Poker Blog & Poker Forum

Strip poker is an established pastime and usually is engaged in private, especially among the college going crowd. Public strip poker events are also not unknown. Last year an unusual strip poker event was hosted in London called the Baller Strip Poker Championships. As poker players lost at the tables, their designated girls shed items of clothing. Mobile strip poker games have surfaced frequently and with the growth of mobile gaming these will only get better and more popular.

The latest announcement was made by a 20-year-old model from India named Poonam Pandey (in picture). Whereas Poonam is an unknown figure in the rest of the world, she is well known in India and known for stripping. Before the finals of the World Cup Cricket held earlier this year she had publicly announced that she would do a lap of honor with the Indian team should they win. And she would do it completely naked. The Indian team won but Poonam was not allowed to participate in the lap of honor, with or without her clothes.

Coming back to the poker, Poonam has revealed that she has signed a contract with an American company for a strip poker game that will be available on Android mobile phones in the US. It will be based on the Teen Patti game. Teen Patti is Three Card Poker in the Indian language. The mobile poker game will be preceded by a hot video clip of Poonam. As the player starts clearing various levels of the game, Poonam will start stripping. Poonam said, “I don’t mind stripping, but to what stage I will be doing it, I can’t say that now. However, reaching the level where I will have to strip fully may be really tough.”

Poonam has no background in poker. In India even the non-strip variety of poker is a private affair, there being no public poker events and no casinos. Poonam said that she was excited about this project because she would be exposed to such high profile international gaming for the first time and it would help her reach her fans worldwide. Her technical assistant, Micky, explained, “It is like gambling, just that there is no money involved here but one gets enticed by Poonam’s visuals.” Further details of the project were not made known. Nor was the name of the American company involved revealed, so no confirmation could be obtained from them.

Last week Pius Heinz overcame odds of 9/1 to win the coveted WSOP 2011 Main Event. But unfortunately, his feat was relegated to the back pages of poker news because Leeann Tweeden thought that this was the best time to bare all in Playboy.

Leeann wears many hats in sports casting. To the poker world she is the sexy hostess of the NBC late night television show Poker After Dark. One of the best episodes was titled Lonesome Shark and featured six of the most eligible bachelors of the poker world. Leeann entered this show in the fourth episode and saw it through till September this year. Poker After Dark went off the air because its sponsors Full Tilt Poker got into big trouble after Black Friday.

Leeann always had plenty of action on the sidelines. Last year she entertained the US Armed Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Leeann had been on the cover of Playboy in 1996 as a host for ESPN’s workout show “Fitness Beach”, but then she had kept her clothes on. The bare all shoot had been a work-in-process for a year, and after September she decided to go for it. For 20 years she has made a living in show business and she reckoned, “…why not do this?”

The 38 year Leeann thinks she looks better now than she did in at the time of her first Playboy shoot. She has always been voluptuous and is not ashamed of her age or her curves. She said, “Everyone is telling me they like a little meat on the bones!” Leeann did this for herself and not anyone else. She had long talks with her husband, an Air Force pilot, before saying yes. Then she saucily adds, “If people don’t like it, they don’t have to look.”

The December 2011 issue of Playboy in which Leeann appears in her birthday suit is already on the stands. The photos were shot by female photographer Odette Sugerman. Leeann said, “The photos are beautiful, tasteful and very artistic. I felt the time was right to do this. And it helps add to my legacy.”

Poker in the Park has become a permanent fixture in the annual poker calendar. This year will be the fifth season of the annual event. It is billed as the World’s Largest Poker Festival and will be held on Friday September 2 and Saturday September 3 at Hanover Square in London. Over 20,000 visitors are expected to attend the event that will be free. The sponsors include PokerStars.com, Bluff Europe, Calvin Ayre and others. Model and poker champion Liv Boeree (see picture) cut the ribbon and declared the event open in 2010. Liv has made London her home and plays a major role in promoting Poker in the Park.

The center piece of the expo is the PokerStars Festival Stage. It will feature live music and other entertainment. The free poker tournaments will be held at the Genting Poker Dome. Players can participate in the running sit and go tournaments and enjoy Genting’s legendary hospitality. Live tournaments will also be held at the Bluff Europe Suicide King Saloon. For the poker player who wants to learn new tricks there will be educational stalls as well. The best poker players in the world will participate in lectures, questions and answers sessions, autograph signings and photo ops round the clock at the Poker Farm Marquee. A more formal tuition can be had at the Poker Academy Live Tuition Marquee. The Paysafecard Festival Bar will help keep the spirits high.

