Phil Hellmuth never misses an opportunity to get in front of the camera although we think he made sure his ear was out of reach before posing for this pic

Ben Affleck always likes to support a good cause like Anti Up for Africa.

Reclaiming the spotlight in the hit movie "The Hangover", Mike Tyson seems like a natural fit for Vegas.

Past WSOP Main Event Champions that are still alive and welcome at the WSOP 

Vitaly Lunkin survived a few vicious suck outs from Isaac Haxton before going on to win over 1.8 Million in the 40K buy-in event.

Thang Luu impressively won the Omaha Hi Lo tourney for the second year in a row after finishing second 3 years ago. P.S. if you see this guy at your Omaha Hi Lo table run away.

Kimberly Lansing brought us our most hits in 2008.   We'll see what Kimberlly Lansing can do for generating traffic in 09.  Thanks Kimberly Lansing!

The Russian fans cheered on Vitaly Lunkin (and possibly distracted opponents) during the 40K tourney.

This girl is as cute as a button and playing in the $1000 stimulus special.

Evelyn Ng brought a cheering section to root on her boyfriend Lex Veldhuis in the 40K

Scotty Nguyen stars in WSOP Champions Gone Wild

This American judge gives the Russian fans a 8.5.

Huck Seed won the 2009 NBC National Heads-Up Championship defeating Vanessa Rousso 2-0 in the final match Sunday night at Caesars Palace.

Seed collected $500,000 for the win and improved to 18-4 for his career at the NBC National Heads-Up Championship giving him the best record in the five year history of the event and setting him apart as the only player to cash every year.

Seed advanced to the finals by defeating Sammy Farha in the semifinals and Rousso reached the finals by knocking out Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, who has been one of the hottest players in poker over the past few years.

Speaking of hot poker players, Vanessa Rousso made tournament sponsor GoDaddy.com look more like the geniuses at google.com by signing her to an endorsement contract just prior to the event. Earlier this year her other sponsor PokerStars.net, put Rousso in a bikini then into the pages of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue in a paid advertisement.  Rousso had the most difficult draw on her way to the finals defeating poker superstars Doyle Brunson, Paul Wasicka, Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, and ElkY before collecting the $250,000 second place prize.

We assembled a rowdy crew of Poku-teers to cover the event, so we only lasted 20 minutes on the red carpet of the pairing party prior to the tournament before bailing to explore the Las Vegas nightlife.  Luckily, Huck Seed was one of five people that we saw come down the red carpet and we were able to wake him up just long enough to get a quick interview.

Seed's win lends even more credibility to the self started poku-luck theory that if we interview a player before a tournament they will sometimes almost always probably win.

Nenad Medic took down the first event of the 2008 World Series of Poker setting the tone for big name players dominating the large WSOP fields. Superstars Barry Greenstein, Daniel Negreanu, Mike Matusow, David Benyamine, Kenny Tran, Phil Galfond, and many more recognizable names have joined Medic with bracelet wins including John Phan who has won two in 2008.

We had to leave Vegas after only three days and three nights trip report upcoming, but will return for the end of the H.O.R.S.E. event or the beginning of the main event.

In the meantime get your WSOP updates where we have been:

Dr. Pauly's Blog
Wicked Chops Poker
And if we spoke French Benjo's Blog

Everything is running smoothly at the 2008 World Series of Poker and no big stories have presented themselves yet, Im too hungover to write anything so we'll let the pictures do the talking.

Full Tilt Pro Lynette Chan made a rare live appearance in Event 2.

Former major league pitcher Orel Hershiser tried many different tactics snot rockets to prove that he fit in with the poker pros at the WSOP.

The lovely Kimberly Lansing skipped a gig at the MTV movie awards with pal Layla Kayleigh to play in Event 2.

I don't know what ESPN 360 is, but I like it. 

"It's not so much me as it's Roenick.  He's that good..."

Former NHL star Jeremy Roenick entered event 2, hopefully he dominates like he does in NHL '94 on Sega Genesis. EDIT: Just learned JR is still in the NHL - amazing considering he was a veteran in '94!

