Bird On The Rail
1. It’s Wedding Season for Team PokerStars Pro
Chad Brown has at last made an honest woman out of his longtime love, Vanessa Rousso. The two eloped in Rousso’s native Florida before jetting off to Monte Carlo to play in the European Poker Tour Grand Final, where Rousso took down the €25,000 High Roller event for a €570,000 payday. Rousso and Brown are planning for a more formal wedding celebration later in the summer. Also electing to elope was Dario Minieri, who tied the knot with his girlfriend (NOT Isabelle Mercier, but a beautiful, petite Asian woman) at a Las Vegas wedding chapel in between WSOP events. The bride wore jeans, while Minieri was clad in a black crewneck top emblazoned with a number of PokerStars patches. Minieri’s new wife has been a fixture on the rail at the WSOP thus far, sweating her husband in a number of events. However, Minieri’s ex, Isabelle Mercier, has yet to show up at the WSOP as of press time.
2. The WSOP Fashion Report
Forget the “Year of the Pro”, the “Year of the Euro”, or the “Year of the Russian” – 2009 is the “Year of the Makeover” and during our first week in the Amazon Room several new looks were revealed among the pokerati. Though there were a few notable successes, most of them were abject failures of massive proportions. Take Michael DeMichele. The adorable, baby-faced kid in the sweater vest has been replaced by a spiky-haired, scarf-wearing, leather jacketed monstrosity who gives off the impression that he’s actively trying to look like a walking poker cliché. Thank God I still have Brandon Adams to gaze at when I need a preppy-chic fix.
Andy Black turned up to the $40,000 NLHE event sporting a lengthy, unruly beard, leading Mike Matusow to remark, “Andy Black! They roll you out of a cave in Pakistan?” Black thankfully located a razor and did away with the Taliban look a week later.
Not all the poker makeovers were bad. Major props go to Isaac Haxton for ditching the latter-day John Lennon look for a cleaned-up haircut and some fi erce shades. Also looking simply adorable was Jennifer Harman, who grew her hair out from the short, layered cut she’s been sporting over the past couple of years to a new shoulder-length do. Fedoras also appear to be en vogue at the WSOP; Erica Schoenberg’s straw-colored model exemplified summery chic while Jeff Lisandro’s black wool topper paired with his wildly patterned silk shirts gave off a bit more of a Godfather vibe.
3. The Unablogger?
Phil “The Unabomber” Laak recently signed a deal to open up his own home on the web. UnabomberPoker.com plans to be up and running by mid-August, and Laak is currently looking for some fresh content for his site. Already a poker blogger? Give Laak and his team a holler at UnabomberPokerSiteBlogs@ gmail.com and send him a link to your blog. He just may want to host your site.
4. Playboy TV to Host Sam’s Game
For years, the players in The Simpsons creator Sam Simon’s home game have been telling him that their weekly bouts are so entertaining they should be televised. Now, poker fans everywhere can be a fly on the wall at Sam’s Game, which premiered on Playboy TV on June 11th. Shot at the Palms Casino in Las Vegas, the table lineup is a mix of poker pros, comedians, and Playboy Playmates, with Norm MacDonald, Dave Attell, Jennifer Tilly, Brande Roderick, Phil Laak, Jennifer “Jennicide” Leigh, and Malcolm in the Middle writer/producer Jay Kogen all slated to make appearances on the show.
Simon says of his latest television venture: “Unlike other celebrity poker shows, most of us have known and played against each other for years. The stakes aren’t the biggest, the players aren’t the best, but the game is defi nitely the funniest!” For exclusive preview clips of Sam’s Game, go to PlayboyTV. com.
5. The World Series of Prop Bets
Gus Hansen had been notably absent from the WSOP, finally arriving at the Rio during the $10,000 Deuce-to-Seven event. After checking in on friends like David Benyamine and David Williams, Hansen dug into his pocket and ponied up the $10k buy-in, sitting down at his first tournament of the Series. Hansen spent the end of May and the front half of June in Europe, where he traveled to the French Open to sweat a $900,000 bet he placed on Rafael Nadal. Hansen, of course, ended up on the losing end of that wager.
With even more dinero at stake than Hansen are a number of high stakes pros who made a slew of “bracelet bets” prior to the WSOP. That rare smile on Phil Ivey’s face after he won the $2,500 No Limit Deuce-to-Seven event wasn’t there because he won the $96,361 first-place prize or a spankin’ new gold bracelet… no, that gleam in his eye came from the eight figures he stands to collect in bracelet bets from the likes of Eli Elezra, Barry Greenstein, and Daniel Negreanu, among others. Elezra was rumored to have lost $3.8 million on that bet alone. After winning his sixth piece of WSOP jewelry, Ivey placed one additional bracelet bet – wagering an untold amount against Howard Lederer that he’d win an additional two bracelets in three years beginning in 2010.
Another popular wager that is making its way through the pro ranks is the “POY points” bet. Erick Lindgren has some signifi cant action on his own race to repeat as the WSOP Player of the Year, betting Barry Greenstein that he and Daniel Negreanu will earn more points by the end of the series than Greenstein and Jeff Lisandro. Erik Seidel is also in on the POY points action, taking Greenstein and Chris Ferguson up against the Lindgren/Negreanu team.6. Who’s Got Sponsorship Now?
Fledgling online poker room RPM Poker announced the addition of a massive new stable of pros that will represent the site at online and live events around the world. RPM’s nineteen-strong team includes online legends Steven “Zugwat” Silverman, Stephen “stevie444” Chidwick, Jim “Mr_Big- Queso” Collopy, and Andrew “luckychewy” Lichtenberger. We’ve also confi rmed that UltimateBet.com has signed WSOP bracelet winner and WPT Champion Brandon Cantu to a deal.
Over at PokerStars, they picked up three new Team Poker- Stars Pro members this month, bringing Portuguese players Luis Medina, Nuno Coelho, and Henrique Pinho into the fold. Could a European Poker Tour stop in Portugal be too far off? This little bird hears it’s practically a lock for season six.
