That’s a question-mark, not a statement of fact. In fact … I just happened to be talking the other day with someone who works with the WSOP and asked: How ’bout WSOP: The Coffee Table Book? Surely you guys are familiar the success of Hot Chicks with Douchebags, right? Seems very apropos to poker …

The answer in the negative was, C’mon, Dan, you’re no Michael Craig time and money, dude. Fair enough, but maybe I was on to something, as just three weeks ago Harrah’s filed a trademark application for the phrase “World Series of Poker” to be theirs as it pertains to:

Books featuring information, news, and entertainment related to gaming and the game of poker; magazines featuring information, news, and entertainment related to gaming and the game of poker

A ‘random walk’ is a mathematical term to describe looking at sequences of consecutive random events and observing the patterns.

A simple random walk can be built using just the flip of a coin. If we assign heads the number +1 and tails the number -1 and flip a coin 6 times we will have a number of possible results, ranging from the extreme results of +6 after five heads in a row, and -6 after five tails in a row; and including every other possible result in between, with the true odds lying at the number 0 (indicating an equal number of heads and tails). Mathematicians have done these sort of tests over hundreds, thousands and even millions of throws, and the results they give tell us an awful lot about poker strategy.

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WSOPA Student Interview

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Many Dallas Fort Worth poker players can clearly remember when Winstar didn’t give two hoots about Poker. At that same time, the then soon-to-be ‘big games’ were popping up all over North Texas. Many of those have since come and gone as players come to prefer driving an hour north over getting shot to death. But this alone wasn’t going to do the heavy lifting required to further increase the infamous Texas vs. Oklahoma license plate ratio of the Winstar parking lot. It would take a few years, an upstart tournament series and TV show, and finally one damn nice poker room upgrade. It appears now that the players are taking Winstar as a serious poker venue, so are promoters. Most recently, the WSOP.

Last weekend, I was given the opportunity to join a few dozen amateur players for the most recent installment of the WSOP Poker Academy. This event’s focus was near and dear to my heart; Tournament Strategy. Although I get more than my own fair share of top-notch professional tournament wisdom via poker and biz bud, Tom Schneider, I was very much looking forward to the ever present contrast that would be offered by different pros, including Bernard Lee, Michael Gracz, Greg Raymer, and friends. I would not be disappointed.

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OK, I wonder how long I can think these are hysterical funny-not-stupid … so far so good. Another fine poker-themed movie made on XtraNormal.com, called Damn You Two Plus Two:

(probably not audio-SFW)

(Hmm, no wonder why the Focus on the Family types don’t like poker people.)

More make-your-own-movies from the “brilliant” minds at 2+2 here and here.

A bunch of us media folk got an update recently, of all the good-fun WSOP Circuit times ahead … Caesars Atlantic City, San Diego (Rincon), Harvey’s Lake Tahoe, Caesars Las Vegas, Harrah’s New Orleans … and one “trend” of interest: an increase in Omaha tournaments.

Really, the entire state of Nebraska Iowa should be ashamed that in 2008, at the WSOP Omaha Circuit event (OK, technically it’s “Council Bluffs” … which is just across the river from the PL-namesake city) featured no Omaha tournaments! This year they added two — a $345 Omaha Hi-Lo, and a $345 PLO. But in New Orleans, there’ll be five Omaha events, with buy-ins ranging from $235 (w/ rebuys) to $1,070.

Don’t know what it means, or if it’s just coincidence that I’ve started playing Omaha. The Atlantic City circuit event that gets underway this week still has no Omaha tournaments on the schedule. Maybe the desire for four hole cards instead of two simply increases as you move west?

I’ve gotta say, I really enjoyed watching the WSOP-Europe final table … it was the first time I saw these episodes on TV … and probably a smart move to air them in marathon format. It offered a refreshingly different look, and featured some truly great poker. Seeing John Juanda lay down his K-5 … well it was at least as exciting as Fulham’s 0-0 draw against Arsenal! Even though I haven’t seen the heads-up yet (west coast delay), I’ll agree with Kevmath’s assertion that his eventual heads-up battle should be a model for a remix of Demidov vs. Eastgate. Seriously, how ironic is that — we all know who the winner of the near-live November Nine was, yet we’d all get excited to see how-won-it in the event that was supposed to be all about who-won-it.

