WPT Foxwoods Poker Classic Isn't What It Used to Be

Only 259 players showed for the 2009 WPT Foxwoods Poker Classic (or basically the same number of tweets David Williams does in an hour).

This means the event will only pay out $731,079 for first. Why does this matter? It doesn't, really. But Foxwoods was home to the first ever WPT million dollar top prize. And just last year, Erik Seidel won $992,890 for taking the title.

So why the decline? First, you gotta blame The Economy^TM. Second, pros freaking hate Foxwoods. And third, the Bellagio prelim events are going on, and a lot of West Coast based pros are hitting that instead (see previous sentence as to one of the main reasons why).

Anyway, at the beginning of Day 2 play, the aforementioned David Williams is chip leader, stacked at 195,000. Hoyt Corkins isn't far behind with 164,000. And overnight chip leader Ken Adams is stacked at 145,000.

Also among the big stacks are Allen "Chainsaw" Kessler (117,000), Jonathan Little (95,000), Steve Brecher (93,000), Mike Matusow (85,000), and Dan Heimiller, a ginger (84,000).

Get full chip counts and live reporting here.

UPDATE: Ryan Fisler ended Day 2 as chip leader with 422,000. David Williams is stacked at 314,300. Also alive are Barry Greenstein 151,200, Hoyt Corkins (144,400), Mike Matusow (93,800), Steve Brecher, who if he wins we say gets to take the nickname "Back To Back" from Layne Flack (68,500), and Jonathan Little (64,600). Only 59 remain.

 

Huck Seed, 7 Others Advance at NBC National Heads Up Poker Championship

Our perennial pick to win it all, Huck Seed, has become the first/only person to cash in all five NBC National Heads Up Poker Championships by...cashing at the 2009 NBC National Heads Up Poker Championship.

Seed will face last minute scratch entry David Oppenheim in the quarterfinals. Oppenheim replaced Layne Flack and has made the most of it by registering his first quarterfinals appearance.

Also making his first quarterfinals appearance is Daniel Negreanu. In a lock to be the featured table, he'll take on Vanessa Rousso, a woman, who went to Duke.

Phil Hellmuth got a measure of revenge for last year's loss to Tom "Durrrr" Dwan by pretty much pwning him this go around. Hellmuth will face arguably the hottest guy on the circuit right now (performance-wise), Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier.

And in the final quarterfinals match, David Williams will face Sam Farha.

Below is an interview with Huck Seed from the draw party Thursday night. It seems like Huck might have cracked the code on how to be successful at HU poker. Maybe Seth Rogan was right in Pineapple Express. Weed does make everything better.

Watch Huck Seed at the 2009 NBC Heads-Up Poker Championship on RawVegas.tv

David Williams Was Making Out With Aubrey O'Day

Dramatization of what Aubrey O'Day likely looked like at David Williams' Panorama Towers condo sometime early Saturday morning.

According to Las Vegas gossip columnist Norm Clarke, poker player David Williams was getting it on with none other than Aubrey O'Day just a few hours after this red carpet interview.

Reports Clarke:

Former Danity Kane star Aubrey O'Day, celebrating her 25th birthday and her March cover girl appearance in Playboy on Friday at Jet (Mirage). Her parents and a few friends joined her, as did poker star David Williams. They were seen getting fully involved in the Valentine's Day spirit.

Yet another nice score for Williams, who is known to pull more hot ass than just about any other poker player around (see Altice, Summer). Safe to say Williams has probably been laid more than all of the other Magic The Gathering players combined...and squared.

Maybe it's time for RawVegas.tv to get their reality vlog with Williams going again.

2008 WSOP Update: Vinnie Vinh Doesn't Win; Erik Seidel Goes for Number 9

Plenty of other World Series of Poker tourneys to recap other than Phil Tom, father of Absolute Poker founder Scott Tom, winning Event #11 (read here). Let's get going.

:: Event #12 ($1,500 Limit Hold'em) - Whether for the train-wreck potential or the redemption story, kind of hard not to root for Vinnie Vinh. Or his chair. Vinnie stuck it out and played this one through himself, and ended up with a third place finish cashing just shy of a hundred grand. Jimmy Schultz took eventually took it down, banking $257,049 and scoring his first bracelet. Get full results here.

:: Event #13 ($2,500 NLH) - One of those "friends and family" final tables. Get chip counts here.

