I know it’s been discussed before, but a recent California “ladies” event held at the Bicycle Casino brings back that discussion. I was looking at Pokerpages on Monday and decided had a look at the Legends of Poker series of tournaments to see the latest results. Barbara Enright took down the title, but if you looked at who finished in 7th place (which has been removed) you would have seen poker author John Vorhaus listed. Fortunately the tournament reporter mentioned that Vorhaus, the chip leader going into the final table, “dressed appropriately for the ladies event wearing a red-haired wig and a dress”. Is this how “Killer Poker” is supposed to be played?

I personally don’t understand why men would want to play in a ladies’ event unless they’re either looking for attention, or that they’re so bad at poker they feel their best chance at winning is to play the “weaker” sex. Maybe it was done for a more noble purpose, so I hope the $725 was worth it.

Update: Vorhaus talks about his experience in the event on his blog.

Facts and Figures from the WSOP so far, at the end of play early Friday morning:

Number of entrants: 20,141
Bracelets awarded: 20
Most cashes: Nikolay Evdakov - 5
Most final tables: Theo Tran, Erick Lindgren - 2
Current ESPN POY: Erick Lindgren 175 points
Leading money earner: Grant Hinkle - $831,462

A review of the week 2 action at the World Series of Poker:

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I’ll make this one brief:

Svetlana Gromenkova wins Ladies’ Event.

Ted Forrest chip leader at $2,000 Omaha 8 final table (7 left).

Jason Young leader with 3 left in the $1,500 NL Shootout.

Tom Dwan chip leader with 570k in $5,000 2-7 KC Lowball Event, Tom Schneider 5th with 270K. 17 left, 14 get paid.

Carter Gill chip leader at $1,500 PLO Event, under 100 left.

480 signed up for the $2,000 Limit Holdem Event, Ayaz Mahmood chip leader, 400 left.

More from me tomorrow…

Happenings at the WSOP while awaiting the inevitable Gary Wise article tomorrow on the Ladies’ final table:

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What’s happening at the WSOP while GSN considers picking up a new show, High Stakes Dice.

Speaking of Ivey, he’s currently in the top 10 at the $5,000 NL 2-7 KC Lowball event. Tom Dwan currently is chip leader at 238,900 with about half of the field remaining. In third is Pokerati’s own Tom Schneider with 153,500. Play resumes at 3pm this afternoon as they’ll play down to their final table of 7.

Final tables and what starts today after the jump:

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In a final table filled with high-stakes players and bracelet winners, Eric Brooks ($0 in tournament cashes) beats Fu Wong ($110,000 in tournament cashes) in the $10,000 7 Card Stud World Championship. Alexander Kostritsyn, who at one point had a 1,000,000 chip lead over his nearest competitor, finished in 3rd. High stakes regulars Minh Ly and David Oppenheim finished in 4th and 8th respectively. 8-time bracelet winner Erik Seidel finishes in 5th.

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What’s happening today at the WSOP:

The $2,500 NL Holdem final table is already at heads-up, after a whirlwind of eliminations. Steve Merrifield currently has had a commanding lead over Duncan Bell. Bell then doubled up off of Merrifield with A9 v 55. The final hand was a cooler for Merrifield, on a flop of 8-6-2, Bell went allin, Merrifield would call with 10-10. Unfortunately for him, Bell had AA, Steve couldn’t catch another 10 and Bell gets to take home $666,777, Merrifield will have the consolation of taking $428,948 for 2nd.

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The ladies event is always, um, special. In this episode Pauly and I scope out potential sugarmamas from the remaining $1,000 no-limit hold’em field as the female players fight to get deeper into the money.

Episode 4: Late-Night Piladies

New York Times is getting in on the action too. My favorite part of the article is the last paragraph.

BREAKING NEWS: GSN does not exercise Season 7 option for GSN. Talks ongoing with GSN to possibly air “parts” of season 7. Press release from WPTE

Happenings from yesterday at the WSOP:

The other final table of yesterday concluded earlier this morning, as Jimmy Shultz took down Event #12 ($1,500 Limit Holdem), eventually beating Zac Flowers in a heads-up battle to win a bracelet along with just over $250,000. Upon his victory, he announced he was donating 25% of his win to the Charleston, SC Fire Department , who lost nine firefighters June 18, 2007. Vinny Vinh, along with his “associates” railing him, finished 3rd.

