ESPN Kicks Off 2008 WSOP Programming Tonight with One Helluva Final Table

Phil Laak and hopefully Jen Tilly's breasts (above) will be among the big name pros you'll see tonight on ESPN when it airs Event No. 1 of the 2008 WSOP.

ESPN's 2008 World Series of Poker programming officially kicks off tonight at 8 pm ET with the big-name-loaded final table that had our lawyers rushing off to the patent office to claim The Year of the Pro^TM for us.

Going for his second WSOP bracelet in this year's debut event, the $10,000 Pot Limit Hold’em World Championship, was Mike Sexton, while Patrik Antonius, Phil Laak, Nenad "Serb" Medic, perennial runner-upper Andy Bloch, Mike Gracz's cell mate Chris Bell, and noted online players Amit "amak31" Makhija and Mike "sowersUNCC" Sowers all were gunning for their first.

One-time bracelet winner Kathy Liebert, a woman, was also at this final table but because we already told you this was a $10k buy-in World Championship event, we gave away the fact that she doesn't win tonight. Sorry for the spoiler.

But does she come in second??? Watch tonight to find out.

For chip counts going into the final table check out our coverage here.

If you don't remember who won and don't want to spoil it, don't go here.

For a video preview of tonight's show go here.

High Stakes Poker Not 86'd at GSN, Coming Back for 5th Season

Brandon Adams, who could give Scott Clements a run for his money in a staring contest, is one of the pros featured on High Stakes Poker.

More good news for people who like to watch people play poker on television.

While a few months ago it looked like certain death for the popular poker TV show High Stakes Poker, just the other day GSN reps confirmed that they are picking up the option on the 5th season of High Stakes Poker.

Read about it here.

Our story on HSN possibly getting 86'd last May here.

Watch our pilot episode for a show we're pitching GSN called "Jeff Madsen's Human Bowling and Other Stupid Things He'll Do for a Few Bucks or Just for the Hell of It Cause He's Drunk" here.

Video of hot chicks in bikinis handling fresh meat here.

High Stakes Poker 86'd on GSN, Is WPT Next?

The gang over at Pokerati is reporting that it looks like GSN's once-top-rated poker show "High Stakes Poker" is being dropped from the network after not filming a new season for 2008. The Gabe Kaplan and AJ Benza hosted program featured some of today's biggest pros putting up $100k or more each in a televised cash game and was somehow super popular with poker fans despite not having some super hot chick on the show.

Scratching our heads.

AJ Benza (playing Alec Baldwin in Team America above?) is apparenty chapped at GSN, saying:

"Far as Gabe and I know….the show isnt coming back. Apparently…the network is going to go in a different direction and that aint good news for our show, especially since we skew a higher-aged audiuence. Never mind that we’re the network’s No. 1 show. Still and all, no one calls us from the network to say squat. Only Kevin Bellincoff checks in periodically, but it just don’t seem like good news. If you ask me…they’re treating us like shit. All we ever did was make them a bunch of money.

Oliver Tse (at right) sheds some of his usual light on the story in a Pokerati comment (excerpt below):

HSP *** WAS *** GSN’s #1 show until WPT managed to draw over TWICE as many viewers compared to HSP, on the same day of the week in the same time slot (Mondays at 9pm Eastern/Pacific).

Once WPT posted its ratings numbers (which were good enough for WPT to collect the first tier of ratings bonus, but is certainly not good enough for WPT to continue to sell itself as a “sport” due to the older audience skew), I suspected immediately that HSP would NOT be renewed.

The big question: will GSN renew WPT by the June 1, 2008 deadline?

For the complete discussion on the above, including good commentary from Tse, KevMath and California Jen, go here.

For video example of how to spice up any television show with low ratings go here.

Watch all of Season IV of High Stakes Poker here.

15 Surefire Ways to Play in the Next NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship

The selection committee for NBC’s National Heads-Up Poker Championship, hosted by Leeann Tweeden (at right), has just announced a list of automatic ways to get invited to upcoming Heads-Up Championships. Or put another way, the Top 15 Reasons Your Chances of Getting Invited to Upcoming Heads-Up Championships are Slim to None. Except for maybe the ALL In magazine Player of the Year one. That seems like it may be easy to win.