:: Event #14 ($10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship) - This one was shaping up to be a huge final table but fizzled a little. David Oppenheim is the chip leader, stacked at 508,000. While short-stacked with 273,000 Erik Seidel will gun for his ninth WSOP bracelet. Just missing the final table were Phil Ivey (ninth) and Daniel Negreanu (eleventh). Watch Daniel give his thoughts deep into the tourney here. Get full chip counts here.

:: Event #15 ($1,000 Ladies Event) - Best to read some of our "real-time" updates here and here, but Shavonne Mitchell, a woman, is the overnight chip leader with 94,000. Some notables remaining include Olga Varkonyi, a woman, (83,800), Evelyn Ng, a woman, (55,300), Glum Girl Svetlana Gromenkova, a woman, (48,000), Van Nguyen, a woman, (45,200), Kathy Liebert, a woman, (22,500), and Amanda Leatherman, a woman, (11,500).

Event #16 ($2,000 Omaha Hi/Lo) - The last tournament of the day had 551 entrants. Only 178 remained when play concluded. Lots of big names are among the chip leaders. The top chip counts are Marc Goodwin (33,500), Barry Greenstein (27,000), Jimmy "gobboboy" Fricke (27,000), Men "The Master" Nguyen (26,000), The Intense Stare of Scott Clements (25,800), Dutch Boyd (25,300), David Williams (22,600), Victor Ramdin (22,000), David Chiu (22,000), "Miami" John Cernuto (20,000), Ed Fernandez (18,000), and John Juanda (16,500). Get full chip counts here.

2008 WSOP Band of Bloggers: Get full recaps and payouts from WorldSeriesofPoker.com here. Get Dr. Pauly's take on WSOP happenings here. Gary Wise has some thoughts here. Please please don't forget Pokerati here. And get Poker Prof's recap and more photos here.

2008 WSOP Update: Grant Hinkle Wins Event #2, Phil Ivey Leads the Rebuy One, Erick Lindgren Guns for First Bracelet

By early evening there were four different 2008 World Series of Poker tourneys going on simultaneously, so lots to cover. Below is the abridged summation:

:: Event #2 ($1,500 NLH) - After playing down from 18 to 9 earlier in the day, the final table kicked off in primetime. Grant Hinkle (Blair's brother) bested a field of 3,929 to take the $831,462 first place prize. James Akenhead came in second to bank $520,219. Chris "Jesus" Ferguson was third ($388,287) and Theo Tran  fourth ($327,148). Get full recaps here.

:: Event # 3 ($1,500 PLH) - A couple of big names, as WPT winner Joe Tehan, whose name looks too much like Tehran for our liking, is big stacked with 458,000. He's followed by Jacobo Fernandez with 428,000. David Singer is one of the short-stacks with 83,000.

Event #4 ($5,000 Mixed Hold'em) - Now this is a final table. More established names than any final table save the $50k H.O.R.S.E. that we can remember. One-time WSOP bracelet runner-up David Rheem is chip leader stacked at 885,000. One-time WSOP Main Event runner-up David Williams is second with 678,500. Justin Bonomo is stacked third with 517,500. Going after his elusive first bracelet is our official-pick-to-win-it (OPTWI^TM) Erick Lindgren with 345,000. Team Full Tilt Poker leader Howard Lederer, who earlier in the year in Bluff Magazine we predicted would have a monster season is next with 324,500. The rest of the final table includes Roland de Wolfe (194,000), Andrew Robl (162,000), Howard Stern's illigitimate son Isaac Haxton (115,500), and Pat Pezzin (108,500). Final table play begins at 3pm today, get your live updates here.

Event #5 ($1,000 NLH w/ Rebuys) - One of our favorite events is led by one of our favorite players, as some guy named Phil Ivey takes the chip lead to Day 2, stacked at 175,500. He's followed by "That Guy Again?" Amit Makhija with 161,100. Making UGA proud is one-time EPT winner Jeff Williams with 145,700. Other notables include either Lee Watkinson or Lee Markholt (same guy, right?) with 80,800, Phil Hellmuth (67,300), Daniel Negreanu (64,500), and John Juanda (60,600). In total, 106 players remain and play begins again at 2pm. Get full chip counts here.

Event #6 ($1,500 Omaha Hi/Lo) - While we were busy sweating Shannon Elizabeth, we forgot to mention that Scott Clements (a lock to cash in these Omaha events) looks like he's the freaking Incredible Hulk. Dude is huge. We'll get pics today. Clements is among the chip leaders with 28,000. James Van Alstyne leads them all with 40,000. Get full chip counts here.

