It’s been a while since my last post so I’d like to offer a belated Happy Thanksgiving and an early Season’s Greetings to all.

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of returning to the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas for the inaugural Dream Team Poker Tournament. This is a fantastic new concept in poker, allowing three-player teams to compete in the same event. With each player amassing points for his/her order of finish—the higher the better—the team that compiles the most points wins.

Dream Team Gaming is the brains behind the event and is comprised of CEO Daniel Delshad, Chief Game Architect Mario Ayala, DTG President Homan Sefaradi and the three remaining DTG cofounders: Edward Fishman, Lawrence Cohen and the honorable Mayor Jimmy Delshad.

The weekend consisted of some amazing dinners with friends, a slew of off-the-hook private parties, a pre-event VIP red carpet chock full of photographers and media and, of course, the tournament, itself. I had the pleasure of teaming up with two of my closest friends: Sam Simon, creator of The Simpsons, arguably one of the most successful TV shows of all time, and established freelance writer/Bluff columnist Adam Slutsky, both of whom happen to be darn good poker players. Unfortunately, both Adam and Sam got taken out on Day 1; at least they got their chips in when they were ahead. I advanced to Day 2 and was in pretty good shape—great shape, I thought—when I took pocket kings up against the pocket 8s of Bluff Magazine’s publisher, Eric Morris. But his four-card flush sent me to the rail. Congrats to Team Bluff (which also included Bluff’s illustrious editor Matt Parvis and super-talented young poker pro Justin Bonomo) who went on win the event. Don’t rest on your laurels, guys—we’ll be gunnin’ for you next year!

The event was a phenomenal success and attracted a wide array of poker stars. My compliments to DTG for doing such a fabulous job with the first-time tournament and, as always, my sincerest thanks to all my friends at the Hard Rock who always take such great care of me whenever I’m in town.

Next up was the filming of a fantastic documentary on poker, shot right on the beach in Malibu, just the flip of a chip from my home. I was well prepared for the taping and my buddy, Sam Simon, was also in on the action.

After that it was off to NYC to emcee a star-studded poker event at Gotham Hall, hosted by Russell Simmons and Helena Houdova, benefiting the Sunflower Children’s Foundation. While you’ll learn more about this incredible event in an upcoming Bluff article, I’m proud to say we raised close to $1 million courtesy of some incredible big-ticket auction items, including a trip into space with Richard Branson, as well as a vacation on his private island.

Lisa Tenner did a phenomenal job of marketing the event and her husband, Mark, was equally amazing providing poker lessons to all those interested in improving their game before the tourney started. My thanks to James and everyone involved for making this a truly spectacular event.