Rumors are swirling that Harrah's will announce a 117 day delay for the Final Table of the Main Event of the 2008 World Series of Poker.  This delay will allow ESPN to broadcast the Final Table action after only a two or three hour delay.  Harrah's hopes this almost live broadcast will create a championship sporting event atmosphere after ESPN and the media has a chance to hype up the players who made it to the final table.  Coaching, loans, insurance, sponsorships, and many other issues will come into play with this Final Table delay so it is sure to be controversial.  Stay tuned for more about the 2008 WSOP...

Amir Vahedi ended day 4 as the chip leader in the 2008 WPT Championship.  When Mark "Newhizzle" Newhouse and Scott Epstein were eliminated at different tables, play ended for the day and Vahedi, Gus Hansen, and Tom "Durrr" Dwan found themselves leading the pack.

Attendance is down at the $25,000 WPT championship this year drawing almost 100 less players than in 2007.  The field of 545 players who did show up to play for the $3.4 million first prize is full of talent, but the decline in numbers has to be alarming to the WPT, especially considering the rise of the EPT and other foreign poker tours.  

The field did include a few players who hadn’t played on tour in a few years due to their lawsuit against the WPT regarding the WPT’s release form.  Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson, and Andy Bloch came to an agreement with the WPT out of court last week and subsequently signed the updated release form to take their shot at the WPT championship.  Howard Lederer seemed to be happy to be playing WPT tournaments again and joked around a lot with his table.

Tom “Durrr” Dwan lost a prop bet to his friend Alan “the Usher” Sass requiring him to wear a hat of Sass' choice throughout the tournament.  It didn’t seem to hold him back though as he entered day 2 as one of the chipleaders.

Due to the deep stacks, play was a little slow in the beginning, but one hand of note involved former WSOP and WPT champion Joe Hachem who amazingly folded his straight face up to Jordan “Imsolucky” Morgan.   He incredibly put Morgan on the only hand that could beat him, an  8 5, after Morgan Raised preflop and four bet him on the turn.   Before day 2 began Hachem told one player that he made a really really stupid laydown, but Daniel  Negreanu told him that he would have made the same play in a tournament but not in a cash game.

Phil Ivey won his first WPT Championship at the LA Poker Classic dominating a difficult final table that included poker heavyweights Phil Hellmuth and Nam Le. 

One of the most respected players in the game, Shane "Shaniac" Schleger sat down with Pokulator last week for a quick Q&A session.  Shane is known for speaking his mind and not shying away from touchy topics so we talked about everything from drugs in poker, to online poker scandals, to relationships and life in general.

We caught last call with one of our favorites Mark "Newhizzle" Newhouse at the WPT Ceremony of Champions last night.  He showed us his impressive poker training regiment then proceeded to knock out opponents like he knocks down drinks.  

Heading into day 4 of the WPT Championship, Newhouse sits 9th in chips with 55 players remaining and will be looking to keep the momentum flowing all the way to the final table.

It's Back!!!

The 2008 World Series of Poker kicks off today at the Rio and many familiar faces will be battling for WSOP glory and the coveted gold bracelets.  Joining those familiar faces will be many young players playing in their first WSOP and internet specialists who haven't experienced a live WSOP event.

Many changes are in store for the players this year with the biggest being the 3 month delay before final table play in the Main Event.  Harrah's modified the schedule so that they could broadcast the final table almost live and give all the players more exposure leading up to the final table.  Only time will tell if this change is enough to revive interest in televised poker so for now we just have to sit back and see what surprises unfold at the 2008 WSOP.

Jeffrey Pollack, Orel Hershiser, and Doyle Brunson welcome in the 2008 WSOP. 

Shannon Elizebeth put down her dancing shoes long enough to play in the first event of the WSOP, but left in a hurry after busting out before the end of the first level.

Perry Friedman showed off his new 'do as the online poker rooms battled for most creative logo placement.

After busting from event #1 Doyle Brunson watched the Detroit Pistons play the Boston Celtics in the NBA playoffs.  Raymond Davis came by and told Doyle that he had lost $5K the night before when Sasha Vujacic hit a three after the game was already decided making the Lakers cover the spread and Doyle replied "well I lost $130K."

Less than one hundred players remain at the LAPC, but one of them is a star who may have arrived a little early for the Celebrity Invitational this weekend.

McLovin, from the movie Superbad has been stacking chips all tournament showing off his serious bling including an iced out Star of David.

Update - After ID'ing McLovin numerous times, Commerce security is convinced that he is the real McLovin and not former  WPT final tablist Noah Schwartz.

See the larger image here