The singer’s name is Lady Gaga, and her latest single from her debut album is called “Poker Face.” And shockingly, it’s about a boy.

After googling Gaga, I find that she was signed as a major artist on Interscope as a disco-ish up-and-coming star. The label introduced her as: “Fresh out of NYC, this do-it-yourself disco-erotica queen is about to change the world one sequin at a time. She makes her own clothes, pens her own tunes, and will soon enough shatter every disco ball from here to Ibiza.”

Ummm, ok. All I cared about was that the song made numerous references to poker and bwin even contributed some props for the poker scenes. If Lady Gaga is mainstream, or hopes to be, it is good that poker has moved from All In Energy Drink promos masking as rap videos to real semi-mainstream pop music.

To see the video, click the YouTube link, as all embedding codes for her videos seem to have been disabled.

Today’s also the 45th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s death, we should probably note. JFK was a little before my time, of course, but Stu Ungar (1953-1998) … his tragic end actually played a significant role in piquing my interest in the professional game. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it at the time, but something about his obit caught my eye … age 45, “of as yet undetermined causes” … you might argue that he was the first rock star of poker — with triumphant on-stage performances and a self-inflicted final exit, a la Jimi Hendrix or Kurt Cobain.

I have this multi-drawer file I call Dead Story Office — not about the deceased, but full of notes and documents (from mostly pre-poker days) on stories that never quite came to fruition — and one of them: “World Series of Poker”. Though I didn’t quite see how it all came together (and in retrospect it couldn’t be more of an uh-duh observation) I was pretty sure Ungar had to be a major and fascinating character.

If you’ve got nothing better to do, click below to rummage through the manila folder where I’ve carried a guy I never knew with me through four homes and two external offices over the past 10 years:

More…

I was shoring up on some fundamentals just last night, re-watching Phil Hellmuth’s Million Dollar Online Poker Secrets. This whole video series is pretty funny now, because it was recorded in 2004, in the early days of the poker boom (when online sites were making a whopping $100k a day!) … and you see a much younger PokerBrat not being too bratty to the folks who shelled out $25 or so for his winning wisdom.

Anyhow, it was really just background music here at Pokerati headquarters until I came across the chapter about “Online Cheating”. Though this vid was not a UB pimp-fest (Full Tilt had just started to pioneer the concept of logoing up the pros), it’s clear by references to his play at Ultimate Bet (in other chapters) that whatever relationship he has/had with the site was starting to take shape … which makes the comments below all the more funny/ironic:

“As far as the sites being crooked or not, no,” he says. “It just drives me crazy when I see a lot of people complaining about being cheated. I just shake my head and say, ‘I’d like to see their hand histories.’”

Be careful what you wish for, no?

Interestingly, his advice for if you do think you are being cheated … simply leave the table and go somewhere else. “Click out of that game and click into the one right next door.” Fair enough, which is why I hope he understands why some of us still have a hard time recommending the site he represents.

NOTE: I finished up $68 on PokerStars while watching this. Thanks, Phil!

A little poker music for your Tuesday…

Yeah, I know, the words are difficult to understand, but they play poker in the video and titled the song “Poker” so that kinda gave it away. It’s no Ace High, but it’s a good effort nonetheless.

Players are just starting to return from break … you know, it’s more than halfway over … and RawVegas has a fun piece speaking with some Las Vegas poker pros (at the Hard Rock launch tourney) about whom they’re picking to win the WSOP main event:

Click, and enjoy.™

From the always clickworthy good folks at RawVegas.TV

I hate that this vid is a commercial for a new online poker site, but love the short-film itself … poignant, and funny … and hence I share it with you:

(via the Weston Poker Forum)

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:

Much better than this one:

Check out this video I just found:

It seems to be a promotional jig for All In Energy Drink, and features Johnny Chan, Phil Hellmuth, and Layne Flack … with Alexander Neal, Raw, HollyRae, and ProHoeZak. Kinda rocks, no?

Tom loves nothing more, I am sure, than getting a call from me late at night to relay a bad beat story. One of the things he’s been on my case about lately is the concept of running it twice and/or offering insurance. (Say I get it all in with a straight against another dude’s trips.)

“Did you ask, did you ask? Did you tell the dealer to stop dealing?”

The answer’s always the same … I did, and they said no … this always seems to baffle him, as if he doesn’t realize why a 2/5 game simply isn’t big enough for poker room management to overlook Chickasaw Nation gaming regulations that prohibit side bets.

Anyhow, I know and get how running-it-twice works and am still trying to get my hands around the insurance concept … and thus I was particularly interested in this episode of Premier League Poker (a British knock-off of Poker after Dark) in which Phil Hellmuth wins the hand but loses his $4,000 insurance bet, happily he contends: