Not the most action-filled episode of High Stakes Poker, but you can still watch it anyways, right?:

Valentine’s Day was the debut of season 6 of GSN’s most popular show, High Stakes Poker. AJ Benza is no longer on the show, replaced by Kara Scott to provide some player interviews, leaving Gabe Kaplan to provide commentary solo. This would have been up earlier if GSN decided to put the full episode on Youtube, but they decided to only put it up on their own site.

The Hard Rock Poker Lounge is getting its weekend poker orgy underway — this is the “relaunch” of the poker room there … under new management, with new ideas, and more action than usual …

They’ve got a full slate this weekend — beyond just the free food, splashed pots, a 20k guarantee Friday tourney and stuff like that … they’ve got a whole slate of events, including a Sharon Osborne celebrity charity event (Trash Talk Championship of the World they are calling it), a party for the launch of Victory poker. Currently filming (for ESPN 360, I believe, is a $100/$200 NLH cash game. $50k buy-in … with Antonio Esfandiari, Andrew Robl and others on the table … we’ll have some more names for you. And I think that’s The Maven waiting in the wings for a seat.

Click here for a rundown of all they’ve got going on.

Of course the game next table over is what really interests me — $1/$2 NLH/PLO … just an option to run-it-2x today, not automatic. But in my jaded opinion, that’s where the real poker is going on. The plan is to keep this game running throughout the weekend — as Super Bowl raffle is currently my 2010 bankroll plan.

More TK throughout the weekend … but here’s a glimpse of surprisingly early Friday night action taking off at the Hard Rock’s big poker weekend:

From GSN’s press release:

More…

The moment the poker world has been waiting for nearly two weeks comes to a climax this afternoon with the final 27 players in the Main Event playing down to the November Nine. Here’s how the final three tables will look when play kicks off around 12 noon (database results courtesy of The Hendon Mob):

(Table 1)
Seat 1: Jesse Haabak – 2,750,000
Seat 2: Ian Tavelli – 4,385,000
Seat 3: James Calderaro – 6,475,000
Seat 4: Jonathan Tamayo – 3,300,000
Seat 5: Warren Zackey – 5,485,000
Seat 6: Eric Buchman – 10,005,000
Seat 7: Leo Margets – 1,530,000
Seat 8: Tommy Vedes – 5,070,000
Seat 9: James Akenhead – 8,615,000

(Table 2)
Seat 1: Phil Ivey – 11,350,000
Seat 2: Jeff Shulman – 10,170,000
Seat 3: George Caragiorgas – 1,615,000
Seat 4: Nick Maimone – 1,545,000
Seat 5: Andrew Lichtenberger – 5,625,000
Seat 6: Marco Mattes – 5,285,000
Seat 7: Joseph Cada – 6,565,000
Seat 8: Darvin Moon – 20,160,000
Seat 9: Jordan Smith – 4,510,000

(Table 3)
Seat 1: Jamie Robbins – 9,795,000
Seat 2: Antonio Esfandiari – 4,470,000
Seat 3: Francois Balmigere – 1,440,000
Seat 4: Ludovic Lacay – 5,610,000
Seat 5: Steven Begleiter – 11,885,000
Seat 6: Ben Lamb – 9,410,000
Seat 7: Antoine Saout – 11,135,000
Seat 8: Kevin Schaffel – 11,245,000
Seat 9: Billy Kopp – 15,970,000

When play resumes, there will be 7:17 left in the 50,000/100,000/10,000 level, moving to 60,000/120,000/15,000. For Amy and The Shrink, there’s an extra 580,000 in chips spread out among the remaining field.

Here’s the chart of the players that made the money:

Updates resume starting at noon over at www.wsop.com and Pokerati will have other news during the day, so come back later, please.

Page 2 contains excerpts from Nolan Dalla’s tournament report:

More…

After the remaining 29 players in the Main Event returned from dinner break, it took nearly a full level to get down to 27 players. Darvin Moon will return Wednesday at noon the chip leader with over 20,000,000 in chips. Billy Kopp will be in 2nd with nearly 16,000,000 chips. Phil Ivey will be in 4th place with just over 11,000,000 in chips. The remaining notables: Jeff Shulman (10,170,000), James Akenhead (8,600,000), Ludovic Lacay (5,6100,000) and Antonio Esfandiari (4,400,000).