More info after the jump:
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Hmm, as much sense as it makes to award bracelets only in open events, this sorta change apparently isn’t up for review, according to Michele (who played yesterday under the Queen of Hearts charity banner):

Last night at the Queens of Heart dinner, Jeffrey Pollack made two announcements:

1. As long as he is WSOP Commissioner there will be a Ladies Event awarding a bracelet
2. No man would be allowed to register for the Ladies Event today

Happenings this evening, while I make this part small so you can read all the good stuff below:

The $5k NL Shootout final table is down to headsup. The current chip leader winner is Phil “The Chairman” Tom. His son, Scott, was the founder of Absolute Poker, and we know how that turned out. (Readers may want to insert their own superuser jokes here). Greg “FBT” Mueller is in a close finished 2nd, while Leo Wolpert was recently eliminated in 3rd.

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Teddy “The Iceman” Munroe: Watch out for this guy. Tough to play against.

Tom is was the chip leader in the $2k Omaha Hi-Lo. That’s pretty cool.

UPDATE: Tom is out. Not cool.

And that limit event he busted out of yesterday … Erick Lindgren just missed the final table, which is now set with some interesting players, including Teddy Munroe, Ali Eslami, and Vinny Vinh. (Teddy and I go way back — last year I’d be typing outside and “The Iceman” would fill me in on the $100-$200 cash action while taking a piss on the tournament tent air conditioners. “Makin’ money, baby!” he’d say before shaking himself dry and heading back to the table.)

Even the $10k 7-Stud World Championship is getting interesting … with Doyle still alive and both Bob and Maureen Feduniak with the potential to become the first ever husband-wife presumably non-collusive team at the final table. Never mind. Since typing this, all the above-mentioned have been eliminated.

I learned about this 7-Stud shape-up from the a WSOP-TV vid. And though I tend to detest any lack of imbeddability, I gotta say I like a lot of what this ESPN/WSOP/Bluff (?) crew has got going here. For example, Harmonie Krieger does a basic feature video interview set on the different jobs people come to the WSOP from. Nice enough, right? — but very real when one of the guys she talks with is Jay Columbo, who ran the legendary Mayfair and Playstation poker clubs in New York City, legally questionable status notwithstanding.

And then, perhaps most shocking to me, I enjoyed Jean-Robert Bellande’s “Surviving the WSOP” — where the young, aspiring Eskimo Clark chronicles his ups and downs at the World Series while his video-podcast editors comment Pop-up Video-style — follow along as he hustles high-rollers for buy-ins.

Even learned something from Phil Ivey’s less exciting V-log … and that is that he’s playing so many big-field, low-buy-in donkfests because he has a lot of side action pending on whether or not he’ll win a bracelet this year. We’ll see if we can’t find out more about this.

Speaking of donkfests, the Ladies Event has already lost 2/3 of its starting field, and of those still remaining, at least three of them are Pokerati MySpace friends: Lacey Jones, Kathy Liebert, and Mandy Baker are looking strong and pretty much representing the spectrum of all that is good about women. Go girls! I mean chicks … er babes .. uh bitches?

UPDATE: Lacey is nursing a short stack. Poker Roadie Amanda Leatherman has come on strong, however, and picked up the aggressive pace. Michele Lewis, Tiffany Michele, and PokerNews editrix Haley Hintze are all out.

In the meantime, primarily because it is awesomely embeddable, check out the debut episode of The Degenerate Report, from Neverwin Poker:

There was one lone man who attempted to play in the WSOP Ladies event today. Alan Jaffray, whom you might remember from the Event #5 final table last week, bought the dress, accessorized, and was ready to take his seat in the tournament…until Jeffrey Pollack stopped him and asked him to leave in the name of “integrity.”

His account of the situation is written up in my article just posted on PokerWorks.

