Poker Blog & Poker Forum

Facebook is the biggest social networking community. Most poker professionals, especially poker babes, have at least a presence on Facebook. And Zynga Poker is the third most popular game on Facebook. If you think that does not count for much digest this fact. At any given time there are more poker players on Zynga Poker than on PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker put together. Zynga Poker boasts of over 37 million monthly players. But it has never been taken seriously by the poker world because of its non-traditional format.

Zynga Poker is all set to change that perception. And the route that it has chosen is hosting a high profile live event. The announcement has been made and the countdown has begun. The event has been billed as PokerCon. What “Con” is has not been made clear, but it could be contest or conference or convention. PokerCon is scheduled for March 18 and 19 at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. The tickets go on sale from Friday February 11.

The invite to the event at the PokerCon web site reads “Become a poker legend at Zynga Poker’s inaugural fan event and tournament! With over 7 million players daily, Zynga Poker is THE largest online poker room. You’ve played our game online – now get ready to up the ante and experience Zynga Poker live and in-person!” The highlight of PokerCon is a Texas Hold‘em tournament with a guaranteed prize pool of over $100,000 in cash. The final table in the tournament will be joined by an unannounced list of celebrities, but the hype is that some really well know names are expected to participate. The participants will have an opportunity to learn winning strategies from world class poker professionals and will be able to network in person with fellow Zynga Poker fans. In all it will be one big celebration ending with an exclusive party.

Zynga Poker is making it easy for its members to get tickets. They can enter their e-mail addresses at the PokerCon web site and will be given VIP pre-sale access to ticket sales. The tickets are priced at $125, which covers all activities during the two-day convention.

These days it has become very easy, not only to track what Poker Brat Phil Hellmuth is doing, but also to track what he is thinking. This is because he is always Tweeting. On the way to the Super Bowl in Dallas there was a constant stream of Twitter messages on Dancing with the Stars, a meeting with George Bush and more.

Unfortunately it is neither a confirmed yes nor a confirmed no for Hellmuth’s appearance on Dancing with the Stars. The rumors were not baseless, though. Hellmuth admitted that he had been taking dancing lessons for a week. He even Tweeted the steps “1-2, 1-2-3, 1-2, 1-2-3, 1-2”. The Poker Brat also claimed that he had some dancing skills. But the tenor of the Tweet, “Thought I was going to be on Dancing with the Stars!” puts a question mark on the whole affair. Annie Duke, Hellmuth’s one-time colleague at UB.com, will be disappointed. Reacting to the rumors she had said that Hellmuth would make her watch the show. She also hit bull’s eye when she said, “With Phil, it’s always a love-hate relationship with the audience. People love to watch him because they love to hate him.”

The weather was not kind in Dallas. Hellmuth Tweeted, “Accidents everywhere; Driving on freeway in Dallas, tons of cars littering shoulder!” The All-In Celebrity Poker Tournament organized by Adrian Peterson had to be cancelled. While in Texas, Hellmuth caught up with former president George W Bush Junior, Condoleezza Rice and Hilary Swank. The message on Twitter said, “WOW! Gave George Bush a signed book + signed beer can at his library at SMU + we hit it off really well! Found him to be witty + engaging…”. He even sent a picture of the event. Hellmuth had done the same with Bill Clinton some time back. Incidentally Hellmuth is backing the Packers to the hilt in the Super Bowl.

There were Tweets about his charity work as well. “At Atkinson Convo Center at Dallas Stadium fitting kids w hearing aids w Starkey Hearing Foundation. Giving away tons of $1,700 hearing aids!” Later in the month Hellmuth is scheduled to host the Raise Your Hand for Africa charity poker tournament for this same foundation.

Bluff Magazine is one of the leading poker journals. Every year it announces a set of awards more related to poker personalities than to poker playing abilities. These are voted for by the readers of Bluff Magazine. The awards for 2011 were released last week and make for some interesting reading.

The online poker room PokerStars won awards in three categories. One was for the favorite online poker site. This was virtually a heads up between PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, with PokerStars garnering 51% of the votes and Full Tilt Poker getting 44%. Joe Stapleton of PokerStars won the award for the favorite poker announcer. He hosts The Big Game, which is a high stakes televised cash game. His co-host on the show, Amanda Leatherman (in picture), won the award for favorite hostess. Poker babe Amanda is ever the subject of discussion on poker forums. After her break up with poker player Joe Sebok, posters at poker forums tried to pair her up with Daniel Negreanu. A few months later there were detailed discussions on whether she had implants done for The Big Game complete with before and after pictures. Amanda polled 43% votes, beating poker babe Kara Scott who got 29% of the votes. Kara is the hostess for High Stakes Poker. High Stakes Poker had its revenge when it beat The Big Game for the favorite poker TV show.