But, I’m almost ashamed to admit, I think I’m pretty much hooked on Celebrity Apprentice. Annie Duke is a total star of the show — Omarosa for sure (but will she rebound or spiral downward!?! Ooh, tune in next week to find out!). Fun cameo by Erik Seidel … and even Annie’s enemy teammates were impressed by her rallying of poker players willing to throw around thousands to buy cupcakes. I’m wondering who the “Tony” was that she called … and her duking it out with Playboy bunny Brande Roderick … oh yeah!

Donald Trump is talking poker, too, and Herschel Walker’s kinda a wimp!

No offense HSP and WPT.

UPDATE: After watching a WPT rerun, I’m now watching the first rerun of tonight’s HSP Season 5 premiere. The tivo (and I think GSN) thought this was going to be a Season 4 episode. I’m glad it’s not.

With a cold coming on, I juiced up on cold medicine and headed down to Commerce Casino last night for the pre-tournament WPT Invitational cocktail party. In more of a stuffy-headed fog now, I give you a few observations from the festivities:

photo: pokergossip

William Hung was the first “celebrity” I noticed, as he arrived as soon as the red carpet was ready for action. And the poor guy was the only one from the red carpet featured by Perez Hilton today, and not featured in a particularly good way.

Food was excellent as usual, with a random assortment of Asian and Greek set-ups, along with the yum-yum appetizers floating around the room on waiters’ trays.

No DJ in the outdoor area like last year’s event, but it actually made for a more conversation-friendly atmosphere on the patio.

Wicked Chops scored seats in the tournament. I spent way too much time trying to figure out how that happened.

photo: pokergossip

Reports of the demise of the Phil Laak/Jennifer Tilly relationship were evidently untrue, as the two looked typically couple-y as usual – Jennifer in a beautiful outfit, Phil in saggy jeans and a hoodie.

Some celebrities on the “confirmed” list were no-shows, such as Camryn Manheim, Montel Williams, and Nelly. (Yes, I was more than disappointed about one of those absences!)

CORRECTION: Manheim was there, and Jen was still disappointed. -DM

Shannon Elizabeth and Derek Hough are still a couple and just as adorable as ever, with Shannon checking on Derek and his amateur poker experiences throughout the evening.

Contrary to all reports from the tournament, Antonio Esfandiari was not the first person eliminated from the tournament, as Mike “SirWatts” Watson (former WPT champion) was out of the tournament and standing with us at the bar when that announcement was made. Ouch.

New to my social radar were Mike Watson and Shane Schleger, both of whom were introduced to me by Gavin Griffin and Kristin Roberts and very nice to chat with.

Also met Jamie Gold for the first time, who was extremely friendly and psyched about his Aced Poker affiliation, though my question about his possible ownership in the company was met with the standard “details of the contract cannot be disclosed” line. Good brief chat anyway. (His calling card gives him the title “Poker Philanthropist.”)

Mekhi Phifer took the reigns during the rebuy period, grabbing the mic and encouraging players to rebuy (or even just donate) to his charity, The Vine Group, to help educational efforts in Africa. He was a great spokesperson for the organization and raised $78,270 for it, while managing to maintain his usual humble but outrageously sexy demeanor.

Funny, for all the poker entertainment on TV tonight, I probably won’t make it over to Fox Sports to see the latest Season 7 episode of the WPT. However, I can’t help but find myself following their celebrity invitational on the internet. Don’t really know what that means … maybe just that I definitely want some WPT action, but I’m just as happy following chip counts and hand updates at my leisure while I flip between WSOP Europe, High Stakes Poker, and maybe even a little Annie Duke meets Donald.