My favorite quote from Alan: “Eventually they’ll try to deny entry to the wrong person - like, say, a pre-op transsexual woman - and there will be fireworks. When that day comes, I will serve popcorn. (Smile) Until then, I have an amusing story to tell and a new appreciation for accessories and lipstick.”

The ladies event brings out all sorts … supposedly one man entered, and one man left. Because the WSOP wasn’t gonna get themselves into anything resembling a civil rights and discriminatory mess, anyone who stood in line for Event #15 would be allowed to buy in. However, when only one man did this, Nolan Dalla went up to him and politely asked him not to play — refunded his buy-in as he obliged.

One lady who is supposedly playing: Mindy McCready. She’s the country singer-turned-Roger Clemens affairester. Can you imagine if she got seated with a dress-wearing Jose Canseco? Sorry that I don’t have a pic of her in action … but I have to admit, I’m less interested in Day 1 of the Ladies Event than usual. Perhaps it had something to do with a chat I had with Snake, or maybe it’s just because Pokerati fave Evil Omaha Sharron (NSFW) isn’t playing.

Regardless, Jen has pretty much successfully convinced me that non-open events should be non-bracelet events. Ladies, Seniors, Casino Employee’s … since anyone can’t win then they should not receive the same acclaim as those who take down a tourney where technically anyone can.

Of course the problem with this would be that if these events lost their prestige, then they would also lose their crowds, which are an important part of bringing newbies into the game. The solution: partner up with some other entity to make these special events the pinnacle of their season(s). Though I don’t really know much about the LIPS Tour, it seems a pretty big, legitimate deal. Why not bring in them (or some entity like them) to give some special championship prize that still makes the non-bracelet event exciting?

Today is the start of the Ladies No-Limit Hold’em World championship. Over a thousand women are here at the Rio for a girls’ day out poker tournament. Men are on the rail and out in the hall with baby strollers, and the women are positively giddy. *Sigh*

Let me begin with an example of what just happened as I was writing this post:

A woman from the table in front of the media perch walked right up to the perch and took a chair. She looked at us and said, “My chair is broken, and I need a new one.” Okay. Even though she didn’t ask if she could come up here or use one of our chairs (isn’t this what the floor staff is for?), we watched as she took a chair. She then proceeded to bring her “broken” chair back up here. Aaron said, “If it’s broken, don’t bring it up here!” She said, “Oh, it’s not really broken. It’s just squishy, squishy when I sit on it.”

Part of what I enjoy about poker is the mix of people, and though it remains a male-dominated game, it is open to anyone who wants to play. Events like the ladies-only and seniors-only tournaments are the opposite; they are exclusionary and specially designed to cater to the partipants, especially in the case of the women. This is a $1000 buy-in, whereas all open events have a minimum buy-in of $1500. Men are not allowed to play this event, as evidenced by a gentleman being kicked out for trying to play (trying to get details). And if the prize pool is anything like last year, there might be a spa and makeover treatment awaiting the winner.

Personally, I like the fact that men are more low-maintenance. Ladies events have proven to be love fests - hugs, apologies, chats about the kids, laughs about the husbands. And I don’t like it. It takes away from the hard-core nature of this game that requires thick skin and a poker face. I’m not saying that laughs and light conversation are never welcome at the table, but ladies events take it to an entirely over-the-top level.

Quite possibly, the ladies event has lost some of its zing. The total number of entrants was down from last year, with 1,190 this year as compared to 1,285 in 2007. A secret source also told me that much of the mainstream media did not want to cover this event, despite a few celebrities (Camryn Manheim, Cheryl Hines) joining the Queen of Hearts team to play for charity. It seems that the novelty of women playing poker has worn off, and if they want to seriously compete in this game, they should buy into open events. Period. (Pun intended.)

What’s happening at the WSOP while I go looking to buy some vurry expensive watches :
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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.

It’s good to know business deals are still going down at the WSOP … even though the money isn’t flying willy-nilly to any kid with moderate online success or railbird floozie with prime hooter-estate as in past World Serieses. (Can I get some help on the plural of World Series here?)