An interesting award was for the funniest poker Twitter. Doyle Brunson won this hands down with 40% of the votes. Announcing this award Bluff Magazine wrote, “The Godfather of Poker isn’t afraid to fire off a blonde joke or two or take other pros to task on his Twitter feed.” His sexiest poker players list is still fresh in memory. More recently he wrote about the prop bet he had won for not kicking the bucket in 2010.

The favorite moment of 2010 was the most closely contested award. There was a difference of only five percent in the top three moments, all of which were from WSOP. Phil Ivey winning the eighth bracelet came first, followed by Tom Dwan’s loss in the heads up of $1,500 NL Hold’em to Simon Watt and Michael “the Grinder” Mizrachi winning the $50,000 Players’ Championship.

One can understand the listing of the sexiest Hollywood celebrities or the sexiest super models. Sexiness is an essential attribute of their profession. But what has sexiness to do with the ability to play poker? Yet lists of the sexiest poker players are regularly prepared. Grand Old Man of Poker, Doyle Brunson recently released his list based on Tweets received from his fans. Jenny Woo does it every year based on her personal perceptions.

Jenny has revealed the players on #2 to #5 on her Sexiest Poker Players of 2010 list. At #5 is Vanessa Rousso. Vanessa is sexy; there can be no doubt of that. Though its old story, one has to be sexy to feature in Sports Illustrated wearing a bikini. And Vanessa is a poker player; there can be no doubt of that as well. Vanessa has over $2 million in live tournament earnings and four first places including one at an EPT event. One can argue about her position on the list but not that she deserves to be there.

Patrik Antonius is #4 on Jenny’s list. Antonius is an established poker professional and has featured on such lists before. So Jenny is safe with this one as well. Erica Schoenberg is at #3. Erica has done enough on the poker tables to qualify and is a former model and personal trainer. But to be two slots ahead of Vanessa is very disputable. Vanessa has outperformed Erica on both counts.

Jenny reveals the names on her list one at a time. #2 has just been named and is Croatian poker babe Tatjana Pasalic. Tatjana has sufficient associations with poker to be called a poker babe. She has done a lot of poker journalism from blogging at poker web sites to writing poker columns for Playboy. She has done video blogs, hosted poker events on television for Unibet and WPT and done live interviews with the best of poker professionals. But to call her a poker player is carrying things too far. On the count of sexiness there can be no quarrel. Who can forget the Basic Instincts “leg crossing” impersonation she did of Sharon Stone in the video promoting the Unibet Prague Open 2010.

Jenny Woo has yet to reveal who she thinks is the sexiest poker player of 2010. If she does not exclude herself on the principle of propriety she could well fit the bill.

There are two types of reality shows that feature poker players. One is about poker like the immensely popular 2 Months, 2 Million released during WSOP in 2009. The other type is in which poker players appear as celebrities in regular reality shows like Amazing Race. Both types are currently in the news.

A poker based reality show called Young Guns is in the offing. It is about four online poker professionals Chris Jackson, Chris Sparks, Jarran Joshu and Seth Otterstad. They do not live in Las Vegas, the Mecca of poker, but in Los Angeles. Their living environment is as posh as that of the 2 Months, 2 Million team. Their home is a fully furnished $7 million mansion owned by a crank named Chris Murphy. He adds the outside poker interest by irritating the poker players, having a fit over everything they do. The series has been shot and trailers are available on the Internet, including on You Tube. However the producers are still searching for a network to air the show. But if all goes well a 13 episode show will be screened next year.

The next season of Dancing with the Stars has begun searching for celebrities. A rumor circulating at poker forums says that Phil “Poker Brat” Hellmuth will grace the dance floors. This rumor was started by none other than the man in question. The Tweet from Hellmuth said, “”OMG! Phil Hellmuth (me!) on Dancing With the Stars! Outrageous! Might make a fool of myself on Worldwide Television one more time…” The Poker Brat thrives on making a fool of himself before the world. His entrance at WSOP with Lady Gaga look alikes is still talked about. He would have no qualms about twirling around, whether gracefully or not. At the same time, his Tweet may be a hoax just to keep him in the limelight.

More certain, but not hundred percent sure, is the news that poker babes Tiffany Michelle and Mario Ho will be appearing on The Amazing Race again. The last time round they were eliminated in 6th place. They have appeared in a teaser for the next season, which has a theme of Unfinished Business.