Poker News Made Better With Svetle Simeonova

The latest poker news is brought to you by 25-year-old Bulgarian model Svetle Simeonova, who is currently the Shana Hiatt of an Italian poker TV show called "La Notte Del Poker," although we could be making this up as nothing we read about her was in English. Photos of Svetle below, and check out her Maxim Germany photo spread here (NSFW).

:: That little guy who won the EPT Copenhagen for his daughter N-a-n-z-i took down the $500 buy-in event at the WSOP-C Indiana (Click here)

:: WCP Poker Awards Winner The Intense Stare of Scott Clements won the $5k prelim event at the Bellagio Five-Star World Poker Classic (Click here)

:: Poker raid in Hilton Head nets 27 players, one of who we bet was wearing a Tommy Bahama shirt (Click here)

:: Poker pro Jen Harman, a woman, continues her fight against animal cruelty with charity tourney at the Venetian this April 18 (Click here)

:: Jerry Yang, the most anonymous WSOP Main Event winner in recent history, is apparently known as "The Shadow" in poker circles. What happened to Nien Nunb? (Click 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.

2008 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship: Jerry Yang Alive, Too Damn Nice

We've had it. 2007 WSOP Main Event champ Jerry Yang is too damn nice. He's like a less creepy version of David Archuleta.

Jerry Yang NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship video

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.

Jerry Yang, God to Play 2008 NBC Heads-Up Poker Championship

NBC has announced its initial line-up for the (no longer?) Shana Hiatt-hosted 2008 National Heads-Up Poker Championship, and while most of the field is the same old same old (Doyle, Ivey, Chan, Jesus, Greenstein, Hellmuth, Shannon Elizabeth), a few new players on the scene are set to compete including Mirage Poker Showdown winner Jonathan Little, high stakes cash player Brian Townsend and God-on-his-side 2007 WSOP Main Event Champion Jerry Yang (seen at right), who besides his Chris McCandless-esque journey into the wilds of that cold ice mass north of America, we haven't seen much of since July.

Antonio Esfandiari, who hasn't done much on the poker circuit since Bush's first term, is also among the players set to play, for some reason. Or maybe he's just going to do table side magic or something.

The nationally televised single elimination tournament, which was won last year by Paul Wasicka, is set to take place February 29 - March 2 at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas just as the LA Poker Classic wraps at the Commerce. The show will air on NBC in April and May.

For more on the NBC Heads-Up Championship go to the official site here.

For what 2006 WSOP Main Event champ Jamie Gold had to say about Wicked Chops Poker at last year's NBC Heads-Up championship go here.

For why you should go read a book, go here.

Jerry Yang to Actually Appear In a Poker Tournament

The National Poker League (NPL) Vegas Open is in full swing at the Venetian right now. And while the big shocking news would normally be that Kathy Liebert, a woman, won the NPL Event #1 (banking $55,619), even more outrageously shocking is that Jerry Yang, the most anonymous WSOP winner ever, is actually going to play in the $5,000 buy-in event and possibly even in the $15,000 buy-in Championship Event.

Yang, as you may recall, was last seen not showing up to the APPT tourney in Maccau.

The $15,000 NPL Championship Event begins on Monday the 3rd with an expected first place haul of just over $1M.

Get "full" NPL coverage here. Watch the latest webisode of The TOKE, where host Dave Farra (who co-hosts NPL high-def tournament action with Kirk Morrison) interviews NPL Exec Producer Sam Riddle below.

Jerry Yang's Quest To Be Most Anonymous WSOP Winner Ever Continues

Thanks to an anonymous reader tip for first pointing out to us (and then to PokerNews.com for Blue Boxing the details) that 2007 WSOP Main Event champ Jerry Yang (at right) has finally reappeared, but only because he didn't show up to a poker tournament.

Yang, expected to play in the PokerStars APPT tourney in Macau, had some visa issues, and wasn't able to attend the event. When Yang arrived at the airport, he was told he'd need a visa to fly into Hong Kong. This is not something typical for U.S. American residents traveling to Hong Kong. Our anon tip said that it was Yang's refugee status that caused the issue.

Yang, who has only surfaced in these pics since his WSOP win, can now comfortably drift back and not be heard from again for another five months.

Where Is Jerry Yang?

The 2007 WSOP final table airs in a just few hours tonight on ESPN.

And this got us thinking: what happened to Jerry Yang?

Jerry Yang is the guy who won the 2007 WSOP Main Event, btw.

(And rumor has it that it will be revealed tonight that the hand that Jerry Yang's final table roll started, when Lee Childs held Queens...Yang...held...Jacks.)

Could Yang have gone more silent in recent months?

Aside from these photos we found of Yang pulling a Chris McCandless-esque journey into the wild and across Canada, there hasn't been a peep from him since the win. No Jamie Gold-esque lawsuit. No Salty Joe Hachem "oi oi oi!" Yet, nothing...except some talk about giving money to something called "charity," which we thought must've been the name of some stripper he was banging but then learned it actually is a word in the English language that means, "generous actions or donations to aid the poor, ill, or helpless."

People seriously do that shit? We thought most people just made fun of or threw stuff at or pushed the poor, ill, or helpless down stairs and stuff.

Anyway, we've written before that for the good of poker, we really needed a dynamic final table and, in particular, winner this year. Who knows how Yang will be edited, but "dynamic" isn't the "d" word that usually comes to mind from people in the poker world when they think of him.

Let's see what kind of job ESPN does tonight. More Jerry Yang partying/tramping across the country photos after the jump.