Though I can’t quite tell if this is a temporary final table deal or a long-term investment based on future success, Kathy Liebert, oft-overlooked despite being arguably the most successful woman player in the history of poker, just signed with PokerStars as she makes her run for a bracelet in the $10k PLH Event. Am interested to know if this suggests online poker sites are looking for longevity over one-hit wonders in their sponsorship deals this year, or if it is simply a matter of still plastering televised final tables with logos on whatever body space is still available.

UPDATE: Just got confirmation that this is just a final table deal — she’s not Greg Rayer/Chris Moneymaker/Joe Hachem/Isabelle Mercier yet. So it seems winning the main event/being hot-and-young in France is still key when it comes to booking long-term sponsorship deals.

So new question: Will all these new “World Championships” really be perceived as such by the masses, and perhaps more important, the online-poker room payhandlers?

Click below to read the info sent from a Stars representative:

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Nolan Dalla’s recap and pic tell the story:

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Wow, don’t know what to make of this press release … but the Silverton Casino in Las Vegas has such a cute little tourney for ladies who like things that are pretty!

Silverton Casino Lodge Invites
Las Vegas’ Lovely Ladies To A Pink Poker Night

Silverton Casino Lodge hosts two Pink Poker Nights for women looking to enjoy all the fun of Texas Hold’Em poker in a friendly and fun environment, 6 p.m., Wednesday, May 7 and 14.

Hosted around special pink felt tables, Silverton Casino Lodge’s Pink Poker Nights feature an assortment of pink decorations, pink poker chips and complimentary cocktails provided by PINK Vodka. Included with the price of a buy-in is a free poker lesson, a designated number of playing chips, one specialty cocktail and one goodie bag. Following a poker lesson and warm-up round, ladies compete for chips in a live poker game.

Entry fee is $20 for May 7. Tournament buy-in on May 14 will be $30. For more information or to register, please visit 1027fresh.fm.

Who knew such events still existed … tiny stakes, beginner poker, pink, ladies, and free vodka? Speaking strictly in poker terms, I want to make a joke about this game being prime for the raping, but am so afraid to … still, I know if I were allowed to play I could win this bitch!

We discussed a poorly received tourney idea on Beyond the Table a year ago — the concept being a “men’s minority event.” I loved the idea because we’ve all played dudes-only before and women have ladies tourneys … but while all women players have been the only representative of their gender at a table before, that’s a dynamic that guys simply don’t get to experience.

Psychology would be fun, results would be interesting …Logistics was the tough part — how to limit the field to 10 (or 15) percent men and still attract the necessary entries. But one thing we never considered was a simple invitational sit-n-go.

So much to my delight, the new episode of Poker after Dark just came on and lo and behold the players this week are Gus Hansen, Vanessa Rousso, J.J. Liu, Clonie Gowen, Beth Shak, and Erica Schoenberg. Very cool — well cast with Gus, who knows they know he knows they know he can be a tad horny influenced by his respect for the ladies.

“We should make all the guys play this format one time,” Clonie just said. Barack Obama presumably agrees, as he just sat down for a very similar 6-handed sit-n-go on The View:

(L to R) Vanessa Rousso, Clonie Gowen, Gus Hansen, J.J. Liu, Beth Shak, and Erica Schoenberg appear this week on Poker after Dark.

The Season 7 sked is out … and sure enough, the Mirage and Mandalay Bay tourneys have been axed — along with five other events. So the WPT is now more like the North American Poker Tour, with 14 events instead of 21.

Also interesting is that they have scrapped Ladies Night. Gotta wonder if that has something to do with California’s new ruling on gender-stacking tournaments.

Bob at CardPlayer has a pretty good article breaking down the Rise and Fall of the WPT.

Here’s word directly from Jennifer Leigh herself, about her choice (my emph) to share her naked tatas natural beauty with the non-poker world …

She’ll be in the May issue, according to her interview for (mostly) non-poker women — SHEKNOWS: Confessions of a Poker Princess — where she not only gives the girl-next-door details about her pictorial for (mostly) non-poker men, but also reveals her crossover potential in World of Warcraft, which I suspect will make a lot of more-than-poker gamer-types out there theoretically really happy.

It seems that the California Bureau of Gaming Control doesn’t take too kindly to discrimination.

