Brian Rast Leads Day 1B of WPT Festa al Lago, Yet Fails to Capture Blue Diamond Almonds Bold Player of the Day

Starting Day 2 second in chips didn't taste nearly as sweet for Nenad Medic without winning a year's supply of Blue Diamond Almonds.

With 211 players entering Day 1B play (raising the total to 368), the WPT Festa al Lago is breaking records, people. First place will bank over $1.4M, meaning Mike Sexton is about ready to cream himself knowing he'll get to say that "a new WPT millionaire will be crowned!" during the final table broadcast.

The big story yesterday was that Brian Rast ended the Day 1B as chip leader, stacked at 206,225, yet failed to win the Blue Diamond Almonds Bold Player of the Day. So you'd think it'd go to Nenad Medic, who was second overall with 167,250, right?

Wrong.

Instead Ryan Young won the coveted year supply of almonds, finishing third overall with 156,725. Find out why by watching the below vid. But you know Rast is thinking, "Who do I have to blow to win a year's supply of almonds around here?" We feel ya, Rast. We feel ya.

In other tournament news, the above few paragraphs indicate that nobody came remotely close to Antonio Esfandiari's redunkulous Day 1A chip lead of 313,000. Let's see if Esfandiari can ride that out to his first WPT final table appearance since the Reagan administration.

Other big to semi-big named Day 1B big stacks include Toto Leonidas (149,775), Doug Lee (144,500), Brad "Yukon" Booth (123,,500), uber-hot Vivek Rajkumar (108,550), David Chiu (103,300), Erica Schoenberg (97,750), and Shawn Sheikhan (93,750).

Get full Day 1B chip counts here.

2008 WSOP Update: Day 2 of Event No. 18 - No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball w/ReBuys

The big-name, big-bankroll poker pros in the $5,000 buy-in No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball w/ReBuys event at the 2008 WSOP are nearing a final table on Day 2. 18 of the 85 players remain with David Benyamine holding an ironically slim chip lead over a newly slim Mike Matusow, 2007 WSOP POY Tom Schneider of Pokerati fame, and 21-year-old Tom "Durrrr" Dwan. All are over the 400k mark. Others still in include Barry Greenstein, Jeffrey Lisandro, Erick Lindgren, David Grey, Chad Brown, Tony G, Nick Schulman and Michael Binger. Busts before the bubble include Layne Flack (top left photo) and Shawn "Sheiky" Sheikhan (top right photo), and going out just before the money was poker legend and blogger Doyle Brunson. Chip counts here. Click thumbnail for another, better look at what you're looking at above. . .

Shawn Sheikhan May Have Been a Bit of a Perv 12 Years Ago

Gambling911.com, the Chris Hansen of the online gaming world, is reporting today on the salacious details surrounding Shawn Sheikhan's 1995 conviction for sexual harrasment and battery, which led to 9 months in jail for Sheiky and his deportation hearing last fall.

According to a November 11, 1995 Contra Costa Times article dug up by the blog Perverted Primates, the girls involved were customers of the store Sheikhan managed and that was owned by his family.

The girls testified that Sheikan, 26, repeatedly asked them for sex, and became increasingly aggressive after they turned him down. Eventually, he began physically pulling them onto his lap and demanding hugs. In one incident, he put his hands down the younger girl's pants, she said.

"I felt like a piece of meat," she said. "We felt we should stand up for ourselves. I had nightmares about him, and I didn't want other people to have to go through this."

The two girls were 16 and 17 at the time.

In his defense, Sheiky, who was on NBC's Poker After Dark earlier this month, argued what we always argue when we do something illegal, saying it was "all just a big misunderstanding."

"When I first opened the store, we had tons of girls and guys who wanted to hang out and be part of something. All day long I would have to hear what guys they wanted to be with. . . they were constantly talking about sex," said Sheiky at the time.

Sheiky allegedly tried to persuade the two girls to have sex in exchange for a skateboard, something he admitted doing but said "was all a big joke."

When asked to comment on the above, one of the entities here at Wicked Chops Poker replied, "We can't make any jokes about this as that would be totally inappropriate considering the charges. But we will say that the three of us each own a couple of skateboards. Wink, wink.

Ok, just kidding.

Email us."

Full story at Gambling911.com

The Ten Most Wicked Stories of 2007 - Part IV

Winding down the top stories, entries four and three deal with poker playing immigrants who had difficult years in 2007, although for completely different reasons.