Seriously, looks to be an interesting final sprawl shaping up with 13 players remaining (Steve Sung and Paul Darden just went out). I bet the vibe inside the Commerce is pretty electric. This, frankly, is poker I’d probably want to watch on TV right now:

Remaining Players

Player	Player Name	Chipcount
	Jose Tavares	1,250,000
	Tom Hall	1,200,000
	Scott Clements	1,080,000
Average Chipcount: 666,153
	Frank Hustek	600,000
	Ottavio Tassone	520,000
	Nicholas Gonzalez	440,000
	Freddy Deeb	410,000
	Ali Nejad	400,000
	Bob Ruhl	300,000
	Teddy Monroe	250,000
	Jack Haley	225,000
	Mekhi Phifer	200,000
	Haig Papaian	200,000

GSN’s Youtube account (GSNVideos) put up the first episode of season 5 of High Stakes Poker on Youtube on Friday. For those that don’t want to wait for it to appear on some other site, or watch a crappy stream of someone sticking a webcam in front of the TV, you can watch it here:

For some reason I found this email that just came in about the WPT Celebrity Invitational quite amusing:

From: Samuel Quinto
Date: March 1, 2009 5:19:33 PM PST
To: Matthew Savage
Cc: Lindsay at World Poker Tour
Subject: Re: WPT Invitational Day 1 Chip Counts

There was an error on the chip count list,

Matt Damon, Edward Norton, Eric Bana, and Abraham Lincoln did not play the Celebrity Invitational. We apologize for any inconvenience this might has caused.

If Abraham Lincoln were playing in this event, of course, I’m pretty sure that would be “good for poker”.

UPDATE: The WPT seems to have a good sense of humor about it. Though I do see a little continued cred-jabbing between the Commerce and the WPT.

Jennifer Newell’s favorite person to stalk celebrity, Mekhi Phifer is still in the hunt to make the final table of the WPT Invitational at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles. To see how well he does, along with the people you’ve never heard of and celebrities, check out the WPT updates for more info.

6:50pm Update: Mekhi is nursing a shortstack with 16 players left, only the final table of 6 gets paid in this tournament.

Though extremely unscientific and, depending on when you’re reading this, possibly incomplete, an early look at current poll results asking what engaged, TV-watching Pokeratizens are planning to Tivo suggests something … about poker viewership:

vote percentage/show

53 / High Stakes Poker
19 / WSOP Europe
15 / Other (non-poker)
10 / Celebrity Apprentice
3 / WPT

Will be interesting to see how the shows compare in the ratings … and perhaps even more telling, for shows just getting their season start will be what the ratings are for week 2.

As Kevin points out, there’s a lot of poker TV Sunday today, March 1 … some of it competing against each other. Should be a telling day for ratings! With that in mind, and having taken a look at just how much poker is on TV that evening — seriously, flippers will be stumbling across it everywhere — I’ve put up a new poll earlier this week to see what you’re most interested in watching.

Here’s the breakdown of your pokery viewing options (all times Eastern/Pacific, new episodes in bold):

6 pm
ESPN2 – WSOP Europe
GSN – High Stakes Poker

7 pm
ESPN2 – WSOP Europe
GSN – High Stakes Poker

8 pm
ESPN2 – WSOP Europe
GSN – High Stakes Poker

9pm
NBC – Celebrity Apprentice
ESPN2 – WSOP Europe
GSN – High Stakes Poker

10 pm
NBC – Celebrity Apprentice
ESPN2 – WSOP Europe
GSN – World Poker Tour

11 pm
ESPN2 – WSOP Europe
GSN – World Poker Tour
FSN – World Poker Tour

12 midnight
GSN – High Stakes Poker

1 am
GSN – World Poker Tour

2 am
GSN – World Poker Tour

This doesn’t even take into account competition from new episodes of The Simpsons, King of the Hill, whatever that Brothers & Sisters show is, Saturday Night Live Short Films, and The Amazing Race, not to mention UFC Unleashed, reruns of From G’s to Gents, and a CNBC documentary called “House of Cards”, which really isn’t about poker despite the name.

SIDENOTE: Non-poker TV people are wondering if Season 2 of Celebrity Apprentice will be a flop, in part because of (or despite) Donald Trump’s casino empire going belly up. You realize there might be something to that when shares of his casino company (which bailed on a 5-year TV deal to sponsor the US Poker Championship a couple years ago, and was de-listed from NASDAQ this past week ) were trading for way less than shares of the WPT. Yikes!