On January 18, the Bureau released a statement that rejected “ladies only” poker tournaments because they violate the state’s anti-discrimination laws. Not only will such events not be allowed to discriminate in admittance prices or services offered, but they can no longer advertise tournaments as ladies only, since men must be admitted.

PokerNews ran an article about it, noting that the Bicycle Casino and Commerce Casino do allow men to enter the events and will change their advertisements to remove the word “only” when referring to the ladies tournaments.

The WPT, which recently launched its Ladies League, said, “The intention of WPT Ladies is not to prohibit or promote against male players from joining, playing or receiving equal prizing in WPTL tournaments, but rather to encourage the growth of women in poker and provide opportunities to test their skills in the tournament environment.”

Curious to see how this all plays out – if men will start entering these ladies events to make a point or if they will leave the ladies alone.

See the entire Bureau of Gambling Control press release by clicking below:

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Speaking of women / little girls in poker … here’s an article in The Economist that some of us may have missed last month … about Annette Obrestead’s WSOP-Europe win, and what it means for the game overall, regardless of chromosomes. Gotta wonder what the youngest generation of players thinks about the poker gender gap. My semi-educated guess is that it’s far less relevant to Gen-Y and below.

Sure, I’m a lady. (Shut up, Dan.) But I’ve written numerous articles about my anti-ladies-only tournament stance…

When All In Magazine asked if I wanted the assignment to cover the WSOP Ladies Academy in Vegas this past weekend, it required some consideration. I firmly object to women being separated in the poker community, but I noticed that Annie Duke was the primary instructor for the class. Knowing that we shared the same view about ladies-only tournaments, I decided to accept the assignment and investigate. The comped room at Caesars had something little to do with my decision.

Alex Outhred Instructing Students

Glad I did it.

The two-day course was extremely informative, as Annie covered everything from bluffing to betting amounts to detailed strategy for pre-flop and post-flop play. Joe Navarro spent a few hours discussing tells, which even drew some Vegas pros like Tom McEvoy and JJ Liu to sit in. Alex Outhred also helped with the lectures and the live table demonstrations. There were about 75 ladies enrolled in the $1700 course, and everyone seemed glad to have been there.

The lingering question: Why was it for women only?

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The issue of women holding ladies-only events and a separate Hall of Fame is certainly drawing attention. There are great arguments on both sides.

I happen to be on the anti-ladies-only side of the debate, as demonstrated in this article on PokerWorks. When I took this stand during the 2007 WSOP by writing an article for PokerPages, specifically about the WSOP Ladies Championship bracelet event, I received some harsh criticism by women in the poker community, but I also received more support than anticipated - from men and women.

It’s an issue that won’t be resolved any time soon, as women continue to turn out in droves for the ladies-only tournaments, but it’s an interesting topic for discussion.

The WPT, perhaps in response to years of hubbub over the arbitrary selection process for WPT Ladies Night, has added a $1,500 Ladies Championship event to its line-up, which should prove to be quite the hit. (I like the low buy-in to encourage as many ladies to play as possible.)

Michele Lewis has a good post up with more details, and an insightful list of reasons why she loves these gender-biased tourneys.

Curious … we all know the regular hubbub over ladies events — are-they-discriminatory-or-not-and-who-cares-oh-look-there’s-a boy-in-a-dress-ok-cards-in-the-air. But am wondering if the ladies honored in this article about their forthcoming induction into the new Women in Poker Hall of Fame might find the CardPlayer hedline offensive. Because you know, Binion’s isn’t even like on the Strip, let alone a place you should expect to see Linda Johnson topless, right?

Yes, there are things going on in Hollywood besides Britney Spears’ life crumbling before our eyes and Sally Field’s speech at the Emmy’s being censored by Fox.

Personally, Survivor isn’t one of my favorite shows but I’m tuning in this season (Thursdays at 8pm PST on CBS) because Survivor: China features poker’s own Jean-Robert Bellande. Bobby did well on the first episode, and rumors circulate that he doesn’t get voted off anytime soon. My only question is… Did he have to take a slow boat to China and make straw huts to get his chance at a million dollars? Sure, it’s a freeroll, but still…

Speaking of crazy, Russell Crowe has been known to do some ridiculous things, like throwing that telephone at a NYC hotel employee, but now he’s taking his antics to moral ground. He has decided that he doesn’t want poker machines in his sports club – or any Australian clubs or leagues – because a study revealed that some of the players use their welfare money to play. Ummm, that’s how gambling has survived the test of time, Russell. Duh.