The British Poker Awards are traditionally announced during Poker in the Park. The most interesting category is the Best International Player. The nominees include Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Phil Hellmuth, Jason Mercier and Erik Seidel. Awards will be given to various categories of poker players. There are awards for Best Social Media User, Best Blogger and Poker Personality of the Year. The last one has three poker babes as nominees – Liv Boeree, Kara Scott and Vicky Coren.

Poker in the Park 2010 had some naughty events. The Nuts Magazine girls were providing photo ops, free issues of their magazine and a chance to play poker with them. Victory Poker had a unique heads up tournament. Players were teamed up with a skimpily dressed Victory Poker model and played for her honor. If they lost the model was tossed into the dunk tank.

Integral to WSOP are the parties and bashes thrown by various poker institutions. They form an outlet for the tensions built up at the tables and everyone has a great time. Though Black Friday does not seem to have affected the participation in the events, many of the prominent bashes are missing. PokerStars has cancelled its party at the Palms and Howard Lederer is not holding his party at the Nugget. But there was a surprising addition. The poker babes Maria Ho, Tiffany Michelle and Vanessa Rousso threw a party at Nikki Beach.

When Maria placed second in the $5,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event she had said, “It’s a disappointment and I feel bad for saying that, because I won a lot of money and I should be proud.” Maria’s take from the prize pool was $540,020, which was the largest prize won by a woman ever at the Las Vegas WSOP. And Maria was quick to share the prize and her happiness with the poker fraternity at the celebration at the Nikki Beach Club at Tropicana. The party has been billed as the WSOP 2011 Ladies in Poker Kickoff Party. Speaking to the hostesses, Lynn Gilmartin and Kristy Arnett, who were covering the party, Maria appreciated the importance and congratulations that she had received, but she added, pointing to the jeweled bracelets that she was wearing, that these things would not cut in and that she was ready for the frigging real deal.

Kristy said that she had covered a lot of poker parties and it had always been a bunch of dudes. Lynn said that she had never seen so many sexy poker babes at the one time and the one place before. Vanessa described the mood of WSOP as work hard (at the tables) and play hard (at the parties). The get together of hot poker babes can never be complete without Trishelle Canatella and Lacey Jones and both were there. Lacey just about made it but was happy and excited to be a part of the celebration. The roster included Lauren Kling, Melaine Weisner, Michelle Lewis and Liz Lieu and more will be heard of the good times had in the columns and blogs that the poker babes write.

Innocuous Twitter exchanges between Doyle Brunson and Daniel Negreanu led to the speculation that the former was contemplating giving up live tournament poker. It began when Negreanu crashed out early from the NAPT Mohegan Poker Main Event on Day One. Incidentally Vanessa Selbst took the Main Event again this year recording back to back wins. She became the only poker player to have won multiple Mohegan Poker Main Event titles.

Coming back to the story, as soon as Negreanu busted Doyle sent him some barbs on Twitter. In due course Negreanu responded by saying that Doyle must be desperately bored for Tweeting messages to players as soon as they bust. Doyle responded, “In your wildest imagination you can’t believe how bored and useless I feel. I may never go bust in another tourney, guess why?” No one expects Doyle to win every poker tournament that he takes part in. So the only logical implication is that Doyle is considering nor participating in any more live poker tournaments.

There have been some indications that Doyle is bored. Why else would he compile lists of sexiest male and female poker players? Or why would he Tweet that he wants to die while taking Liv Boeree’s thongs off with his teeth. He seems to enjoy the Beer Pong Invitational more than the WSOP Main Event. In a recent interview given to Jenny Woo, Doyle said that winning a bracelet is not important to him now as it was in the years past.

There are other factors also that may be prompting Doyle to retire from live tournament poker. He wants to focus on his online ventures including Doyles Room. He has to make sure that the online poker room is ready for America when online gambling is legalized. He is also grooming his online poker team, Team Brunson, and pushing them to center stage. Plus there are health issues. In February this year he was diagnoses with a cancerous tumor in his left arm, which was surgically removed.

But all this is mere speculation. Doyle Brunson is a fighter to the end. When he has to go, he will go with his boots on.