2008 WSOP Band of Bloggers: Get full recaps and payouts from WorldSeriesofPoker.com here. Get Dr. Pauly's take on WSOP happenings here. Gary Wise has some thoughts here. Please please don't forget Pokerati here. And get Poker Prof's recap and more photos here.

The Wicked Chops Poker Awards - Part II

Yesterday we introduced the first part of the possibly first annual Wicked Chops Poker Awards. As promised, today = Part II (which is so important we use Roman numerals instead of just the number "2").

Best Breasts in Poker: J.C. Tran. Listen, we have no idea where the "J.C. Tran has spectacular breasts..." thing came from. Couldn't think of anything else to say about the guy and it randomly popped up and the rest is history. Having said that, look at J.C. Tran's spectacular breasts (at right). Those are without one single doubt the best breasts in poker. Yes, Lacey Jones is the hottest girl in poker, but have you seen J.C.'s breasts? How can you even make an argument that someone has better breasts? You can't. It'd be like arguing against Lionel Hutz. You're winning that one every time, son.

Worst Name of a Potential Cellmate if You're Sent to Prison: Hoyt Corkins. The thought of being "hoyt corkin'd" is utterly terrifying.

Best 2+2 Thread of All-Time: The Sklansky/Hawbaker Dramabomb. It was bound to happen. Rumors swirled about some kind of Sklansky/Hawbaker relationship at last year's WSOP (watch the Brandi Hawbaker interview about it). Then it died down. Went away. Then in late February it just blew the f' up (read the 2+2 thread here), culminating in 2+2 banning any known Brandi Hawbaker associates (and the NWP crew) and Sklansky "alluding" to throwing acid on Brandi's face. This one had it all. In fact, we feel safe in saying that we may never see a poker forum thread involving a 60 year-old dude who keeps a vibrator in his glove compartment and hints at throwing acid on a hot girl's face again. Probably.

Best Neverwin Poker Thread: Justin Smith Rolls Bryan Micon. The sheer creativity in this one wins out over the never-ending supply of messed up NWP threads. After Bryan "King of the Degenerates" Micon got rolled for about $12k by Justin Smith, he turned the fuck-you-machine on full-throttle. Micon wouldn't rest until he got paid back. Be it recording countless phone conversation and putting them online, or releasing one digit of Justin Smith's SSN every hour until he got paid back, this one was constant entertainment. Watch Micon's RawVegas.tv interview on the pwning here.

Poker Blog Round-Up: Men Caught Cheating, Laak Favorited, Poker Writer Dies Young, Something In Spanish + More

This is the first of our new series of poker blog round-ups at Wicked Chops Poker in which we send people to other blogs to get their poker news fix. Yep, we're all about link love here at Wicked Chops Poker. Link love and laziness.

:: Shocking! Men "The Master" Nguyen accused of cheating in LA, this time by none other than Justin Bonomo (Click here)

:: Phil Laak allowed to start WPT Invitational on Day 2, David Singer nits, Shaniac picks (Click here)

:: Gutshot WSOP reporter Barron Vangor Toth, a favorite of ours, sadly dies at age 34, Pokerati Dan obits (Click here)

:: David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth are dumb and dumber, grumps Gary Carson (Click here and here)

:: Phil Ivey channels his inner Yang after big win, bestows Red Bull+Poker (Click here)

:: Las diferentes dimensiones del póquer, escribe David Williams, tacos Poquer-Red (Click here)

The girl in the photo, that's Grace Park. See more of her here.

Got a poker blog and a story, shoot us an e-mail.

WPT LAPC: Singer, Esfandiari, and Wroblewski (a Woman), Day 1 Chip Leaders, Vinnie Vinh + Jerry Yang Out...Will We Ever Hear from Them Again?

Day 1 of the 2008 WPT LAPC ended with 450 of the original 665 players remaining. Hats off to the WPT for keeping all numbers divisible by "5" this year. As faithful readers of this site know, we hate math, so the more that numbers can be dumbed-down for us the better.

Some big names top the leaderboard. The unofficial* chip count leader at the end of Day 1 is David Singer, stacked at 137,400. He's followed by Antonio Esfandiari, who is stepping up after being named the new face of the WPT. Antonio brings 119,000 to Day 2 play. At third overall is Anna Wroblewski, a woman, with 116,550.

So many big names remain it would take a much more boring site that actually cares about listing them all to list them all, but some highlights include: Justin Bonomo (77,125), Action Dan Harrington (72,500), Montel Williams (59,000), David Williams (57,000), Phil Hellmuth (49,575), Johnny Chan (44,925), Phil Ivey (44,025), Vanessa Rousso who went to Duke (44,000), the insufferably annoying Humberto Brenes (40,300), star of Meerkat Manor Jeff Madsen (39,000), Todd Brunson (38,000), Lakers owner Jerry H. Buss (37,700), Survivor China's Jean-Robert Bellande (34,000), Mike Sexton (33,000), 2007 NBC Heads-Up champ Paul Wasicka (31,875), and that should be more than enough for now.

Not making it to Day 2 include Vinnie Vinh, Vinnie Vinh's chair, Jerry Yang (apparently he wasn't praying hard enough this time), and Obama '08 supporter Daniel Negreanu. Question, would Daniel support celeb favorite Bam Obama if he knew the Presidential hopeful was not only swiping words from Deval Patrick, but was also plagiarizing Rocky Balboa?

And finally, not making an appearance at this year's LAPC is Dancing with the Stars' Shannon Elizabeth, as Shannon Elizabeth is busy getting in super-hot shape for Dancing with the Stars.

Get full chip counts and reporting from the fantastic WPT website.

* Official.

WPT LA Poker Classic: Vinnie Vinh Still Alive, Glum Girl is Here, Benyamine Looking Slim(mer), Negreanu Backing Barack

So we made it to the Commerce today after a night of relatively moderate bedlam that kicked off at the Library Alehouse in Santa Monica and somehow ended up with us at a Laurel Canyon mansion this morning with a group of Venice Beach trust fund hippies who graffiti'd are SUV rental with Obama stickers.

We'll save that story however for our forthcoming 4-part series entitled "How We Spent the Friday Night Before the WPT LA Poker Classic."

For now, the word from the Commerce is that the action got underway almost 3 5 7 plus hours ago and we're finally getting around to writing something and we don't have much to say besides that pretty much every poker player you know this side of the Atlantic is here including Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey, Jamie Gold, John Phan, Carlos Mortensen, Are You Really Reading this List?, Paul Wasicka, Vannessa "Went to Duke" Rousso, Grover Cleveland, Layne Flack, Phil Laak, Josh Arieh, Rhahaeid Skaoodo, David Plastik, Barry Greenstein, Dan Harrington, Erick Lindgren, Mother Teresa, Eric Mizrachi, Scott Clements, Haralabos Voulgaris, Still Reading This?, David Williams, Freddy Deeb, We Wonder What We Should Eat for Dinner, Gavin Smith, David Singer, Lee Watkinson, Perhaps We'll Go to Panchos Tonight, Tom Schneider, Mark Seif, This Is Getting Tiring, Chau Giang, Tim Phan and Erick Seidel.

In total, 665 players started today, down considerably from last year's 791, and the total prize pool is $6,374,400, with first place set to take home $1,596,100. In 2007, Eric Hershler walked away with $2,429,970.

Of note . . .

Wicked Chops Poker Is Your LA Poker Classic News Headquarters

Wicked Chops Poker is on the ground in Los Angeles to report on the WPT L.A. Poker Classic Main Event and is gearing up for a week of unprecedented coverage of one of the tour's premier events. Held at the Commerce Casino, a longtime fave of the Entities, this year's LAPC Main Event is anticipated to draw a record field with a prize purse in the $7 million range, which is even a lot by our standards. And we're stupid rich.

Starting tomorrow and through the week, expect countless posts around the clock chronicling all the action at the tables, the gossip away from the felt, up-to-the-minute chip counts, photos from the tournament floor, in-depth interviews with your favorite players and maybe even a video blog or two.

And if we don't deliver any of the above we promise to deliver at least one post a day or maybe one post every other day. Or every other other day. And maybe our reports won't actually be from the Commerce but instead our beach place 25 miles away (photo above), after we wake up from nights of ensued bedlam. At around 4 pm. Because seriously, who do you think we are? That Owen Laukkanen guy?

Nonetheless, we did make it to the Commerce today, where the WPT held a press conference announcing that . . .