Chip counts and the table draw will be available later today, check out wsop.com or Pokerati for further news.

Today is finally the Big Money Day — where the remaining field is competing for the bankroll-relevant cash. (Save for maybe Phil Ivey, who needs to get pretty close to the final table for that.) Shamus has a good write-up of his day at work yesterday, and the relevance of the action today (particularly as it relates to the blinds).

The 64 Player Question

Good explanation of why it’s been kinda a bummer to see Tom Schneider, Joe Sebok, and Dennis Phillips go down early today, too. Media-friendly “good guys”.

So of course now we (as in everybody) still have Ivey — really, does anyone see him not making the final table at this point? — and Antonio Esfandiari (Go Iran!) … and a handful of non-American countries have their remaining players of choice to root for.

Kinda surprising kinda not that there seems to be no groundswell of support (from the media or online poker sites) for the 420-loving CardPlayer heir/editor Jeff “Happy” Shulman, who’s currently 11th in chips.

But beyond that, we don’t really know yet who’s who, and who will be remembered for anything more than just “going deep” or maybe “really deep”. That, of course, is what tomorrow will be all about.

Currently 29 players left. Playing down to 27. All the action, chip counts, and prize payouts at WSOP.com.

Play ended in the Main Event earlier today after 5 full levels of play, the first time that’s happened since Friday, leaving just 64 players remaining when play resumes at noon today. Here’s how the field will look (first by chip count, then by table):

As a note, the average chip stack is now about 3,044,000 with the blinds starting at 25,000/50,000 with a 5,000 ante. Leo Margets will earn the last woman standing title as Nichoel Peppe finished in 75th place, good for $68,979. Other notables eliminated after the dinner break: Peter Eastgate (78th), Kenny Tran (86th), Noah Boeken (96th).

Follow the live updates over at wsop.com and check out Pauly for his own version of the action.

To wrap up the Dream Team Poker event, Kenna James did take down the individual title.

Page 2 contains excerpts from Nolan Dalla’s tournament report:

More…

101 players remain as the players return from their dinner break shortly. The current chip leader is Darvin Moon of Oakland, Maryland with 5,700,000 in chips. Some notables returning with chips: Eugene Katchalov (3,600,000), Fabrice Soulier (3,550,000), Jeff Shulman (3,200,000), Phil Ivey (2,680,000), James Akenhead (2,500,000), Antonio Esfandiari (2,300,000), Dennis Phillips (2,200,000), Tom Schneider (1,571,000), Prahlad Friedman (1,280,000), Peter Eastgate (940,000), Noah Boeken (481,000), Joe Sebok (300,000) and Kenny Tran (262,000). There are still two women left as well: Nichoel Peppe (1,300,000) and Leo Margets (1,195,000).

Notable eliminations: Joe Hachem, David Benyamine, J.C. Tran, Theo Tran, Bertrand Grospellier, Blair Hinkle and Joe Serock.

The Dream Team Poker event is down to Kenna James versus Judy Tejwani for the individual title. Congrats again goes to the Tao of Pokerati team for clinching the team title a few hours ago. Live updates now available for the Main Event at www.wsop.com and more stuff from the rest of the writing team during the evening.

The remaining 1700 players are currently playing the fourth and final level of play today for day 2b, which will join the survivors from yesterday to return Friday at noon as the field will be together for the first time. Troy Weber remains the chip leader with 475,000 in chips. Other notables with chips: Brian Lemke (275,500), Phil Ivey (265,500), Kenny Tran (220,000), Hevad Khan (177,000), Antonio Esfandiari (173,000), Tony Hachem (155,000), Phil Hellmuth (139,000), Ville Wahlbeck (109,000), Kirill Gerasimov (105,000) and Tuan Le (102,000).

Notable eliminations: Bernard Lee, Robert Williamson III, Phil Tom, David Sklansky, Gavin Griffin, Howard Lederer, Scotty Nguyen, Todd “Dan Druff” Witteles (who was at the ESPN feature table with Hellmuth), Shannon Shorr and Erick Lindgren.

Check out the updates and chip counts at wsop.com here and more stuff from Pokerati during the late hours. WSOP Media tournament and media briefing tomorrow, I’ll be with Team Pokerati in spirit in the tournament. The Commish has quite a few announcements tomorrow, including the Poker Hall of Fame nominees so come back tomorrow.

Recapping Sunday night’s action:

Bracelet Winners go 1-2-4 in Limit Shootout

Greg Mueller becomes the fourth double bracelet winner at this year’s WSOP, taking down the $1,500 Limit Holdem Shootout, good for $194,854 as he denied Marc Naalden his second bracelet this year. The only year where more players have won more at least two bracelets was 2003 (Ivey, Juanda, Men Nguyen, Ferguson, Chan and Flack) . Millie Shiu finished in 3rd, tied for the highest placing woman in an open WSOP event this year(Ming Reslock in the $1,500 Omaha-8 and Laurence Grondin in the $2,000 NL Holdem). David Williams finished in thirdfourth..

Lunkin Looking to Make it Five in $50k HORSE

Vitaly Lunkin, winner of the first open bracelet ($40,000 NL Holdem) leads the remaining 19 players in the $50,000 HORSE event going into day 4. Three players will make zero on their investment, as they play down to the final table today starting around 2pm. Here’s how the remaining players will be seated:

(Table 58)
Seat 1: Erik Sagstrom – 1315000
Seat 2: Erik Seidel – 464000
Seat 3: Steve Billirakis – 576000
Seat 5: David Chiu – 397000
Seat 6: Mike Wattel – 779000
Seat 7: Chau Giang – 616000

(Table 60)
Seat 1: Huck Seed – 672000
Seat 2: Ray Dehkharghani – 262000
Seat 4: Brett Richey – 671000
Seat 6: Todd Brunson – 145000
Seat 7: Vitaly Lunkin – 1527000
Seat 8: Frank Kassela – 499000

(Table 62)
Seat 1: Tony G – 642000
Seat 2: David Bach – 1265000
Seat 3: John Hanson – 815000
Seat 5: Ville Wahlbeck – 842000
Seat 6: John Kabbaj – 678000
Seat 7: Freddy Deeb – 1300000
Seat 8: Gus Hansen – 801000

Durand Looking for Durability in $1,500 NL Holdem

Day 3 of the $1,500 NL Holdem starts with 30 players remaining, with Thibaut Durand (1,650,000) holding the chip lead when play resumes around 1pm PT. Owen Crowe (1,025,000), Josh Schlein (875,000), and Alex Jacob (274,000) are the most recognizable names remaining. When the final table is eventually reached, bluffmagazine.com and wsop.pkr.com will stream all the action.

Australians go 1-2 in Triple Chance

Day 1 of the $3,000 Triple Chance NL Holdem ended with 149 players remaining and it’s two Australians who hold the top spots when play resumes around 2pm today. Tim Horan is the chip leader (149,000), followed by Harris Pavlou (137,300). Notables returning on day 2 include Jeff Lisandro, Antonio Esfandiari, Shane Schleger, Nick Binger, Mike Caro, Noah Schwartz and Praz Bansi.

Prescott Gives Field Allie Can Handle in Stud 8

Day 2 of the $1,500 Stud Hi/Lo 8 or Betterevent resumes around 2pm with 146 players remaining, with Allie Prescott leading the field with 52,500 in chips. Notables returning include Jim Geary, Annie Duke, Marcel Luske, Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, Jon Turner, Matt Savage and Norman Chad.

Monday’s Tournaments

The 12pm $1,500 NL Holdem Donkament is already sold out, although there’s always the slim chance they’ll open a few more seats during the day. This is the seventh event of the $1,500 NL Holdem of this year’s WSOP, so it’s a “new” event, not having a winner last year. The 5pm (if it starts on time) event is the $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball event, won last year by John Phan for just over $150,000 in a field of 238. The WSOP Staff Guide projects a field of 262 entries.

