Eslami Proves ‘If You Can Beat a Robot, You Can Beat a Man’ at Rincon
WSOPC Western Regional Championship, Rincon, California

Photo C/O WSOP

Before this week, Ali Eslami’s most notable accomplishment was defeating Polaris, the poker playing computer, in tandem with Phil Laak. The LA-based cash game player proved his versatility this week by beating 8 real live human opponents on the road to the WSOPC Rincon crown. The third of four $10,000 events on the WSOP Circuit, Rincon drew an anemic 98 players, surprising mostly due to the nine WSOP Circuit National Championship seats awaiting those who made the final table.

Among those who made the final table were Circuit superstar Dwyte Pilgrim, Steve Brecher, and fresh off his win last week at the Wynn $5K, Tim West. West fell just short of the impressive back-to-back feat, finishing as the runner-up to Eslami. For his win, Eslami took home just under $175,000, the ring, and a chance at a nice chunk of change in seven weeks at the National Championship.

Mclean Carr Takes WPT Vienna High Roller; Seidel Unavailable for Comment
Vienna, Austria

Photo C/O PartyPoker

Stop the presses! There was a High Roller poker tournament held on this planet this week that Erik Seidel not only didn’t win, he didn’t even play. This worked very much to the benefit of Mclean Carr, who took great advantage of the absence of the king of the monster buy-in to dominate the WPT Vienna High Roller, by all accounts. Carr took home €185,120 by overcoming the field of 50 and taking the chip lead from the beginning of the final table to the end.

No Place Like Home for Del Prado in Winning APT Philippines
Pasay City, Philippines

On the Asia-based poker tours, specifically the APT and APPT, the field sizes and buy-ins can sometimes make the achievement of winning a Main Event look a little less impressive than it should. But the APT Philippines stop this week had the buy-in ($2,500, American) and the field size (231) to allow it to contend as one of the largest prizes awarded of the week.

Six of the ten players who made the final table were Filipino locals, along with a Canadian, an Australian, a South Korean and a player from Hong Kong. A local champion could not be denied, though, as Enrique Del Prado defeated Elton Tsang heads-up to keep the title local, and won a hair under $180,000 for his accomplishment.

Romanello 2/3rds of Way to Triple Crown Inside of 1 Year with Win
WPT Bratislava, Slovakia

Photo C/O PartyPoker

In the age of the internet, people coming out of nowhere are becoming harder and harder to find. Gone are the days where a Dirk Nowitzki, Tony Parker or Manu Ginobili could enter the NBA without great fanfare and shock the world. In the world of poker, the hype for international players is sometimes a bit slow in getting to American shores, but a smart bet for some serious WSOP success this year would be Roberto Romanello.

The former owner of a chip shop in South Wales, Romanello rubbed some of his opponents the wrong way with his final table antics, but there’s no denying his talents. Following a win at EPT Prague a few months ago, Romanello’s win at WPT Bratislava netted him another €140,685. He heads to the WSOP with a goal of being the first person in the history of poker to capture a Triple Crown (WPT, EPT, WSOP bracelet) in a single calendar year.

Foxwoods Provides Appropriate Environment for Chops
Mashantucket, Connecticut

Photo C/O WJMedia

With the amount of tournament series’ that are run at Foxwoods, I’m surprised that Jay “WhoJedi” Newnum, master scribe of Foxwoods Live, doesn’t own a second home on the reservation. No matter how many tournaments they run, though, Foxwoods consistently brings in some of the best field sizes on the East Coast every time.

The $2,500 Foxwoods Poker Classic Main Event drew 284 players, creating a prize pool of over $630,000 and a first place prize of over $150,000. All of which made it easier to chop it up once play got down to three-handed, giving each of the remaining players a hefty ROI over their initial $2,500 investment. At a final table that featured tournament regular Todd Terry, the shortest stack of the three, Michael Lavoie, guaranteed himself almost second place money, settling for $79,987. Similarly chipped Ronnie Pease ($108,295) and Phil Reed ($114,050) each cashed in big time, with Reed’s slight advantage also giving him the official win, the trophy and a snappy leather jacket.

HPT Win Allows Father To Buy the Greatest Swing Set Ever Created
Meskwaki Bingo Casino Hotel, Tama, Iowa

Photo C/O HPT

When Tom Hujda left his Illinois home for his trip to last week’s HPT stop in Iowa, his only goal was to leave with enough money to buy a swing set for his kids. Even this seemed like an ambitious goal, having never recorded so much as a cash on the Heartland Poker Tour. By the time the tournament was over, however, Hujda’s kids are probably getting a whole playground, as he won the whole thing for $77,897. He can afford to install this behemoth and still have $67,000+ to spare. Those are some lucky kids.

In Modern Day Kiev, Poker Plays You!
RPS Kiev, Ukraine

The Russian Poker Series is like the red-headed stepchild of the PokerStars tournament circuits, not even netting a mention on the PokerStars blog for the RPS’ most recent stop in Kiev. The $1,000 Grand Special built a prize pool of almost $300,000, however, with Yurij Predybajlo winning the tournament, $65,590, and the award for the least pronounceable name.

