Generic Poker Gossip Column

Click to enlarge: Melanie Iglesias has her panties in a wad over something related to her break-up with the WPT.

Undercleavage: This stylish lingerie not available at K-mart offers a new way to look at Lacey Jones\’ right boob.

Pot-committed: Survivorist Jim Rice found a more legal way to earn a living than online poker by selling weed.

Tenacious P: Jack Black is still kinda sorta into poker.

Baller beware: No TV show ever came of an idea about bar-bill wars between Kobe Bryant and Antonio Esfandiari.

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.

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