Today and tomorrow will both be extremely busy with six tournaments going on at the same time, so check out www.wsop.com for live updates, and Pokerati for other stuff during the day.

In a case of subtraction by addition, the last two players to register for the 40th Annual $40k NL holdem event cost the eventual winner almost $135,000. Going by the WSOP’s payout structure, the winner would have taken 26.5% of the prize pool, or $2,025,000. However, the last two entrants pushed the payout into another bracket, as the winner takes down 24.5% of the prize pool–$1,891,000. The players are currently on their dinner break, to return at 8:30pm to play a few more levels tonight. 150 players remain when play resumes, some known names who don’t have to worry about returning: Daniel Negreanu, David Benyamine, Annie Duke, David Williams and John Juanda. The top three on the leaderboard: Antonio Esfandiari, Justin Bonomo and Chris Moneymaker, who have increased their 120,000 starting stack to over 400,000 so far.

The other tournament taking place, the $500 Casino Employees event, is also on a dinner break with 17 players remaining, with a winner to be crowned tonight. Andrew Cohen is the current chip leader with over 360,000 in chips. Team Pokerati member John Harris was knocked out in 26th place to take home $2,475.

Follow the players progress at www.worldseriesofpoker.com, and I’ll be back in the morning with more discussion on what day it really is at the WSOP. a recap of today’s events.

Sorry for the slacking off on posting these GSN episodes from Youtube, but I’ve been busy with stuff. This week’s episode is the last of the day 2 lineup, as some new faces will join the established players seen on the first 10 episodes finish the season 5 run.

For a brief time, next week’s episode of HSP was available on GSN’s Youtube channel. However, that’s been taken down to recirculate elsewhere on the darker corners of the Internet until it actually airs on GSN. Now that’s been rectified, here’s Sunday’s episode:

This week it’s a new lineup of players on High Stakes Poker, as the Day 2 taping series of shows begins with Antonio Esfandiari, Phil Laak, Sam Simon, Nick Cassavettes, Daniel Negreanu, Patrik Antonius, Howard Lederer and Joe Hachem trying to take each other’s money. Again, this week’s show was put up on Youtube by GSN in 3 parts, and appears to be missing a segment as it’s shorter than previous weeks.

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.

More from HSP, after you read about the WPT airing on Fox Sports Net starting January 4.

I’ve never heard of Lee Russakoff until this morning, but apparently he’s sports editor over at Comcast.net. Lee was also at the High Stakes Poker tapings at the Golden Nugget this weekend, and has 5 posts on his blog about the various goings on that should make for interesting watching when GSN starts to air High Stakes Poker on March 1.

More…

The poker shark just can’t seem to be jumped. While I don’t expect to see All In: The Musical on broadway any time soon, apparently some people believe that poker players actually go see shows, or at least that they are more likely to if the show is about poker. The Real Deal is gonna be part poker theatre, part poker tourney, part poker game show, with audience members interacting with various pros on stage via wi-fi at The Venetian. Poker thespians will include Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Jr., Antonio Esfandiari, Gavin Smith, Eli Elezra, Jennifer Harman, Phil Laak, Scotty Nguyen, and Todd Brunson — guess they’ve got nothing better to do with High Stakes Poker gone — and surely it is only a matter of time before Hellmuth wins a Tony and/or The Producers will be brought to you by FullTiltPoker.net. No word on whether or not they plan to add hypnosis to the mix (”I will find inner peace and fold these pocket 10s”), but just to let the poker entertainmentpreneurs out there know, poker still has yet to be translated into any of the following:

Poker: the Topless Revue
Poker: the Pool
Poker: the Mechanical Bull Ride
Poker: the Buffet
Poker: the Surgery

Who says there still isn’t room for growth in this industry? Click below to read the full press release, and for more info about a show that will be sure to dazzle us in frightening ways before the end of the year:

