So Entities, Who Was On The Other Line?

Natalie Gulbis contacted someone in the poker industry to hook her up with some donors. We finally are getting around to revealing who that was...

Ok, here's the official reveal on who Annie Duke was yelling at on the Celebrity Apprentice two weeks ago.

In case you missed it during our live blogging of the 2009 WSOP Media conference call, we officially eliminated two people:

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).

That only left Steve Lipscomb, Jamie Horowitz, and Ty Stewart.

Go to the comments section here and look for The Entities post to reveal the winner. Said winner, congratulations, you get a WCP t-shirt.

Matthew Woodward Maintains Chip Lead at EPT Grand Final, Annette Obrestad Makes Charge

At post time this morning, Matthew Woodward has built on his overnight chip lead at the EPT Grand Final. He is currently stacked at 2,800,000.

Only 18 players remain. Unless you live near a fjord you probably don't know/don't care about the rest, except for perhaps Annette Obrestad, a woman, who is currently stackd at 1,400,000.

Follow the action live here.

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.