Tag: poker

Make that $6 million

A television exec by the name of Crispin Leyser is suing WSOP winner Jamie Gold for half of his earnings. According to the lawsuit, Leyser was promised a split of the earnings in exchange for getting a couple of celebs (Dax Shepherd and Matthew Lillard) to play for Team Bodog, which is Gold’s team.

While there isn’t a written contract, Leyser received this message from Gold just hours before the final tournament table:

I promise you — you can keep this recording on my word — there’s no possible way you’re not going to get half after taxes.

So please just be with me. I can’t imagine you’re going to have a problem with it. I just don’t want any stress about any money or any of that [expletive] going on today, or even after the end of the day.

But please just trust me. You’ve trusted me the whole way, you can trust me a little bit more. I promise you there’s no way anybody will go anywhere with your money. It’s your money.

So if he can be trusted, why the need for a lawsuit? Shouldn’t he have have just forked over half the money? If there’s one thing we know, it’s that when someone says “trust me”, you should never trust them. Along the same lines, if someone says, “to tell you the truth”, it means they’ve been lying to you.

Links:
[MSNBC]: WSOP winner sued, may have to split prize

Look at the photo below. See how many dudes are at the table? 8. See how many women are at the table? 1 (not counting the dealer). And there is the problem with the Paddy Power’s World Strip Poker Championship. Why would anyone want to play strip poker against a bunch of dudes? In order to have a Strip Poker tournament, you have to have a ratio somewhere close to 60/40 men/women. Otherwise, even if you win, you still lose.

Now the
World Series of Strip Poker sounds like a much better event but one that you can’t get into. In the WSOSP, former playboy playmate Colleen Marie and her friends go up against the finalists from the WSOP. We’re pretty sure that anyone making the final table at the WSOP can beat a playboy playmate so this event is just so the girls have a chance to strip down. While we firmly recognize the appeal of naked women, it defeats the purpose when said women already will take off their clothes for money. See, the point of strip poker is to see chicks naked that you might not see naked otherwise — it’s the girl next door appeal — exactly the appeal of Jenna Fischer from The Office. Playboy playmates playing strip poker sounds good until you realize that they play against a bunch of ugly pro players. What happens when one of them sucks out on the river and we’re subjected to seeing someone like Greg Raymer naked? That is a scenario too horrible to imagine.

We hate to be chauvinistic but the only way that an entertainment spectacle of strip poker could succeed is if there were no dudes. Like most things in life, too many dudes always ruins the show.

Links:
[Reuters]: Strip poker championships bring mass a-peel

[Gambling 911]: World Series of Strip Poker?

Man, poker isn’t even a sport that we should be covering at SC but when you combine a chimp and anything, it becomes a must-see event. (Well, except for that movie with Joey Tribiani.) Anyway, PokerShare.com is rumored to be entering a chimpanzee into the August World Series of Poker. SignOnSanDiego is correct in pointing out that it sounds like a viral marketing experiment but we’ll happily play along anyway.

Alex Van Klaveren of GameShare, the Gibraltar-based parent group for PokerShare, responded thus to an InfoPowa enquiry about the rumor:

“Thanks for your e-mail. Your sources are accurate. We have been training Mikey for the past four months, and he is now ready to play the WSOP main event. We will be issuing a press release by the end of the week.”

Van Klaveren did not comment on whether this ploy had the cooperation of the WSOP tournament director, saying in response to a direct question on this: “I agree, it should be interesting to see what people make of it. Mikey has a blog which is starting soon where you will be able to follow his progress.

Check out the video of him playing poker below. This is absolutely just a publicity stunt. Hell, even Vince Young could beat Mikey at poker.

In real poker news, 21-year-old film student named Jeff Madsen has won his 2nd WSOP bracelet in a week. His combined take home since turning 21 in June has been over $1.4M. He says he’s going to finish up school at UC Santa Barbara. A year in college surrounded by hot bikini clad girls in socal with over a million to your name? That was a hard choice.

Links:

[SignOnSanDiego]: Chimp might not be chump in poker
[ABC]: Poker-Playing Chimp Knows When to Hold ‘Em
[ESPN]: Madsen, 21, wins second WSOP bracelet in five days