A little poker gossip because sometimes in serious times we like the petty …

Melanie Iglesias vs. WPT (and QuadJacks?)
The guys at Quadjacks have called it “Flushgate” — and reportedly have received quite a bit of wrath from non-poker types over “the abrupt resignation of three Royal Flush girls” — 2010 Maxim Hometown Hottie winner and now MTV personality Melanie Iglesias, Michelle Banzer, and brand spankin’ new RF girl Mica Javier, who had only been on the job for a few weeks. The purging all went down last month right around the time of press announcements for the World Poker Tour’s new Season X … ooh, juicy! You could almost be certain somebody was gonna cry, if not more formally cry foul.

Catpacking in AC
We can only imagine how cut-throat that world can be — where looks absolutely are tied in with your success. Call us old-school here at Pokerati, Melanie is great and all, but she’s still no Lacey Jones, who recently did a lingerie photoshoot with power-model Katerina Van Derham. Meanwhile, here’s a new video featuring Lacey and Maria Ho helping Christina Lindley pick out a dress for her birthday party at the Borgata in Atlantic City this weekend … and New Jersey celeb-hunter Michael Berman interviews this threesome, being dubbed “the Cat Pack” here for the kickoff of WPT Borgata, where there may or may not be openings for three new Royal Flush Girls.

Auction Player?
Speaking of old school, Phil Hellmuth appeared last week on the A&E show Storage Wars — advising a group about strategy in their game of swag auctions, which apparently involves a combination of luck and skill. Not too familiar with that show … when do we get to hear someone say to Phil, “Going, going, gone!?”

Dealer’s Choice: From Poker to Pot
A relatively unknown poker player named Jim Rice is representing poker (whether he likes it or not) and pot on Survivor 23: South Pacific. Supposedly a pal (and business partner?) of Paul Wasicka’s, the 35-year-old from Chicago is now a medical marijuana dispenser in Colorado (woot!). His most recent cashes include a 3rd and a 23rd on the Heartland Poker Tour, this year and in 2008, respectively. And now with online poker more illegal than selling weed (in some US jurisdictions) … makes you wonder if certain poker pros would rather be Jim Rice or Jean-Robert Bellande.

Jack Black Rising or Falling Poker Celebrity?
There’s always new Hollywood celebrities getting in on poker — and hosting a charity tourney is often their first foray into niche hero-status and/or business opportunity around their personal poker addictions. Could Jack Black be the latest? The last-place finisher in the WPT’s 2009 Hollywood home game is hosting a charity tourney next month at the Commerce Casino in California, but otherwise still has much to prove before he becomes the next James Woods, whom you may recall back in 2004-05 kicked off his effort to become the Adam West of Poker.

Vegas Living: Closing Down Blush
The luxe but laid-back “boutique” nightclub Blush, at the Wynn, is closing after a four-year run. Ahhh … I remember this “ultra lounge” as the site of multiple VIP poker parties and the place where upon moving to Vegas I met a guy who explained to me the process of importing women to the US for a life of hooker-dom before having to excuse himself to go sell coke. But perhaps more famously, Blush is the place where Antonio Esfandiari “lost” a game of who’s got bigger ballers to Kobe Bryant — with the NBA star supposedly racking up a $21,000 champagne bill that had celebrity and sports media mocking some poker player being called “the magician” … even though he somehow got Kobe to pay for the last 15 bottles of Cristal.

Meanwhile, @KobeBryant’s Twitter account got suspended last week, and @MagicAntonio’s, who had a surprisingly similar number of followers, did not.

Move over Full Tilt Poker dot net. Scotty Nguyen sends the whole table a virtual Corona!

Personally, I don’t think they coulda picked better pros — Scotty Nguyen, Maria Ho, Jean Robert Bellande, and Dani Stern, aka Ansky (not pictured) — even better than a Team of Brunson, Hellmuth, and Negreanu, imho. If you don’t see why these pictured three +Ansky should do incredibly well @RisePoker … well, I could tell you, but, well … let’s say it goes beyond just “Asian”.

