lost our train of thought. The look-from-behind pose has that effect on us.

So...for the story on Rousso, including a quote from Go Daddy CEO Bob Parsons that awesomely works in the fact that Vanessa went to Duke, check out Bluff Magazine's write up here.

For photos of Danica and her impressive bumper, look up and below.

Shannon Shorr Thinks He Should Be in NBC Heads Up, Shaniac Thinks He's "Delusional"

More in line with what we think a "Shannon Shorr" should look like...

Our favorite guy-with-a-hot-porn-star's name Shannon Shorr is "shocked" that he failed to make the 64-person NBC National Heads Up Poker Championship field again.

In his latest blog, Shorr says:

"I will go on record (as I did after the 2006 calendar year) as saying I'm shocked that I don't make the list. After very closely examining the list, Michael Binger, Nam Le, Sebastian Ruthenberg, Michael Martin, Vivek Rajkumar, Amit Makhija, Adam Geyer and Hevad Khan are probably somewhere wondering WTF! as well. No one in the poker tournament industry besides Nam Le, JC Tran, and David Pham has matched my consistency over the last 3 years on the tournament circuit and in that time I have NEVER been selected to play the NBCHUPC."

While Shorr definitely has been one of the most consistent players around, he has gotten virtually no TV time, so he really has no argument here. Shane "Shaniac" Schleger seems to agree, although in more blunt terms than us. Shaniac calls out Shorr's "distinctly delusional blog post" and writes:

"Shannon, get a grip. You should be ashamed for putting yourself in the same sentence as Le, Tran, and Pham, who essentially dwarf the entire poker tour community with consistency and moneymaking."

Read in full here.

UPDATE: Shannon Shorr still not in. Ivan Demidov had to drop out and is replaced by Hevad Khan.

UPDATE II: Got a TOKE coming later today with a bunch of hot models and GoDaddy.com at Caesar's...developing.

NBC National Heads Up Poker Red Carpet, Draw Party Tonight

Quick reminder that the NBC National Heads Up Poker Championship draw party is tonight at PURE in Las Vegas.

There's a red carpet event before the draw party, and we'll be filming multiple TOKE interviews to be uploaded throughout the night.

Check back on Wicked Chops or RawVegas.tv for all the interviews. Below are some of the best of last year.

Salty Joe Hachem Confirms He's Not Adnan Ghalib
Jason Alexander Is a Good Interview
Erick Lindgren Does Not Stand In The Way of Don Cheadle
Don Cheadle Doesn't Like Us

Amir's Bad Beat

We've been following Amir and Streeter's Prank Wars on collegehumor.com for some time now. So we've been wondering when the hell Streeter was going to get Amir back for the fake proposal at Yankee Stadium.

A year and a half later, Streeter figured out a way to exact sound revenge by getting Amir to do a fake $500,000 half-court shot. Hopefully the next one doesn't escalate into one of their own's death.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Meet New Stupid Poker Criminals Hall of Fame Inductee: Eric Cloutier

It's been way too long since we've inducted someone new into the Stupid Poker Criminals Hall of Fame. Partly this is our fault. But partly it was stupid poker criminals around the world's fault for not stepping up their game. And let's face it, partly this is your fault too.

But this one we just couldn't ignore.

Poker player Eric Cloutier (at right) makes a strong case not just for Hall of Fame induction, but perhaps for its new Chairmen of the Board.

Louisiana Alcohol and Tobacco Control officials arrested Cloutier, of Lafayette, Arkansas on 505 counts, including but not limited to tax evasion, fraud and money laundering.


Cloutier, a former hockey player and in no way related to T.J., was charged with laundered as much as $1.4 million through various businesses over a three-years. This total dwarfs his $100,000 or so in poker winnings.

Read more about it here. Revisit some old Stupid Poker Criminals here (wtf kind of a Tournament of Kings shirt is that) and here.

* Photo courtesy of Bluff Magazine.

NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship: Who Do You Like?