BLUFF Managing Editor Refuses to Share in the Run-Good, Strikes Again in Indiana
Hollywood Poker Open, Lawrenceburg, Indiana

File pic: Jess Welman

It’s been a little while since we had an entry in the “Year of the Media”, but we got a repeat offender this week. Jess Welman traveled to the Hollywood Poker Open in Indiana for their Ladies’ event, and in familiar fashion made her way through the field to the final table. She’s had an impressive run over the last year, cashing in the WSOP Ladies’ event, freerolling her way into an event at the Detox Series last year and final tabling, chopping another Ladies’ Event eight ways, and now this most recent performance. Welman fell just short, earning $3,770 for her second place finish. She will be back in town as part of the live updates team for the televised WPT Main event in the coming week, so if you’re headed there, be sure to congratulate her on another impressive performance.

Have I just missed this timing connection for all these years? The LAPC and the WPT Celebrity Invitational coinciding with the Oscars? Hmm, it seems like good timing, especially when a few big names going deep are Tilly, DeNiro, and Salomon.

After a presumably successful near-WSOP-length run, the LAPC is coming to close … you know you’re finally at the “main event” whenever Jess & BJ arrive — even if we’re only talking about a $100k first prize. Regardless that’s when I start paying attention in just about all things WPT. Their show gives me about as much as I need, too, for coverage of this whole Oscars thing that seems to go down every year. (Couldn’t even tell you who won … but I think Charlie Sheen has been big buzz maybe?)

I don’t really consider myself as a critic of film criticism … but I do think we all can tell that BJ would really play to his strengths if he were doing red-carpet fashion critique and Jess stuck to sports.

As Pauly and I are prone to do whenever we get together, we couldn’t help ourselves from kicking into 3-minute-podcast mode in Los Angeles this weekend as we both got ready to take on the Hollywooded up field at the WPT Celebrity Invitational for the LAPC … and explore How-TF we got into the field in the first place.

Episode 1: Slumming It in Not-So-Beverly Hills
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BTW, if you want to hear a different side of Dr. Pauly, be sure to check out his Lost Vegas podcast episodes. A lot more sex and drugs in those.

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.

More…

Perhaps as a reminder of where poker pros really stand when it comes to the celebrity biz (yet also a reminder of just how fun/popular poker fundraisers still are) there was a big-wig charity poker tourney at the Cannes Film Festival that Phil Hellmuth did not host and not a single Full Tilt player competed in. Shocking, I know … especially considering that the event was semi-televised: The Partouche Charity Poker Festival aired live on TV screens throughout the Palm Beach Casino. (Interesting concept, no?) seems like it was turned into a 90-minute souvenir that may or may not be for sale. Very confusing, the televised part.

Woody Harrelson giving his best Phil Hellmuth impression on the red carpet before co-winning the Partouche Charity Poker Festival in France.

The occasion was Dennis Hopper’s big 7-2. Woody Harrelson, star of the latest poker-movie flop, The Grand, ended up chopping the $1 million prize pool with French actress Alice Taglioni.

Because no poker media was there, I can’t really tell you much about the set-up or structure or even how the 50 (?!) cameras were working, but I can tell you that Hopper had a 100kg strawberry sponge cake, and in defiance of French anti-smoking laws, lit up a cigar. Tim Robbins ordered a triple-vodka after what presumably was a bad beat/play … ex-Hollywood flames Salma Hayek and Ed Norton were civil to each other at the table, even though Hayek left without saying goodbye. Adrian Brody and Goldie Hawn rounded out the field, both wearing sunglasses.

Fascinating, I know. Dig/click in a little deeper and you’ll learn that Goldie’s daughter Kate Hudson is done with Owen Wilson and now hittin’ it with Lance Armstrong, who is done with Sheryl Crow who long ago was done with Owen Wilson.

Go Poker Celebrities!

In this week’s episode:

New year… New music… New Graphics…
…and the same ol’ host, J. Todd. To celebrate the start of 2008 he makes a resolution to clean-up his potty mouth. Then, he tries to give away some cash! Watch and win with this weeks show!

Hollywood the Latest Victim of UIGEA?…
When the WTO gave Antigua the rights to profit $21 million a year at the expense of American intellectual property rights, a collective chill could be felt sweeping over Silicone Valley and the Hollywood Hills. There are some out there who believe that — if Hollywood suffers — they are getting just what they deserve!

What are those damned Germans up to Now?!
Last week we told you that Germany has decided to ban internet gambling as of January 1st, 2008. In a no shame attempt to protect their state monopoly, they don’t seem to care what the EU Court of Justice thinks. Now, they may have issues mounting from within, as several online gaming companies may be teaming up to go after them civilly. Where the hell where these guys and the will to fight when UIGEA rolled out?

More…