We already know about Maria Ho, already repping Team Choctaw and following that deal up with the biggest cash by a woman in WSOP-Las Vegas history … and here’s a video about Bellande’s 2011 WSOP travails — complete with talk of the grind of going 0-for-8 so far at the Series, and starting off with nearly $20k of make-up. Very real.

And though we don’t have any pictures of Ansky … we do have a picture of his license plate, which says a little something about the guy:

Spend enough time around the professional poker circuit and you’ll quickly realize that it’s a very small and incestuous group. Players and media members spend hours, days and sometimes weeks together in casinos and card rooms around the world and, as expected, the close quarters inevitably lead to friendships (and, sometimes, more) between the two groups.

This is perfectly normal and, quite frankly, not a big deal in most cases. A poker pro sharing a drink or a meal with a player can be beneficial for both parties. And, so long as clear lines are kept between professional and personal relationships, there’s no real issue. When the lines are blurred, however, things become less clear.

Whether or not friendships affect reporting is irrelevant, because it’s the perception of impartiality that matters. If people paid to report on poker can’t separate personal feelings and biases from the stories they’re covering, how can anyone trust what they say or write?

We’re only a couple of weeks into this year’s WSOP and I’ve already seen plenty of instances where the line hasn’t just been blurred, but erased completely. Specifically, I’m referring to the increasing and increasingly annoying practice of poker journalists openly rooting for their friends during individual events.

Tackiness aside, this practice just makes the offending journalists look unprofessional. And maybe they are. The fact is, many of the reporters on the poker beat are young, inexperienced and have little, if any, professional journalism training. For many, these low-paying gigs are their first post-collegiate jobs and are merely a way to make some money in an industry they enjoy while they look for something better.

They don’t understand the importance of impartiality – or at least, the importance of maintaining the appearance of impartiality – because they’ve never been taught that journalists are supposed to remain objective about the stories and people they’re covering. Of course, this isn’t always easy or possible, but true professionals do everything they can to separate their personal feelings from the story they are reporting on. And, if they can’t, the good ones do their best to make their biases clear to their readers, viewers or listeners.

Take Maria Ho’s final table in the $5K No-Limit Hold ‘em tournament last week. While a number of journalists used their Twitter accounts to publicly root Maria on during the event – even as some of them were reporting on the action – others, like Change100, did the right thing and made it clear that they were not acting as media while sweating Maria. From her Twitter stream; “The badge is off for a while – railing @mariaho in the final four of the $5k NL. She just doubled through Allen Bari. Go Ho!”

All well and good, I can hear you saying, but at the end of the day, isn’t Change’s declaration overkill? Media members rooting on their friends is no big deal and it has nothing to do with real news.

Wrong.

Look at what’s going on in the poker world at the moment: the top three sites have been indicted by the DOJ, players are bitching about the fact that they can’t get their money off of Tilt, pros are suing their sponsors and skipping the WSOP, etc., etc., etc. These issues affect many of the pros that media members call friends and could possibly color their reporting of specific events.

And, in the end, whether or not friendships affect reporting is irrelevant, because it’s the perception of the reporter’s impartiality that matters. If the people who are being paid to report on the poker industry can’t be trusted to separate their personal feelings and biases from the stories they’re covering, how can anyone trust what they say or write?

Take me, for example. Some of you probably know that I used to work for one of the major online poker sites. Some of you don’t. Unless you know me personally, you probably don’t know which site I used to work for and, from reading what I write here, you should – ideally – never be able to figure that out. And, while I occasionally address issues surrounding online poker, I never, ever write or comment on anything specifically related to my former employer.

Why, you ask? Because I know a lot of people who still work at the company and I have a vested interest in seeing the business and the people running it succeed. In short, there’s a chance that I may not be able to report on the issues surrounding my former employer in an impartial or unbiased manner, so it’s best for me not to put myself in a position where my credibility can be questioned.

Sure, rooting for your friends when they go deep in a tourney is a “minor” ethical infraction in the grand scheme of things, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t good reasons why it shouldn’t be done. However, if you must play cheerleader, have the good sense not to do it publicly on Twitter.