More…

Registration is finally over for the Main Event, and a record 2,461 took to the felt today in their quest to be part of the November Nine and take down the over $9.1m first place prize. Among those who’ve already been eliminated today: Phil Ivey, Jennifer Tilly, Andy Bloch, Jose Canseco, Annie Duke, Allen Kessler, David Williams and Noel Furlong. The leader at the dinner break appears to be Brad Tisdale with about 112,000 in chips. Notables towards the top of the leaderboard: Victor Ramdin, Thomas “Thunder” Keller, Aaron Kanter, Jean-Robert Bellande, Brandon Cantu, Mark Newhouse and Antonio Esfandiari. You can follow the players as they return from their dinner break at the WSOP.com site here.

More updates later this evening…

It is common knowledge that poker players in Las Vegas flock to Bellagio for cash game action, primarily on the higher end of the buy-in scale. While there seem to be a plethora of cash games going on at the Rio around the clock during the WSOP, anyone looking for games higher than $10-$20 usually heads over to Bellagio. Since I am such a high-stakes player can always use a change of scenery from the Rio, I took a trip on over on Monday night around 10pm to see what was happenin’.

Craziness.

More…

The EPT Grand Final came to a long drawn-out end yesterday in Monte Carlo, and after nearly 13 hours of play, Canadian Glen Chorny took it down. Ho hum. It may be the least exciting victory in recent tournament times, as Chorny couldn’t even manage a smile in the victory interview and didn’t seem to care that he just won $3.2 million. Reportedly, he smiled later, long after I lost interest.

Antonio Esfandiari made himself disappear in 8th place, with a little help from Luca Pagano, but received $266,004 for a grand showing. Luca then went out in 6th for $533,601 and his ninth EPT cash. And Isaac Baron left in fourth place for $932,692.

All of the final ten payouts, courtesy of PokerNews, are as follows:

1 $ 3,198,500 Glen Chorny
2 $ 1,866,790 Denes Kalo
3 $ 1,132,107 Maxime Villemure
4 $ 932,692 Isaac Baron
5 $ 666,606 Michael Martin
6 $ 533,601 Luca Pagano
7 $ 400,590 Valeriy Ilikyan
8 $ 266,004 Antonio Esfandiari
9 $ 199,533 Henrik Gwinner
10 $ 199,533 Stig Top Rasmussen

In other EPT news, Kara Scott may be the best hostess/interviewer on any poker tour. I took some time to listen to some of the EPT final table broadcast, and when she sat in, I was so impressed with the intelligent and witty commentary. Most of all, she seems to truly understand how to interview poker players without being insensitive or oblivious to their experiences. Here is her interview with Isaac Baron upon his exit yesterday:

The European Poker Tour (EPT) Grand Final just concluded its fourth day of action, and out of an amazing 842 players, only 10 remain.

Glen Chorny – 3,370,000
Isaac ‘westmenloAA’ Baron – 2,365,000
Michael Martin – 1,579,000
Maxime Villemure – 1,220,000
Denes Kalo – 957,000
Antonio Esfandiari – 735,000
Luca Pagano – 705,000
Valeriy Ilikyan – 650,000
Stig Top Rasmussen – 590,000
Henrik Gwinner – 466,000

Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari is doing quite well, and this comes on the heels of his recent sponsorship deal with the World Poker Tour. The WPT Poker-Made Millionaire is representin’ over in Europe!

Isaac Baron is reportedly one of the most respected online players in the game and has been doing relatively well on the live tournament circuit.

The only other name I recognize is Luca Pagano – PokerStars player and Italian guy. Be still my part-Italian heart.

First place will get nearly $3.2 million. Wheee! (Note to the eventual winner: Can I borrow a few bucks?) Live updates can be found at PokerNews and PokerListings.

Rating: A-

This is one of the best comedies I’ve seen in a long time. I laughed myself to tears during several parts of the movie. I walked into the theater with low expectations and left thinking about seeing it again.