David Williams Really Good at Halo 3, The Grinder...Not So Much

In his last vlog on RawVegas.tv, David Williams shows off his Halo 3 skills (as well as the killer night view from his Las Vegas condo). Unfortunately for him, Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi isn't quite at the same Halo 3 level. Or has much interest in the game at all. Or can barely stay awake.

David Williams Not Doing Well on Day 2's

Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi Considering New Career in MMA Fighting

For this week's Toke with Wicked Chops Poker on RawVegas.tv, Dave Farra catches up with Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi and David Williams at the first-ever Bodog Fights held in Las Vegas, which saw Nick "The Goat" Thompson submit John Troyer for the win and two chicks beating the crap out of each other.

Williams talks about placing bets on MMA fights, including a $10,000 wager he won off Patrick Antonius at the UFC fight between Georges St. Pierre and Matt Hughes. The Grinder meanwhile gets all profound about the differences between MMA and poker when he says, "In poker it's mental training, here it is physical training. So it's a lot different."

We're gonna ask him to dumb this down for us the next time we see him but we'll take his word for it.

Oh yeh, about the headline above. Not really true. But it got your attention right?

Speaking of, Bar Refaeli, the Israeli supermodel who Leo DiCaprio upgraded to after Gisele Bundchen, caught our attention today with the smoking hot photos of her below and after the jump.

David Williams A Fan of Borgata...Not So Much of Tunica Though

Gotta hand it to David Williams. Dude calls it like he sees it.

In his latest vlog on RawVegas.tv, David Williams goes over his early poker schedule (yah on Borgata, Tunica, nay on the Aussie Millions). While admitting that the one shining gem in the shithole that is Atlantic City--The Borgata--is "one of my favorite places on the east coast," DW isn't so fond of Tunica, which he calls, "a boring place in the middle of nowhere." True. True.

DW also goes on about another favorite spot, Commerce Casino, and a session where he banked about $90k in 40 hours. Watch the full clip below.

Speaking of the Borg, read coverage of the Borgata Winter Poker Open (getting huge prelim fields)

Poker Pro David Williams Spent More Money than You on New Year's Eve

Poker pro David Williams is back doing his video blogs on RawVegas.tv, and for the first one of 2008 he talks about how he spent New Year's Eve in Las Vegas, including partying alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and the Hilton sisters and spending a shit-ton of money with Joe Cassidy, David Oppenheim, Matt "Hazards21" Giannetti and Jean-Robert Bellande, that kind of obnoxious poker player with the French sounding name who was on "Survivor: China."

The WSOP bracelet winner also talks about his New Year's resolution and the correlation between something called "working out" and playing good poker, something that may help explain the year David Benyamine had in 2007.

Watch the David Williams video below or here.

Watch a bunch of celebs like Paris Hilton talking about their New Year's resolutions

Play poker against David Williams heads-up for a $1,000

See how good Leonard DiCaprio has it

WPT Turks and Caicos Underway, Kimberly Lansing is Back

After a one day delay that had WCP fave Kimberly Lansing bikini vlogging from the beach, the World Poker Tour Turks and Caicos Poker Classic is now underway at the Players' Club Casino in Providenciales, which is on the opposite end of the archipelago from its unfortunately named capital city, Cockburn Town. Only 123 137 players entered the event, with the field consisting primarily of big name players from this side of the Atlantic, including recent WPT winner Bill Edler, the spectacularly breasted JC Tran (in photo below), Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, David Williams, Haralabalososisi Voulgarilosoisis, Phil Laak, Mike Matusow, Joe Sebok and Evelyn Ng. Among the early eliminations are Victor Ramdin, J.J. Liu, Antonio Esfandiari and Jennifer Tilly. Despite the small turnout, the WPT is guaranteeing a $1 million first place prize, and as the WPT live reporters have noted, "[w]ith the total prizepool yet to reach that number, there might be some changes to even out the prize money distribution a bit." Keep track of today's WPT action here and get your Kimberly Lansing fix here.

David Williams Has a Rough Life + Gavin Smith Finally Takes One

When we unloaded one of our Bentley Coupes in Vegas a few years back because it was a lemon, who would have thunk David Williams would end up with it?

Raw Vegas Video - David Williams

Latest "Prop Bets" episode "starring" Gavin Smith and Joe Sebok after the jump . . .

David Williams Has a Lot to Say

David Williams unleashing a stream of consciousness from a shrink's sofa or his latest RawVegas.tv vlog from his sick new leather chair?

Raw Vegas Video