We love the guys at PokerListings more and more … not only do they bowl well and generally produce quality poker content, but also, they get it: They can buy a blogger’s affection by throwing freerolls with quality cash prizes at stake. Brilliant, as the British would say.

In the first go-round of the Run Good Challenge, the guys hosting the event dominated. Oops, not very hospitable. But they rolled the money over and then the ladies started winning, including Change100′s victory in the Grand Final. But in event #1 of Run Good Challenge 2: Electric Boogaloo, the one only semi-employed male in the field with firsthand memories of Bobby Riggs losing to Billie Jean King took it down — kudos to Dr. Tim for making a stand on behalf of chubby white bald men who, frankly, needed the inspiration to know, Yes We Can!

The Shrink won $600 for his Sunday-morning skills, fending off attacks from his writing partner Amy Calistri ($300) and longtime Pokerati fave Michele Lewis ($100).

California Jen, Liz Lieu, and Lacey Jones apparently missed the starting bell, but yours truly woke up to his PokerStars alarm this time — seriously, you get a rousing beep on the first hand if you register for the tourney pre-sleep and leave Stars running overnight — but couldn’t get his head fully in the game before pushing all-in with his Q3o vs. the eventual winner’s Q8s (on a flop of Q-8-x) … damn, finished 11th out of 14, which seems about right for how I played almost into Level 2.

If you’re just tuning in and/or need something to pass the time between episodes of Tao of Pokerati … there is a live audio broadcast of what’s going on at the felt — hosted by Nick Geber, who is joined now by Lacey Jones and Daniel Negreanu. Click here to tune in. (With cool chipstack/blind ticker on display, too.)

Also at WSOP.com … Commish Jeffrey Pollack is back to blogging.

UPDATE: Daniel is talking about Eric Morris’ “ass cleavage”. Yikes.

ALSO: This slightly delayed (10 minutes maybe?) audio coverage is really good. Some Russians have written in saying it’s allowing them to follow their man Ivan Moneymaker/Demidov.

The day that the poker community has been waiting for has finally arrived, as the November Nine reunite to determine this year’s “World Champion”.

Has the 100+ day delay been a success? ESPN says ratings are the highest they’ve been in two years, but that was when Hellmuth and Matusow were heavily featured in the coverage. The hoped for mainstream coverage talked about when this all began never really came through, as Lou Krieger mentions.

Play is scheduled to start today at 10am PT at the Penn and Teller Theater at the Rio in Las Vegas. For those that want to listen to the coverage, http://www.bluffmagazine.com/blufftvBluff Magazine and worldseriesofpoker.com will provide an audio stream along with constantly updated chip counts, using their Poker Tracker software. Nick Geber, Lacey Jones and a bunch of other guests will be in on the action. Jeffrey Pollack even writes a rare blog about tonight’s Hall of Fame ceremony, which will take place at about 7:15, just before play resumes from the dinner break. When heads-up play resumes Monday at 10pm PT, Erick Lindgren will receive his WSOP Player of the Year award (and whatever comes with that).

It was decided earlier last week that they will NOT redraw for seats, so here’s how they’ll be situated when cards go in the air (in case you forgot):
More…

I attended the grand opening/premiere/LV poker mixer for The Real Deal at the Venetian on Tuesday. I’m still processing what I witnessed — but I am pretty sure it was the official jumping of the shark for poker, as some 500 poker fans (including Tim Conway, Robert Wagner, Bob Newhart, multiple poker agents, WSOP officials, and the owner of the Venetian and president of the Sands, who walked out after 25 minutes) witnessed painfully how getting lots of airtime on ESPN, GSN, and Fox Sports comes nowhere close to making you a Vegas entertainer worthy of a $100 ticket twice a night, let alone twice a lifetime.*

*Exceptions: Lacey Jones and Vinnie Favorito were great.

Wicked Chops and RawVegas were there, too. And they took advantage of the red carpet to poll a few well known poker players on who they’re backing in the presidential election:

The breakdown:

Daniel Negreanu — Obama
Scotty Nguyen — McCain
Doyle Brunson — Diplomatic: likes McCain but “Obama is better for poker” (?)
Todd Brunson — McCain
Lacey Jones — Undecided: Worked in previous McCain campaigns, but “on the fence”
Eli Elezra — Filibuster: Obama “right guy for poker … but I’m a businessman also”
Gavin Smith — Obama
Dennis Phillips — Diplomatic Filibuster: House and Senate elections matter more

Just got back on the grid and playing electronic catch-up … here are some of the things that are making good browser viewing, but not quite stimulating a full-fledged post:

Jay Busbee (from Bluff) has a good State of the Poker Union address on ESPN.com, where he officially declares the poker boom dead. Also interesting to see ESPN, for the first time I remember in a long-long while, running (non-affiliate) PokerStars ads. [ESPN.com]

Poker Shrink Cranky Olde Coot has a good post wondering why FIDPA still hasn’t made the “new rules” they’ve long ballyhooed public. [PokerBlog.com]