The casting was brilliant, as many of the actors are experienced improv comics and had no problem adding their own flavor and likely varying quite a bit from the original script. From Woody Harrelson to Ray Romano, from Richard Kind to Dennis Farina, and from David Cross to Chris Parnell, most everyone took their characters to the highest level. Even Cheryl Hines surprised me – only because I’m not terribly familiar with her work – in her deadpan scenes.

Numerous poker players were strewn throughout the film, like Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Laak, and Antonio Esfandiari. Gabe Kaplan had a main role, which wasn’t tremendously impressive but an integral and sometimes funny role nonetheless. Phil Gordon played a recurring role throughout the movie as the tournament commentator, and he was fantastic. Some of his lines were the best of the movie.

More…

As the players on Day 3 of the L.A. Poker Classic approach the money bubble, there are still some very well-known players atop the leader board – Phil Ivey and David Singer. Jennifer Tilly doubled up through Humberto Brenes and is doing well. Alan Goehring, former LAPC champion, is hanging on to make a run at another title.

Sadly, however, Antonio Esfandiari seemed to be on a bad run this evening, then took a hit from Kyle Burnside, and just got eliminated. He’s had a great week with the announcement of his partnership with WPT, but a shot at a second WPT LAPC title would have been icing on the cake. It wasn’t meant to be, but there’s the NBC Heads-Up in a few days, along with the WPT Invitational next weekend. Momentum could take him far if he lets it.

Click below for some semi-gossip-y notes:

More…

Antonio at the WPT press conference

A few impressions from the press conference with Antonio Esfandiari and Steve Lipscomb:

~Antonio is immensely happy about this deal. He has a deep respect and fondness for the WPT. Though he was being cool, as always, he was close to just bubbling over.

~Antonio is going to be representing the WPT on television, in advertising, with Club WPT, and with anything they do in the global market, including WPT Online.

~Steve seems to have a lot of respect for Antonio as well. He feels that Antonio represents players from every background and culture, but he is one of the classy players who doesn’t insult others, has an incredible passion for the game, and will represent the WPT well. Steve mentioned more than once that when Antonio won his WPT title, he went straight to his dad’s place to surprise him with a huge chunk of $$$ and told him to retire; he was particularly struck by that.

And click below for a few quotes from today’s conference:

More…

That’s what it seems like they’re banking on — you know, along with restructuring tournament operations and slimming down staff. Steve Lipscomb just announced today at a press conference (at the Commerce in LA?) that Antonio the WPT-Made Millionaire will be the new face of the World Poker Tour.

And despite the reduced schedule, the WPT also apparently has a WPT-Europe in the works. Should be interesting to see how this all shakes out over the course of 2008. My prediction is that the WPT will, several years from now, be seen as the AFL* of Poker.

* And by AFL I mean American Football League, not the other AFL that looks out for the hard-workin’ little guy.

Those who have HDTV might be familiar with a show that debuted this year on the MOJO network called “I Bet You.” It’s a 30-minute show featuring Antonio Esfandiari and Phil Laak as they travel around the country and bet on everything. Prop betting gone wild, if you will.

This is a clip from one of last season’s shows:

The show has been renewed for a second season that is currently filming and will be ready for air in early 2008. Antonio discusses many of the bets on his blog.

I talked to Antonio recently for an article to be published in the current issue of All In magazine, and he absolutely loves doing the show. “We bet on everything,” he told me. “I would say that on a daily basis, Phil and I make at least three or four bets in the course of our normal lives.”

There are some clips on the network’s website, and if you have HDTV, the show seems worth a TiVo or DVR setting.

On another note, I was also able to get him to confirm that he had no relations with Pamela Anderson, though we now know that it was indeed Rick Salomon that she did to get out of a poker debt fell in love with and married.

Living and working in Los Angeles, just a few miles of nightmarish traffic away from Hollywood, it’s not difficult to keep up with tabloid journalism news of the rich and famous. And as they make poker news, this reporter is right there to help spread rumors and inconsequential news. You’re welcome.

Let’s start with MTV’s Video Music Awards that took place in Las Vegas last weekend. Sure, the important news was Brittany Spears and her, ummm, interesting performance at the show. But I’m here to give you the poker-related info.