Gambling brings us to the film Lucky You that was released in theaters back in May. The odds were against it from the start, not only because it was released on the same day as Spiderman 3, but it was a disappointing movie. Warner Bros. had an acclaimed producer/director, all-star cast, and even true poker pros as extras and consultants, but it just flopped. (Eliminate Drew Barrymore and it might have been less painful…) Well, the DVD is now available for rental or purchase. Do what you wish with your spare change.

And let’s end with Jose Canseco. He and a group of men showed up at the California State Poker Championship series to play in the… wait for it… Ladies No-Limit Hold’em tournament. Either long-term use of steroids confuse the brain, or he was making a point that ladies-only tournaments are discriminatory. Wouldn’t women go absolutely nutty if a casino tried to keep them out of a tournament? Seriously, let’s turn the poker tables here.

Photo courtesy of PokerPadz & London Gallagher

For starters, here is a video of WPT video hostess Kimberly Lansing and WPT show hostess Layla Kayleigh from the recent WPT tournament in Biloxi:

Now, go to Wicked Chops and watch the two videos of Kimberly and Layla putting on a show specifically for the Wicked Chops boys. Seriously, I would love to bitch-slap both of them (and not in a sexy way), but that’s beside the point. The videos are ridiculously embarrassing, admit it.

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LAS VEGAS–We’re coming to the tail end of WSOP Part I. And seeing the opening salvo of WSOP Part II — the parties, the Expo, the main event, yadda yadda.

The biggest deal today is HOWARD AND SUZIE LEDERER’S barbecue (w/ STEPHEN Z) the final table of the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha World Championship … with DOYLE BRUNSON looking to put the screws to Phil Hellmuth:

Seat 1 - Doyle Brunson - 510,000
Seat 2 - Patrik Antonius - 650,000
Seat 3 - Marco Traniello - 420,000
Seat 4 - Rene Mouritsen - 775,000
Seat 5 - Tommy Ly - 1,895,000
Seat 6 - Jonas Flug-Entin - 445,000
Seat 7 - Steve Sung - 175,000
Seat 8 - Stephen Ladowski - 360,000
Seat 9 - Robert Mizrachi - 1,090,000

Click here to follow the Best of Omaha, semi-live.

If you want to follow it closer-to-live, it’s being video broadcast today. Mean Gene tells me word is that the event won’t be sequestered … instead it will be broadcast without the hour delay, but no hole cards visible.

Meanwhile, at the secondary final table of $1,000 SHOE, PAT POELS (above) looks to reclaim the ARIZONA POSSE bracelet lead as he is gunning for his third. He was chip leader for most of the day yesterday, but took a big hit right at the end.

The Final Table:

Seat 1: Vladimir Shchemelev - 168,000
Seat 2: Chip Jett - 40,000
Seat 3: Dao Bac - 266,000
Seat 4: Imre Leibold - 250,000
Seat 5: Patrick Poels - 53,000
Seat 6: Raymond Davis - 235,000
Seat 7: Adam Geyer - 293,000
Seat 8: Michael Craig - 161,000

Click here to follow today’s most important mixed-games action.

Mad props to fellow Andy Beal stalker blogger MICHAEL CRAIG (left), who has made his second final table of the WSOP (and also has some ARIZONA roots apparently). CHIP JETT (right), who I believe hails from Arizona originally, is fighting to hang.

Tomorrow he and his wife KARINA are hosting an party at a Las Vegas strip club, by the way:

Another player to watch … RAYMOND DAVIS (left — not from Arizona) has also been kicking butt this year, and seems due for big score. LUCKY LIU (right) just missed the final table. He is STEVE WONG’S poker mentor. Shout out … nice go, LL!