Allen had Maria’s 15 big blinds covered 8 to 1 when Heads-up play began, and although she played her heart out, the cards favored Allen. It finally came down to Maria’s A♠4♠ vs. Allen’s 8♥8♠. The board ran dry and Maria was eliminated in 2nd place. While not quite the coveted bracelet, the $540,020 payout she received represents the second-highest cash figure ever won by a female player in WSOP history. Translation, the 2007 World Series of Poker Main Event Last Woman Standing can now add the highest WSOP cash ever won by a female player on this side of the pond to her brag list. Only Annette Obrestad, the WSOP Europe Main Event champion (2007), has had a bigger payout.

Live at the Bike continues to mix it up with another special episode at a special time.

On Thursday, May 26, 2011 at 7:30 p.m., the 2007 World Series of Poker Last Woman Standing Maria Ho will play host to her friends in her own special Live at the Bike No Limit Hold’em 1/3 cash game on liveatthebike.com. This may be your last opportunity to watch these rising stars in action before they migrate to Vegas for the 2011 World Series of Poker. Maria will be joined at the table by seven of her dear friends, including her bestie: Tiffany Michelle.

The first and only live cash  game captured specifically for the web, Live at the Bike is webcast direct from the world famous Bicycle Casino. Beginning in early 2005, The Bicycle Casino has captured more than 400 episodes of pure cash action…from mid limits to high stakes. With this special episode, Live at the Bike continues the tradition of bring its viewers what they want to watch.

	MARIA HO (Professional Poker Player) Famously known for being the Last Woman Standing at the 2007 World Series of Poker Championship Event, her extensive resume of live and online results include nine WSOP cashes, three WPT cashes and in just the last year, she has made four final tables in major $10k events. Outside of tournaments she is one of few females to play high stakes cash games. She is currently ranked as one of Poker’s Top 10 Female Money Earners of All Time (under the age of 30). She has also been seen on: The Amazing Race, American Idol, Anderson Cooper 360, The World Series of Mahjong and as a commentator and on-camera host for WSOP.com and ESPN 360.
	SHAUN SIPOS (Actor) Is a Canadian born actor, best known for playing David Breck on the 2009 hit TV show remake, Melrose Place. He has also been seen on Shark, Life Unexpected, Complete Savages, Final Destination 2, and CSI: Miami. When he’s not working on a show he races cars and spends time back home in Vancouver.
	JENNIFER COX (Actress) Famously known for her role as Jan in The Brady Bunch Movies. She has also been seen on film and television shows such as The Back-Up Plan, Reno 911, Pushing Daisies, and Will & Grace. She is a huge poker enthusiast and when she’s not on set she can most definitely be found at a poker table.
	NICK GONZALEZ (Actor) Is an actor seen on numerous TV shows and films like Melrose Place, The OC, Spun, True Blood and most recently starring in ABC’s Off the Map. He has been playing poker for several years and is widely known throughout the poker community. He frequents Hollywood house games, charity tournaments and was seen at the final table of the 2009 WPT Celebrity Invitational where he took 2nd Place.
	TOM MARCHESE (Professional Poker Player) Earned the title of 2010 CardPlayer Player of the Year after a breakout year where he made 10 final tables, including a 1st place victory at the NAPT Las Vegas. He is just coming off a final table finish at the WPT Hollywood Poker Open this past month. Tom has over 2.4million in career earnings.
	TIFFANY MICHELLE (Actress/Professional Poker Player) Is an actress who fell into playing poker. Her 17th place finish out of 6,844 players at the 2008 World Series of Poker broke records for the largest field conquered by a female in live poker tournament history. She was named one of Poker’s Top 10 Most Fascinating People of 2008 and in 2010 was included in Maxim’s Top 20 Hottest Celebrity Poker Players. She has also been seen on: ER, Nip/Tuck, The Amazing Race, LA Ink and The World Series of Blackjack.
	REID YOUNG (Professional Poker Player) Is a successful online cash game player as well as a poker coach and poker author at CardPlayer. Has a major in Philosophy and is the founder of Transform Poker.

This tournament has grown and grown into one of the biggest of the year in the country … and not that it would be all Ho and Fossilman’s doing … but I have a feeling this year people outside of Texas and Oklahoma will start to take note.

