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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.
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.
Annie Duke tells her Celebrity Apprentice story on Ellen today. While we don't watch Ellen, The View, Rachael Ray, or any talk show that doesn't involve Andrew not being the father, we had to catch Annie's explanation. Good line about the Celebrity Apprentice: ''It's a fake job and you get fake fired.''
She also says she asked WSOP commish Jeffrey Pollack if "whore pit viper" is acceptable as table talk under the new Code of Conduct. Seems like the audience kind of agrees with her points. See what you think by watching the below vid.
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.
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.
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.
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?"
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.
Joan Rivers on Annie Duke
Having watched the first episode of the Celebrity Apprentice, it's no shocker that Joan Rivers and Annie Duke aren't the best of friends. They're both definitely in competition for "Alpha Female" status in the group, with the only problem being that Annie is way smarter than Joan and Joan is creepy as shit to look at. At this stage we're pretty sure if you put a heat lamp on Joan her face would melt into looking something like this.
Anyway, apparently Joan and Annie didn't get along very well in their battle for Alpha Female status. In the above interview on the Today Show (yesterday), Joan straight up calls Annie a "piece of garbage." Go about 3 minutes in.
A gift from God from Greece, Ria Antoniou brings today's poker news. She's also a clue, of sorts, to our new "Official Pick to Win It All." See, now that Huck Seed won a major event, we have to retire him as our official pick, meaning we are naming someone else in the near future. And Ria is a big clue to who that is. See if you can figure it out.
:: The 2009 WSOP is no longer allowing profanity at the tables (#36). Fuck! [link]
:: For some reason this is funny. [link]
:: Erica Schoenberg likes the ecstacy dance scene from Eastbound & Down, which is about the only few minutes from that show that we liked too. [link]
:: Annie Duke and the women are just pwning the Celebrity Apprentice. [link]
:: And lastly, props to the new Up for Poker facelift. [link]
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!
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.
We unfairly rip on America's cap. We actually love Canada. Good people up there. One thing Canadians also don't get enough credit for is being a land filled with hot girls. Heck, we've been to Edmonton and even there the ratio of hot to not-hot girls was off-the-charts. So in honor of PCA Caribbean Adventure winner (and Canadian) Poorya Nazari, we bring you Kim Cloutier. Easily one of Canada's finest. View more here.
:: As noted above, Poorya Nazari wins PCA Main Event, banking three million f'in dollars. Obviously he doesn't train with Mats Sundin. But perhaps now he should consider changing his name from "Poorya" now to "Richya." Eh? Eh? Yeah that was horrible. But you fucking laughed and you know it. [link]
:: In other tournament news, Dave "Devilfish" Ulliott wins the Irish Poker Championship, banking €33,000. Good to see Devilfish winning something, since he's voteless in the "Best Poker Song" debate. [link]
:: Tiltware files motion to dismiss Clonie Gowen lawsuit. [link]
:: The Best Damn Poker Show Season 2 (aka The Giant UB Ad Buy) begins today. [link
:: Speaking of UB, Annie Duke writes about getting back in poker after six months off (if you missed her, you'll see plenty of her when the Celebrity Apprentice kicks off March 1). And Annie, the dinner bet is still on. [link]
So we're hearing that Annie Duke may be leaving Ultimate Bet. If it happens, what the f' took so long? And will Phil Hellmuth follow?
The speculation is Duke will join Team Full Tilt, which wouldn't be a shocker given her brother's affiliation with the site. This would make Duke Team FTP's most prominent female personality, which probably won't sit too well with Jen Harmon.
In related Duke news (and this is more speculative than the above), word is she at a minimum finished in the top two in this season's Celebrity Apprentice and may have in fact won it.
These two stories would make sense when tied together. While 60 Minutes may have put a brief hold on its hatchet job on online poker and Ultimate Bet, it will still run, and Duke's association with the site would surely be brought up. And with an appearance (and possible deep run) on Celebrity Apprentice, Duke's profile would never be higher.
Developing...
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.
