Gavin Smith turns 40 today. It only seems appropriate that we all drink one on his behalf.

Click, and enjoy.™

From the always clickworthy good folks at RawVegas.TV

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:

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RawVegasTV is celebrating its 1-year anniversary … a not-so-shocking milestone for an operation built on the concept of Joe Sebok eating four taquitos to Gavin Smith’s 2.5 and Google searches for “denise pernula naked”.

With a staff of 12, they’ve put up more than 1,100 videos, generating more than 35 million views. [via Robin Leach]

Congrats, dudes! Pretty impressive for a web-something that “has nothing to do with Wicked Chops,” according to RVTV president Steven “Chops” Preiss … it’s amazing how many eyeballs you can capture by putting up high-quality vids (I mean resolution-wise, mixed quality content-wise) in players that always work and are easily link/embeddable. Having a sassy lass who isn’t afraid to grab her own boobs while doing the news probably also helps, as does Barrett Applegate:

The video of Shannon Shorr’s drunken shenanigans last summer in Las Vegas that almost led to his becoming the Christopher Reeve of Poker has been posted on YouTube. 22-year-old kids with lots of money are so funny in how they almost die … though I have to say, it is kinda refreshing to see the youthful purity of engaging in such prop-bettable pursuits for nothing but the glory. Gavin Smith wouldn’t do this for less than $12,000, I am sure.

Via Wicked Chops:

So it was fun making picks … but not so fun to watch the results trickle in. Everyone’s talking about their brackets around Caesar’s Palace — lots of money being unofficially wagered as heads-up fans excitedly bemoan the upsets and sometimes gloat over the mental errors of others.

Gavin Smith: “How can you pick Howard to win a heads-up tournament?!? Pshaw!”

Um, I dunno, just a hunch? Thought he had worked through his game and had incentive to win? I was betting on uniforms. Below are the standings after the first round in the impromptu Pokerati bracket fun. Cali Jen, TBR, and I aren’t exactly representin’:

I think you still might be able to get in on the bracket action, fyi.

Rank Predictor Score Predicted Final Winner Completed
1 don essinger - 13 Allen Cunningham 2/29/2008 1:05pm
2 Scott - 13 Daniel Negreanu 2/29/2008 1:20pm
3 Taylor Larkin - 13 Huck Seed 2/29/2008 2:20pm
4 Kevin Mathers - 11 Daniel Negreanu 2/29/2008 12:32pm
5 champsampson - 11 Ted Forrest 2/29/2008 1:39pm
6 dan michalski - 9 Howard Lederer 2/29/2008 3:41am
7 California Jen - 9 Scott Clements 2/29/2008 9:43am
8 Randy Brown - 8 Phil Hellmuth 2/29/2008 12:12pm

Here’s where I’ll be continuing to follow the games tomorrow — even when I’m there, sitting a few seats away from CP’s reporters in the rafters.

Yikes, of my final four, only one remains. Go Freddy Deeb!

6:45 — Johnathan Little d. Erik Seidel. “Plenty of awfully good players are going down,” says TJ Cloutier to Seidel.

6:46 — “Gavin Smith has moved all-in” [to quote the NBC announcer. “Gavin Smith with about 10,000. 10,300. Tom Schneider has the rest, Gavin smith moved in on the button, Tom Schneider makes a quick call.”

6:47 — TJ Cloutier, to friend: “Heh-heh, I got to go to a make-up appointment!”

6:51 — We’re still waiting for a flop. Robert Goldfarb can be seen across the room reading my text and not responding. I guess we both know the situation.

6:52 — Still waiting for the flop. Joe Hachem has come over to read Gavin’s copy of Tom’s book before Smith gets eliminated. Tom has AJ vs. Gavin Smith’s KJ. Flop is 2-3-4. Crowd is screaming for a king. “Only a king can help,” announcer says. “That’s not true,” a few of us think. 6 on the turn.

6:53 — 5 on the river. Chop-chop. Gavin Smith stays alive.

6:54 — Pokerati can’t stop thinking about how unexciting and technically inaccurate this announcer is and wondering what his presence might have to do with this events falling ratings last year (which were 15 percent smaller than the previous year’s showing).

6:55 — Pokerati removes its jump-to-conclusions subhed, which read “Tom moves on.”

6:57 — Gavin Smith all-in again, with 7-8o against Tom’s Q-Q. “He’s a lot more behind,” says the announcer. “A Gavin Smith race,” says Michael Craig. Flop comes K-5-6. Turn is a 9. Gavin takes the lead.

