I am starting this thread in order to cut down on the confusion of having 2 (!!!!) off topic annual baseball threads.

Except we won't discuss baseball. This thread is to discuss the World Series of Poker, Texas hold-em preferred by not required. Also, please try to keep posts about celebrity poker down to a minimum, this thread is for serious people.

I'll start it off:

Shana Hiatt - useless eye candy or valuable cast member?

valuable eye candy.

How about valuable eye candy...

<i>Shana Hiatt</i> means "your fly is open" in Cantonese.

Especially when they were in the Bahamas for that outdoor final table.

Definitely agree - valuable eye-candy.

Next: Phil Helmuth - brat or genius?

Both. Obviously a genius b/c he's won 9 WSOP titles. But he's such an idiot when he loses. He can't give anybody any credit for actually playing well.

I rather watch the other Phil -- Ivey, that is -- any day.

So does Phil Helmuth mean "JR's fly is open" in Cantonese???

Helmuth has a very hard time giving other people credit for having a good hand...although he is much better than he used to be. Phil Ivey on the other hand is a very good poker player. He often takes too many over the top risks. Seems to get all his money in with some of the worst hands.

One thing I have noticed about Ivey lately is that he seem to be getting bluffed by some of the up and coming players - where he was bluffing the vets quite well. To me that means he does not read players as well as he bluffs.

Helmuth is a great player, but can't take losing. He reads well and bluffs well, but doesn'r react well when both players have a hand and he is on the short end.

I am waiting for the Poker Professional trading cards to come out. :)

There was a tournament recently that was live from Monte Carlo. It aired on Fox Sports, I think. They showed the whole final table live and it took a long time. They started around 2 am (Monte Carlo time) so that the US could see it prime time. You could tell the players were really tired by the end.

Phil Ivey won it. He hasn't lost his touch yet. :)

OK, next question (and btw I am a little disappointed at how quickly the topic turned from Shana Hiatt to Phil Helmuth...not that there's anything wrong with that, M&M... :rolleyes: )

I saw a rerun of an older WSOP, where only rarely do you get to see the hole cards of a player. It seemed like a cameraman had to sneak up behind the player & get lucky. So...does knowing each player's hole cards lessen or increase the tension for the viewer?

btw, I like that Daniel Negreanu guy, he always has that grin on his face like he's amazed at how life's been going for him. He sure seems to have it figured out. I also like that older South American guy who wears the headphones...can't remember his name.

I like seeing the hole cards, b/c I know what strategy is being employed by the players. I like knowing if he's trying to steal the blinds from the button or if he's slow-playing pocket K's. The older footage is cool, too, but it's frustrating for me b/c I'm in the dark as much as the player who just folded.

He's one of my favorites. He's funny and he's pretty honest for a poker player. I loved it when he told another player "I knew you were going to do that. But I have no idea what I should do". I know he does it to see the other guy's reaction, but I think he's funny. Plus his mom packs his lunch every day. :)

BTW, where'd you see the old WSOP? Watching Rounders?

BTW2, once the season's over, you want to come up to Foxwoods some weekend and enter a tournament? They have no-limit hold'em tournaments starting at $60. I'm dying to try it, but haven't had a good excuse for throwing away the 60 bucks. :)

I saw it on the other night, I can't remember what cable channel.

Sure, I would be happy to take your $60!

But...can we sit at different tables...?

Nope, <i>Phil Helmuth</i> is a German porn movie.

In case anybody cares, I started a thread on the '06 WSOP in the General forum.

What?!

We can't talk about this in the Basketball/Off-Topic forum?

I didn't want to make Rut's head explode.

Well. . . no. No, I didn't want to make Rut's head explode.

Cindy Violet or Jennifer Harman? And did Annie Duke get some body work done after she won the $2M in the 2004 Tournament of Champions

People actually watch poker on TV? I thought those ads were jokes of some kind. Must be a guy thing...

I'm sure there are plenty of ladies that watch to see Shana Hiatt too. Not that there's anything wrong with that ;)

Beats the heck out of watching all of those ridiculous reality shows. You want reality? Come live in my house for a week.:eek:

It's Evelyn Ng for me..:D :D :D

I've started a new thread in the General Forum. Sorry the old one got deleted, but some "donkey" (as Mike "the Mouth" would say) posted the winner's name before it had aired on ESPN. So if anybody still cares. . .

Yeah, who was that donkey that posted Jamie Gold's name?

What an azzhole!

You would be amazed at what men will watch on TV.

That reminds me - isn't that Victoria's Secret program due to come on soon?

Ok, back to our regularly-scheduled off-color, off-topic topic.

Maybe I hadn't really looked before, but I never realized just how many poker shows are on these days. I obviously knew about the World Series, and the Celebrity Poker Challenge. But recently I've seen the World Poker Tour, and Poker Superstars, both of which have the recognizable faces, and the Heartland Poker Tour, which features regular Joe's (and Juulie's) at various regional casinos. There's also the show that had players in Monte Carlo, and a BBC version that had players I'd never seen before. I would think if you had the right cable or satellite package, you could watch poker every day.

That's scary.

Fox had a strip-poker show on the other night.

Greg Raymer won.

That's scary!

Well, since the World Series of Poker Main Event winner has been revealed on ESPN, I think it's ok to talk about it again. The whole thing was almost a forgone conclusion after about the 3rd day. Gold pretty much doubled his stack every day. By the time they got to the final table, I think only Alan Cunningham got close to him. Must be nice to hit every draw and win every race. It was kind of nice to see him in the empty poker room after it was all over, leaving a voicemail for his dad (who is disabled with ALS) telling him that he won.

Of course, on the legal front, he still hasn't seen half of his prize money. Six mil is still a pretty good haul, but I'm sure he regrets any promises he made to share it. Anybody hear anything new about the lawsuit filed against him?

Also interesting that Helmeuth won his 10th bracelet this year, putting him in a 3-way tie for the all-time lead.

In other legal news, Shana Hiatt (how could we not mention her?!?!) is suing the company that produces the World Poker Tour telecasts, as well as the creator of the WPT. Even though she's no longer under contract with the WPT, the WPT contends that her contract stipulated that she could not take a job with a direct competitor after leaving the WPT. They pressured NBC into not hiring Hiatt as the hostess of the National Heads-Up Championship. So Hiatt is suing.

I heard this week that one of the new anti-terrorism bills that was just passed by Congress and is sure to get the President's signature includes provisions that prohibit certain electronic transactions between banks and online casinos. It doesn't make playing online poker a crime, but somehow it makes certain kinds of rewards very difficult to distribute. Phil Gordon was saying that it will almost certainly cause a drastic reduction in the number of entries into next year's WSOP. Online poker sites will no longer be able to give out a "free" seat. He said the days of $10 million prize pools are gone.

From this week's Sports Illustrated:

He just seems a little too shifty, even by gambling standards.

I don't mind rooting against him.

Hiatt? Ng?.......Pshaw......

It's Clonie Gowen for me, hands down.