Here are the 15 ways to earn an auto-invite (full press release after the jump):

- Previous 5 National Heads-Up Poker Champions
- Previous 2 National Heads-Up runners-up
- Defending National Heads-Up semifinalists
- Any player who cashes in the past 4 consecutive years of the National Heads-Up Poker Championship
- Previous 3 World Series of Poker Main Event Champions
- Defending World Series of Poker Main Event runner-up
- Beginning with the 2008 WSOP, multiple bracelet winners in the same year will receive an automatic invitation to the next Heads-Up Championship
- Defending World Series of Poker Player of the Year
- Defending World Series of Poker Heads-Up Champion
- Defending World Series of Poker Europe Main Event Champion (must be 21 or older)
- Reigning World Poker Tour Player of the Year
- Reigning Monte Carlo European Poker Tour Grand Final Champion (must be 21 or older)
- Reigning Card Player magazine Player of the Year
- Reigning Bluff magazine Player of the Year
- Reigning ALL IN magazine Player of the Year

Leeann Tweeden is New Poker After Dark Host

Model/TV personality Leeann Tweeden has been tapped as the new host of the popular poker television show Poker After Dark. Tweeden will replace season 3 host Marianela Pereyra, who stepped in after a pregnant Shana Hiatt left the show a year ago. The super sweet, Argentinian-born Pereyra was a regular fixture at last year's WSOP, where she did online video reports.

Tweeden, who first made a name for herself on FSN's "The Best Damn Sports Show Period" and has done several Maxim, FHM and STUFF photo spreads, most recently replaced the once Peacock-blocked Shana Hiatt as the sideline reporter at this year's NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship.

Poker After Dark, which airs on NBC so late it's early Monday thru Saturday, will be the third poker show Tweeden has hosted, with her first being the Poker Dome Challenge.

For more on Leeann Tweeden, check out her MySpace page here.

Watch RawVegas.tv's interview with Leeann Tweeden here.

Press release announcing Leeann Tweeden as the new host, after the jump . . .

Annie Duke was a 'Prize' on Deal or No Deal Last Night

Dancing with the Stars' Shannon Elizabeth, who you may know as one of the contestants on Dancing with the Stars, wasn't the only poker playing chick appearing on a hit show last night.

Annie Duke, a woman, made a surprise appearance on NBC's Deal or No Deal, the game show featuring Howie Mandel and 26 super hot models holding briefcases with varying amounts of money in them.

Apparently the contestant last night was a female poker player, and in the middle of the show, Annie came up on stage to offer a "deal" that included $133,000 in cash and a free trip to Annie's WSOP Academy ladies poker camp, 4 private poker lessons and some other stuff that was valued at a total of $25,000. The contestant's husband encouraged her to walk away with the Annie Duke lessons and the money, but she went against his advice and said, "No Deal."

In the end, the chick wasn't stupidly greedy like every other contestant on the show. She made it down to two cases, one had $25,000 and the other $1 million, and when she was offered $341,000, she took the deal.

So what was in her case? The million bucks.

We missed the actual airing but we were sent a video of Annie's appearance on the show and we have to say she's looking rather fit and trim. We guess all that marathon training is paying off for her. Or maybe it's Adderall. Works for us.

In case you are wondering who the hot blonde is in the photo above and what she has to do with this post, her name is Brooke Long, the Deal or No Deal model who holds case #15 every week on the show. We met her at the WPT Invitational a few weeks ago where she showed us some sick photos of her busted up big toe. It was good times. Below are more clickable photos of Brooke playing poker at the WPTI, and if you missed our Kimberly Lansing shots from the WPTI, do yourself a favor and go here.

Layla Kayleigh Outtakes from WPT Season VI (Might Offend the Easily Offended)

Remember Shana Hiatt's goofy outtakes from when she was on the World Poker Tour? Sticking her tongue out, crossing her eyes or doing the do-see-do after she flubbed a line.

So darn cute. So hot.

Well, with new hostess Layla Kayleigh making her WPT television debut on GSN in just two weeks (March 24 @ 9pm), a couple of videos have been posted on YouTube showing a selection of bloopers from the British hottie's Season VI tapings.

The one below is our favorite because it has Layla Kayleigh joking around about having a Bindi dot on her forehead and talking with an Indian accent (about 46 seconds in).