Jerry Yang, Poker's New Squeaky Clean Ambassador

The Yin and Yang of World Series of Poker Champions.

So the era of Jamie Gold as the WSOP Main Event champ is over, which sucks for us because we don't expect Jerry Yang, the Ajax of poker, to give us any real good material to write about over the next 12 months, at least not like our favorite Malibu blowhard did. Sure Jerry Yang, a God-loving, clean-living, charity-giving, father of six immigrant from Laos, has a truly compelling story, one that is the ultimate manifestation of the American dream--kind of like Tuan Lam's tale of immigrating from Vietnam is except totally different because Lam finished second and lives in Canada. But what can we expect from our new champion as a storyline after the initial media honeymoon is over? Will he balk on giving to the charities he promised? Not likely. Will he produce a new show called "The Hottest Hmong in America?" with a website that says "You Hot Hmong You" every time you visit it? That would be awesome. Will he stiff the WSOP dealers out of a big tip? Wait, he did stiff the dealers out of a big tip? Anyway, lots of people other than us are talking about Yang and below are the best reads we've found so far on the game's new de facto ambassador. Check 'em out. :: Jeff Haney on how the new face of championship poker came from unlikely origins, gained fame lightning fast and plans to give away part of his winning - Las Vegas Sun :: Jerry Yang, the (Poker) World Needs You Now - Lou Krief's Blog :: Can Yang Save Poker's Face? - Casino City Times :: WSOP Epilogue: A Leap of Faith - Tao of Poker :: How to Catch an Animal With a Havahart Trap - wikiHow UPDATE: Stiff the dealer link fixed above. Be sure to also read the piece 2007 WSOP POY Tom Schneider wrote on tipping.

Jerry Yang is the 2007 WSOP Main Event Champion

After surviving a final table that could best be described as "long," and "grueling," and "really fucking long," Jerry Yang has won the 2007 WSOP Main Event.

At around 4 am PDT, Yang rivered a straight against Tuan Lam, a Canadian, to claim the title.

The 39-year-old father of many who was a refugee from Laos and currently works as a shrink and social worker, whatever that is, in Temecula, California, took control of the final table from the outset, which is a fancy way of saying "the first hand," and played the role of table captain well as he took out seven of the eight players at the final table.

At the championship ceremony, Yang reiterated that he would be giving 10% of his winnings to something called "charity." We quickly google'd the word on our new iPhone and discovered the meaning. If by chance you then read any reports of a small contingent of people hollering "Whyyyyyyyyy???" and fainting in the audience, that was us.

For the win, Yang banks $8.25 million, 10% of which he is inexplicably giving to charity. Tuan Lam will take home $4.8 million, all of which we hope he keeps for himself to squander on meaningless material things. 62-year-old Raymond Rahme, of Johannesburg, South Africa, took third and just over $3 million.

Rounding out the final table were:

4th Place - Alex Kravchenko, 36, of Moscow, Russia, $1,852,721
5th Place - Jon Kalmar, 34, of Chorley, Lancashire (UK), $1,255,069
6th Place - Hevad “Rain” Khan, 22, of Poughkeepsie, NY, $956,243
7th Place - Lee Childs, 35, of Reston, VA, $705,229
8th Place - Lee Watkinson, 40, of Cheney, WA, $585,699
9th Place - Philip Hilm, 31, of Cambridge (UK), $525,934.

* Photo courtesy of IMAGEMASTERS.

Jerry Yang's God Apparently More Legitimate Than Hevad Khan's God*

Sorry for the lack of updates the past couple hours. We had to pull a Fredo.

The Jerry Yang wrecking ball continued to be in full effect, as he eliminated Hevad Khan. However he took his first hit after Alexander Kravchenko doubled through him.

Then our pick to win, Raymond Rahme, took out this year's Rhett Butler, Jon Kalmer. So we're down to four.

Approximate chip counts are Jerry Yang at 65M, Raymond Rahme at 29M, Tuan Lam at 16.5M, and Alexander Kravchenko at 16.5M.

* Wicked Chops Poker does not claim to know Hevad Kahn's religious beliefs or affiliations, nor do we claim to know Jerry Yang's, other than he does in fact believe in God. Khan and Yang could very well believe in the same God. Or maybe they believe, like Joan Osbourne, that God is one of us. We just don't know. So just like that song from Asia, only time will tell.

Jerry Yang Believes in God

Jerry Yang has begun praising God after each hand he wins. If Hevad "Rain" Khan gets hot, will he praise Allah? Developing...

Jerry Yang Is Unstoppable, Busts Lee Childs

On one of the first hands of final table play, Lee Childs folded pocket Queens to a Jerry Yang all-in with a seven-high flop.

Just a few minutes ago, Yang re-raised Childs all-in with J-8. This time Childs called, holding K-J. Yang turned an eight, and Childs busts out in seventh place. Yang now has over 62M.

Jerry Yang has become this year's Jamie Gold. Don't fuck with him.

Jerry Yang Busts Lee Watkinson After Watkinson Makes a Very Donk Move

Pre-flop, Lee Watkinson re-raises Jerry Yang all-in. Yang deliberates for about five minutes as they count out Watkinson's chips, then makes the call.

Watkinson only holds A-7. Yang has A-9.

The board doesn't help Watkinson and the one pro at the table is now out after making a very amateur move. Watkinson should've none the one man at the table likely to call a re-raise all-in with A-9 would be Yang. Horrible.

Yang now has about 55M.