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Good for Poker: WPT Celebrates #200 and WSOP Reaches Record Numbers

by Wicked Chops Entity on 7.11.2011 in Poker News | no comments

Despite all the shit, it's been a good looking year for the World Poker Tour and World Series of Poker.

We’re not into writing the equivalent of cyber-fellatio on players and properties, but this can’t go unnoticed: Poker’s two most prestigious entertainment brands both achieved surprising milestones on Sunday.

First, the World Poker Tour celebrated its 200th episode on Sunday. Huge milestone for the company, especially when they were hemorrhaging money in epic proportions just a few years ago. Since then, PartyGaming acquired the company and has righted the ship. This season the WPT enhanced its broadcast, bringing Kimberly Lansing on air, introducing the Royal Flush Girls and Tony Dunst to the program, and continuing to bang out top notch programming (as well as the best online tournament reporting in the biz).

And on the World Series of Poker front, 2011 saw record numbers, capped off with the Main Event logging an unexpectedly high 6,865 total entrants. Participation for the year was up 3.7% with over 75,000 total entrants.

Given the general toxic air among the industry right now and shitstorm created by The Events of 4/15TM, we can’t let these two achievements go unnoticed. If legislation on the regulatory front drags out–and drags down participation and ratings along with it–then we don’t expect 2012 to be so rosy for either property–but that doesn’t diminish what the WPT and WSOP have accomplished this year.

Tagged as: 2011 WSOP, featured, Poker News, World Poker Tour, world series of poker

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WSOP Announces Made-for-TV Rematches of Heads-Up Battles

by Wicked Chops Entity on 4.6.2011 in Poker News | 2 comments

Payback is a bitch, Johnny Chan.

Have to hand it to the poker world for coming up with some innovative TV concepts recently.

It started last year with the PokerStars Big Game. Then last month, Full Tilt introduced the ONYX Cup. And today, the World Series of Poker announced a made-for-TV program pitting past Main Event heads-up matches against each other once again.

The first battle is between Chris Moneymaker and Sammy Farha. Recreating the 2003 WSOP Main Event final table, Moneymaker and Farha will compete in a best out of three rematch. Game one will have them compete with their same starting stacks. Game two will reverse the stacks. And game three will be at even stacks.

Then, the 1989 Main Event gets revisited, as Johnny Chan will go up against Phil Hellmuth in a single match with even stacks.

Finally, fans get to vote on a third (re)match between the following:

- Johnny Chan vs. Erik Seidel – i.e. the shoe-in
- Greg Raymer vs. David Williams
- Jamie Gold vs. Paul Wascika
- Duhamel vs. John Racener

The rematches will air on ESPN on July 26, 2011.

Read more about the rematches here. To vote [for Chan vs. Seidel] go to the WSOP Facebook page here.

Tagged as: Chris Moneymaker, Erik Seidel, Johnny Chan, sammy farha, world series of poker, WSOP

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2011 WSOP Schedule and Dates Announced

by Wicked Chops Entity on 12.22.2010 in Poker News | 8 comments

We'll get to see the likes of Sara Underwood (and others) at the WSOP beginning May 31, 2011.

It was announced today that the 2011 World Series of Poker (WSOP) will take place from Tuesday, May 31, 2011 through Tuesday, July 19, 2011.

The first tournament begins the day after Memorial Day and the 2011 WSOP Main Event will begin on Thursday, July 7th (with four scheduled Day 1′s).

Ending any speculation to the contrary, the WSOP will once again be held in the Convention Center of the Rio.

Also announced is a new provision where play will be stopped after 10 levels have been completed for every tournament.

The full tourney scheduled will be released in January.

Tagged as: 2011 WSOP, 2011 WSOP schedule, Poker News, world series of poker

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Jack Links Beef Jerky Will Remain the Juiciest Jerky at the WSOP Through 2012

by Wicked Chops Entity on 11.3.2010 in Poker News | 2 comments

In our opinion, Jack Links Beef Jerky is the 226! of poker advertisers.

Ok, if any press release deserved the 226! treatment, it’s this one.

Jack Links Beef Jerky will remain a “presenting” sponsor at the World Series of Poker through 2012. This is huge news for the industry, as it shows that poker is a viable option to promote your brand to mainstream advertisers allows for us to post pictures of the back-rear portion of hot girls standing by the Jack Links signage for at least two more years.

Says WSOP VP Ty Stewart in the following copy & paste from the press release job:

“This remains a great fit between two category-leading brands…We couldn’t ask for a better organization to be our lead sponsor*. We love being with a market dominator that shares our sense of fun and irreverence.”

The release goes on to say that “Jack Link’s, the No. 1 U.S. brand of beef jerky and the fastest-growing meat snack manufacturer worldwide, leads the nearly $3 billion meat snack category,” to which we giggled twice at the usage of the words “meat snack.” Let’s just say we’ve offered a “meat snack” to the ladies on more than a few occasions.

In all seriousness, read more about the partnership (file this under Good for PokerTM) here. See more reasons why Jack Links Beef Jerky is the tastiest jerky around here, here, and here.

* Except maybe Budweiser, Coca Cola, McDonalds, IBM, or Cici’s Pizza where you can get an all you can eat buffet for just $3.99…$3.99!…go all-in at Cici’s Pizza!

Tagged as: Jack Links Beef Jerky, Poker News, world series of poker, WSOP

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2010 WSOP Tournament of Champions Viral Video Contest

by Wicked Chops Entity on 5.24.2010 in Poker Promotions | 3 comments


Well, we’ll give her an “A” for effort at least.

Jennifer Harman continues to put out viral videos campaigning for a seat in the 2010 WSOP Tournament of Champions. Her first video was brilliant in that in panned down to a gratuitous shot of her boobs. Now, had all of her videos done the same, we’d be like, “Fellini…Scorcese…Harman…greatest filmmakers of all-time?” However, the last two (the latest one above) are trending in the wrong direction. We know Jennifer can do better, but sometimes when you set the bar really high out the gate, you’ve got nowhere to go but down.

And it got us thinking: we know the rest of the TOC-eligible poker pros out there can do better too.

So let’s circumvent some of the twitter and facebook spam that will undoubtedly hit us in the run-up to the WSOP TOC June 15th voting deadline by you eligible pros and cut to the chaseTM: with permission begrudgingly given by the WSOP to use their registered trademarks (for real, and those C&D letters from Memphis make great bathroom reading) Wicked Chops Poker is offering all eligible TOC participants a chance to produce a viral video that could, potentially, get them into the top 20 in fan voting. We’re looking at you Prahlad Friedman, Jeff Madsen, Dutch Boyd, and etc.

Eligible bracelet winning pros, submit your TOC viral video idea to wickedchopspoker @ gmail.com. We will select the best, RawVegas.tv will produce it, and foot the bill. That’s right, you don’t even have to use any buy-in money for it.

The deadline for idea submissions is Monday, May 31st at noon PST. So get on it.

And view the current top 50 vote-getters here.

Tagged as: 2010 WSOP, featured, Tournament of Champions, world series of poker

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