Kind of reminds us when another British hottie Danielle Lloyd mimicked Bollywood-er Shilpa Shetty on Celebrity Big Brother. People just loved that stuff.

Click here for another video of Layla outtakes plus Shana Hiatt's bloopers reel.

Related posts:

Layla Kayleigh and JC Tran breasts spectacular at the WPT Invitational
Layla Kayleigh video interview with Denise Pernula
Layla Kayleigh is a video blogger
Layla Kayleigh picked as WPT hostess

NBC Heads-Up News: Leeann Tweeden Replaces Shana Hiatt Who is Pregnant

NBC confirmed in a press release today that model/TV personality Leeann Tweeden (at right) will be the new sideline reporter for this year's National Heads-Up Poker Championship, scheduled for February 28 - March 2 at Caesars Palace. WCP fave Shana Hiatt, who is pregnant, has handled the reporting duties the past three years last year.

NBC Heads-Up will be the second televised poker tournament Tweeden has hosted, with her first being the Poker Dome Challenge.

Heading to the tables for the 4th annual National Heads-Up Poker Championship are defending champions Paul Wasicka (2007), Ted Forrest (2006) and Phil Hellmuth (2005). Others include Chad Brown, Johnny Chan, Jamie Gold, Joe Hachem, Gus Hansen, Phil Laak, Howard Lederer, Daniel Negreanu, Greg Raymer, Gavin Smith and 2007 WSOP Champion Jerry Yang, among many others.

Celebrities include Jason Alexander, Don "F-ing" Cheadle, Orel Hershiser, Jennifer Tilly and Shannon Elizabeth.

For a complete list of players, click here.

The tournament will be aired on NBC over seven consecutive Sundays in April and May, beginning on April 13. Brackets will be set during the tournament’s draw party held at PURE Nightclub Thursday, Feb. 28th.

A Shana Hiatt fixing below . . .

Shana Hiatt is Still Sexy Cute
Shana Hiat in Stuff
WPT Screws Shana Hiatt From Going to NBC's Heads-Up Poker Championship
Why Hiatt Left WPT and Other Things Steve Lipscomb Doesn't Want You to Know

Poker After Dark is Reaching

Apparently running out of good ideas, this week's Poker After Dark on NBC is getting all Brokeback with a Cowboys theme with all six poker players supposedly fond of donning a cowboy hat at the poker table.

The six "gun slingers" are Chris Ferguson, Andy Bloch, Doyle Brunson, Hoyt Corkins, Gabe Kaplan and Chau Giang, who ironically never wears a cowboy hat.

Rumors are a "Lefties Week" and "Straight Male Hairdressers Week" are both in the works.

In related news, not all guys walking around Vegas wearing a Stetson, heavy-starched shirt and Wranglers when the rodeo is in town appreciate it when you say: "Loved ya in Brokeback Mountain, cowboy." Some actually may punch you in the face.

Poker After Dark website here. Shoot them an email and suggest a "poker players who screwed/got screwed by Brandi Hawbaker" week. Or month.

WTF Baby! Scotty Nguyen Pimping Absolute Poker at US PokerBowl

Looking over at CardPlayer's coverage of the inaugural US PokerBowl, we couldn't help but notice the photo of Scotty Nguyen decked out in an Absolute Poker cap. Anyone know how to say "super-user account scam" in Vietnamese? If so, get with the former World Champ who we last saw pimping Full Tilt Poker at the 2007 WSOP.

Oh wait, we see that Scotty was playing on Team Detroit Absolute Nuts along with fellow Absolute Nutters Mark Seif, Kenna James, Kathy Liebert, Nick Brancato and Nickelback fan Rick Fuller. The embattled poker site run by cheaters for who knows how long, allegedly, must have been the team sponsor.

The Absolute Nuts. Frickin' hate the poker world sometimes.

In related news, the US Poker Bowl concluded, one of the teams won and we're pretty sure no one cares. Maybe it will play better on television when it eventually airs on Fox Sports. Kind of like the "So You Think You Can Porn" reality show we're working on.

Get results from the US PokerBowl here.

Learn how to master the swipe in Scotty Nguyen's break dancing tutorial here.