7:00 — Tom is all-in with 9-9 against Gavin’s Ac-10c. Flop is K-10-J. 8 on the turn. River is 5h.

7:01 — Tom is out after getting it all-in with the best hand three times in a row. Gotta love heads-up, especially for $20k!

7:03 — Matusow is all-in against Hachem, the announcer says “has to get a 4″ … and the audience and media start calling out a bunch of other turns and rivers that could help.

6:02 — Who is this announcer guy? Not too exciting nor comprehensive.

6:03 — Funny, he just made it over to the Tom vs. Gavin table … pointed out that Tom was trailing by “a little more than a few thousand chips.” He then seem confused by why Gavin had some book on the table. “Oops! I Won Too Much Money,” he said over the microphone, surprised to discover the author was right in front of him.

6:05 — “Gavin Smith takes down another nice pot. No one at this table is very afraid,” he said, presumably referring to Tom’s questionable call.

6:06 — Robert Goldfarb is on the other side of the room, not responding to my texts inquiring about what is going on over at his end.

6:09 — Chris Ferguson hits a three-outer on the river … I know see a hot blonde girl standing up and clapping, and am pretty sure that is his modeltastic Brazilian girlfriend.

6:13 — TJ Cloutier shows up and is laughing tickled upon hearing the report from Robert Williamson’s little sister (and favorite Pokerati stalking victim) who informs him that indeed, Hellmuth went out on the third hand. “Heh-heh-ha,” says Cloutier in his Hank-Hill chortle.

6:14 — Oh no! My personal sleeper pick and Arizona Posse-ite Hooman Nikzad is out. He got it all-in with the best, but Greg Raymer turned a set to advance.

6:20 — Tom pushes all-in, Gavin folds … to give the Donkey Bomber a 24k-16k lead. Last time these two played heads-up at the same time, both were competing for WSOP bracelets (in different events). Tom won his match, and Gavin lost his. Just sayin’ …

6:22 — At least two very Hammery flops have come in this 8-match quadrant of first round action. Both 7-7-2 flops have resulted in bets followed by folds. Very interesting.

6:30 — There are seats for about 90 spectators in this makeshift Caesar’s viewing coliseum. Twelve media spots (not counting the dozen or so NBC folks who have the run of the floor.

6:31 — Kenny Tran doubles up against Scott Clements thanks to running clubs. “The turn always gives you extra outs,” the announcer said. No it doesn’t, at least four of us in the room are thinking.

6:33 — Back to counting … there’s standing room only for about a dozen squeezed in around the rails.

6:34 — Greg Raymer can’t seem to leave, even though he’s already one. It’s clear (imho) he’s looking for camera time … not Phil Hellmuth-style for ego … but presumably to get some HD-pixel time for his patch-friends at PokerStars.

6:36 — As Raymer loudly mentioned PokerStars, a headphone-wearing producer woman just informed Fossilman that he was getting in the camera’s way and needed to leave. “Aww, c’mon,” Raymer unsuccessfully plead.

6:40 — Scott Clements’ AK holds up against A7, and California Jen’s pick to win it all moves on.

6:41 — Gabe Kaplan knocks out Antonius.

Battle of the Podcast Stars.

The 64-player field competing for $500,000 (on a $20k buy-in) this weekend has been set (up) — with pairings drawn last night at a kick-off party at Pure.

Click here to see the full bracket and make your picks. (This bracket-maker is kinda new to me, so not sure whether or not you can see my predictions here.)

Some of the more interesting pairings to me:

Tom Schneider vs. Gavin Smith
Clonie Gowen vs. Jennifer Tilly
Sammy Farha vs. Doyle Brunson
Hooman Nikzad vs. Greg Raymer
Chris Ferguson vs. John Juanda
Chris Moneymaker vs. Jerry Yang
Jean Robert Bellande vs. Sam Grizzle

I used to do business with the underground poker rooms in Dallas. I use the phrase “do business” lightly, as it generally meant these guys were willing to front me a couple hundred bucks whenever I needed a rebuy, which may have just been good poker. Regardless, I decided to leave all those red chips behind to work for PartyPoker — one of the biggest companies in the UK until Uncle Sam threatened to imprison my new bosses if they didn’t get out of Dodge by sundown. Bummer.

So now I have moved to Vegas — follow, the legal money, baby! — and find myself writing about bars, shops, restaurants, nightlife, etc. (among other things - sign up if you already haven’t). Good times, right? Maybe … but PURE — the swanky, Batface-friendly nightclub immediately next door to the Caesar’s Palace poker room — just got raided last night by the IRS.