Here’s a little behind-the-scenes vid of Maria’s commercial shoot with the Chickasaw … who by the way, just officially bought Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, presumably changing the dynamic of Texas gambling legislation, but that’s a story for another time … right now it’s all about the value of Asian poker hotties playing the role of high-stakes cash game player. That and/or being a WSOP main event champion still seem to play well in the poker endorsement world.

With 406 players in the field today only 13 players were found wearing either a Full Tilt Poker or a Ultimate Bet patch. The one “big three” site that did not have a single patched up player was PokerStars, even though WPT regular and PokerStar Pro Jason Mercier was in the field.

Also in the field today not wearing their normal patch were Maria Ho (UB) and Antonio Esfandiari (Victory). The fact that these two are not wearing a patch for their respected site while Adam “roothlus” Levy (UB) and Jonathan Little (Victory) are patched up definitely creates more questions.

Here is a rundown of the players found in todays field that were wearing patches:

Since we are on the discussion of who is wearing what Tony Dunst, who is known for always being well dressed was not wearing his normal suit today due to a delay in dry cleaning. Instead he was wearing a V-Neck shirt and a pair of jeans. Dunst will be returning tomorrow, hopefully in his freshly cleaned suit, to grind out his short stack.

After 5 levels of play only 290 players remain with registration open until the start of play with Randy Dorfman at the top of the leaderboard with 160,000. Other players returning for day two are Vivek Rajkumar, Shannon Shorr, Annette Obstread, Mike Sexton, Kathy, Leibert, and Lauren Kling.

The players will return at 12 noon local time tomorrow for the start of day two of this six-day event to play another 5 levels.

Though none of the eleven Season VI HPT Champs ran deep to the Six, many of them stuck around the extra night to sweat the final table including HPT POY Bryan Reisner, Las Vegas grinder Kimbo Ung, US Army Staff Sergeant Jason Fennel, aspiring American Idol singer Kurt Fraser, and an extremely personable Matt “MyTmase” Mason (who was diligently counting chipstacks all throughout Day 2.)

Here are the results:

HPT Soaring Eagle Season VI ->$1500 +$150 Main Event
1st: $176,865 Ahmed Harajli
2nd: $88,434 Joey Brown
3rd: $53,060 Jordan Rowan
4th: $41,269 Dean Hamrick
5th: $35,374 Bernard Lee
6th: $29,478 Chuck Earl

The taping of the final table lasted about 5 hours. Chuck Earl was the first to exit the taping area when Dean Hamrick’s big slick & ace-on-the-river combo beat Earl’s Queens.  Pros Dean Hamrick and Bernard Lee busted out 4th and 5th place, respectively.  Early on, Bernard went on a heater, shoving four consecutive times, while everyone folded and urged him to knock it off until on the last hand he showed kings.

Cowboys were not good to him in the endgame – he took a particularly nasty beat when his pockets fell short to 10s, when the case 10 hit the turn (another player revealed after the hand he was holding the other out), ending his tournament life.  Shortly thereafter, Hamrick ran his 33s into QQs, leaving him on the shortstack.  In the next hand, he pushed allin with K-rag vs. AQ, but it did not get there, and he left with fourth place money.

I happened upon the pair conversing during the break just after Lee’s shove-shove-shove-and-shove fest at the FT.

Here is the link to the interview where they discuss running deep together in the $1500 2010 WSOP Main Event where Hamrick won his first bracelet-> rungood.tv| ESPN Inside Deal Host Bernard Lee and Dean Hamrick Square Off at Heartland Poker Tour TV Table

Jordan Rowan cashed out soon after at 3rd, leaving headups to Joey Brown and Ahmed Harajli.  I’m interested to watch the broadcast of this matchup, because without seeing the hole cards, it still was more entertaining to me than watching the Duhamel-Racener matchup streaming on XBox Live. In the end, Joey went all in shortstacked with K5 against Ahmed 10s.  Ahmed’s hand held up, making him champ of the HPT Season VI Finale, surviving a field of 413 players.

Maria Ho and Tiffany Michelle, patched in UB, presented the Michigan native with his $176,865.  I overheard the floor saying that Ahmed, showing some real class, requested to donate a portion of his winnings to the Disabled American Veterans charity.