Full Disclosure: FIDPA is one of my MySpace friends. [MySpace.com]

Liberal columnist Michael Kinsley shares a story about John McCain going on some extremely unpresidential tilt at the craps table. (The TJ Cloutier of Politics? Tons of success, a sometimes dangerous love of craps, and never quite able to win the Big One?) [The Daily Beast, via Huffington Post, via Short-Stacked Shamus]

Beyond the Table has a new home online. [Podcast.com]

I think Dr. Pauly’s starting to get a little miffed at me for not working out some production kinks and posting our re-constituted incarnation of Tao of Pokerati, but I think I can make him feel better by simply reading his blog. [Tao of Poker]

With all the talk of what really goes into a world-record endurance poker session, I forgot to send y’all to live-forum coverage of The Poker Den 3 — PartyPoker’s 36-hour high-stakes televised cash game. [MatchroomPoker.com]

Dutch Boyd apparently bought Steve Hall’s Pokerfolio in a semi-hostile takeover. Poor Steve … but he has found a new home for his poker updates/pictures of attractive Asian female dealers. [Pokerfolio.Spruz.com]

Also, the X-10 electronic table — a knock-off of the PokerTek PokerPro popping up in so many places — sharing the same name as a hidden camera used by so many pervy peeping toms before a few lawsuits encouraged them to re-market themselves as a security device. [SlipperyBrick.com]

And long overdue, here’s a great tale of a totally degenerate poker blogger/gambler rescuing his bankroll by poetically chasing/hitting the Station Casinos bad-beat jackpot. [TheTrooper97, via Up for Poker]

There’s more, too, coagulating in my bookmarks and inbox. News stories, forum threads, tourney results … Who knows … maybe I’ll get to them for your reading pleasure, but as is always the case from Head Slacker at this Little-Ole Poker Blog, no promises. It’s good to be back with you all.

LATE ADDITIONS:

Lacey Jones is getting ready for her co-hosting duties of Real Deal, the pokery interactive musical at The Venetian, which kicks off next week. [PokerListings.com via LasVegasAdvisor.com]

She also hosted an interesting event at Cathouse (as simply Lacey J) where women showed up for a seductive-attire contest where the winner got a boob job. [Photobucket.com]

Meanwhile, there was a hardcore SWAT-team poker raid in Fayetteville, NC. A firsthand account as well as some non-poker media coverage here and here. [Triangle Poker Journal]

Tomorrow is the ladies event … and in honor of the heavily anticipated hot cleavage vs. bulldyke action, Wicked Chops has been kind enough to share a picture of Lacey Jones, who arguably boasts the best hotness-to-smartness ratio in poker, wearing nothing but paint.

Seriously, I sometimes find it hard to believe she even talks to me, let alone hugs/accepts me as a MySpace friend.

So I’m kinda surprised to see so many people so bothered by proposed changes to the WSOP main event. I know folks like TBR are a little concerned that a new schedule would require him to take more time away from making babies/the law donuts, but I gotta say … bitch all you want, as imperfect as it may be in v 1.0, this delayed final table concept is great — nay, brilliant! — and here’s why:

Better Sponsor Deals for Players
In three months a player has time to get their business affairs in order and sell their bodies if they wish. Currently, the only deals offered up are by online-poker-site thugs hovering around the final few tables with bags of cash and swag. And while some more experienced players might recognize the off-table opportunities that go along with guaranteed television exposure while it is all taking shape, do you really want to be making business decisions while in the middle of a big tourney?

Say someone like TBR were to make the final table … he has ins with Whataburger, but there’s simply no way he’d be able to hook anything up with a non-poker company in two days. With the extra time, however, he might be able to convince them (in theory at least) that doughy poker players are the perfect people to market the 24-hr drive-thru to. Boom: Whataburger hat, extra cash. If Lacey Jones were to make it, her peeps would have plenty of time to work something up with Revlon, for example. These sorts of deals simply aren’t possible in the current set-up.

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LAS VEGAS – First things first…Congratulations to Tom on winning his second bracelet and for reaching his goal of three 2007 WSOP final tables! And congratulations to Dan for his 4th place finish at, the former WSOP stomping grounds, Binions.

I’m relaxing in writing from Summerlin with my three two children and husband who bought $100 worth of fireworks. If you see anything on the news regarding wild fires in West Vegas…

The S.H.O.E. event started at 5pm today and in the line up is Marcel Luske, David Levi, Chad Brown, James Van Alstyne and beauties Shannon Elizabeth and Lacey Jones.

Speaking of ladies…Anna Wroblewski has made the final table for event #47 2k NL Holdem.

Just when you thought this post was finished, there’s a bit more…John Duthie, a personal favorite and who coached Daniel Craig in the new James Bond film, is currently chip leader in today’s PLO with over 100k but lady favorite Patrik Antonius (who, according to WCP, should have the massage therapist paying him to rub his body) is close behind.

Oops, Patrik just made the pass (in the race not at a massage therapist).