More from the LV Review-Journal here.

Wha? The Feds also hit the Pure offices … seizing computers, paperwork, and presumably DNA samples. Perhaps coincidentally — or not — all this comes less than 48 hours after Dubai World, the Middle Eastern company that invested $5 billion into MGM/Mirage, reportedly bought a 50 percent stake in the Light Group, the biggest nightclub confecture in the world.

Yeow. This apparent shakedown has to be about way more than drunken chicks from Nebraska pretending they are Paris Hilton and slutting it up for guys who can thumb their noses at $350 bottles of Red Bull-and-vodka. But then again, maybe not.

July 2007: Gavin Smith, partying like a rock star at Pure.

Louis Lee, sitting pretty at the final table in his first $10,000 event, is no longer being underestimated by his competition. [photo: Dale Perryman]

The story of Louis Lee has made the USPC entertaining for some of us to follow — moreso than, say, Gavin Smith, who busted out in 9th place when his two-pair couldn’t hold up against a flush draw. With eight players remaining, Lee, who has just $4,000 in major tournament winnings prior to this event, is 2nd in chips with 1.35 million. His trash-talking next-door neighbor Victor Ramdin (last week’s cover of CardPlayer, by the way) is 5th with 322k. Fun!

While this tournament hardly qualifies as a “major,” it still offers potentially life-changing money to the winner. $32k to the next player out; $600k to the last man standing. That’s a big-time sit-n-go no matter how you look at it. (Can we say chop?) For a not-so-winning player like yours truly, it’s kinda extra cool to see a guy sitting next to me at a 2/5 table at WinStar just a month ago in this situation.

Louis and his poker buddy Dale were kind enough to keep us updated throughout Day 4. Click below to see how he got to the final table in such a strong position, where he can theoretically weather a bad beat or two, and totally dominate if he happens to get a tad lucky:

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With 27 players remaining in the U.S. Poker Championship, held at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, Louis Lee from Plano will start Day 4 tomorrow 4th in chips. Jeff Madsen is the fairly dominant chip leader, followed by his party pal Gavin Smithr. Other recognizable names still alive in this $10k event include Allen Kessler, Victor Ramdin, Cliff Josephy (aka JohnnyBax), and Bill Gazes.

Eighteen get paid, with first prize being a little more than $600,000. (164 players started — kinda small, no?)

PokerPages is the only outlet following the action semi-live …

CORRECTION: PokerListings is at the USPC tables, too.

Louis’ up-and-coming tournament history here.

LAS VEGAS - There were 797 players ready to take their seats at noon today. Still able to go for the gold as of 3:30pm PT are JC Tran, John Duthie - Mr. EPT (see photo), Gus Hansen, Huck Seed, Gavin Smith, Sorel Mizzi, Mimi Tran, Fabrice Soulier, Shirley Williams (David’s mom) and Tobey “Spiderman” Maguire.

Annie Duke is out. Tom is still in. And so is “Omaha Ed” Tonnellier. Tom has maintained the chip lead since Day 1, but it’s uncomfortably tight right now with Tom just below 1 million in chips, and Omaha Ed just under 700k.

ESPN did decide against making this match-up the premier TV event of the day … opting instead for Gavin Smith vs. Mike Spegal in the $1,500 Pot Limit Hold’em event, with Gavin trying tocome back from a 2-1 chip disadvantage.

The Main TV Table

Meanwhile, in the Poker SuperStructure wind tent, Fresh Princess is sitting with a slightly above-average stack heading into the tail end of Day 1 in $1,500 Omaha Hi Lo. She’s got Minneapolis Jim Meehan on tilt … not because she referred to him as “Poker Jack Meehan or Something,” but because she apparently called out of turn, enticing some sort of 400 chip mistake from Meehan that garnered zero sympathy from a crusty, fire-red-haired lady dealer.

LAS VEGAS–They’re down to 11 10 players in Event 5 - Omaha/7cs Hi Lo - $2,500, and Tom is still the chip leader, with more than a quarter of the chips in play — and a goofy hat that says “Beyond the Table” on one side and “Oops I Won Too Much Money” on the other. He’s got Annie Duke and Chris Ferguson to his left. Also still alive: Josh Arieh, Scotty Nguyen, John Phan, David Benyamine, and Chris Bell.

Damn.

While writing this post, Steve Hall, unaware of what I was doing and who Tom Schneider is, says, “That’s amazing. John Phan is almost at the final table in the 7-card-stud-Omaha event … You have to actually know poker for that … It looks to be an amazing final table.”