Tiffany Michelle was TV table “bubble girl”, eliminated by big stack Joey Brown, finishing 7th of 413 entrants and taking home $19,927.

Making the final six was ESPN Inside Deal host and poker pro Bernard Lee, who decided to enter in the tourney at the last minute. Another pro at the table, who has played Bernard previously, is WSOP 2008 Main Event bubble boy Dean Hamrick.  Dean won his first bracelet this year at a $1500 WSOP 2010 NLHE event, and cashed in two others.

Seat Assignments/Chip Counts
Seat 1: Dean Hamrick 715,000
Seat 2: Joey Brown 2,020,000
Seat 3: Bernard Lee 680,000
Seat 4: Chuck Earl 450,000
Seat 5: Jordan Rowan 850,000
Seat 6: Ahmed Harajli 1,520,000

Payouts
1st: $176, 865
2nd: $88,434
3rd: $53,060
4th: $41,269
5th: $35,374
6th: $29,478

Blinds will be set according to the *secret* HPT TV Table magic formula (??) and will last 40 minutes. Cards will be in the air shortly at approximately 6:45p EST/3:45p Vegas.

Follow me @scarlet_lv today for live-tweets from the rail.

There were five notable pros playing the Main, who attending the PPA-sponsored charity bounty tourney benefiting the Disabled American Veterans on Thursday.

Tiffany Michelle & Maria Ho = future USO?

@TheScottyNguyen was the first of them to fall on D1, with his aces cracked in Level 6 (see rungood.tv|bustout interview vid.)  Darvin Moon’s 99′s pre-flop shortshack jam fell to 77′s set late in Level 11.  @TiffnyMichelle and ESPN Poker’s @BernardLeePoker are healthy; @MariaHo has just over 10BBs.

Play for D2 resumes shortly after 10a EST/7a Vegas today at L13 (40 min levels), playing to 6.  The final TV table of the “HPT Six” is scheduled to begin taping @ 5p EST/2p Vegas.

POI (person-o-interest) Chip Counts:

Tiffany Michelle: 162.5k
Brandon Dosch: (HPT Champ & POY Contender): 162.5k
Matt Alexander: (HPT Champ & POY Contender): 136.5k
Bernard Lee: 118k
Maria Ho: 68.5k

Average Stack = 103,250
Big Stack ~ 230k

Day 2 -> L13 Antes/Blinds = 500/3k/6k

Cash bubble @ 41 players today, and the winner will take down an estimated ~ $177k. (hey, I’m not @KevMath y’all, even *inside* the tourney room.)

Follow @TiffnyMichelle, @BernardLeePoker, @MariaHo for table-twitfeed.
Follow me @scarlet_lv today for live-tweets from the rail.

1 McLean Karr $878,500 including $25k WPT seat
2 Andy Seth $521,200
3 Daniel O’Brien $292,800
4 Hasan Habib $234,300
5 Matt Keikoan $175,700
6 Phil Hellmuth $117,000

Here’s an interview tournament director Matt Savage had with McLean and friend Maria Ho after his win:

[via Wicked Chops]

Watch Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho Show The Globetrotters How To Play Basketball on RawVegas.tv

A review from Wicked Chops:

If Anderson was straight, and if Anderson awarded a “winner” to these types of segments, Maria clearly would’ve “won” the segment by being the hottest in the group BY FAR. Anderson would be like, “Thanks panel for all of your interesting points. You are all successful woman who should be role models to the young girls of America. Maria, I will award you winner of this segment for being the best looking while making your valid and intelligent points.”

(BTW, semi-related but kinda an aside … Kathy Liebert, arguably the most successful on-the-tables female in history … is currently in strong chip position at a final table (5 remaining at time of press) in a $2,500 Foxwoods event. While reading the BJ guide, you can follow her ride as we are on Twitter here.)

BJ’s Guide to the History of Women in Poker

By BJ Nemeth

HOW MANY WOMEN PLAY

1.  In major tournament fields (WSOP, WPT, etc.) women usually comprise about 3% of the field. There are no official stats kept.

2.  The 2006 WSOP Main Event had the largest field in live tournament history with 8,773 players. It is estimated that only about 300 of them were women.

