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The Aussie Millions is the only major global poker event held in Australia. It is hosted by Crown Casino in Melbourne. The poker tournament is held alongside another global sporting event which is the Australian Open Tennis Grand Slam Event. These two events were combined last year by the pairing of poker professional Gus Hansen and tennis professional Caroline Wozniacki. That affair is now over.

Two of the biggest events of the Aussie Millions are currently in progress. The first is the $10,600 buy in Main Event that will run from January 22 to January 28. One of the notable entries is Tom “Durrrr” Dwan. Dwan was closely associated with Full Tilt Poker. He has maintained a low profile ever since Full Tilt was hauled through the coals after Black Friday. Then Dwan had promised to part with a million dollars of his own money to pay the stranded Full Tilt players, should the online poker room default on its commitments. Full Tilt Poker has not yet paid its players, though it is in the process of striking a deal that would hopefully see the players getting their money. Dwan has therefore stated that he will wait another year to see how the saga unfolds, but has reiterated that his promise stands. On a happier note Dwan is in Australia with his girl friend. They were spotted in tourist hot spots like the Sydney Opera House (see picture). Dwan’s girl friend has apparently been Tweeting the not so personal details about their Australia trip.

Meanwhile the $100,000 Challenge for the high rollers is drawing to a close. At the time of writing five players remain. Gus Hansen is at the number five spot and will need to pull out something special to survive. His ex-girl friend Wozniacki is through to the quarter finals in her sport. Mikhail Smirnov is way ahead of the pack followed by Joe Hachem.

Maria Ho, the poker babe, has also entered the Aussie Millions Main Event. Maria has been the last woman standing in two major poker tournaments, WSOP and WSOPE. Can she repeat that feat in the Aussie Millions Main Event?

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.

Lisa Hamilton is a poker babe who has been there, but in the background. She has not done anything on the tables like Liv Boeree or anything off the tables like Lacey Jones. She is currently in the news because she made a flutter at the World Poker Tour Jacksonville event. At one point during the tournament she appeared set to take the first place and etch her name in poker history, but flattered to deceive. Ultimately Lisa was eliminated in thirds place behind Anthony Ruberto and Sam Soverel.

Lisa originally hails from Honolulu Hawaii but moved to Las Vegas in 2005 to play poker. Her bio says that she is well-known as a high stakes live cash game player. At one time the poker babe’s PokerStars alias was “omgfml”, which for the uninitiated means Oh My God F*** My Life. PokerStars pro ElkY convinced Lisa to play live poker tournaments.

Her first one was the 2009 WSOP $1,000 Ladies No Limit Hold’em World Championship in which she bested a field of 1,060 and won the bracelet and her first live tournament cash of $195,390. At that time Card Player wrote, “The 37-year-old Hawaiian didn’t have to endure a long final table, as play for the final nine lasted just under four hours. … Strictly a cash game player up until this WSOP, Hamilton now has a bracelet, lots of cash, and a reason to enter in some more events this summer.”

Lisa has four WSOP cashes, including two earned this year. Her total WSOP earnings are $222,869, which is nothing really to write home about if you take away her first win. Excluding her current WPT cash of $112,657 her total winnings have been $363,758 from 7 cashes. Money wise her second best performance was at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) in January 2010 in the No Limit Hold’em High Roller 8 Max event, where she finished 5th and won $133,770. That made her the highest grossing woman player at PCA.

Lisa Hamilton has the experience and the ability. The question is will this poker babe break out of the background to become a luminary. Only time will tell.

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.”

This week the final table of the WSOP 2011 Main Event resumes and next week the world will have a new poker champion. The winner will be richer by $8.7 million and will join the big league. But, win or not, one of the November Nine has already made it big by being inducted in the elite Team PokerStars. He is Pius Heinz of Germany. As per chip count Heinz is in seventh position with odds of 9/1 from Bodog and 10/1 from Sportsbook.

The PokerStars press release says that Heinz joins Sandra Naujoks (in picture), Sebastian Ruthenberg and Boris Becker as a Team PokerStars member from Germany. There are several interesting aspects to Heinz’s entry into the November Nine. At the age of 22 he is one of the youngest members of this year’s November Nine and is the first German player ever to make the WSOP Main Event final table. Poker babe Sandra, also known as Black Mamba, said that Heinz has all the qualities needed to be a great poker player, and he has played a tough and intelligent game to get to the WSOP final table. She was happy to see another top player join the ranks of Team PokerStars. The German unit of PokerStars will have double the reason to root for him.

The WSOP Main Event was the second live cash for Heinz. The first won was also in WSOP 2011, when he finished seventh for $83,286 in the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em Event. Heinz has not looked back, taking the first place in a €1,000 Turbo Bounty event at EPT Barcelona in August for another €17,450. After the WSOP Main Event Heinz will play his first event wearing the PokerStars patch at EPT Prague in the first week of December.

Heinz is not flustered by the buzz around him. He says, “I’m pretty relaxed about the game. There are a lot of tough players left but I’m confident I can win it. Joining PokerStars has given me an extra lift, too. I’m looking forward to being part of the team.” The chip leader in the November Nine is Martin Stazko who has been given 4/1 by Bodog and 7/2 by Sportsbook.