Both TOM SCHNEIDER and MICHELE LEWIS are competing in the $1,500 Limit Hold’em Shootout today. Tom made the final table in this event last year, and Michele made a final table in Limit Hold’em, and cashed in a No-Limit shootout.

Since shootouts dictate that only one in 10 move on, Pokerati swears we don’t want to see them at the same table for the sake of PHOTOGRAPHIC CONVENIENCE.

DONKEY BOMBER wants to cash really bad in this — the deeper the better — to lock up Milwaukee’s Best Light Player of the Year. He’s trying to hold off JEFF LISANDRO, who is well-chipped going into Day 2 of the $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em w/ Rebuys event. Interestingly enough, these two have a pending $5,000 bet — not on who will finish higher in the POY standings, but over the NUMBER OF ENTRANTS into the main event. Tom has the under on 5,850.

If you have an opinion about the rightness of Ladies events, JENNIFER NEWELL has an interesting article — and new perspective on tournaments lacking a Y chromosome.

Looks like something out of E.T., no?

This presumably has something to do with why a fourth Day 1 for the main event was added. Really would be unfair to any players who had to start in the “poker superstructure.”

As the WSOP rolls on, the cash games are getting bigger and bigger — but where are the pros? Follow coverage of the LIVE ACTION at PokerWorks.

Dallas Dealer BETH LAIRD, seen here with ALLEN CUNNINGHAM and STEVEN Z(olotow) in the $1,000 2-7 Triple Draw w/ Rebuys.

RAFI AMIT won that event in the early Monday a.m. As they tend to do in mixed games, the ARIZONA POSSE represented … with DANNY FUHS just missing the final table, but still scoring a POSITIVE EV cash.

LAS VEGAS–Speaking of how great people are, here’s an article giving props to the WSOP Ladies Academy graduates who cashed in the Ladies event … one of whom happens to be none other than our own Fresh P. If she keeps that kinda play up at the tables, perhaps someday people will figure out how to spell her name.

Today Michele is playing in the $3,000 Limit Hold’em event.

UPDATE: She’s out late in Day 1. Nice go, Michele. Better luck/cards/play next time.

LAS VEGAS–They’re coloring up the green chips now in the Ladies event … and should be right at the bubble with 130ish players left. But for some unknown reason, only 99 of this 1,286-player field will get paid. Michele is at 31k, similar to Barbara Enright Susie Isaacs, who is also at her table. [NOTE: Husbands do not make the best reporters.] This puts them both at about 15th in chips — pretty much the bottom of the top. Below that, everyone else is pretty short … and getting desperate.

For the longest time, the ladies were not given a clock telling them how much time is left or giving them the necessary info to calculate the average stack. A few Gen-X babes were talking about lodging a formal complaint if the situation wasn’t fixed. But Susie Isaacs, being the grand dame of poker she is, reportedly took care of the matter with floor personnel before it got to that … and the big-screen clock was up and running with about 140 players left.

UPDATE: 130 left, Michele is 8th in chips, and the Ladies event clock is not running anymore. (But all floor people supposedly have synchronized handheld timing devices.)

UPDATE UPDATE: Pokerati friend Suzanne Carpenter just busted out. She got crippled when her Kings lost to “that [beyotch] who keeps getting queens.” The generally jovial Suzanne (right) is not a happy camper right now, having played all day and night to finish 122nd. “It really sucks to be in the top 10 percent and not get paid, you know?”

UPDATE and ANSWER: Michele has lost half her stack … she’s got about 15k with blinds at 600/1200 + 100. The reason this tourney payout structure is different than the rest? According to one of the assistant floor supervisors, “This is a LIPS event, not really a WSOP event. I mean it is a WSOP bracelet. But LIPS sets the structures.”

POSSIBLE UPDATE: According to her husband, she has at least 24k. Garrr!

115 players left. Again, 99 out of 1,286 get paid.

BETTER ANSWER: According to the floor supervisor, why the payout is less than 10 percent … “I’d like to know myself.” He said it had nothing to do with LIPS, and went on to explain that the 6-handed NLH event also paid out similar to the ladies event. “So my bullshit answer is that it’s because it’s only a $1,000 event — the only one, I think. That’s my guess … Let me know if you hear anything different.”