3.  This year there were 6,494 players, with an estimate of about 200 women in the field.

4.  Since 2006, the WSOP Ladies events have attracted between 1,060 and 1,286 women. A comparable $1,000 WSOP event attracted a field of 6,012, and only about 200 of them were women. Conclusion? Five to six times as many women will show up for a ladies event than will show up for a mixed event.

5.  In Jim McManus’s new book, “Cowboys Full: The Story of Poker,” he estimates that women make up nearly one-third of online poker players. Again, there are no official stats kept, but this shows that women are a much larger part of the game when they don’t have to sit down with men.

6.  Only one woman — Jennifer Harman — regularly plays in the biggest cash games in the world, playing against the likes of Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu, and Phil Ivey. Harman not only plays with the big boys, but according to Doyle, she is a long-term winner in the game.

WOMEN WHO WENT DEEP IN THE MAIN EVENT

1.  The WSOP Main Event has been held every year since 1970, though there were no women at all in the earliest years. The first woman to ever cash in the WSOP Main Event was Wendeen Eolis in 1986. She finished 25th against a field of 141 players. (Side note: They paid 36 that year, and Eolis only cashed for $10,000, earning back her entry fee.)

2.  Only one woman has ever made the final table of the Main Event — Barbara Enright in 1995. She finished 5th in a field of 273 players, earning $114,180.

3.  Annie Duke came close to a final table, bubbling in 10th place ($52,160) in a field of 512 players in 2000 — while she was 8 months pregnant.

4.  The highest a woman has ever finished in the WSOP Main Event compared to the field size is Tiffany Michelle’s 17th-place finish ($334,534) in 2008 against a field of 6,844. Tiffany outlasted 99.75% of the field that year. (Annie Duke and Barbara Enright both outlasted about 98.1% of their fields.)

5.  Annette Obrestad won the WSOP Europe the day before her 19th birthday, earning $2 million against a field of 362 players. It is the biggest victory in history for a woman. This is completely separate from the WSOP Main Event, but worth noting.

SUCCESSFUL WOMEN IN WSOP HISTORY

1.  The first woman to win an open WSOP bracelet was Vera Richmond in 1982, when there were 14 events. Richmond outlasted about 80 players to win a bracelet in $1,000 Ace-to-Five Draw, earning $38,500.

2.  Another woman wouldn’t win a WSOP bracelet until 1996, when Barbara Enright (who final tabled the Main Event a year earlier) outlasted 180 players to win a bracelet in $2,500 Pot-Limit Hold’em, earning $180,000.

3.  Only 12 women have ever won WSOP bracelets in open events. (That number grows to 14 if you count the Seniors-only event and the casino employees-only event, both of which are still predominantly male.)

4.  The best year for women was 2004, when three women won WSOP bracelets — Annie Duke, Kathy Liebert, and Cyndy Violette.

5.  Since 2004: No women won bracelets in 2005, 2006, or 2009. Katja Thater won a Razz bracelet in 2007, and Vanessa Selbst won a Pot-Limit Omaha bracelet in 2008.

NOTABLE ACCOMPLISHMENTS BY FEMALE PLAYERS

1.  Jennifer Harman is widely regarded as the best female cash game player in history, and she is a regular player (and a regular winner) in the “Big Game” at Bellagio. Harman is also the only woman to have ever won two WSOP bracelets in open events.

2.  Kathy Liebert is the winningest female tournament poker player in history, with more than $5.5 million in earnings. Liebert was also the first women to earn $1 million in a single tournament, by winning the 2002 Party Poker Million cruise.

3.  Van Nguyen (wife of Men “The Master” Nguyen”) won the 2008 WPT Celebrity Invitational, earning $125,500. While it’s a mixed event, it is invitation only and the field includes a much-higher-than-normal percentage of female players.

4.  No woman has ever won a regular, open WPT tournament, though two have finished second (J.J. Liu and Kathy Liebert).

5.  Two women have won EPT events. Vicky Coren won EPT London ($941,000) in 2006, and Sandra Naujoks won EPT Germany ($1.16 million) in 2009. Both did it in their home countries.