4) Shawn Sheikhan Arrested For Some Reason, Threatened With Deportation, Then Not Deported. In late August, the Feds showed up at Shawn Sheikhan's Las Vegas residence and arrested him for a sexual assault charge he already served time for over 10 years ago. He spent a week in jail and faced deportation to Iran due to a new Homeland Security law that looks to oust convicted foreign national sex criminals. However, deportation hearings were halted in November, and Sheiky now appears set to stay in U.S. America for a long time. Good news for golfers everywhere. Read more about Sheikhan here.

3) Vinnie Vinh's Chair Makes History. Six months later, we still don't know what to make of Vinnie Vinh disappearing not once, not twice, but thrice at the 2007 WSOP. Just hands down the funniest story of the year involving poker playing immigrant drug addicts. Even more remarkable, after "account selling" his um, seat to his Chair, said Chair managed to cash twice. As we noted at the time, "This is Vinh's chair's second cash in the 2007 WSOP (it finished 20th in Event 8), establishing a new WSOP record for a chair in a non-chair-only event." Fortunately, Vinh did survive the WSOP, and managed a non-chair cash at the Bellagio Five-Diamond at the end of the year. Read more on Vinh here, see an impromptu interview with Vinh here (we were filming Phil Hellmuth's entry to the Main Event with the 11 models and spotted Vinh smoking outside, so we ran out to talk to him...typically don't wear caps backwards...), and watch an interview with Vinh's chair below.

Shawn Sheikhan Is Still Around

It's been almost three months since Shawn Sheikhan was arrested and faced deportation to Iran due to a new Homeland Security law that looks to oust convicted foreign national sex criminals.

Since then, the Sheik has done something he's not accustomed to do...go silent. On the advice of his lawyers, Sheikhan is not discussing the case with anyone.

And now it appears that Sheikhan will not be able to talk about the case for awhile, as proceedings are stalled. Launch Poker has learned:

In 1995 Sheikhan was arrested and charged with misdemeanor sexual battery charges, but thanks to the Contra Costa County practice of not keeping misdemeanor files for more than ten years, a U.S. Immigration Court Judge could not tell if he was actually convicted of the crime. As such the deportation proceedings have been halted.

Read the full article here.

While Sheikhan could lose everything if deported, at least he doesn't have to worry about losing a lot on the golf course, mostly because he doesn't wager much. High Stakes Golf wrapped last week, with Sheikhan losing "peanuts," as he was never willing pony up the same amounts as Erick Lindgren, Gavin Smith (who had a bad last hole), and Daniel Negreanu. The big winner for the event was Negreanu, banking over $74,000. Watch the final webisode below.

High Stakes Golf: The Sheiky Love Fest Continues

RawVegas.tv's "High Stakes Golf" (aka "The Bash Shawn Sheikhan Show") continues with its latest webisode titled "Hole 15" which we hear took place on the 15th hole.

This week Gavin Smith, Daniel Negreanu and others continue to do what they have done every week, rail into Sheiky for being such a shit. We almost feel bad for Sheiky, except he's such a shit.

Watch the webisode below or head over to RawVegas.tv to view. Also new at RawVegas.tv is a red carpet interview with a confusingly looking-like-crap and wearing-too-much-clothes Carmen Electra and another interview with flame-ous blogger Perez Hilton, which is only worth viewing 'cause the nectarously hot Andrea Tiede is doing the interview. Watch those videos here and here.

Shawn Sheikhan May Be Shipped Back to Iran Over Sexual Battery Conviction

Shawn "Sheiky" Sheikhan, the Persian poker pro best described as arrogant, combative, abrasive and shitty at golf, is facing deportation back to Iran over a 12 year old California conviction on charges of "sexual battery and annoyance or molestation of a child," reports the Las Vegas Review Journal.

Whether the 1995 conviction was of the Michael-Jackson-is-a-sick-fuck variety or the David Sklansky "You mean, you aren't 18?" kind is unclear. Regardless, immigration officials want the 38-year-old Sheikhan sent back to the land of Ayatollahs as soon as possible.

"[Sheikhan] was targeted for ICE arrest because of his criminal history," Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told the LVRJ. "ICE has an ongoing initiative called Operation Predator targeting individuals, including foreign nationals, who prey upon and sexually exploit children."

Kice said Sheikhan's conviction is "a deportable offense, but ultimately it will be up to an immigration judge to make that determination."

"We want to see him removed from the United States," said Kice.

Sheikhan, who served nine months in jail and five years of probation for the 1995 conviction, resides in Las Vegas and has been a legal resident of the US since 1983 and is married to a U.S. citizen. He has a 9-year-old daughter.

Developing . . .

Sources: TexasHoldem.com and Las Vegas Review Journal