LAS VEGAS–The Fresh Princess is on dinner break in the $1,000 “World Championship” Ladies NLH event … and she’s standing strong as they’re nearing the bubble — with $30k in chips. This is a particularly important event for her to cash in, because she is playing backed by another player. (She made me promise not to reveal his name yet, but I can tell you that he’s on Todd’s Batface fantasy team, not on her fantasy team, and Tom thinks this guy is the very best player in the world right now.)

Click here to follow Michele’s progress — though the official WSOP website isn’t being all that well updated for this event, she is near the chip lead as they are under 200 players. (1286 started, 99 get paid.)

Go Fresh P!

Meanwhile, Tom Schneider somehow stayed alive in the $2,500 HORSE event. It wasn’t looking good when I took off for dinner, but when I returned, he had about 25,000 in chips … against a tougher and tougher remaining field. Click here to follow his action.

382 entries in this field … not sure how many are left — 100ish maybe? His stack seems somewhere between slightly below average and slightly above. And this comes after a huge grumble: “I just lost a huge [amount] with rolled-up fives. Rolled-up fives! Can you believe it?!?”

UPDATE: 80 players left. 40 get paid. He now has about 19k … a little below average but not overly threatening.

Um, no Tom, I cannot. I also cannot believe that the chip counters had no clue who you were until Pauly corrected the situation about 10 minutes ago. Geesh, you’d think Rodney Dangerfield Donkey Bomber would get a little more respect having won a bracelet. Don’t they know how insecure he is about this sort of thing?

Speaking of … there’s a new episode of Beyond the Table up. Check out the player to the right or right-click here to hear Tom talk about how much he hates Stud and Hi-Lo events … before he won a bracelet in them.

LAS VEGAS–Perhaps connected to the push for mainstream sponsorships, perhaps not … the $1k Ladies NLH event going on right now has more than just money and a bracelet at stake. Both Corum Watches and the Los Angeles Sparks (of the WNBA) have added something to the prize pool. Click below to read the press release. Then try to come up with a funny twist on the phrase “overlay.”

More…

LAS VEGAS–Yes, I know you are all jealous that I will be playing poker with a bunch of hot chicks today. You should be…you will be missing out on cleavage, cat fights and maybe even a few soft hair mustaches.

Ok, let’s take a moment to be serious. I have always had a great time in these events and have actually made some great friends. The women are funny, nice and the room smells better. It’s just…the cat fight thing makes for a better story for all of you drama addicts.

Among the favorites today will be defending champ Mary Jones, Clonie (who needs not a last name) Jen Tilly, Jennicide, Vanessa Rousso and Isabelle Mercier who will be playing on the Queen of Hearts Team. Veteran player Karina Jett will be playing on the feminine felt, while Annie Duke will be skipping out on the gender game, making her way to the Amazon Room for this afternoon’s $5k Limit Championship. Annie, I’m jealous.

I’m sure Wicked Chops Poker will have a lot of cleavage photos because those guys are a bunch of perverts. I only name-call because I was unsuccessful in my attempt to persuade any of them to register into this event. How funny would it be to see two guys at the final table of the ladies event? And the winner of this year’s ladies event is John Doe!

BTW…I covered the WSOP Ladies Academy this past weekend, which was awesome. More to come on that gig.

They’ve got a poll up at Neverwin Poker inquiring who’s the poker hottie du jour. They didn’t have a box for write-in candidates, so I voted for Olga Varkonyi. Clonie apparently isn’t what she used to be back in the day when her primary babe-monicker competition consisted of Evelyn Ng, Kathy Liebert, and Annie Duke. The top two vote-getters at present are Jennicide and (Dallas expat) Chantel McNulty.

As we’re messing with newfangled audio contraptions, I finally listened to our own Fresh Princess’s inaugural foray into the poker podcastosphere. Michele, I had no idea you were such a rookie! I mean in poker, not radio.

Check it out, as she appears on the Women’s Poker Hour (hosted by Maryann Morrison and Amy Zupko) a few weeks ago.

Women’s Poker Hour - 3/22/07[display_podcast]