6.  Annette “Annette15″ Obrestad won the WSOP Europe the day before her 19th birthday, earning $2 million against a field of 362 players. It is the biggest victory in history for a woman.

7.  As mentioned earlier, 12 women have won WSOP bracelets in open events: Vera Richmond (1982), Barbara Enright (1996), Linda Johnson (1997), Maria Stern (1997), Jennifer Harman (2000, 2002), Jerri Thomas (2000), Nani Dollison (2001), Annie Duke (2004), Kathy Liebert (2004), Cyndy Violette (2004), Katja Thater (2007), and Vanessa Selbst (2008).

8.  Two more women won WSOP bracelets in mixed events that were predominantly male: Sandy Stupak (1984, Casino Employees event) and Clare Miller (2006, Seniors event).

HIGHEST-EARNING WOMEN

1.  We only have data on tournaments (not cash games), but only two women are among the Top 100 of the all-time money list — Kathy Liebert (38th, $5.5 million) and Annie Duke (81st, $3.7 million). Daniel Negreanu is #1 on that list with $12.4 million, closely followed by Jamie Gold, Phil Ivey, and Phil Hellmuth.

2.  Three more women are in the Top 200 of the all-time money list:  Annette Obrestad (133rd, $2.76 million), Vanessa Rousso (176th, $2.38 million), and Jennifer Harman (177th, $2.37 million). That’s just five women among the Top 200 tournament players of all time, based on earnings.

She’ll be appearing on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360″ tonight at 10 pm ET/7 pm PT — as part of a panel about women in male-dominated professions. She is scheduled to appear alongside Suze Orman, Dee Dee Myers (the first female White House press secretary), and a neurosurgeon.

Here’s CNN’s teaser for the segment.

In case you did miss the show, you can catch episode 5 in its entirety here.

All we’ll tell you about it is that the Racers travel to Dubai, where eight teams are reduced to seven. Semi-spoiled: Tiffany being Tiffany + Maria driving => karmically fitting results.

And for something a little extra, here’s @TiffnyMichelle discovering that not all Arabs are terrorists:

Guilty pleasure, I suppose. As a man who has misread my own standing and floundered prolifically before, I’m finding it oh-so-enjoyable — cringe-tickley, I’d say — to watch two hot(ish) poker girls (one of whom I kinda-sorta know personally) gloriously stumble for my amusement. Seriously, mocking each other’s failures and belittling successes is the foundation of some of my strongest, most enduring friendships! I think it’s how guys show love.

In the premiere episode of The Amazing Race, we see Tiffany and Maria start out in 1st, drop down to last, and rebound to finish in 7th. In the process they paint themselves (and poker pros) in a less than favorable light.

According to the E! Online blog:

The first team to put a bitter taste in our mouths, however, are unendearing professional poker players Maria Ho and Tiffany Michelle, who incurred a two-hour penalty after losing two of their group. The shady duo rival Johnny Fairplay’s dead-grandma fib by telling teammates they work as counselors for a nonprofit organization helping homeless youth…a great lie, if you can keep it up for more than an hour. They couldn’t—when recognized at the airport by a poker fan, they basked in his adulation…within earshot of their amazed competitors. The duo also shared another “savvy” strategy: flirting with cute brothers Sam and Dan McMillen. Both of whom are gay—and playing their cards right by flirting right back with the femmes fatales.

Click below for more highlights, lowlights, and poker-focussed observations from episode 1:

• Two members of the Harlem Globetrotters get to wear shirts promoting their brand. But no Ultimate Bet paraphernalia. Total bullshit, right?
• Maria and Tiffany say they don’t like Zev and Kevin — who unbeknownst to them had already shown themselves to be the darling “good guys” of the cast.
• Zev, who has Asperger’s Syndrome (a type of autism), says he doesn’t get a “warm fuzzy feeling” from Tiffany and Maria.
• Other TAR players — we’re only one episode in — call them “liars” and “shady”. Gee, such labels attached to an Ultimate Bet pro and associate? Shocking.
• Maria and Tiffany say they don’t believe Lance is a lawyer. He is, albeit a douchey one.
• Tiffany believes she and Maria are “rich” … as in wealthy.
• Maria lets Tiffany down by not eating a golf-ball size chunk of wasabi fast enough.
• The purple duo go through a spell where they aren’t talking to each other.
• Tiffany lets down Maria by “losing” two of 20 Japanese tourists when it was her responsibility not to do so. Needle-in-the-haystack search for them on the streets of downtown Tokyo=funny.
• Maria knows how to make really good Vietnamese food.
• Tiffany showed she has some skills when it comes to herding ducks.

