Round 1 of the 2009 NBC National Heads Up Poker Championship is done. Some notes:
:: Obviously the big story of the day was Layne Flack's DUI no-show. His 2009 so far is the equivalent to Baumer's epic meltdown at the U.S. Nationals. Not good.
:: One story we actually will follow sort of is Vanessa Rousso's "journey." Her profiles was "raised" a bit with the SI Swimsuit pic, and she's actually very relevant for this tournament because of the GoDaddy.com commercial. After beating Doyle Brunson in Round 1, if she can tackle Phil Ivey today and make a deep run, Rousso could be the epicenter of talk for this year's tourney.
:: While it probably won't get much T.V. coverage, one of the more interesting matches today is Ilari "ziigmund" Sahamies v. Bertrand Grospellier. Sahamies because he's not only nuts but one of the best online poker players in the world today, and Grospellier because he's one of the best live tournament players in the world today.
:: The other really interesting match is the other online superstar, Tom "durrrr" Dwan, who takes on Barry Greenstein.
:: Jerry Yang actually won (!) his first round match and plays John Phan.
:: And finally, of course, our pick to win it all, Huck Seed, won again, and will go up against Gus Hansen in what would be a compelling match if Seed ever showed some personality.
Get all of the match-ups here.
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All right, let’s wrap this all up with some pictures (below) closing thoughts on the NBC National Heads Up Poker Championship red carpet/draw party last night.
First, job well done to Jon Miller of NBC for growing this event to what it is. This was easily the biggest red carpet crowd with the most excitement around it we’ve seen in the three years we’ve been covering it. Plus adding GoDaddy.com as a sponsor brings yet another big name mainstream advertiser into the fold (which = good for the game).
Now some random notes: Not sure if it was because he saw Phil Hellmuth talking to the RawVegas.tv crew or not, but Layne Flack couldn’t have exited stage left into the party (and by-passed the video crews) any faster than if his ass was literally on fire and the only bucket of water within a three mile radius was in PURE Nightclub itself. / Congratulations again to Vanessa Rousso for landing a spot in that GoDaddy.com commercial with Danica Patrick. Also congrats on rocking a skin tight outfit that revealed a remarkably clear, um, something that rhymes with “mammal doe.” / Speaking of Danica Patrick, while not super-model pretty, in person she’s definitely better-looking than you’d think. Kind of “take-home-to-mom” pretty. / Jamie Gold had no problem immediately admitting he screwed up on getting a fake tan. / And while Annie Duke kind of makes sense on why she’s not switching to FTP, we’re still standing by our steak dinner offer.
Click the thumbs below for larger scale images.
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by Wicked Chops Entity on 3.6.2009 in Uncategorized | 2 comments
The "hot lesbian couple" is kind of like "heterosexual AIDS" in that it's a total myth.
However, there was something oddly hot about Vanessa Selbst showing up with two girls around her arms last night on the NBC National Heads Up Poker Championship red carpet. Maybe it's the thought of the inevitable girl-on-girl-on-girl threesome that was bound to ensue. Don't know. Maybe we're just sickos. You probably just had to be there. Screw off. Anyway, props to Selbst for clearly not giving a fuck and showing up with two girls. That's a solid way to make an entrance.
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by Wicked Chops Entity on 3.6.2009 in
Poker News | no comments
The draw party has wrapped and the pairing are announced.
Not a bunch of “must see” first round match-ups although Daniel Negreanu vs. Chris Moneymaker, Phil Ivey vs. Jennifer Tilly, Mike Matusow vs. Dario Minieri, and ziigmund vs. Gavin Smith should make for decent TV. And Erick Lindgren vs. Howard Lederer and Huck Seed vs. Jonathan Little are very solid pairings.
View the full bracket here. Review our “seedings” on espn.com here.
Look for some red carpet photos from last night, including Vanessa Selbst showing up with not one but two girls on her arm, later today.
Go HERE for all of our red carpet interview from last night.
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by Wicked Chops Entity on 3.6.2009 in
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