Andrew Feldman over at ESPN asked us to take part in "ranking the field" exercise for the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship that starts later this week. The "panel" for this column included DanM from Pokerati, Gary Wise, Dr. Pauly, Bernard Lee, and Lance Bradley from Bluff Magazine.

Looking at the list top-to-bottom, we had to "seed" the entries. No surprise that Chris "Jesus" Ferguson was an almost unanimous #1. The surprise is that Dr. Pauly was the only person who didn't rank Ferguson in the top spot, instead opting for crazy-ass Finn Ilari "ziigmund" Sahamies.

Complete breakdown on the list and what everyone thought of the other guy's picks here.

And for the hell of it, one more use of quotation marks "here."

Wasn't Layne Flack in Rehab?

We're not 100% on this, but we're pretty sure Layne Flack did a stint in rehab. Seems like that worked out pretty good for him.

PokerListings.com posted a great video from the WPT Invitational Saturday night. We really didn't feel like "going there" in our first write-up, but why not now: basically everyone at the event was super cool. It was a lot of fun. The WPT, Matt Savage, and the Commerce Casino did a great job putting it all together.

All the celebs and pros were in good spirits. However there were all two people that were acting like complete douchebags in the event: Layne Flack and the guy with the big forehead in the background of this video.

Anyway Layne, before you declare your love for Trishelle Cannatella, make sure you've got about 47 condoms to wrap around your dong and are already taking Valtrex.

Having said that, Trishelle looks way better in person than you'd think. Too bad her vag has been a parking lot for half of the penises in Las Vegas.

Flack douching it up below.

Fun with Flack from PokerListings TV

Freddy Deeb Wins WPT Invitational

In honor of its winner, we'll keep this one short: half-man, half-amazing Freddy Deeb won the WPT Invitational.

Celebrity Apprentice: Annie Duke Is Bossy

So we actually watched the new Celebrity Apprentice last night. The producers did Annie Duke no favors, with the first clip of her cussing someone out on the phone.

Early on, Duke took charge of the females. She came up with the team name (Athena), took over the challenge and led the women to victory in the cup cake sale competition (getting the likes of Erik Seidel and other poker players to shell out big $$$ for the treats).

While Duke clearly was bossing people the fuck around, we don't think Athena would've won without her and about 90% of what she was saying was spot on.

In case we haven't mentioned it before, Duke at least finishes in the top two.

Below is a bonus clip from the show of Annie ripping the men's team. 

Las Vegas' Hottest Hottie?

RawVegas.tv continues their search for Las Vegas' hottest girl with their February babe, Dana Lauren. Let's just say Dana classes this one up a bit and isn't as liberal with the clothing-removal as last month's nominee Francine Dee.

Watch RawVegas.tv Girl of the Month - Dana Lauren on RawVegas.tv

The Entities Who Comprise Wicked Chops Poker Didn't Last Long in the WPT Invitational

A year's supply of steak was wasted just so Jose Canseco could wear that outfit. Photo Credit: World Poker Tour

Let's just say that the Entities who comprise Wicked Chops Poker have had much, much better outings than what happened at the WPT Invitational on Saturday.

Usually when the Entities go out and play any event, after the inevitable bedlam ensues, at least 1/3 of said Entities cracks "the money" or "the final table." Without the requisite exaggeration, this happens about 90% of the time.

What happens 0% of the time is having all Entities gone with about the first 25% of the field.

So there really is a first time for everything.

Some random notes:

:: Ricki Lake, who looks way better at 40 than she did at 30, is more or less responsible for crippling Snake, leading to his eventual ouster.

:: Not that we weren't going to already, but Samm Levine sold us on seeing Inglorious Basterds.

:: For whatever reason, wearing nothing but leather isn't totally bizarre looking on Jose Canseco.

:: People really love them some William Hung.

:: Derek Hough and Shannon Elizabeth are still dating.

:: And for the .01% of our readers who watch The Bachelor, Chris Harrison says that about 99% of what's on Reality Steve's blog is "totally fabricated."

Final six play it out today. Keep track of it here.