I’m still rooting for the girls, of course … surely they’ll make it past the halfway point with qualities that seem custom-made for competitive reality TV.

Their post-race interview here, where the purple team begins to come to grips with what they’re really in for.

I think you can see from this who is going to be the domineering personality … and I think you can tell they will probably go far. And you haters commenters can say all you want — LOL on their claims of $1 million in tournament winnings — but one of the things I like about reality TV is the risk the participants are willing to take. It’s not a new phenomenon … we know how it works, how the producers need to create storylines, and to do that they need characters. They need nice guys, meatheads, bitches, sluts, all that good stuff. And if you give them repeated indication of any distinct characteristic, they will edit away to make that seem like that’s all you’re about. And for the most part your true colors show.

Take Annie Duke on Celebrity Apprentice, for example. Extremely divisive character. Half the people thought she was a super-smart, savvy woman. The other half saw her as a total control-freakish bitch. Yep, no offense to Annie, but that pretty much lines up with all I have heard about her over the years within the poker world, and at least two of the above descriptors line up with my own personal observations and conclusions.

So while reality stars often claim they are misrepresented, frankly, in the spirit of Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink, some might contend that you actually do get to see the real person even better when all the superfluous “personality” is stripped away and left on the cutting room floor. With that in mind, I’m looking forward to getting to see and know “Maria and Tiffany” — whom I suspect will come off a little different but not too much so from the Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho we already know.

“It’s obviously different from competition at the poker table,” said Ho, who came in 11th place at this year’s World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. “It’s outdoorsy. This is physical and mental, but we will definitely be applying whatever skills we have as gamers to this competition and push ourselves in different ways that we’re not used to doing.”

Their combined bio can be found on the CBS website and describes them as well-traveled, extremely competitive, strong-minded, and savvy. (Funny – but not really – that they’re described by most poker media as simply “hot.”) Despite my usual ban on reality television, I’ll set the DVR to see how far the ladies make it. The premiere is Sunday, September 27.

De Wolfe Lying Low at Final Table

As Dan mentioned below, Roland de Wolfe is trying to win his second bracelet at this year’s WSOP at the $1,500 NL Holdem final table. As the player’s just left for a dinner break, here’s the chip standings with seven players remaining:

Jonas Klausen – 3,315,000
Eric Baldwin – 2,505,000
James Taylor – 1,385,000
Andrew Youngblood – 1,118,000
Benjamin Scholl – 500,000
Roland de Wolfe – 305,000
Steven Bradbury – 240,000

Jesper Jumps to PLO Lead

About 30 players in the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha returned from their dinner break a few minutes ago, with Jesper Hougaard is the current leader. Sorel Mizzi, Isaac Baron, Ralph Perry, David “Devilfish” Ulliot and Fabrice Soulier are some of the notables remaining in the field as they try to make the final table of nine by the 3am deadline.

$2,000 NL Holdem Update

A smaller than expected field of 1,695 started the $2,000 NL Holdem event at noon today, with less than 700 who return after their 90-minute dinner break. Some notables who will get to return: Svetlana Gromenkova, Shaun Deeb, Joe Sebok, Roy Winston, Eugene Todd, Maria Ho and Michael Binger.

Stud 8 or Better Update

The $10,000 Stud 8 or Better World Championship drew a field of 164 that started shortly after 5pm, who will play eight levels tonight. Daniel Alaei is the early chip leader, with Scotty Nguyen, Tuan Le, Scott Clements and Frank Kassela among the notables near the top of the leaderboard. Tom Schneider is currently listed at 22,000 in chips (players started with 30,000).

More updates during the evening can be found at www.wsop.com and Pokerati during the evening hours