Photo of Scotty Nguyen from CardPlayer.com

Audition in Vegas for Your Chance to Get Stupid Rich On Poker Reality TV Show

Heading to Las Vegas next week to play the 2007 WSOP Main Event in hopes of striking it rich? Great. So what's your backup plan when you go out on Day 1 because your flopped top set gets the smack down by a nut flush draw or say you're one of the crazies we inevitably see on the first day who think TPTK is flopping the nuts?

Well, if you're one of the latter get the hell out of Dodge, you suck, but for everyone else, Bodog is holding an open casting call for all poker players at Planet Ho-llywood/Aladdin, July 5-8, for the second season of "Calvin Ayre Wild Card Poker," which will be nothing like the first season because this time it's just 12 amateur poker players (no pros or celebs) living in a mansion and going at it in a Big Brother-meets-World Poker Tour competition for a $2 million grand prize, the largest in reality TV history (speaking of Big Brother check out Emily Parr from the British version over at Gorillamask.net).

Yep, as we've said before, get on the show and you have a 1 and 12 chance to win a $2 million grand prize, which is about 100 times better than Phil Ivey's chance of winning the Main Event and you're not Phil Ivey, so you have that not going for you.

Here are the details on the auditions:

WHERE:
Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino
3667 Las Vegas Blvd. South
MEETING ROOM: "Sapphire 2"

WHEN:
Thursday, July 5th: Noon to 5:00pm
Friday, July 6th: Noon to 5:00pm
Saturday, July 7th: Noon to 5:00pm
Sunday, July 8th: Noon to 5:00pm

WHAT:
Bring Photo I.D. (must be 21)

Ok, as quid pro quo for our Bodog huckstering we're trying to decide on what Bodog Girl we want Calvin to mail us this month. We were thinking Samira (in pic above) but this month's girl, the ironically named Jamie, has us intrigued, except replace "us intrigued" with "our pants down" and that's somewhat closer to the truth.

More of Jamie after the jump:

Watch Chuck Liddell Get His Ass Kicked. Again.

Chuck "Iceman" Liddell, the MMA poster boy who got knocked out by Quinton "Rampage" Jackson in the first round of UFC 71 on Saturday night after he allegedly partied his ass off the week before, is one of the many celebrities who appears this week on ION TV's rebroadcast of the first season of "Calvin Ayre Wild Card Poker."

The series is airing daily this week at 10pm / 9pm Central, starting Monday, May 28 and wraps up in a "special three hour poker marathon," Saturday, June 2 at 8pm / 7pm Central.

We won't spoil it for you in case you missed the show last year and didn't read the headline above and were wondering if Liddell (seen in pic doing his best Calvin Ayre "Welcome to My World" impression) makes it to the final table, but we will say that, according to ION TV, the final table features Cheryl Hines, David Williams, Josh Arieh, Evelyn Ng, Rob Mariano, Michael Mizrachi, a mystery pro (named Daniel Negreanu) and no one named Chuck Liddell.

In case you don't recall, the controversial first season of "Calvin Ayre Wild Card Poker" generated a fair share of posts at WCP last year. Refresh your memory below:

:: Top Dog: Ayre Looking for Next Poker Phenom

:: Bodog Gets Sued Over "Calvin Ayre Wild Card Poker," Series Starts this Saturday on FSN

:: Ayre Estate Raided

:: Bodog Bites Back: Billionaire Ayre Wants Raid Investigated

:: Exclusive BoDawg.com "Cracker Pack" Photos

Also, don't forget to audition for the second season of Calvin Ayre Wild Card Poker, which is totally different than the first in that $2 million is up for grabs and the competition will be all amateurs this time, so no pros, celebs and Chuck Liddells there to kick the crap out of you.

After the jump, two videos of Chuck Liddell doing his best impression of a MMA fighter being drunk out of his mind on a morning news show and a MMA fighter acting coked up in the audience at a UFC fight. Seriously, watch out Gordie Brown. This Liddell guy is amazing at impressions.

Shana Hiatt is Still Sexy Cute

A couple of us entities stopped by a taping of "Poker After Dark" on Tuesday at the South Point Casino and can confirm that Shana Hiatt is still adorably sexy and dangerously cute, which we think is a hard combo to pull off but people always tell us we make it look easy. As does Shana, both in person and in photos like this.

In related news, professional thong wearer Karina Jelinek, who of course is Argentinian, just made us forget about Shana Hiatt for a second.