Indeed, Steve, it does. This final table only may or may not be televised. It will be up to ESPN whether to broadcast Tom’s game (is it premature to call it that?) or the $1,500 PL Hold’em final table, featuring Gavin Smith and Marco Traniello. Anyone know any lobbyists?

Also, Mr. Fresh Princess is alive and slightly above average in the $1,500 limit event, and Julie Schneider — Mrs. Donkey Bomber — is thriving in a second-chance tourney in the back of the room.

UPDATE: Tom made it … busted out Arieh to seal the final table deal … he’s got a third of all the chips in play. Mr. Fresh Princess is now hanging “by a thread.” And Julie got knocked out with Ace-Queen … but what’s really funny is how she plowed through the roped off area to tell Tom about it while he was in the middle of a hand.

Check it out … Michele has gotten in on the rotisserie poker thing for the World Series. She’s competing against some good peeps in the WLOFPLL (World League of Fantasy Poker Leagues League). Though I woulda taken JC Tran with her first pick, I think Phil Hellmuth shouldn’t be as big of a surprise as some of her competitors contend.

We’ll see, what do I know. Let’s just hope she does better than I am doing in the Batface fantasy game.

(And super-go Steve Wong! You got a lotta Pokerati bankin’ on you.)

For the past few months, Pauly (TaoPoker) and I have been discussing the possibility of a sweet WSOP prop bet. We haven’t ironed out the details yet but it would involve Dan dressing in drag to register for the Ladies Event at the WSOP. Known in the Amazon Room for his pink shirt and girly glasses, he should have no problem getting a seat, no?

Joe Sebok is fond of WSOP costumes maybe he will join in the action…

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.

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Looks like it was a busy weekend for some. I had to pass on my invitation to the Playboy Mansion (yes, seriously, I was invited) as it conflicted with The Cattle Baron’s Ball (which I have worked on all year). Of course, all of my Cattle Baron friends thought I was crazy to pass up on an exciting evening with bunnies but I think I might make it next year.

My husband actually didn’t want to miss the Gala because he had plans to work on some of his new skills. And when I say new, I mean this was his second attempt at what you will see below. Joe Sebok and Gavin Smith, I think you may have a challenge here.

Please don’t try this at home:

About a million major poker developments have taken place over the past couple weeks … but before we get to those, there are some important links out there that I have been neglectful in sharing:

First off, check out RawVegas.tv … a great new “I-TV” channel put together by CHOPS (from Wicked Chops) and BRIAN BALSBAUGH of Poker Royalty.

Poker is just a small part of it all, really … but on this week’s episode of “Prop Bets,” JOE SEBOK takes GAVIN SMITH for $3,000 by eating an extra half of a fajita, and DANIEL NEGREANU now keeps his videoblog there, too, where you can see him do things like shave his head.

MICHAEL CRAIG has amicably parted ways with the festive gang at PokerWorks — he can probably feel pretty good knowing that it essentially took nine top-quality bloggers to replace him. He’s now blogging for Full Tilt.

Poker author JAY GREENSPAN has gone indie with his new blog, Annals of a Fish Hunter. Read his first post on how it’s a bad time to launch a new poker blog and you’ll be hooked.

Speaking of new blogs, the venerable POKER SHRINK is back to blogging. I always enjoy Dr. Tim Lavalli’s neurological analyses of poker, but have missed the unfiltered rants and insights that made him the most prolific poster over at our beloved-but-dormant PokerBlog.

Over at Up for Poker, CJ has blog-ficially changed his name to LUCKBOX, and apparently has begun thinking about life beyond The Hammer … with some fresh and familiar faces bringing us a new sports blog and Hollywood blog. Doesn’t he know sports is just a fad?

And speaking of Up for Poker … if you haven’t read it already, check out “The Last Poker Game” by OTIS … as he turns his adventures in the Carolina underground into some of the best, most colorful poker writing we’ve seen in long time. Think secret lovechild of ERNEST HEMINGWAY and ANDY GLAZER. Can only wonder what these two mighta produced had either one of them stuck around long enough to start a blog.

UPDATE: PokerBlog alum Jen Leo got herself a presumably sweet new net-geeky gig — writing the Daily Deals travel blog for the L.A. TIMES.

Perhaps her crossover into mainstream media has inspired others? I got no fewer than six LINKEDIN invitations today from bloggers. Never thought I would have so many friends contemplating the concept of a “job.”