Rolling Stone magazine took the opportunity of the celebrity mecca to Vegas to celebrate their 40th anniversary with parties and the obligatory charity poker tournament. Nowhere could it be determined what charity was benefiting from the event, nor what the buy-in was. It was confirmed that there were 15 tables that played out on Saturday, September 8, and some of the participants included Nelly, Kevin Smith, Joe Simpson, Brody Jenner, Cee-Lo, Ryan Cabrera, John Salley, and Vince Neil.

The winner? Rap superstar Nelly. At the WSOP, he played the $10k main event and donked off his chips in less than two hours. At this charity tournament, he outplayed a bunch of celebrities and won the thing. The best news was that he donated all of his prize money to charity.

How did Nelly go from donkey-status to semi-average poker player? Evidently, he’s been dropping in on home games with Phil Laak and Antonio Esfandiari. Homeboy seems to be serious about being a playa.

Other news at the VMA’s included the high school man-to-man fight between Kid Rock and Tommy Lee over Pamela Anderson, going forward to be referred to as Pammie. (Not that she and I are gal pals, but I like men to think so.) While the boys are fighting over her, she claims to be in love with a pro poker player. She refused to name the person to any source, even Ellen DeGeneres, but reportedly told one source that she was down several hundred thousand dollars in a poker game, and the player offered to take care of it in return for, ummm, take a guess. “I paid off a poker debt with sexual favors,” she said, “and fell in love. He took advantage of me… He’s a good guy.” And on the Ellen show, she confirmed that much and concluded with, “It’s so romantic. It’s romance.”

Awww.

The tabloids have put her statements together with some recent sightings of Pammie and Rick Salomon, infamous Paris Hilton sex tape entrepreneur, on a Malibu beach on Labor Day weekend, so rumors are running rampant that Rick is that poker player. Here’s a tip for Pammie and everyone else: Rick Salomon is not a professional poker player. Trust us.

But the Pammie rumor mill is not out of juice yet. According to the Las Vegas Magazine blog site, insiders are saying that Pammie’s new boyfriend is actually poker pro Antonio Esfandiari. Voila! That would be magical, wouldn’t you agree?

Speaking of Antonio, he’s made the tabloids lately with his recent Cristal-off. He was reportedly at the new nightclub Blush at the Wynn on the Vegas Strip, and he and NBA pro Kobe Bryant were each trying to buy more Cristal champagne than the other. Kobe ordered approximately 15 bottles – cheapskate! Not to be outdone, Antonio ended up ordering 26 bottles and spent nearly $35k for one night out. Then he told TMZ about it. Nice hand, sir.

Has anyone seen this? For those of you who don’t have the INHD channel (which, sadly, doesn’t feature any Robert Wilsonky programming), Antonio Esfandiari and Phil Laak have a new show oh-so-cleverly called I Bet You.

The premise is exactly what you’d expect: They walk around betting thousands of dollars on completely inane bullshit. They bet on how much a shirt costs. They bet on whether a girl they meet on the street is wearing a thong or “regular panties.” They bet on who can be the best bartender and, later, who can get drunk and blow closest to .08 on a breathalyzer. All of which should provide for fun, rollicking scenes complete with plenty of spontaneous comedy. Instead, sitting through the half-hour show is like listening to Jamie Gold—it’s painful, and you don’t really want to do it, but you’re sure it’ll get better eventually so you stick it out. But it doesn’t get better. Trust me.

More…

It’s getting pretty clear that finally, in 2007, the pros are starting to explore the power of the Hammer. You can tell they are still a little tentative with it — and how can you blame them when bricks of money are at stake — but hey, they’ll catch on and figure out the hand’s nuances soon enough.

(Perhaps not coincidentally, I have given up the Hammer for Lent.)

Check it out … on this week’s episode of High Stakes Poker, we get to see both Antonio Esfandiari and Mike Matusow dabbling in the dark arts of 27o. Frankly, neither of the hands are very dramatic … yet both are quite revealing:

ALT HED: Hammer after Dark